To be able to create some software that could act as a designer for a complex adventure, I really had to think about how to represent the story structure visually, in a way that made sense to the person designing it as well as a computer. The Story Manager in the image below shows 3 nodes, or "story points" that serve as a part of the adventure where the player usually needs to do something. Each story point leads to one or more other story points taking the players through a cohesive story.
I wanted to make this as robust and scalable as possible, so I've introduced the ability to create as many story points as you would like. Each story point can have a different criteria for moving on to the next story point. For example, if a player must diffuse a bomb that they have found while using their augmented reality camera, they might only have a certain amount of time. If they do so with x minutes, they will be sent to "Story Point A" whereas if they don't do it in time, they might be sent to "Story Point B", which essectially takes them down a different path and alters their story. Much like one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books we all read in the 80's (yeah, I just dated myself. And?), you can create stories with an infinite amount of outcomes that are all dependent on the players actions in the real world.
This concept is at the heart of how the Waypointer engine works. With this designer, it's easy to create adventurs that anyone with a cell phone can experience, all over the world. Much like the Pokemon Go game, these adventures can be located outside of a person's house or backyard, or at a fixed position like a theme park, an escape room or your favorite Halloween haunt. The biggest goal for this designer is to make it universal for any format, location or business. I really think that this model will work beautifully.
The long hours are getting harder, but they are worth it. We, at Danger and Mayhem, believe this technology can change the world through storytelling, so it's kind of important to finish this as quickly as possible.
Just keep swimming.
Author
Danger Dean
Welcome! I'm Danger Dean and I come from a place where storytelling, science, technology and the arts are all the same thing. I hope you can use the information below to think of a way for me to help you. More Info...