Tuesday 14 October 2008

The Mobius Case

An interactive narrative created by Rutger Van Djik, on Bournemouth University's MA Interactive Media.
http://media.bournemouth.ac.uk/studentshowcase/work/mobius/index.html
Why do I like this so much? Because it demonstrates several aspects of interface and navigation design which my research has shown to be important to readers of interactive narratives:
1 Easily grasped interface design
2 Clear and flexible navigation tools
3 Always visible story and site context
4 Meaningful interaction - i.e. each link followed by a user will advance the narrative in an interesting/significant way
5 Character development
6 Plot development, no matter what interacting choices the user makes
7 Non-linearity (in this case a circular narrative structure) does not overwhelm the user.

For more information about what I consider to be 'essential' interface and navigation design features, see my forthcoming paper in dichtung digital: http://www.dichtung-digital.org/

the Genarrator project

Between 2002 and 2007 Jim Pope (it's me really, but I thought writing in the third person would seem more academic) has been conducting research and developing practice in the field of writing and teaching interactive fiction, called 'digi-lit' or 'hypertext' in some quarters.

Jim's PhD gathered data on the the responses of 36 readers to a range of interactive fictions. A preliminary report on the findings is published in Convergence 12:4 Nov 2006. http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/12/4/447

In the summer of 2006 Jim, with the support of CEMP, ran a project at Royal Manor College, in Portland, Dorset, in which groups of school students created their own interactive fictions. The rather wonderful results can be seen here:
http://www.cemp.ac.uk/themes/other/#Interactive

The knowledge of theory, creative practice, and reader responses gained from this work has led to the Genarrator project. The aim of this project is to attempt to develop a flexible, user-friendly (ie intuitive, no-knowledge-of coding-required-by-the-user) platform for the creation of digital interactive fiction.

'Genarrator' is the name we've chosen for the platform, which (if it works so wish us luck) will be able to be used by school students, undergraduates, non-technical writers interested in new media - anyone who wants to create an interactive narrative will be able to start with Genarrator before progressing to other more sophisticated (and complex) software. But maybe Genarrator will do everything anyone will need! Let's see how we get on.

Jim will be researching Freeware and adapting existing platforms to see what can be designed, to make writing and teaching interactive fiction easier and more productive at the point of the technical 'barrier'. We want to 'free up' interactive writing, and progress interactive fiction (and most probably non-fiction too) towards being better understood, better made, and better enjoyed.

Please post your thoughts, ideas, and any leads you might have to other platforms offering writers ways into this amazing area of creative writing.

Jim