Working Title
“A Typical Day at NYU Shanghai”
Context and Purpose
Thus far, my definition of interaction for the class is a cycle of communication between two or more actors which involves “listening,” processing, and responding. My ideas of and standards for interaction have taken inspiration from Crawford’s “What Exactly is Interactivity?”: interactivity can occur in a spectrum. Some projects feel more interactive. In my preliminary research for this final project, I found that projects which allow for some curiosity and exploration on the part of the user feel much more interactive.
Further, since I believe that language is key to communication on a human level, my goal for the course has been to incorporate language into my interactive projects to create an interactive feeling. My midterm project (“Aunt Margot”) played on the idea of a Magic 8 Ball by giving more complex answers (i.e. complete sentences, snippets of informal speech, etc.). In this way, I wanted to improve the interactive experience on the side of the project, as the project gave more human answers.With this research and experience in mind, I want my final project to develop more on the user side of the interaction.
Proposal
I want to create a simple text adventure with a small twist. This concept is based on the “Choose Your Own Adventure” book series, as well as simple text-based computer games. I usually enjoy this type of game because of the allure of being part of the story, but often find myself bored of the cyclical choice-making system. For this reason, I would like to construct an interactive fiction game with a twist: the user only has two choices for each prompt within the game, “yes” and “no.” However, if the user follows a hint within the game they are told to (for example) check under the “yes” button to find a third button1. At the end of the game, the user who finds this third option gets the true ending. In this way, I would like to improve on the traditional interactive fiction game with a physical interaction between the user and the game.
In terms of timeline, since the physical elements of the project should not take long the most important thing is the coding and story element. I have already tested a format for the code which allows for what I want (based on boolean statements and menus, with a button press switching to a different menu). I have also already drafted how many menus I will need and what kind of plot I would like. For now I will plan on scheduling one or two days to take care of the physical element early on, and then devote the rest of my time to coding.
1 I currently envision this project to be focused on my laptop (which can be rotated to display only the screen). In front, evenly spaced, will be two small fabricated cubes with buttons. These cubes may be labeled YES and NO. The cubes are hollow, allowing another button to be hidden underneath.