DIGM-540-Yang Chen

The problem of associated objects with the story: An exploration of Fragmented Narrative Previous Method: At the beginning, I just have a brief concept of the whole story. I attempt to find objects which can be used as plots for the story in RPG MAKER MZ. However, it’s really a difficult work. New ideas would be conflict with original ideas, making me can’t find suitable things for my project.   New Method: I changed my way. I constructed a case as detailed as possible and tried to find objects according to these details. Frankly, it's a more effective ways, because I have clear aims of every object. It also reminds me that Fragmented Narrative is just a way of storytelling, instead of a way of creating story. Method: First step: constructing a complete story about the case Every details of the whole story Second step: Fragmentation of the complete story, selecting part of fragmented information as plots of players. Third step: I created comparison on text and visual ef...

The problem of characters switch   Characters switch is very important for Multi Person Perspective Narrative, because it is directly related to immersive experience of players.    I have thought about making two version of the game for two characters: Alice and John. Players can get different information from different version and analyze them, which is a easy way for me to build. However, this way has such disadvantages: 1. Divided experience in game would keep players from engaging. 2. The process of analyzing information is not real time, which would make player forget some information and difficult to link them. 3. Repeated playing of the game would make player tired. For these reason, I want to find a way to make the switch process naturally. After my effort,  I find it is the same as switch team members in Adventure RPG. When player trigger an event, the team member would be switched. Following this concept, I decide to use “having a rest” as the chance ...

Corridor (West)   The boxes in corridor is the key plot of players in this scene. I want to let player move these box and see the information behind these boxes.  Second floor: Because the fire happened in office, the closer side has a more obvious marks of burning.                                   Present office:  In this scene, I want players to find 2 obvious point: The lower left corner and the top right corner, which I used more obvious marks of burning to express. Past office: In this scene, I want players can link the things between past and present. Players are supposed to think what cause such change and go to explore criminal's methods by following these things.

 OUTLINE 1. Problem   Wordy text and huge amount of information make Fragmented Narrative tiring and difficult to remember, I explore to solve this problem in my project. 2. Solution   Multi Perspectives Narrative can be a way to solve this problem. In my project, Multi Perspective means Multi Time and Multi Person. Both of these can let player know information from different perspectives. This information is different but relevant, which can help player understand the story. 3. Project Basic   Associated Memory would give people a deep impression. Therefore, more intensively relevant and compared information can be easier to remember in game. 4. Project Platform   RPG Maker MZ, a game engine to make 2D RPG Games. 5. Difficulties a. Event system in RPG Maker MZ is still too weak to realize some of my ideas. b. Lacking of Art Resources. c. Time.

  How to make a story in game leaving an deep impression on player?   As I said before, wordy text would make player tired, bored and forget the content easily. To solve this problem, I need to solve another problem first:  What can leave a deep impression on memory of people?   The answer is Associated Memory . The video I had posted before briefly interprets the mechanism of people's memory:   Indeed, How much information players encode and remember depends on both the time they took to learn it and how they made it personally relevant to them. Time is another question, while relevance is the key here. If we want to make play can remember the content in game firmly, we have to let them find the relevance of the story.      Therefore, strong relevant content would leave player a deep impression, which can answer the title question.      Based on this conclusion, I want to try a new way of Fragmented Narrative in game, which I call ...

 Workshop:

The problem of traditional Fragmented Narrative in game: 1. Scattering, various and wordy narrative of information The unimpressive is the main problem to solve for any types of Fragmented Narrative. Scattering information is the main characteristic of Fragmented Narrative, which needs players to collect, connect and analyze. However, various fragments and wordy information often give players an exhausting  experience. Actually, image information are more impressive than text information, because image information are more likely to let people see the connection between images. Using more image information to narrate is what I want in Fragmented Narrative. How we memory work: 2. Some fragmented information can be overlooked by player Unlike linear narrative, most of Fragmented Narrative is not able to attract player to find and read them, which make them can be overlooked easily. How to make player notice carrier of Fragmented Narrative (items, scenes, enemies, skills) is a proble...

 The Floor 1 of the Factory Outside: The start place of player Staff Lounge: Corridor:

  Framework of Story Player would explore the truth from the perspective of Alice.                                                                     Framework All of information would be hidden in the items and dialogues. The task of player is to check items as more as possible, because the more things you know, the closer to the truth. Maybe Alice have a superpowers can make the story more reasonable, such as the skills in <unheard>, Alice can hear the sounds of the Past, which can be a good way to explain why she can find some point which can not be find by police. Unheard: Chinese English

Project: A fragmented narrative game Tools: RPG MAKER MZ Type: 2D RPG Narrative Puzzle game.   In the game, player would be an explorer to the truth of a past accident. Player would control the main character to explore the scene, everything in the scene would tell some detail about the accident. 5 part of the work  :   1.Construction of the Story :   A story about the accident. I would write a complete story which is the truth of the accident. The aim of the player is to get close to the truth by reading the information of items, by exploring the scenes, by dialogue with NPC. Finally, they would find a story I wrote here. 2.Characters, items, and scenes design:  Scenes are the places that player can explore items, these things can be abundant but connective. Characters would be divided into two parts, Player Characters(PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPC). For PC in my plan, there are two characters  can be used by players. They have different abilities in...

  RPG MAKER  is a production tools to build 2D games made by Enterbrain Incorporation.  The graphical editing interface and huge 2D resources library are great advantages of RPG MAKER.    Interface of RPG MAKER   There are many types of RPG MAKER, but I just focus on two types of them:  RPG MAKER MZ , RPG MAKER MV     RPG MAKER MV Features: Multiplatform distribution   Users would be able to build games on these platforms: Windows/EXE MacOSX/APP Android/APK iOS/IPA HTML 5 for Web Browsers More plug-ins  RPG MAKER MV  is a mature tools, therefore, there are more plug-ins made by players, which can be helpful to build games.   More platform is the main character of  RPG MAKER MV . Furthermore, as an older version of RPG MAKER series, RPG MAKER MV has more plug-in than  RPG MAKER MZ , and these plug-in can not be used in  RPG MAKER MZ . About  RPG MAKER MV  URL:  https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/produ...

WEEK 2 ：make sure the direction of the research: Fragmented Narrative in Games WEEK 3-4 : Find the origin and background of Fragmented Narrative: the research about Immersive Theater WEEK 5-6 : Subdivide the proposal, make sure the topic of the research and collect information and evidence. Find a technology to make idea come true(Game Engine) WEEK 7 : Scenes construction, story construction and characters design by RPG MAKER MZ . WEEK 8 : Arrangement of the events, dialogue design and items' information design. WEEK 9 :  Connecting all parts of the work, testing and modifying . WEEK 10 : Modifying and Presentation  

   History In games, history is a very common way of storytelling. History includes many aspects, such as history of a country, past of someone, origin of item, truth of events. In games, history like treasure, which encourage players to find the key open the treasure. Therefore, how to tell history to players is a very important part for game designers.   1.Using a huge and long text to present the history is a stiff idea:                             The story about the Mondstadt Tower in <Genshin Impact>   It is safe to say that only few part of hardcore players would read these text, because it would cost long time and big energy of players, which would interrupt the immersive experience of players during the process of the game. However, text is cheap, and cheap is a good reason for game company to use it to tell some story which is not important for the main story. Of course, good games ...

Immersive Theater : One of the origin of the Nonlinear Narrative in Video Game   Immersive theater, a kind of theater can break the boundary between actors and audiences, creating a special space for audiences to join to the theater. With different perspective of watching the theater, audience would have different understanding of the theater.      <Sleep No More> is a very famous immersive theater. It presents a tragedy happening in McKittrick Hotel. The performance stage is the whole McKittrick Hotel and every room of the hotel is a small performance stage. Audiences can shuttle among these room and watch these theaters by their ways.   Immersive theater seems like a game happening in our real life. In <Sleep No More> , audiences could choose what they want to watch, which story they want to follow, which room they want to explore(they are many items in these rooms, all of these items would provide some relevant information of the story). If you wa...

  Generally, text, comic, video and game are the main carrier of story nowadays.       Text , which only use word to describe a story, would leave a enough space for reader to imagine. For example:   "A big garden with various flowers"     After reading this sentence, readers would create different scenes in their minds. The color, number and shape of flowers would be diverse in readers' minds. Therefore, text is just a catalyst, making reader create a  unique scene in their mind.    Comic is a more specific way to narrate a story to readers. Compare to text, comic would describe a more consistent scene to different readers, more specific but less space to imagine. The battle in Final Valley between Naruto and Sasuke    In this page, the emotion of Naruto can be presented completely. Naruto's anger(veins and eyes) and sorrow(tears), the unbelievable power from Kyuubi, the shock of Sasuke. All of these can be conveyed to r...