My mind is slipping, the black pit of dispair entrenches ever closer on my soul, my brain is fuzzy with the incomprehensible complexity of the tangled web of endless permutations I have made in microsoft power point.

Thats a bit of an exageration, but also partly true. Putting this project together has consumed me, I pulled an all-nighter Monday and by all estimates I’m going to do the same tonight, and I still have my doubts whether it will be done. Its too big, the amount of connections and duplicate slides is too much to keep track of, for every choice you make a new steam has to be built that connects back to the original if you change your mind later, but also has to be sure not to refer to something you never did. Optional dialouge creates its own new streams because you can ask it at multiple times. Also there is no end, no segway into the ending’s (which also still arnt finished, but thankfully not my job).

Consessions will have to be made, streamlining it is the only way its not going to turn out a broken mess.

Sadly this means some slides will only have one option to progress to the next slide, something I dearly wanted to avoid. In a story with choice and player agency having no choice when logically you should is very poor, I believe that taking away someone’s choice can be very impactful in the right circumstances, such as one of our endings where failure to make correct choices in a previous segment (the one thats still half made) results in only having one option because you failed to qualify for the other one. I’m rather disapointed, but at least it will work.

Also, after watching each over 20 times the poor acting, inconsistant accent and awkward body movements of my video-scenes is burned into my brain and I loathe it. Hopefully its flaws are less apperent for a first-time viewer, and apart from the lack of wet hair and body (It was way too cold), the costume design is still very good in my opinion, almost exactly the same as my concept art.

As the due date for our project fast-approaches final desiscions have to be made that try to find a compromise between high quality and actually achievable.

As I said in my last post, the structure of our project changed dramatically and I was not totally onboard with the change, but over the past week further restructures have occured and I’m am feeling more excited about our project.

Our original idea (up until last week) was to have two major paths, “Cult” (where the player joins the cult and works towards ascension) and “Anti-Cult” (where the player joins the counter organisation and works to take down the cult) with the player choosing at the beginning and having the ability to swap sides as they learned more. With the radical changes it became a single stream with very limited agency (my  biggest gripe), everyone would start in the cult and then join the anti-cult, take down the Cult and the anti-cult would reveal their true intentions. It was basically a straight line with most choices being 100% superficial.

But over the past week we have been re-formatting the story once again to a hybrid of the other two. Now we have everyone start in the cult, get CONTACTED by the anti-cult and told to spy on cult. But the player can now choose to never report back and can (if they choose) be totally devout to the cult and perform the ascension.

Most of the agency comes from my video segments which were partially done when the structure was changed the first time, and I recorded footage that allowed the player to be role-play wanting to ascend as well as not wanting to, as well as cooperate with the cults request for a confession or choosing to refuse if they wish.

Its not done yet, but my task for the next week is to turn these videos into a series of connected slides with various outcomes that will lead to our 4 endings (back up from the planned 2 after last weeks change).

This is probably the best of both worlds, I’d still MUCH prefer two full-fledged streams, but with the time thats left having one stream that splinters into many possible ways through the final third is a good alternative, and most importantly there are no longer desicions being made about your character anymore, EG you are not assumed to be sympathetic to the anti-cult anymore.

Our project has undergone a rather significant change in the past few days, and one which I am not entirely happy with.

The decision was made to restructure the story of our project to be far more linear. The reasons for which were to make sure everyone who plays it will get an interesting and satisfying narrative experience.

The original layout

The New layout.

As you can see, its far more streamlined and linear, instead of experiencing one of 2 major paths (that each had multiple mini paths/choices inside them, as well as numerous chances to “cross over”) and 4 endings, there is now one path with some minor choices and 2 endings.

I understand the reasoning, and our “cult” path was fairly boring and straightforward, but that being said I still dont totally agree with the change. The loss of player agency is quite extreme, and our project idea was born from the concept of symmetry. The fact that you now MUST side with the anti-cult organisation is something that doesn’t sit well with me, as I really liked the concept of being able to choose whether or not you were invested in the cult or wanted to work with the anti-cult. I dont have a problem with certain paths in choose-your-own-adventure stories being more boring or straightforward, especially in something that is going to take a short amount of time to finish, and mutliple playthoughs are easy to do. The fun for me in these types of narratives is seeing how all the options play out, and getting a “bad ending” just encourages me to see what the other options do.

I’m also kind of annoyed that all my work on the Power Point hyperlink structure is basically redundant now, and I have to build it all again.

I didn’t say anything to the group because I was clearly in the minority and I hadn’t compiled my thoughts enough to have anything to say except “no”. I’m sure our project will still be good, but Im slightly unhappy with its new form.

Hopefully my group doesn’t read this……

Over the past week I have began conceptionalising and planning the content for the interactions the audiance/player has with members of the cult for our Project.

I wanted it be intially fairly innoucencous to begin with, with regular looking people acting a bit odd, but as you move through the ranks it gets creepier and more sinister. I wanted the final person you talk to to be creepy and unsettling, someone who a player invested in the cults goals can invest in and admire, but will give people who are unsure about the cult a cold realisation that the people inside it are deranged and unhealthy.

This is a picture I drew, outlining what I want to do. The cross-legged poistion with arms in a “Y” formation is our cults meditation/prayer pose (the backwards elbows are because its me). I wanted to reinforce the idea that “the body is a prison”, and adorne the character in prisoner type motiffs, such as chaings draped around the arms and body.

The bandages around the eyes are another way to make it look sinister and scary, not being able to see someones eyes can be disconcerting, and it also could possibly be interpreted as gouged out in a destructive gesture of disgust at the mediocrity of the physical realm.

The Headcage idea is something I really want to do, as cross-bars covering the face while in the prayer postion will make the person into the exact shape of our Cult logo, and having the brain be a prisoner is also super relevent. I admit its not a totally original idea, and its probably not feasible with our resources and timeframe, but I still really want to wear a cage on my head.

For our project we have each been given tasks to complete over the next week and beyond. Meeting back up in class to show our work to group and make sure its all coherent and everyone knows whats going on.

I have been given the tasks of fixing my computer (already done), producing a outline or “vision” of what I want to do for the various Skypecall-like interactions and videos with various members of the cult. As well as building a “shell” version of the Power Point, making all the hyperlinks and slides so we can begin adding actual content to our slides.

I already have a few ideas of what to for the cult videos, and over the next week I will work out these ideas and write out these concepts and do some drawings or stuff. The Power Point is a more tedious task, and it will take some time to make sure it all works properly. But the template of all the connections is already completed, so it shouldn’t be too hard.