Shaping stories through conflict or contradiction
Alongside the three key components to stories (character, location and action) we can look at creating conflict or contradiction through applying obstacles to our stories and asking “what if”. This weeks focus was around the notion of “what if” and how we can create something that is unusual or magical.
We explored this theme by developing mind maps and spending ten minutes to brainstorm a story idea we wanted to move forward with through the semester, thinking about character, location, actions, what if’s. It’s always tricky in the initial stages of mindmapping to “let go” of trying to think of deliberate and cliched things, but once the egg has cracked - the ideas ooze out. Mind mapping helps us to explore the unknown. The unknown of what is essentially waiting “in the cloud” to exist.
I had an existing concept I planned on developing further through Animated Narratives, in which I had developed a rough mind map about the general concept of ‘Bones’ my studio one game design concept. As I had been able to depict my concept in a general approach, I took this opportunity to develop/depict my concept more clearly through brainstorming the character and story a little more in depth by using the method of mind mapping described by Susan in our lecture. Challenging myself to continue the branches further.
I then went on and asked the question "What if" to my concept I was wanting to explore.
