Abigail Scheidler
The full game is coming soon! ​
Outlining
Concept:
I started with an idea for the classic hero's journey from the perspective of the traditional mentor character. In a lot of fantasy stories, the hero's call to action is a prophecy that declares them a hero. I decided to create a story that focuses on a wizard choosing and raising a hero to fight a great evil.
First Draft: Messy Outline
I quickly figured out that my scope would need to be very small. Not a lot of locations, a very short timespan in the actual story, and the number of meaningful choices must be reasonable.
I decided on three children (Heathcliff, Mary, and Asp) who all go through the same "events" with different choices and set-ups. This way I would be able to reuse a lot of exposition.
I threw together a lot of my ideas into a messy outline that was only really understandable to me. It helped me get the order of events down.
Choices
The meaningful choices in the game would be tied to the children's stats. Bravery and Intelligence stats determine Mary and Heathcliff's endings. I used Google Sheets to keep track of the different routes a player could take.
Depending on the player's choices, the kids can gain one or the other. If either kid gains too much of a trait, the excess of the trait becomes a flaw.
Asp's special stat is magical power. Magical power is raised when Asp is angered or displeased. If his power is too high by the end, Asp becomes the great evil that the prophecy foretells.
Second Draft: Clean Outline
I took everything I learned and made a much nicer-looking document. With this I was finally ready to start actually working in Twine
First Pass
Mary
Ending Calculator
As I mentioned previously, I used Google Sheets to keep track of the different ways a player could reach an ending. Each kid has 3 different endings so things got somewhat confusing. I was still confident in this project because I had taken the time to write my clean outline and calculate the different endings.
Mary
Heathcliff
Learning TWine
Learning Twine as a program was new but not as difficult as I was afraid it would be! I had to get used to how big the text was in the final product versus the editing mode and no spell check. Soon though, I was on my way.
Feedback:
- Spelling Mistakes
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- Some choices are obviously bad
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- The player character speaking without the player is weird
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- Disappointed with not being able to choose Asp immediately
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- Lots of reading without meaningful choices for a bit
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Since this project was made so fast, I knew that there would be a lot of problems with it. However, I was really worried about the feedback that certain choices felt like the "bad" choice.
I think I had a lot of bias going into the project and now I needed to find a way to undo that while still keeping the original intentions of the project.
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I also needed to pace the project better. Choices need to be presented sooner instead of just reading for a long time.
Second Pass
Mary: "I know they want me to stay here...help out just like they helped me...but I can never get myself to say yes."
Leading
"It may be tiresome but try and discover what they want out of you. Then you can make everyone happy."
"They clearly care about you. It would be best to listen to them before you decide."
Morally
"Bad"
Long
+1 Intelligence Choice Version 1
+1 Intelligence Choice Version 2
Changes:
I attempted to remove my biases from the choices while still keeping the original intent. I removed any clearly "evil" options. This would allow the players to think about what they were saying, not just choose "good" or"bad." ​
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At the same time, I still wanted there to be a path that was unhealthy for the children. The lesson is that going too far in any direction is bad. Balancing these points was extremely difficult and I still have a lot to learn.
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I also split up some of the longer blocks of text by giving the player smaller choices to make. These don't drastically affect the story but they still add a certain level of autonomy.
Reflection:
I think that this project was a good introduction to Twine. It still needs a lot of work. It's too long in places and I know that the choices still aren't perfect.
However, I think it's a project I want to revisit in the future. I liked experimenting with writing child characters and trying to accurately reflect how a child might react to a bad situation or unhealthy advice.