I also discussed the function of the game/interactive aspects with a friend well-respected in the New Zealand comic scene. He said that I should apply for ethics approval because it would valuable to survey what people think about interactions and animations within a comic. He also pointed out that this project's more specific target audience would be comic readers, rather than gamers; as gamers are less likely to be drawn to a comic. Another suggestion was that there should be a currency/sub-currency system in the game, where players could earn items that would assist them during game play. Personally, I think that would be extremely complicated to code, and I should be doing research in this area. However, this does raise an important point about how I construct the game narrative, the decisions the players make must be something they care about, it should be related to the story itself, concerned with the issues within the narrative. For example, if the player reaches a path divided into two, it may not simply be choose right or left; instead, it would be more engaging if a secondary character entered and suggested a path, and the choice would be between to trust this character or not, and thus splitting the narrative from there.
I have written an introduction to my comic, and I am aiming to launch into drafting the layouts during the mid-semester break. I should also start planning the decision making parts of the comic where the reader's choice will alter the narrative. I will have to read more on this, particularly on Narrotology.
Introduction
There is a little girl who lives on a large rose farm. Her parents
are farmers, and they work all day taking care of the roses, but they do not
have time to play with the little girl. The girl has a very special dinosaur
toy that her father gave her for her seventh birthday. She loves him very much,
and plays with him every day. The girl loves to explore her family’s farm;
there are always new places to discover and sometimes new friends to make. But
the girl never went into the old greenhouse at the very far end of the farm.
She is afraid to go in there, because there are always strange noises coming
out of the mouldy, disgusting-looking greenhouse. But one day, the girl’s
precious dinosaur goes missing. She searches everywhere for him, but he is
nowhere to be seen. The girl eventually decides to venture into the creepy
greenhouse to look for her best friend.
True Ending (The Main Ending as Intended by the Creator)
The girl nervously steps into the old greenhouse. The weeds have
out-grown the roses, and have taken over the entire area. It is a whole forest
in there, and there is something lurking in those bushes. The girl begins going
deeper into the jungle of mangled plants, getting her t-shirt caught on the
occasional rose bush. Then, she discovers a completely different world to her
own behind the wild weeds. Curious creatures she has never seen before have
made their home in this peculiar-looking world. She tries to ask them whether
or not they have seen her dinosaur. Some of them are helpful and some of them
ask her for favours in return. But eventually she finds her dinosaur, who is in
the hands of the biggest, meanest creature of all. The girl confronts the
monster, but politely, asking him to return her toy. The monster refuses, and
lunges at the girl. The girl runs away in fright. She runs through the strange
trees and creatures of the other world, runs past the weeds and roses, and
straight back home. She tells the story to her parents, who comfort her, and
tell her they will take her out on a trip the next day. The girl feels much
better with the company of her parents, and goes to bed. That night, she does
not hear the strange noises from the old greenhouse anymore.
Some concept sketches I did for the old greenhouse. I like how antique greenhouses are designed; there is a sense elegance and mystery in them.
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