My Piece of Interactive Fiction

So currently the title of my piece of interactive fiction is "The Island of Return." I can't say that I am completely satisfied with the name yet so it's apt to change.

I originally used RPG Maker AX but unfortunately I was unable to do what I wanted to do with the free version(it allowed you to do almost everything the paid version did except there were space constrains that I could not deal with) so I switched to Twine. Unfortunately the puzzles had to be removed but I replaced them with a different concept that may work even better.

The Plot of "The Island of Return" begins with you abruptly being saved by seemingly mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by a man named Michael. I wrote the story in a way that regardless if you are male or female  the story works so that it is supposed to be you as the main character. The main character has amnesia. I know it may seem overused but there is a good reason for it. The story continues by making several choices that can lead you to an early end or get to the true story you read a letter which ends up leading you into a labyrinth that should be able to help get you off of this island. Throughout the labyrinth you will be required to avoid traps and make a series of choices that could cost the main character his or her life. By answering the questions correctly you have visions that until you make it til the end of the story will seem rather random and confusing, at least that was my aim.  The only way to make it to the end is to make all the right choices. Honestly some of the choices may not make sense at the time but it all comes together. I don't want to reveal the ending here but once I am completely done with my piece I will post it in this blog for everyone to try. I am looking at there being between 6 to 10 endings depending on how I decide to layout certain choices. Good luck getting them all.

And if you do decide to play it...May the odds be ever in your favor!

Visual Novels

Visual novels are my personal favorite when it comes to works of Interactive Fiction. Visual Novels make up about 70 percent of all videogame sales in Japan. Do not let this deceive you though. Visual Novels are not your typical type of videogame and not all visual novels are videogames either.

Your average visual novel usually consists of alot of text (obviously), some sort of background music or noise that sets the mood for the part you are reading, decisions you can make that affect either the ending or some part of the story, and visuals that are usually the characters that are talking in the foreground and scenery in the background.  

In recent years, there have been many visual novels that are considered videogames. Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney was the first visual novel I ever experienced. In the game, you take the role of a young defense lawyer that just joins this new law firm. The game has three main elements: the story part, the investigation section, and the court room. The story part is similar to most other visual novels. It's mainly reading and making decisions that affect certain story elements. The investigation section is where you have to go over the crime scene and other places that the accused may have possibly gone so that you can look for clues to use during the court room section. Finally, the court room section is where, like in a normal court case, you have to prove that your client is innocent by using the clues you found to contradict or prove the witness is telling the truth.

Many companies are also porting their existing visual novels to game consoles. The most popular console for visual novels is the Playstation Vita. My guess for why they would pick the Vita would be because it is a portable gaming so it would allow people the ability to read them on the go as apposed to sitting a computer to read them.

Ingress update: So I realized after getting destroyed by the Enlightened this week that numbers are everything in Ingress. So if you plan on taking over an area with multiple portals, find some friends and take some fields.