Mapping out my game - Fruit Town

Fruit Town

This year, I have decided to connect and weave all my modules into each other. I find it much easier to work if I have got a large project consisting of various different tasks. So, for my very first module, Drawing for games, we had to come up with an idea - character, environment or object, and take it from initial concept, through refined sketches, to a Final piece. After quite a lot of different attempts  and going down various avenues, I have settled upon a few characters that will eventually, create and be part of, a mini game, animation and/or cartoon. 

As a whole, I have named my project Fruit Town, as all my characters are different types of fruit.

So, the starting point for this project, creating an interactive text based adventure, was this piece:

So, my main character will be Lady Pear ( a pear), Mr Kiwipedia ( kiwi fruit) will be the narrator, the Cherry Twins will take the part pf mischievous children, driving the story forward, with their cheeky behavior, while the Wise App (apple) will be overlooking them all. There are some other characters, not present in this painting, but I do have some sketches to show them up. They are Lazy Ban (banana), Madame Ananas (pineaple) and StrawMary ( strawberry).

 

Act 1

Exposition : Gloomy Seaside Town - Central library reception desk- Miss Pear is sorting out through the books brought back and laying in complete chaos. She's a happy go lucky person, but today seems to be the day when she needs adventure in her life. She decides to take off and go away for a while. She doesn't have any family, close enough to inform, so during her lunch break, she gets on the first bus and awaits to see what the destination will be. ...

Meanwhile, in Fruit Town, few hundred miles away from Gloomy Seaside Town, Lazy Ban is doing what he does best - lazing around by the pool, listening to the music in his headphones, not talking to anyone, not helping anyone around the house, just being moody. Madame Ananas, Lazy Ban's Mum, is part of the old French aristocracy, a widower, retired ballet teacher, trying to get her son interested in the life her family leads. 

Mr Kiwipedia is the narrator, a character present everywhere the story is taking place. He does not interact with the characters (he is sort of invisible to the other characters, in the sense that he is always out of focus), but he will always have an opinion on the events taking place.

The Cherry Twins are two very mischievous twins ( a boy and a girl), 7 year old, who basically drive the story with the constant obstacles they are setting.

Plot point 1

Miss Pear gets on the bus and waits to see where it will take her. She has taken the plunge and gone on an adventure, away from the day to day routine of the librarian job.

Obstacles

The Cherry Twins are on the bus and are being naughty, and getting everyone on the bus annoyed.

Story can move in two different directions from here: 

1. Miss Pear will join in the twins "fun" as she is on an adventure and tries to rebel, by doing everything against her normal convictions, or
2. Miss Pear intervenes and tells the twins off, reinstating the order on the bus            

I have used a mind mapping software in order to map my game, and I have found it very useful, as it has a lot of add on images to support the text inputed. It has helped me a lot with creating new avenues due to the visual aspect of the map. Below,  I have added an image of the whole map (fig3), but due to the size of it, the text is barely visible. However, I have cropped sections of it and zoomed in (fig1 and fig2), in order to give everyone an idea as to how I have moved on and developed my initial. idea. 

fig1

fig2

fig3

Next step, was to start creating the interactive narrative, and for this, I have decided to use Quest, a software that lets you create and share interactive fiction. After watching a few tutorials and reading up on how to use the software, I have started my own adventure in creating an adventure.