Outline of Interactions - Inside/Out
I've been designing how my thesis project would work as an interactive, chaotic narrative. Here is my basic outline of events and possible interactions. For my draft presentation, I'd like to get your feedback in helping me to narrow down what I could do. I know this is a ton of text for now. I'll have images in class.
1) Which possible interactions do you find most interesting or compelling?
2) Which seem plausible to actually do (either in the next 6 weeks or semester)?
3) Which cross section seems most representative of the big picture of the story?
4) Which platform or techniques (i.e. game engine vs. Max) might work?
BASIC PLOT:
The player enters the mind of an older man with dementia, who, in the process of looking for a misplaced watch, gets lost in his own backyard. As he searches, he forgets what he was looking for in the first place. The familiar environment becomes distorted and falls apart as memories become confused with the present. Through engaging in his morphing perspective, the viewer is taken on a surreal journey that might inspire empathy for how difficult simple tasks can become under the influence of memory loss and dementia. When the outer forms of rational understanding are stripped away and turned inside-out, what is left?
OUTLINE OF EVENTS:
1. INTRODUCTION - OUTSIDE THE HOUSE. NIGHT.
Houses haphazardly stacked on a lonely hill. Camera zooms in to a single light illuminating an upper attic room.
2. 1st WORLD - INSIDE UPPER ATTIC ROOM. 3RD PERSON P.O.V.
Set-Up (pre-animated):
You are standing in the doorway of an upper attic room. An old-man limps slowly around the room with a cane, oblivious to your presence. He sets the needle down on a phonograph, hums to himself, and places labels on objects. He pins old photographs and lists to the walls in an elaborate mapping configuration.
(start of viewer control):
You enter the room to examine it & orient yourself. As you explore the room, the old man tells you what his main objective is. This triggers a change in POV as you take on his 1st Person perspective for the remainder.
What do you look at? Do you interact with the man? Which objects are active?Does the man notice you? Do you talk to him? What do you discover? How does it lead the plot further?
3. TRANSITION - P.O.V. CHANGE - FROM 3RD PERSON OBSERVER TO 1ST PERSON P.O.V. OF OLD MAN
TRIGGER: Man tells you that he lost his watch & thinks he left it by the bench outside. He explains “The Clock Test” and that he must go find it.
4. TRANSITION - FROM ATTIC TO BACKYARD
After entering the man's mind, any number of actions within the attic could portal you to the backyard.
5. 2nd WORLD - IN THE BACKYARD. DAY.
Midwest. 1 acre flat lawn with sparse deciduous trees overlooking a cliff. A black wrought-iron fence seals the boundary around the yard.
ACTIONS:
The basic direction is to travel to the bench to find the watch.
Most Basic (Quick) Route:
Walk forward along the path looking straight-ahead and the environment will remain relatively static. Get to the fence and sit down at the bench. Look at or pick up the watch.
Alternatives (detours):
If you leave the path, look in 6 directions, stop & examine, record or post notes/ pictures, then the environment morphs.
As the viewer moves along the path, the more he/she examines the environment, the more surreal it becomes. Turning in different directions affects the environment in different ways. Even if the most basic straight-ahead path is followed, some confusion will still be triggered.
6. ONSET OF CONFUSION
PHYSICAL OBFUSCATION:
7. TRANSITION TO DARKNESS - completely lost
8. EPHEMERAL - emerges out of dark environment
9. RETURN - Making peace
- Environment calms down
- Houses (memories) collapse into one or house rebuilds itself
10. REFLECTION
- Series of snapshots and reflections relating to viewer actions in the world reveals itself as an image and sound sequence
Examples of Directional Movement & additional description below:
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UPPER ATTIC ROOM
Contents:
Old photographic equipment, drawers, notes, pens, a drawing table, plants, a cat, hard-wood floors, wallpaper, a sculpture, modeling tools, drafting table, blueprints, sticky notes, labels, flowers, clothes on the floor, a cane, disheveled room, window, window seat, curtains, wall-paper, phonograph, a library, dust, spider-webs, old film-projector, pictures on the walls
POSSIBLE VIEWER ACTIONS:
- Open the drawers. Look through the contents. Find something. Pick it up.
- Look through the telescope.
- Look at/click on/zoom in a picture on the wall.
It becomes an animated scene, text appears, or you enter that scene
- Look at/click on/zoom in on one of the notes.
Read a note & text animates (blurry), or morphs into something else
- Drafting Desk
Write a note & character reads it, or it appears on the wall or elsewhere
- Look through the telescope
Out the window or around the room
- Look in the mirror
- Take a picture
- Give something to the man
- Exit the room
- Walk downstairs
MAIN CHARACTER (Old Man) POSSIBLE ACTIONS:
- The character ignores you.
- The man looks at you.
- He takes a picture of you.
- The man looks in the mirror.
- The man goes to the window and looks outside.
- Asks you a question
Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?
Something more nonsensical (poss. related to what you’ve looked at)
- Tells you something
Info about him, a poem, something nonsensical and confusing
6. ONSET OF CONFUSION
PHYSICAL OBFUSCATION:
Atmospheric - Obscuring the view
Weather - time-lapse seasons, time of day, snow, wind, cloud shadows
Light - fog, darkness, white-out
Camera/Video FX - blurriness, shaking, stuttering, film stuck in gate, digital glitches, focus changes, flicker
Physically “stuck-in-the-mud”
Able to turn but can’t move.
Movement Impaired
Shake-y, unbalanced
Objects -
Disappearing, environment erasing itself
Surreal juxtaposition of items from the attic in inappropriate places
Old objects look new (lost in memory)
As if the man put things in the wrong places
House falling apart
Planes & dimensions becoming confused (tilting to reveal edges of layers)
More trees - backyard becomes a forest
Stereoscopic Space - morphs from flat to extreme depth
Spacial relationships become confused
Clones
- seeing memories
- different materials (flat vs. dimensional, drawn vs. stop-motion, etc.)
Overlapping Styles
- 1890s vs. 1930s, what's antique looks new
Sound - words and environment sounds jumbled, static, humming to himself, phonographic music far away, mumbling nonsensically to himself
7. TRANSITION TO DARKNESS (completely lost)
8. EPHEMERAL (once environment has gone dark, become confused)
Ghost-like stutter-y character reaches out
Film Projector starts, lighting up the darkness
Abstract shapes, colors, light
Weather changes
Frame tilting, rocking.
9. RETURN - Making peace - Environment calms down
Could be triggered by different actions such as:
- Moving forward, making it to the bench and finding the watch
- Reflecting, stopping movement
- Humming, choreographing environment
- Focusing on the phonograph sound
- Reading about dementia
- Picking up the cat
- Looking in a mirror
- Looking at the moon, stars
10. REFLECTION
- Series of snapshots and reflections relating to viewer actions in the world reveals itself as an image and sound sequence
EXAMPLES OF DIRECTIONAL MOVEMENT (within backyard):
Forwards - Settled, literal environment, some physical limitations (must get stuck or unbalanced at least once)
Backwards - House un-builds & re-builds itself
Left - Minimalism, things falling apart
Right - Multiplicity, manic building, more trees, characters & stuff
Up - Calm, magical environment, triggers season changes (snow, clouds, etc.)
Down - Ground falling away, disappearing
OTHER ACTIONS:
Zoom/Reflect/Read - Goes into a picture, note, scene
If there is something to reveal or a memory to go into, triggers that
Record - takes a snapshot/screenshot of a sound or image
Write - Can type or draw something which gets recorded
Listen - If character has something to say or a sound is important, isolates that