My Interactive Narrative: The Company of Wolves

I am obsessed with the horror genre of film and books. So I thought it would be perfect to combine the both of them into an interactive novel-like structure.

One of my favorite movies is The Company of Wolves, a British-gothic horror from the 1980's. It is based off of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and they both use cues from werewolf lore and Little Red Riding Hood tales. Something I love the most about the film is the use of physical effects (I will always appreciate them to computer generated).

In the spirit of the Halloween season (aka the greatest time of year), I wanted to develop a project that really told all the stories within the story of The Company of Wolves. I took quotes from both the film and The Bloody Chamber and then created my own story by filling in the rest and tweaking some endings here and there. I wanted to be able to move through the stories without any definite direction. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well using a flipbook maker. It was hard to find a free maker that gave me exactly what I wanted but FlipSnack definitely gave me the most. To link stories together, I put them in both the flipbook and a blog on WordPress.

To navigate this interactive story, you can either go to the DigitalWolvesProject page and read from there or follow the story through the flip book.

I'd like to add, most images are from the film but several images including the one shown above and the cover were edited by me.



I suggest reading it in fullscreen, but to open a link you must either have your pop-up blocker off or escape fullscreen and click on the widget.

A Look Into Student Work: More Interactive Narratives

Your Hero: The writing in this was really impressive in my opinion. It was to the point and you guys created endings within the story that were both realistic and interesting to follow. I felt for the characters and was actually excited to read through and find out all the endings.  I really like “Choose Your Path” storylines and this was a great example of an ambiguous perspective. Your choice of phrases, quotes, and scenarios for the path options were really smart. Is the reader Ryan? Gracie? Are you just an onlooker? It changes and I think it shakes up the narrative’s direction a lot.

Cabin by the Lake: This piece was actually both thrilling and quirky. The writing is full of imagery that really immerses you into the spook of it all. I played through all the possible combinations of moves and really liked the in depth deaths. I actually laughed at the matter-of-fact “You are dead” at the end of each death scenario. I think it made it cute to contrast the scariness. The fact that it’s a group of young adults follows that timeless theme of kids getting in a sticky situation with a killer. It’s good. I would suggest adding more actions that influence the other people’s deaths. It looks like that is in the works with the last scenario. I think it will really add a layer to the game. It kind of reminds me of Until Dawn (A video game located in the deep woods and a group of friends are surviving certain occurrences. Your actions as different characters influences the lives of your other characters). I’m also assuming that the “You do/don’t die here ;)” are place holders so I’m excited to see what happens. I really enjoyed the overall narrative of it all. It sort of follows a CYO format, which I’ve mentioned is something I like.

Interactive Narrative in Video Games

I am in love with Interactive Narrative games. For the sake of inability to go into detail about each one, I'm going to get into my two most enjoyed Interactive Narrative games: The Sims and Alien Isolation.

I have owned all four of The Sims and have bought more expansion packs and DLC than I am proud to admit. You can create a beautiful, utopian family/neighborhood...or you can remove all the doors in your home and watch your sim go insane with incontinence and bad moods. You can do anything with millions of options as far as interactions go. Glitches are always welcome for the entertainment or the horror.

That being said, I think outside of when I owned it on Gamecube, I mainly used Sims for the houses. I just love building/designing houses and interiors. I actually use a lot of other 3D “home building” and contracting programs just for the hell of designing houses without the limitations of Simoleons or unhappy Sims (though I always used cheat codes, I’m that guy).

This is my chance to nerd out about my newest favorite interactive video game, Alien Isolation. This is a daithful adaptation of Alien, one of my favorite movie franchises.  I'm embarrassed to say though, I have yet to actually “beat” the damn thing. It is so interactive and dependent on your actions, that every decision you make (conscious or otherwise) dictates something. This can be the xenomorph learning your moves, other survivors reacting towards you, or the ship itself being "unlocked" by your actions. So many of my actions end up being impulsive and unwise under the pressure of danger (It’s scary, okay).

The story follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, on a Weyland Corp vessel where she not only has to cautious of a xenomorph on the loose, but desperate survivors that could betray her. The creators did a fantastic job mirroring the original Alien design of the ship, so of course that's enough to get me fangirling.

If you're not a fan of the standard interactive survival/visual novel/"choose-your-own" adventure game set up with physical paths, you should really give Alien Isolation a try. It is far from dull, you don't really know what your actions are going to result in, and it's really well done.