Category: Uncategorized

Brayden Sathrum

4/11/23

DTC 354

Final Project

For my final project, I will be reconstructing my diagrammatic project into a visual, cinematic piece. My plan is to record different backgrounds and short scenes while using the dialogue from the original to help tell the story. The plot will revolve around two siblings that gradually grow apart due to conflict. The story illustrates the chemistry and friendship to eventual fallout. I will be using a mixture of narration, text on-screen, and background footage that fits the dialogue. 

The project will be a video with music, video, and text. I plan on making a few changes to make the storyline more suitable for the medium. I want some aspects of the characters to be ambiguous and to focus more on how the imagery, text, and audio tell the story together. My goal is to use the dialogue as meaningfully and sparingly as possible. I’m also hoping to take this project as an opportunity to showcase my video editing, sound mixing, and storytelling skills for my portfolio. As I’ve been going through senior seminar, I’ve realized that highlighting some of these other abilities could be useful. While I’ve been outlining the story, I found several of the in-class video narratives to be great inspirations for how I want to frame my own work. I am also going to watch more short films to get an idea of best practices. Overall, I’m excited to begin this project and develop more of my skills. I believe this will be a strong piece to put on my portfolio once it is finished.

I really enjoyed using Twine for this last project, so I want to continue exploring that. I don’t think I pushed my project nearly as far as I could have, and I want to try many more things and expand on the story I began. The story will continue where The Killer Among the Stars left off. It will be largely based in Twine, almost entirely. I’m not yet sure what other modules I want to include, but potentially see working with diagrammatic narrative and large, full, one-panel comics.

The Killer Among the Stars

Hello everyone,

Click here to play my twine game for the Hypermedia Narrative assignment.

– Gibson

tommy o

For my Final Project I am going to further develop a Visual Narrative by focusing on additional character development through still images panels. The presentation is intended to be web-based and at this time I envision audience driven change from one panel to the next, but I have not solidified this presentation yet.

This work was inspired by the Visual Narrative modules, especially panel-to-panel relationships or “blood in the gutter,” and closure-what to leave out or “the gaps in storytelling.” Some works that intrigued me along the way are The Apple Seed, by Brianna Savage, Things Are Queer, by Duane Michals, and many comic books and silent films.

My goal is to create a work that has a clear and engaging story without the use of spoken or written words. It is an exciting challenge and I look forward to critical feedback. The core work will be my Visual Narrative that was presented for week 9.

Hey everyone,

I’ve decided to revisit my previous project concept involving video. I want to take it a step further and incorporate video with hypermedia, a twine journey involving choosing options that in turn will play a consequential video relating to that choice. It will be in the same horror/thriller genre about attempting to escape from an “alternate” who’s managed to enter your home. The goal is to include multiple endings, three is the aim, as a result of the choices selected. If time constraints arise, I will change the video incorporation to a visual one with still images.

Best of luck to everyone in their own creative explorations.

-Caleb

Evesoul Journal Page One

My Final Project is an Audio Visual video of a reflective trip through my late Grandma’s house. The video will consist of me trying to evoke a feeling by walking through the house and telling past events that happened there. Giving life to a place that will be left behind.

This week’s blog prompt was difficult for me to answer because I don’t play video games. Although I don’t play video games, my brother and friends love playing video games and I have spent some time watching them play in the past. Most of the games I have seen them play revolve around storytelling. The games I see them playing the most that appear to revolve around storytelling are Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. From what I know all of the Call of Duty games have storylines. As for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the game’s goals and challenges involve the player in uncovering or finding meaning in the narratives by the role/character that they are playing in the moment. In the game there are different missions that the player must complete. In the missions, the player will play different characters which pertain to the mission and what is unfolding in the narrative. Although I could be wrong because I have never played the game, I think that the narrative of the story works to immerse the player into the story world. Since the player is switching between characters as the missions are completed, it helps to carry on the narrative and immerse the player into the world by embodying/playing different characters pertinent to the current mission in the game. I think that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare works to engage the player’s emotions because the actions you make have consequences. In the game you must make quick decisions in the battlefield that will affect others, whether that be enemies, other members on your side, or innocent bystanders.

Breath of the Wild is a game that skillfully combines storytelling with gameplay elements, allowing players to explore and find meaning in the story through various goals, puzzles, and challenges. The story follows the protagonist, Link, who wakes up after a century-long slumber and must recover his lost memories while defeating an ancient evil force known as Calamity Ganon.

The puzzles and challenges in the game are an integral part of the story. For instance, Shrines scattered across the world not only provide players with new abilities and power-ups, but they also reveal the history and culture of the ancient civilization behind them. Divine Beasts, which are massive animal-like machines, require players to solve intricate puzzles and combat powerful enemies to free the spirits of fallen heroes.

The narrative in Breath of the Wild isn’t merely a backdrop for strategic gameplay; it actually helps players immerse themselves in the world and care about its inhabitants. The game encourages exploration and discovery, as players must piece together the story from various sources, such as relics, conversations with non-playable characters (NPCs), and clues found in the environment.

Breath of the Wild’s open-world design allows players to approach challenges and narrative events in their preferred order, resulting in a unique experience tailored to individual playstyles. The game’s art style, soundtrack, and detailed world-building contribute to a captivating atmosphere that immerses players in the world of Hyrule.

The diverse cast of characters, including major figures like Zelda and the Champions, as well as the various NPCs populating the world, each have their own stories and personalities. This makes players emotionally invested in their fates and the outcome of their quests, which further enhances the significance of the narrative in the gameplay experience.

In conclusion, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild expertly blends gameplay elements with an engaging narrative to create a rich, immersive experience for players. By incorporating goals, puzzles, and challenges into the story, and fostering an emotional connection to the characters and the world, the game ensures that the narrative remains a crucial aspect of the overall gaming experience.

For my Final Project, I’m going to try and create a visual audio story about my grandma’s house. She recently passed away and I wanted to honor her in one way or another. She lived in her that house for the majority of her life and my mother group up in that house. It is a really old house as it was built in the 1930’s. This make it super special and I thought it would be the perfect way to honor my grandmother. The main character of the story would be me as I am the one going through the house, but the focus of the story isn’t on me. The focus is on the house itself and how it was lived in for many decades but now is empty and lost to time. This gives me personally a melancholy feeling and I want to try and convey those emotions to the viewer. I am going to try and convey those emotions from using the house’s condition and its environment. For example, the house has very creaky floors. I want to make sure that I emphasis those floors to make the house feel old and used. As I am venturing through this house I’ll talk about certain memories in certain places, somewhat developing my character. That house if full of memories and feelings and I want to encaptures those memories and feelings within my work. That is my goal for the final project of DTC 354.

Hey everyone,

For my final project, I am currently planning on using a mixture of the twine module and the audio storytelling module. I am planning on creating a twine interactive story that will use audio and visual aids in order to help relay the story to players. It will be an expansion on the twine game that I made recently for the hypermedia assignment.

The central story is that of a person who has escaped a ship explosion in an escape pod. They are launched through space and land on a swampy planet where they need to reach either a village or castle (player’s choice) in order to get to safety. There will be a few major choices and some variables to make the game more replay-able.

The player will advance through the story by using the mouse to click the button to continue. There will be a background for each and every page, which will be created using the app Midjourney. And sometimes audio ques will play automatically when the player reaches a certain part of the story. The audio ques will be either things I’ve recorded myself, or they will be taken from license free sources on the internet.

I am very hopeful for this game. I’ve always been passionate about game design, and the game will take place in a universe that I have created and been working on for a while now. I still need to reach out to Will for approval at the time of writing this, however.

– Gibson

I don’t play video games so I don’t personally have a favorite video game that involves storytelling. However, my brother plays video games so I have seen him play a few games that seem to involve storytelling. The first game that comes to mind is Grand Theft Auto or GTA. I don’t know much about this game, but from the little bits that I have seen this game allows the player to freely roam the world. However, this is not the only thing that the player can do. There are also heist missions that must be completed in order to proceed through the storyline. I think that this mix between the structured missions and the ability to roam the world freely allows the player to become fully immersed in the world of the story. Additionally, with both the missions and the free roaming of the world there are consequences for the player’s actions. If the player commits a crime law enforcement will come looking for them. With that being said I think that the story world and the conflicts within the game are essential to the game. The whole game revolves around the story of the players committing heists and the conflicts before, after, and during the heists are crucial to the story. Additionally, I think that the immersion into the story world engages the player’s imagination and emotions. When the player is able to freely move around and do whatever they want in the world they could feel like they are connected to the player and maybe even that they are in the game.

https://dtc-wsuv.org/kguinn22/final-days/

Recently, I’ve been obsessed with Stardew Valley. If you’re familiar with Harvest Moon, it’s that- but better. In this game you start as a new farmer who was given land in a small town after your grandfather passes. You learn more of the story through getting to know the local townspeople, through interacting with them, giving them gifts, attending town events, even your relationship with one townsperson can shift your relationship with others. Conversely, you have the options to make them hate you depending on how you choose to behave. You can choose a bachelor/ette to marry, you can have children. You can divorce them, you can cheat on them, you can magically turn your children into doves. 

Throughout all these in-game relationships progressing or regressing, you make your living farming, raising livestock, mining, etc. You can unlock new areas of the world as you make community upgrades (an island nearby is unlocked faster if you choose to lead your town down a capitalist route rather than a semi-communist society), or create friendships with the townspeople, who will tip you off to how unlock these things.

There are mini-games throughout, fishing, fighting monsters in the mines, arcade games in the bar.

I think this game is what you want to make it. If you don’t care about “advancing” you can live a simple farm life. Or, like me, you can try to get everything you can out of it. I try to befriend every single person, I want to unlock every achievement, I want to get every single item that I can. I want to complete the community requests and all the event scenes. Most of all, I want to humiliate the town mayor, who is hiding his relationship with one of the townspeople because he thinks she’s not good enough to publicly date. Marnie, you deserve better, girl.

Sammy

One of my favorite examples of storytelling in videogames is Bloodborne- The impact of the narrative would be largely nullified if translated to any other medium. The game depicts a Victorian city infested with supernatural beasts and Lovecraftian horrors, and only a vague sense of player motivation. 

Almost every storytelling beat feels more decipherable than discoverable- the characters are alluring but cryptic, the world rich but merciless. The depth of each encounter scales with how much you as the player are willing to invest in the world- are you slaughtering a nameless animal, or have you in some way committed an act more insidious? 

The motifs of the game are noticeable but subtle- Futility, hubris, femininity and childbirth- they’re all present but never overt. The gameplay is as fittingly oppressive as the world you’re thrown into, fraught with (of course) blood and repeated deaths. 

The harsh nature of the game makes the quiet pockets of optimism that much more impactful. The moon is dripping red with blood, but it is also a thing of beauty- the diametric ideas of horror and beauty intersecting are buttressed by the strong gameplay and player agency.