CPS WEEK 8: Time - 4D Story Structures Pt.1

In response to the theme of Time, I started conceptualising a form of story structure that operates across time with or without player input using a theoretical framework designed and presented in Illustrator. 

Through the use of diagrams and concept definitions I showed that there is a potential interactive narrative style not yet properly explored, one that would allow for the creation of evolving storylines that are affected by the ripples of time, changing the course of events in a meaningful, organic way. This is the first section of a multi part document that covers how it functions and how to model it for a Groundhog Day style storyline.

A similar structured story has been produced by Arkane Studios (https://www.arkane-studios.com/en), whose work Deathloop explores this theme by having the player stuck in a time loop that resets upon each death, but the player's character responds to the game with the knowledge of the previous playthrough rather than the standard save/load loop. Another with this style of narrative is Mobius Digital's (https://www.mobiusdigitalgames.com/) Outer Wilds, a game where the player only has a 22 minute time loop to explore a universe and unlock information that leads to an eventual ending of the loop. These are both clever takes on the idea, but operate on a more basic functional level than what I have proposed.

Downloads:

Download File: the-reference-framework-part-1.pdf