A) select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre?

Interactive narrative games are made with the purpose of engaging it’s audience within a story that they are able to determine the outcome of. The story must keep the players attention by giving them plenty of choices so they feel they are impacting the game play. Story lines in other genres such as MMORPG’s are mostly ignored and skipped to prioritize leveling and battle, so these are perfect for people who enjoy more story based interaction

Other medias like books have adapted on this idea by using page numbers as indication of how to follow the story based on decisions. People have also made simple yes-no ‘decision graphs’ that help people decide certain things based on their answers.

One twine game called ‘Horse Master’ by Tom McHenry makes you think about the organisation of your thoughts and information given so you can progress. Without the knowledge of the thought hidden in the text, you cannot progress. I think this is a good example of what an interactive narrative needs to be. there are few pictures and no sound, but only the readers perceptional imagination from the aspects described. The style is similar to that of a web comic but with more interaction. Using the readers imagination rather than adding images makes the story feel personal  and will also make it more memorable.

Horse master: The game of horse mastery by Tom McHenry

B) does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today. Give exemplary examples?

Some of the most popular modern games use this genre as a starting point. Until dawn, for example, was a huge success not only among gamers, but also movie fanatics; as it incorporated that strong sense of story and characteristics from real people. There was an end goal of the game (keep everyone alive). Different endings also made people play the game more than once. Discussion of how people played the game differently is what made the game popular; almost being a competition between friends to see how many people you could save. Thinking back on the game, I remember it more as a movie because of it’s beautiful graphics and intense story, and think they could’ve included more when it came to action scenes. The actions at the beginning of the story didn’t actually decipher the story as it went along, only the life threatening actions towards the end did, which made all my actions up until then useless in terms of story line.

There was a therapist scene in until dawn which actually explained how you perceive things and what you’re actions mean which was really interesting and I think they should’ve adapted that more within the story.

Without being interested in where the story takes you, there would be no point of playing. However, some games like ‘It’s a beautiful day’ by Yllogique focus more creating an atmosphere to the game with images and sounds you can explore by selecting different options. The aim for this game is to see ‘the beautiful day’ that is outside, and it’s not as simple as it seems. The game has a relaxing vibe and is a self-care game that makes you think about your actions.

It’s a beautiful day by Yllogique

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/317795/the-top-10-interactive-games-for-story-lovers/1

https://itch.io/games/tag-twine