For our project, we want to interpret the stories of three fables: “Sima Guang Breaks the Vat,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “A Little Monkey Comes Down from the Mountain,” in the format of an interactive comic. These stories would each have their own independent comic on our website, but they would be connected through the theme of moral lessons shared at the end of each story. We intend to simulate each of these fables from a first-person perspective, which would place the user in the position of the main character and test how they would react to the situation. We hope to accomplish this by including panels that follow the movements of your cursor to shift the main character’s line of sight and to interact with objects or text that appear in the comic. We took inspiration for this idea from point-and-click video games that rely on the user to explore and click on different parts of the screen to progress the story. With this interactive comic, we would like to create scenes that take advantage of perspective and space to deepen immersion into the stories.
Sima Guang Breaks the Vat
- Scene 1: Your friend is trapped in a vat full of water, what should you do?
- Option 1: Save him (takes you to Scene 2)
- Option 2: Walk away from the situation (cuts to next scene, you are trapped in another vat of water and no one cares enough to save you).
- Option 3: If you hesitate for too long, your friend 💀
- Scene 2: How to save him?
- Click on your surroundings to find an object to break open the vat. Let the player click on everything to find the solution.
- The other kids surrounding cry, possibly as a distraction
- Scene 3: A page that illustrates the takeaways from the story
The Tortoise and The Hare
Interactivity: Allow the user to chose which animal they would like to race as. The user must make choices throughout the comic (ie. choose to sleep or to continue on the journey).
Moral: Don’t be overconfident
A Little Monkey Comes Down from the Mountain
One day, a little monkey came down the hill. He walked to a cornfield, glad to see many big corns. He picked one corn and walked forward carrying it. With the corn on his shoulder, he walked to a peach tree, glad to see big and red peaches all over the tree, he threw the corn to pick the peaches. With some peaches in hands, he walked to a watermelon field, glad to see big and round watermelons on the ground, he threw the peaches to pick the watermelon. With a big watermelon in his arms, he walked back. While walking he saw a cute little rabbit jumping. He threw the watermelon to catch the rabbit happily. The rabbit disappeared running into a forest. The little monkey had to go home with empty hands.
Interactivity: Navigating the monkey’s journey by collecting corn, peaches, watermelon, and finally the rabbit.
Moral: Don’t desire too much at once or you will have nothing in the end