Crowd Design - Narrative - Oz Adventures
Added 2020-11-23 06:06:08 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
For those of you interested in Narrative Crowd Design, here's a little teaser... which I hope to use to test out how this process works prior to sharing the Alice: Asylum narrative outline. I mentioned in a previous post that I want to share the Asylum outline with some holes in the middle - so that there's a place where YOU can engage with Crowd Design and help fill in the details.
But before we go down that particular Rabbit Hole...
I've attached the Oz: Adventures (game) synopsis that I sketched over the weekend.
This document is a response to a request made by [REDACTED] as we continue to go through their Due Diligence process.
The basic question behind this document is: "We [REDACTED ]need something to describe the game for our internal discussions, and to explain how the episodic structure + playing as different characters would work."
So I've described the basic narrative for 4 episodes. But also left some bits blank or [TBD]. And I've left Episode 4 really blank... because one of the things we're trying to sell in this pitch is that narrative will emerge as we develop the game, as players engage with the game, and as a part of the Crowd Design process.
I kinda think we don't want to know just yet what happens in Episode 4. We shouldn't try to write that until we've delivered at least Episode 1 & 2... and then build Episode 4 around the feedback those generate.
Think about the Crowd Design goals while you read the episode outlines.
And let me know if you see openings for interesting character development, plot twists, etc, in what's written so far. There are some obviously marked [TBD] areas where you might suggest interesting connections to the characters and locations of Oz.
And just let me know, in general, do you "get it" - as a game divided into 4 pieces, delivered episodically, but ultimately stitched together into a cohesive final product that spans 8+ hours in length?
Finally, let's use the back and forth on this to define how best to manage Crowd Design around Narrative.
From Shanghai with Kalidahs,
-American
Comments
I'm a tiny bit confused. Is this the same game? Like will be Oz be a level in Alice Asylum? Or is this a completely different project. Either way it seems super cool!
2020-11-29 00:56:30 +0000 UTCI had another idea about the Dark Wizard. Oscar Gale, descendent of the original Dorthy. If we want to bring the Dorthy Bot back, perhaps she is a creation of the Dark Wizard? And maybe she is the character from whose perspective we play through the final episode?
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-24 06:20:10 +0000 UTCI actually really like the the Life Essence angle because one of the key things about Oz is that nobody ages and can potentially live forever. I think it’s a smart and appropriate motivation to give an outsider villain to want to somehow tap into that which makes Oz and its inhabitants unique and powerful. It’s not a concept I’ve ever seen tried in an Oz story but it makes sense.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-24 06:11:32 +0000 UTCLove this!
2020-11-24 06:06:55 +0000 UTCI'm gonna be honest with you, I haven't really been too keen on the ideas you've had for Oz, but this- this sold me on it. The only thing that distinctly stood out to me as odd was the scientist/Wizard trying to save the world from a global pandemic. Man, I just want to forget about 2020. I like the idea of him coming to Oz to harvest Life Essence, but I think the reason behind it should be different. My favorite part of this was the bond written between the pilots.
Wendy Jaa
2020-11-24 02:32:43 +0000 UTC"Oz" is not quite my area of forte, but perhaps our four protagonists could track roughly to the archetypes of the four travelers from the film? A journey of courage, heart, and mind for our pirate, pilot, and scientist; wrapped up with this story's version of Dorothy (the robot?) for the capstone story?
2020-11-23 23:20:41 +0000 UTCMAYBE Dorothy bot is something the wizard has created to traverse through Oz without injury and the magic changes her and instead she rebels against him!
2020-11-23 19:02:47 +0000 UTCThis is turning out very interesting. I like it! Will the Dorothy android the team came up with previously make an appearance in this update? I loved that character design.
2020-11-23 09:16:22 +0000 UTCI got more where that came from though, but I am starting to become a little sleepy so it will have to wait for tomorrow
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:55:02 +0000 UTCI hear ya. It was just something that came to mind in trying to tie all these stories closer together
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:53:05 +0000 UTCCould decide on many things at this point. Multiple endings might be a natural result from a Crowd Designed narrative in a game like this.
American McGee
2020-11-23 07:52:11 +0000 UTCI always struggle with Time Travel stuff... The recent Star Trek Discovery stuff with Micheal Burnam and the Space Angel Thing... I dunno. This is the sort of stuff that most certainly starts fights in the Writing Room. "Time Travel!" "Noooooo!" (says the guy writing the inner child time travel story)... Anyway, we'll add it to the idea board and see where it might take us.
American McGee
2020-11-23 07:49:36 +0000 UTCThat could be a cool angle as well
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:47:43 +0000 UTCI left it ambiguous on purpose so that there's room to explore the distrust that might exist between the two of them... The American pilot doesn't know if the other guy is Japanese or Chinese or what... and the other guy isn't letting on. A setup like this could ultimately reveal that the other guy even spoke/understood English all along. He might not even be dead at the end of that Kalidah fight!
American McGee
2020-11-23 07:46:41 +0000 UTCI feel like the two pilots cooperating if the other pilot was Japanese could make for some powerful storytelling if an American and Japanese pilot could work together, when they may have just been in a dogfight.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:36:31 +0000 UTCNot a ton of time would actually be passing on Oz. First the pilot arrives. Gets locked up in the dungeon. A few weeks pass at most. Then the Dark Wizard arrives. The North Witch has the Winkies lock him up. Maybe a few more weeks. Then the pirate arrives, and between that episode and the 4th it would be like a couple days.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:10:07 +0000 UTCIt would definitely be some crazy nonlinear storytelling but it could make for some great twist reveals
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 07:01:15 +0000 UTCThereby revealing that the device the Wizard uses to travel to Oz not only takes him to a place in Oz but a time as well, although he may not even be fully aware that he is appearing at different times. It can be revealed that as far as the story of the Dark Wizard is concerned, chronologically for him the 3rd episode is the first. It ends with him discovering his descendant and then getting locked up as well and his device destroyed. The 1st episode is his 2nd with the pirate helping him escape and fix his device, and then he travels to his descendant in the 4th episode to put things back in order. The 2nd episode can be revealed that through some machination probably due to the Dark Wizard unwittingly tampering with time that the pilot arrived to Oz through a time portal unknowingly and was actually the first to arrive to Oz, prior to the pirate. All that may seem confusing, but it makes sense in my head.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 06:54:56 +0000 UTCI love the timey wimey stuff that’s already present here so let’s get nuts. Okay then here’s my crazy idea: the Dark Wizard is a descendant of the American WWII pilot. The Dark Wizard is the great (or number of greats) grandson of the pilot from a timeline in which the pilot never crash landed on Oz. In the final chapter The Dark Wizard needs to make sure that the pilot gets back home with his memories of Oz erased so that the Dark Wizard can continue to exist and try an save the world. This puts the pilot into an even bigger moral quandary. Stay with his newfound love and protect Oz which would erase his descendant from existence and doom the world he came from. Or does he leave to allow the Dark Wizard to do what must be done, saving his home world but dooming Oz?
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 06:38:49 +0000 UTCNot ME, YOU. This is Crowd Design. The discussion is open. I do have ideas but that would defeat the purpose of Crowd Design. I want to know what ideas you all have for filling in those blanks - that's why I left those blanks in there!
American McGee
2020-11-23 06:24:25 +0000 UTCOne final note, I feel like the “pilot of indistinct origin” needs to eventually have his origin be distinct. But we aren’t there yet, I get it.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 06:22:50 +0000 UTCOoh that looks great! Would you consider this to have multiple endings depending on what the player chooses to do? But overall it reads well and I can't wait to find out how a pirate Captain manages to get betrayed over and over!
Vivi Cheung
2020-11-23 06:22:08 +0000 UTCI don’t know if you’re planning on making the Dark Wizard anyone in particular from the books or if this is your version of the Wizard, but it would be my preference that this was actually an antagonist that is an original creation of yours. This would give you the most freedom to tell the story you want to tell.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 06:20:28 +0000 UTCNow I am intrigued. Some homework was definitely done to tie all these elements you choose together. These are broad strokes, but as an Oz fan I am satisfied and my curiosity piqued.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
2020-11-23 06:16:48 +0000 UTC
