AGS Game as Interactive Short Film

[deepseaengine]

I've been working on a short episodic 'film' (if you can still call it that), each episode created with a different medium - one will be live-action, another stop-motion animated, one rotoscoped, etc. The idea is that the main character struggles through a series of interrelated dreams, understanding more about himself and the situation he is in each time.

I've been drafting the idea of making the first in these episodes 'playable', made in AGS, giving an interactive element to the story. It wouldn't be overly complicated, to allow most viewers / players to be able to complete it to continue to the second and successive episodes, but obviously, this limits the audience somewhat. If all the episodes were simple online videos, they would be accessible to all. If I decided to make the whole thing in AGS, it would have a considerably limited audience and be more difficult (and messy) to express the multiple media idea. I'd like to try to give the 'interactive film' concept a try as the storyline fits well, but these are the primary problems I can foresee.

There is also the idea of making it something of a viral 'reward' system, where the first episode could be an interactive film (as an AGS adventure). On completion, a link (or password) would be provided to the second episode, a video. The third episode would return to AGS, then the fourth back to the video, etc.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[mode7]

I've been working on a short episodic 'film' (if you can still call it that), each episode created with a different medium - one will be live-action, another stop-motion animated, one rotoscoped, etc. The idea is that the main character struggles through a series of interrelated dreams, understanding more about himself and the situation he is in each time.

Sounds like waking life - i love that movie.
Well I dont know i you need a reward system for an interactive movie as the story should be reward enough.
Well two concepts you should consider are non-linearity and interactivity. The frist meaning that there is a possiblity to expericencing different parts of the story in a different order which (and that is most important) makes an impact on how the player/view perceives the story. Its not just about which video to play first but with whom the player will identify - which part of the story he/she will experience and for example get a different impression when playing the game again.
Second concept is about if to give the player a choice (or at least the illusion of a choice) the problem here is to think of important and meaningful choices preferably the core conflicts of the story.
I think the important thing here in an interactive movie is to subordinate everything to the narrative on contrary to a game where you subordinate everything to the "play" element (which is only partly true for adventure games which have several different positions between the two) 

Well i dont really like the idea with releasing a part as movie and another one as game - but thats more of a personal preference cause I think its a little inconsistent if not inconseqent.

[deepseaengine]

I should have said: the 'interactive' episode will of course have some elements of choice - dialogue, etc - but will be linear and have only one ending. The reason for this is partly because of a narrative chronology concept (which I'll reveal later, perhaps) which would make it impossible to have alternative endings, but also because the idea is to make it the first part of a series of linear videos.

Well i dont really like the idea with releasing a part as movie and another one as game - but thats more of a personal preference cause I think its a little inconsistent if not inconseqent.

What would you prefer - entirely game-based, or entirely video-based? The reason for releasing episodes in different media is that it's supposed to be confusing and disorientating due to the nature of the main character's dreams, so I'm happy for it to appear inconsistent at first. As each episode is watched / played, it will become obvious that there is consistency to the specific media used. However, what do you mean by inconsequential?

[mode7]

What would you prefer - entirely game-based, or entirely video-based? The reason for releasing episodes in different media is that it's supposed to be confusing and disorientating due to the nature of the main character's dreams, so I'm happy for it to appear inconsistent at first. As each episode is watched / played, it will become obvious that there is consistency to the specific media used. However, what do you mean by inconsequential?

Well, I think it depends on how its pulled off. I admit that it could be a very powerful if its pulled off in a convincing way. Either way I'm looking forward to your project.

[deepseaengine]

Thanks for your reply, mode7!

I've begun work on it as the 'viral' style. This means it will be structured thus:

• Episode #1 (game) - completion rewarded with password
• Episode #2 (video) - unlocked with password
• Episode #3 (game) - completion rewarded with password
• Episode #4 (video) - unlocked with password
• etc...

This may change based on feedback during production. After a determined amount of time, the video episodes will be unlocked so anyone can watch them without the password.

The downsides to this will be that the game episodes might not be for everyone and therefore will reduce the possible audience. However, the upside is that the whole story is actually two interlinking stories, so the videos will tell one story, the games will tell another. They will be connected and by the end, it will be better to follow through the episodes sequentially to understand the story fully, but people who just watch the videos will still get something out of it.

Any comments or ideas would be appreciated. I'll post on the 'AGS Games in Production' board when it's reached the right stage. I'll leave this topic open for feedback relating to this structure.

[Stupot]

Interesting concept.

You use the word 'episode', but just to be clear are you talking about episodes in the sense that they will be released weeks or months apart from each other?  If that's the case I'm not sure a password system would be the best format.  The password is a reward, so to be rewarded with a password that is useless for another two weeks would, I imagine, be quite frustrating for the player (viewer?)

If, however, you plan to release them all at the same time, then it's not really such a problem, because the player can be immediately rewarded for his completion of the previous part.

[deepseaengine]

You use the word 'episode', but just to be clear are you talking about episodes in the sense that they will be released weeks or months apart from each other?  If that's the case I'm not sure a password system would be the best format.  The password is a reward, so to be rewarded with a password that is useless for another two weeks would, I imagine, be quite frustrating for the player (viewer?)

Quite right, the 'episodes' will be released separately. You make a good point - perhaps all game and video episodes should be password-free. In that case, I'd like to give completion of the game episodes some kind of reward to try to coerce people to play them rather than just going straight for the videos (if they've been released by the point they start the series). Perhaps completion of the game episodes could be rewarded by a link to concept art or something along those lines. Of course hopefully the story and games / videos would be reward enough.

[Mati256]

You could release episodes 1 and 2 together, then 3 and 4, etc.