Interactive Fiction ~ User Stories

Players of an Interactive Fiction Game:

Bob, an average Interactive Fiction player

• Bob opens the interactive fiction game on his browser. He sees a block of dialogue followed by a couple of clickable options (which are highlighted). He picks one and is taken to the next scene.
• Some scenes give him one choice, but others give him several options to click on.
• Halfway through the game, Bob wants to go get dinner and closes his laptop. When he returns later, he finds his progress is saved and he can pick up where he left off.
• Later, Bob is curious what would have happened if he clicked a different option on the previous page, so he clicks the back arrow and selects a different option to see the new outcome.

Alexa, a completionist player

• She completes the game once and is able to go back to the beginning to discover different endings, with the options she previously chose grayed-out
• Alexa is able to look at a separate progress screen she can access in the corner which tells her she has unlocked x of y endings in the game

Sam, a visually-oriented player

• Sam enjoys design and notices when making a choice, some options are highlighted in red or are crossed out, indicating that certain options have consequences or are no longer possible for the player.

Creators of an Interactive Fiction Game:

Alyssa, a narrative designer

• Alyssa logs into the game editor. She creates a new scene and easily adds branching options by dragging connection lines between scenes without code.
• Alyssa does not like one scene so she clicks on it and deletes it without losing the following scenes.
• Alyssa changes the order by dragging a scene over and changing the connection lines without having to use any code.
• Alyssa wants one option to lead to two different outcomes whether or not the player picked up a certain item, so she adds a variable condition to control the outcome.
• She decides to randomize characters the player can meet in the story to enhance replayability.

Johnny, a game developer

• Johnny is working on a dramatic moment in the story, so he clicks on the optional timer and sets it to give the player 10 seconds to make a choice. He sets a default action if the player cannot choose within 10 seconds.
• To test the scene, Johnny is able to start the game from that scene without having to restart and play through the entire game.

Morgan, a visual designer

• Morgan is working on the game’s background. In the editor, she assigned a forest background to the intro scene and is able to add a character image on top of it to make the game more immersive and layered.
• Morgan is able to change the background or keep it as is for each scene. Based on the option the player clicks, Morgan is able to change what character image (with different expressions) appears.
• Morgan is able to layer more images over the character and background, like fog, when the player reaches a foggy part of the story.
• Morgan is able to adjust the length of fade transitions between the scenes to be immediate or delayed.