WEEK 10 // INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES & CYBERTEXT
STATUS: EXECUTION COMPLETE
> OBJECTIVE 1: TASK 1 ANALYSIS: THE NRRATIVE OF SPACE FROG
Target: Analyze Twine's design in conveying procedural narratives and thematic messages, focusing on the concepts of Cybertext and Ergodicity.
The analysis of the Space Frog story showed that the narrative effectively conveys the message that helping others is to help yourself. The storyteller is "invisible" yet effective, primarily because the design ensures supportive narratives and rewards for all player choices, maintaining a kind, warm, and fairy-tale-like vibe.
However, the brevity of each story line sometimes prevented full immersion, highlighting a tension between procedural structure and emotional depth.
> OBJECTIVE 2: TASK 2 CREATION: TWINE GAME
Target: Apply theory by creating an interactive narrative, "A day in the life of leeds student", and critically assess the design process.
The theme of the story explores the anxiety and exhaustion of postgraduate life using surreal horror-comedy. The structure is a branching, nonlinear interactive narrative with multiple paths and endings determined by player choices.
Figure 1.0: Twine Structure - A visible representation of the Ergodic paths in 'A day in the life of leeds student'.
> Access Critical Learnings Log [STATUS: PULL DATA]
--LOADING CRITICAL_INSIGHTS.EXE...
1. CONSTRAINED_FREEDOM: The procedural nature of Twine genuinely limits player choices, as endings are finished beforehand, granting only "constrained freedom."
2. ERGODIC_REQUIREMENT: Digital narratives require "nontrivial effort" to traverse the text, transforming the user from a passive reader to an active participant whose interaction shapes the story's progress.
3. AFFORDANCES_OF_HYPERLINK: The intrinsic ability to encode hyperlinks is the core affordance that supports nonlinear, participatory, and spatial storytelling in digital media.
> OBJECTIVE 3: RESEARCH INSPIRATION
Conclusion: The workshop underscored that while digital media grants unique affordances to narratives (procedural, participatory, spatial, encyclopedic), these structures are never neutral. The designer’s unconciousness, ideology and view of world inevitably emerge from the world they build. For example, our game’s only "good" ending (to become the knowledgeable Architect) directly reflects our current academic identity goal, while the others, including elements of escape and laziness, are ultimately "bad".Even the whole universe of the story was unintentionally strutrued under the informal, bantering and kidding-like discussion.
Digital narratives are powerful tools that actively construct, rather than simply reflect, the relationship between user and story.