First week: Planning the storyline.

One of the first tasks for our interactive storyline was for the group to decide on what the theme of
Gameplay will be taking heavy inspiration from
Lawnmower Man in particular in how data is presented
as digital objects.
the storyline was going to be, as well as the layout of the story itself.

 After a fair bit of discussion we decided to go with a more abstract look and concept.
The interactive story in question is to take place inside Cyberspace itself, ala movies such as Tron, or The Lawnmower Man. We'll be taking much of our design inspiration from movies like this. In particular, the concept that computer data has a physical presence the player can interact with as they progress through the storyline.

 The main character itself is to be a computer hacker in a dystopian future where the majority of the planet is owned by a corporation.

 My initial draft for the backstory was as follows:

Story Draft


The year is 104 ED on the new calendar, (Exocorp Domini), the world is a place where the planet is owned by the Exocorp, a multi-national corporation who controls the everyday life of the population. Everything is commercialised, with people even selling aspects of their own bodies in order to get ahead in the world that is Exocorp.


The player is a user who has sold a portion of their body into the corporation in order to support their family, and has installed a wetware CPU inside their head, allowing them to access the inside of the Mega-Net - what binds the world of information together. The device inside the player’s head allows them to visualise data in front of them, and manipulate it as easily as they’d manipulate a physical object. As part of your payment, you are given tasks anonymously to change information out there, and retrieve often given strict orders to alter the perception of the users of the Mega-Net.

As the story progresses, the tasks the player is given to do grow more and more sinister, possibly even destroying lives until the player has to make a choice - do they continue as they are told, or do they try to track down the anonymous benefactor inside Exocorp, and destroy the company from within? And what of the player’s family? Will the player’s actions put them at risk?

Continued

To this end we decided quickly on a group what our storyline was, and made our presentation to the university staff. It was deemed interesting but highly risky: If it worked, it'd be one of the more interesting projects, if not, it would be awful, with little chance of being in-between.

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