The Interactive Stories
Class analysis of
“DEAD ON ARRIVAL”
How is narrative
told?
Pictures illustrate the story
Page turning device to further the story
speech bubbles tell the majority of the story
text captions written in the 1st person
music choice eg. Opening music was suspenseful, music pace
picked up as story unfolded, on the
hangover scene the music “jangly”
“easter egg” clickable items gave information to move the
narrative forward for example coffee cup, the phone, the office files.
Zooms on important items, e.g. the insurance documents to
draw the viewer’s attention
“Spiked” drink
The variety of devices to tell the story and the amount of
interactivity held the viewer’s attention well and made the storyline very
clear. There wasn’t much animation as such, but the “shaking” animation on the
hangover scene helped to contribute to the atmosphere.
User enjoyment
through interactivity:
Searching for and finding clickable items
These items popped up which drew attention
A character/text captioning gave hints to what was clickable
The interactive pans were not very exciting.
The potential of
digital media:
All the above points illustrating the use of interactivity,
the use of sound and the fact that the user could guess who the murderer was
show what potential digital media has to enhance user enjoyment. These features
could not be included in a traditional comic book.
above is the class analysis of dead on arrival, we ran through this with our tutor, to try and analyse what makes a story, how it develops, and how it comes to an end at the end, we also analysed how sounds and interaction can make a better user experience. below are my examples of my own personal analysations.
Dracula
I decided to select an Interactive comic to study and analyse , the comic is called Dracula - the interactive comic. I wanted to try and go with something different instead of following all the other students with the direction of HOTEL and Dead on Arrival.
Dracula is a story that anyone would suspect in a classic style of, weary traveller goes to stay with Dracula in his castle.
How Effectively is the Narrative told and how does animation and sound contribute to the narrative?
The narrative is quite straight forward and simple, it is much simpler than clicking and changing scenes, Dracula's Narrative is in reels of images, that you can slowly scroll along to take in all the necessary information. It has speech boxes which are clearly and effectively placed by making them obvious yet out of the way of any important information. The Captions are done from 1st person of the traveller, so it has more of a story told effect on the reader, it brings the reader in. The music is extremely creepy and sketchy which really sets the atmosphere of the comic, there are several interactive sounds which set the feel of the comic, but there are not enough to make it feel over the top.
toy my knowledge there are no interactive items that are easter eggs, but you do interact with items to make your escape, if and when the traveller gets to dracula, you can choose to run or fight, and its interactive abilities allow you to use a webcam to bring a real life object into the game and use it as a weapon to fight dracula.
How does the interactivity increase user enjoyment?
as the Story continues and rolls on there are several things you can interact with, it appears hat as the story progresses you can interact with the comic more, including custom weapons and choices, when you scroll over certain scenes objects and images pop up to set the feel and try to make the reader feel uncomfortable and scared, which considering for a short comic, it does a very good job and setting the scare factor, by doing this it raises the enjoyment and the feeling for the comic for the reader.
How does this demonstrate potential for media?
My research here shows that an interactive comic has several advantages over a regular comic, you can surprise, scare and pull the reader in much more than what you can with a regular comic, regular comics do not have moving pictures, or interactive objects, you cannot give choice and multiple interactive endings in regular comics, whereas with dracula, this has been clearly demonstrated, with multiple choice scenarios, surprises and feeling.
Detention Nightmare
The Narrative is simple and straightforward, it starts with the teacher at his desk completing work and asking the student in detention to come in, the student then comes in and sits down down at the desk, and begins to fall asleep, that is the first Scene. The second part of the story consists of the student falling into a dream where he encounters a monster in a dark forest, the sounds enhance the feeling by adding thunder and lightning. the 3rd part is where he wakes up and realises it was all a dream.
Dr Villain
Dr villain is about a vigilante who must find and stop a evil scientist from destroying the world with the " crystal of order " its more of an interactive game than a movie, there are alot of interactions, which actually makes the game quite fun, while hunting for the doctor, the vigilante encounters a robot which is where the story goes into scene 2, you then choose how to defeat the robot, and after doing so do some more running, afterwards the game moves to the final bit of the plot to where you encounter the doctor, who escapes using a teleport. the game uses various sounds including robot sounds, burning flames, footsteps, explosions, and sword sounds along with various other sounds per scene, all in all creating quite an interesting arc, plot, and enjoyable user experience.
Selina rawless
Selina rawless appears to also have quite alot of user interaction and good use of sounds, the story appears to be about in the first part a normal girl going to go and see her friends, who had long ago defeated an evil being, until where it goes into scene 2, the evil being manages to somehow resurrect himself and returns to the town to terrorize it, him and Selina then lock into battle, in which it turns to scene 3 where the malovent spirit is defeated, it uses a wide range of sounds like evil laughs, footsteps, rain, and electrical sounds to give the magic powers more effect.
Spider Spider Jason
Spider spider jason is about a small spider who wants to become spiderman after reading the comic, he starts to work out and makes a spiderman costume, and jumps into a building and hurts himself, the story is clear and effective, clear speech bubbles are used to make the character feel alive, and to explain what goes on, different facial expressions are also animated and used to show how the character is feeling, there is small amounts of interactivity as well to increase user enjoyment and iinterest.
09/10/2012
For My Interactive Story I have Decided to do Idea 3, it will compile of 3 acts, as mentioned above.
I previously mentioned from constructive criticism that I was gonna do Idea 1, but I decided to change my mind simply because I thought choosing a different idea might be a better direction, plus when I create my storyboard, I want my Ideas and constructions to stand out, and not be like the rest.
1st Scene
for the first scene, you will see a Short clip about a boy and his dog, playing in the front yard, on a sunny day, when He accidentally throws the ball too far, the dog runs out into the road and a car comes by and knocks his dog down. and you'll see the effect of it on the boy.
2nd Scene
The second Scene will consist of a small funeral, and the boy's family and him grieving, wishing that things were different.
3rd Scene
The 3rd and final Scene will consist of the scenery suddenly changing to a bedroom, showing that the boy has only just woken up from a very nasty nightmare, with his dog on the end of the bed. Realizing he was only dreaming, he picks up the ball and looks at it, and then puts it down and refuses to go out and play.
Firstly Before we go into construction we have to create storyboard image drafts of our story.
Scene 1
soon after the boy chucks the ball across the road and the dog runs after it, and is tragically hit by a car. so a blundering sound will be used with car horns.
Here i will try to use crying effects, with a dramatic fading scream.
Scene 2
In this part of the animation, I will use thunder and lightning effects, with animated speech bubbles to express how destroyed its left the boy.
In this part I will use an animation of him touching the photo he has, and looking very distressed.
after fading out the boy wakes up in his room like in every day life, picking up the ball and realizing it could do more harm than good, I will using tweeting birds in this scene as a sound effect.
The above pictures are my prototype storyboard images, as you can see, the boys dog dies, and he has a funeral for his dog, but it just turns out to be a dream, and he chucks the ball away realizing it could actually get his dog killed.
The sound effects for the final picture will be the same as the previous, except I will probably have a bouncing ball sound included in this scene.
