Prompt 4: Drawing on Brian Upton's definition of narrative play, describe how your process of anticipation and interpretation.
"However, the house is so quiet that you have a bad feeling about it." Such passage gives me uncertainty because it was already foreshadowing and preparing me for some surprising discovery in the later paragraph. The game uses the comment of the character to do the foreshadowing.
In the gameplay, the designer gives the player alternatives like taking time to explain to the police or not, believe or not believe the first suspect, and hide or confront the boss. These are the different directions that might have a big impacts in the story, but the result of those choices have somehow subverted my expectation. Explaining to the police is not important, because both choices have the same consequence. Even if the first suspect lied to us, I need to trust him to continue the investigation. This part might need more evidence or foreshadowing. It's also a surprise that hiding from the boss leads to a bad end, because it's usually a safe option, but it was reasonable in the game.
In murder, the entire narrative is experienced from the perspective of the detective with the exception of the final passage which serves as exposition. Though, what matters is the information provided in the passages is only what our hero detective would know. For the most part, each passage is structured where it details information relevant to the murder investigation at the location or person the detective is visiting at that moment in time. Because of this structuring, the passages are no longer than a typical paragraph and are pretty uniform in length. Each of them has one or two highlighted words to click which indicate the focus of the next passage. Only one of these words, in passages that have multiple, leads to a unique proceeding passage. For example, one passage allows the choice of clicking the words 'knife' or 'book'. Upon selecting knife you are provided with case information helpful for making future decisions but it returns you to the passage where you must select 'book' which provides case information and then proceeds directly to the next passage. Other passages where the player is explicitly given the choice of two decisions that may result in chasing different case leads leads the player to assume the choice they make would result in different conclusions to the investigation. In my playthrough I ended up getting Lee prosecuted because the evidence against him was seemingly overwhelming. Though, the final passage made Lee's innocence seems ambiguous, as if the absolute truth about Brian's murder was unobtainable. This passage felt detached from the timeframe of the story from the perspective of the detective and game me personally the impression that any other path taken in resolution of the case would have resulted in this same ambiguity, sort of wrapping all the endings together.
At the first passage of this story, I was immediately drawn to the bright light in the center of the screen. By reading the text, I had a general idea of what is happening in the story and who I am: I am a prosecutor and I am investigating a briefcase. I didn’t understand the connection between my role with the bright light icon in the center by then.
Moving forward by clicking on the blue text. The click almost felt like I am opening this briefcase to investigate what is in it. Then, the screen moved on to the next screen. The second passage explains who I am going to meet and some background information about this man. I sensed that this background information might be helpful for me to make a judgment later on on this person or the case I am investigating.
The screen moved onto the next passage by clicking the blue text again. This time I was clicking on “The man”, and it felt like I was approaching this man or starting to have a conversation with him. This passage included more information on this man: his name, his current situation, and his motive to show evidence to me. I noticed that this man might be under a lot of pressure due to his debts, and also has a negative attitude because no one is willing to help. The idea of revenge could also lead to a story further on depending on what this man could do to those people or what is the status of his attitude.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Prompt 4: Drawing on Brian Upton's definition of narrative play, describe how your process of anticipation and interpretation.
"However, the house is so quiet that you have a bad feeling about it." Such passage gives me uncertainty because it was already foreshadowing and preparing me for some surprising discovery in the later paragraph. The game uses the comment of the character to do the foreshadowing.
In the gameplay, the designer gives the player alternatives like taking time to explain to the police or not, believe or not believe the first suspect, and hide or confront the boss. These are the different directions that might have a big impacts in the story, but the result of those choices have somehow subverted my expectation. Explaining to the police is not important, because both choices have the same consequence. Even if the first suspect lied to us, I need to trust him to continue the investigation. This part might need more evidence or foreshadowing. It's also a surprise that hiding from the boss leads to a bad end, because it's usually a safe option, but it was reasonable in the game.
Prompt 2:
In murder, the entire narrative is experienced from the perspective of the detective with the exception of the final passage which serves as exposition. Though, what matters is the information provided in the passages is only what our hero detective would know. For the most part, each passage is structured where it details information relevant to the murder investigation at the location or person the detective is visiting at that moment in time. Because of this structuring, the passages are no longer than a typical paragraph and are pretty uniform in length. Each of them has one or two highlighted words to click which indicate the focus of the next passage. Only one of these words, in passages that have multiple, leads to a unique proceeding passage. For example, one passage allows the choice of clicking the words 'knife' or 'book'. Upon selecting knife you are provided with case information helpful for making future decisions but it returns you to the passage where you must select 'book' which provides case information and then proceeds directly to the next passage. Other passages where the player is explicitly given the choice of two decisions that may result in chasing different case leads leads the player to assume the choice they make would result in different conclusions to the investigation. In my playthrough I ended up getting Lee prosecuted because the evidence against him was seemingly overwhelming. Though, the final passage made Lee's innocence seems ambiguous, as if the absolute truth about Brian's murder was unobtainable. This passage felt detached from the timeframe of the story from the perspective of the detective and game me personally the impression that any other path taken in resolution of the case would have resulted in this same ambiguity, sort of wrapping all the endings together.
Prompt 1:
At the first passage of this story, I was immediately drawn to the bright light in the center of the screen. By reading the text, I had a general idea of what is happening in the story and who I am: I am a prosecutor and I am investigating a briefcase. I didn’t understand the connection between my role with the bright light icon in the center by then.
Moving forward by clicking on the blue text. The click almost felt like I am opening this briefcase to investigate what is in it. Then, the screen moved on to the next screen. The second passage explains who I am going to meet and some background information about this man. I sensed that this background information might be helpful for me to make a judgment later on on this person or the case I am investigating.
The screen moved onto the next passage by clicking the blue text again. This time I was clicking on “The man”, and it felt like I was approaching this man or starting to have a conversation with him. This passage included more information on this man: his name, his current situation, and his motive to show evidence to me. I noticed that this man might be under a lot of pressure due to his debts, and also has a negative attitude because no one is willing to help. The idea of revenge could also lead to a story further on depending on what this man could do to those people or what is the status of his attitude.