Deserted Island Mixtape
In Writing for Digital Media, we have started a new unit on interactive narratives. We are tasked with using a digital media platform that allows readers to interact with a story. Our Austin Kleon prompts this week helped us come up with ideas for an interactive story. One of the prompts was "Create a mixtape for someone who doesn't know you" As you may recall from my previous blog post "Mixtape Collaboration," I already completed this prompt. Oops! However, I was re-inspired by this prompt and an episode of The Office (US). In this episode of The Office (US), the office building had to be evacuated, and while they waited for their work day to resume, they played a game called "Deserted Island." During this game, people take turns naming five movies and books, they would take with them if they got stranded on a deserted island.
So what if I created a mixtape that included my "deserted island" songs? These would be the songs I would be listening to for the rest of my life because in this game, escaping the island is not an option. Branching off of this idea, I could create an interactive narrative based on the "Deserted Island" game. My idea would be to create a backstory of why the reader ended up on this island and to explain the rules of the game. Prompted by the digital media platform, the reader would provide answers to each category. Readers would pick five songs, movies, books, and television shows. After making their choices, the reader would move on to a Buzzfeed style personality quiz where the genres of the choices they made will determine their outcome on the island. A question like, "What genre of music is the majority of your songs in?," would be asked for each category. For example, a person who chooses mostly rocks songs, thriller movies, sitcom television shows, and mystery books may have the outcome:
You lived on the island for five years, three months, and twenty days before deciding to make and escape. You built a raft and paddle out of bamboo and headed out at sunrise. You paddled for miles in the direction you thought you came from. Unfortunately, an afternoon thunderstorm hit and knocked all of your food, water, and supplies off the raft. In the storm, you lost your sense of direction and could no longer see any pieces of land. Three days later, you died of dehydration in the middle of the sea. Ultimately, your sense of adventure and impatient nature led to your demise.
These outcomes aren't an exact science, but what Buzzfeed personality quiz is an exact science. This idea balances user interaction and authorial content by allowing users to chose whatever songs, books, movies, and television shows they want, but the author has control over what these choices mean to the overall story. This is a rough brainstorm of an idea for an interactive narrative if I were to do this project alone. However, I chose to work with two other classmates, and we are developing a murder mystery about a group of friends who were dining at an Applebee's when one of them was poisoned. Stay tuned for that narrative! And maybe I will revisit my "Deserted Island" idea and expand on it for my final project.
If you are curious, click here for my "Deserted Island" playlist on Spotify or scan the photo with the Spotify app.
So what if I created a mixtape that included my "deserted island" songs? These would be the songs I would be listening to for the rest of my life because in this game, escaping the island is not an option. Branching off of this idea, I could create an interactive narrative based on the "Deserted Island" game. My idea would be to create a backstory of why the reader ended up on this island and to explain the rules of the game. Prompted by the digital media platform, the reader would provide answers to each category. Readers would pick five songs, movies, books, and television shows. After making their choices, the reader would move on to a Buzzfeed style personality quiz where the genres of the choices they made will determine their outcome on the island. A question like, "What genre of music is the majority of your songs in?," would be asked for each category. For example, a person who chooses mostly rocks songs, thriller movies, sitcom television shows, and mystery books may have the outcome:
You lived on the island for five years, three months, and twenty days before deciding to make and escape. You built a raft and paddle out of bamboo and headed out at sunrise. You paddled for miles in the direction you thought you came from. Unfortunately, an afternoon thunderstorm hit and knocked all of your food, water, and supplies off the raft. In the storm, you lost your sense of direction and could no longer see any pieces of land. Three days later, you died of dehydration in the middle of the sea. Ultimately, your sense of adventure and impatient nature led to your demise.
These outcomes aren't an exact science, but what Buzzfeed personality quiz is an exact science. This idea balances user interaction and authorial content by allowing users to chose whatever songs, books, movies, and television shows they want, but the author has control over what these choices mean to the overall story. This is a rough brainstorm of an idea for an interactive narrative if I were to do this project alone. However, I chose to work with two other classmates, and we are developing a murder mystery about a group of friends who were dining at an Applebee's when one of them was poisoned. Stay tuned for that narrative! And maybe I will revisit my "Deserted Island" idea and expand on it for my final project.
If you are curious, click here for my "Deserted Island" playlist on Spotify or scan the photo with the Spotify app.
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