#they’re fairly small which is perfect for me and they fit my colour scheme so well

[luminarai]

Oh my god, I’ve been looking for a ceiling lamp/pendant light for the dining nook at my new place for ages because I think most ceiling lamps are extremely ugly BUT I just found these on a small secondhand store’s Instagram for 150kr (like 20$) for the pair and immediately bought them and they’re so adorable I’m OBSESSED look at them!!

[jenkinsgames-blog]

Over the Easter break we were challenged with perfecting the concept for our final project that counts for the majority of our end of year grade - for this project, we were allowed to work in teams or completely independently on whichever type of relevant media we chose - I have decided to work on my own and create a interactive graphic novel. Last term, we researched many narrative theories including The Hero’s Journey and different character tropes, but as additional research for this project I’ve decided to look into different genres that I believe are relevant to the script outline I’ve already developed so far, which is about 1000 words and 5 scenes at this point in time. Moving on, my desired narrative follows my player character and protagonist, Dylan, as she’s locked in an unfamiliar environment with a bunch of strangers, and told by their captor to start killing each other off one by one. Dylan teams up with various characters as she tries to apprehend her adversary, and shock antagonist, Petra. I envision this project containing tropes of certain genres anyway - most of all I believe that I will be taking inspiration from a variety of horror/thriller, crime/detective and, romance films and games. I believe that I can write a story that steals tropes from all of these genres and create a narrative that fits perfectly with my interactive graphic novel’s mechanics, art style, and characters. In this post, I will be looking at various games, and explaining why they fit to the genre they’re labeled as, and also why I’ve picked them as examples.

First of all, we’ll talk about Film Noir, and for this genre I will be using Grim Fandango, a beloved game that was developed and created in 1998 but was recently remastered in 2015; this game is an adventure game where you play as Manny Calavera, a travel agent that helps recently departed souls travel through the Land of the Dead - the game entails our protagonist on a journey to save a client of his who despite living an honest life, ends up with the worst travel package and is walking through the Land of the Dead alone. The developers of this game make stylistic choices reminiscent to the 1940′s classic film noir tropes, for example, many characters in the game smoke, and the decor is mostly 1930′s art deco - these small details are stereotypical to the film noir genre, not to mention a lot of shots are sepia tone, and the soundtrack features a lot of jazz and swing music.

In my interactive graphic novel, cinematography and mise-en-scene will play massive parts in the atmosphere I want to create which is why Grim Fandango is such a great example - the art style is consistent throughout in terms of the art deco style that is relevant to the genre the game was going for, and it really builds a 1930′s feel despite the games own Mexican Día de Muertos-esque feel.

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is a perfect example of what a cyberpunk game should look like - it features every single trope you could think of; city skylines, bright colours, characters constantly smoking, screens in every room, cyborgs, etc. The cyberpunk genre usually follows a protagonist that is an anti-hero, a rebel of sorts - this can include hackers, criminals, or misfits, but in this games case, we follow Jill, a bartender. Cyberpunk is a genre that speculates on the downfall of man in the not so distant future, caused by technology developing to the point where every person is taking advantage of it in different ways.  This game features a techno, synthpop soundtrack, and features as both a simulation game and a visual novel; the gameplay includes mixing drinks for patrons of the bar known as Valhalla, and the drunker you get them, the more the story changes. It’s an incredibly artistic and creative cyberpunk game. 

Despite the fact that my game will probably include no cyberpunk tropes intentionally, a feature that I think will really inspire me this term from this game is the incredible colour scheme - bright clashing colours really bring out the visuals in this game and because I’m creating an interactive graphic novel with certain conventions of a typical game, it’s quite important that because I won’t have an abundance of actual gameplay, I need to be able to captivate the player/reader with amazing visuals. 

Tales From The Borderlands is a TellTale game based around the universe of the Borderlands series created by 2K Games. It’s a great example of a sci-fi game, and it packs a punch when it comes to comedy and originality. You play as two characters, Rhys and Fiona - two colourful humans, Fiona being a notorious con-woman and Rhys being a Hyperion big-wig stooge, Hyperion being a massive company run by infamous antagonist Handsome Jack. Tropes of the sci-fi genre that this game includes are: space travel, space stations, multiple planets, alien creatures and resources, cyborgs, laser guns, holograms, high-tech buildings, mad scientists, robots, and so much more. This game is sort of a “choose your own destiny” game that lets your own decisions make minor changes to the storyline and character personalities as it progresses but ultimately just plays out the same story despite it. However, I will say that this game has one of the most satisfying storylines out there when it comes to narrative-driven games. 

My game will have small to no amounts of sci-fi in it, but the thing that inspires me with this game is the gameplay style - the pick and choose your own destiny with a set storyline; this is what I hope to create in my piece this term, I want my game to follow the same story no matter what choices you make, but the choices will change the structure, dictating what happens when. 

The Last of Us is a thriller/ survival horror game that follows our two main characters, Ellie and Joel, as they explore a post-apocalyptic US in search for a cure to the disease that has ravaged the world as we know it. Civilization has been destroyed and anybody that leaves the quarantined zones that the remainder of the corrupt government control are considered criminals. The colour scheme is very dark, featuring blacks, greys, browns, and greens, and being completely shrouded in shadow with flicks of natural light. The lighting and colours create enough tension to make this game full of jump scares, but this is also created by the design of the enemies, the script and dialogue, the sound effects, and the soundtrack; all of these things come together to create one of the most successful games of its genre.

This game features some of the most well-written characters I can think of, and my interactive graphic novel will have 7 main characters, being that it is called Sinister Seven, and I can only hope that I will be able to create characters that are as interesting as those portrayed in this game. 

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (or Pandora’s Box) is a great example of a crime/detective game targeted at a younger audience but still enjoyable for an older one. More often referred to as an adventure/puzzle game, the player character is of course Professor Layton, and you’re accompanied by his sidekick, Luke. When Layton’s mentor contacts him, claiming to have found an artifact that when opened, kills whoever opens it, Layton travels to see his mentor and behold the strange box. When he arrives, his mentor lay dead on the floor of his office with the box gone, and the only clue there is a train ticket for the Molentary Express - the pair set out on an adventure to find the origin of Pandra’s Box. 

The Professor Layton series is a very popular one and has been since the release of Professor Layton and the Curious Village in 2007. One of my favourite things about the games is the abundance of HD cutscenes that play throughout the game at various points throughout the narrative. I especially liked this because the cutscenes felt like a small movie and really gave the games a unique feel compared to the rest of my stack of DS games when I was a kid. The animation was flawless and the voice acting was amazing, which gave the narrative a great atmosphere and continued the story in an original, fast, and fun way. I hope to do pieces of animation throughout my interactive graphic novel, and where this might seem ambitious, I think that it would definitely make my piece a lot more smooth flowing in terms of story.

Magical Starsign was released in 2006, a sequel to Magical Vacation, that arguably outshone the original. The game follows Hero/Heroine, or the player character which you can name, as they set out to save their teacher when she goes missing in space after she leaves to defeat former student turned evil villain, Kale. You and your rag-tag band of friends with magical abilities hijack the schools spaceships and fly out into open space, all crashing individually on separate planets. You, the hero, must explore these planets, help their locals, defeat hundreds of enemies with various magical abilities, grind until your stats are high enough, and save your friends and teacher, before the penultimate battle with Kale. 

This game follows many tropes of the sci-fi genre, as well as a typical fantasy game - with turn-based fights and an ability tree, and the use of the elements and zodiacs in magic, this game has a lot to offer when it comes to narrative and visuals, as well as a fun, where sometimes repetitive, battle-system. 

Seduce Me the Otome is a game/ interactive graphic novel that is very much a romance game, but also has some fantasy elements such as featuring a band of incubi. You play as a fairly ordinary girl who inherits a mansion from her grandfather and finds five men living in it when she arrives - they tell you that they are incubi princes and have run away from the demon world and their father, the king, with the help of your grandfather so that they can live normal and happy lives. The gimmick to this game is that there are multiple endings, five of which you can end up marrying and sleeping with each one of the incubi - the player must make certain choices at certain points throughout the game in order to successfully get these endings. Each incubi boy has a different personality, for example, Sam is the bad boy, and Damien is the sweet one etc. The player gets to choose which characters personality they want to watch grow and then get to spend more and more time with them until that character falls in love with them and protects them as the storyline advances. 

Although this game is quite cheesey in terms of romance, some of the pieces of dialogue throughout are quite sweet and well-written. This game also plays and reads really well because of the mechanics that are implemented in the in-game menus. I want to be able to write a love interest into my game for my protagonist and player character, Dylan. 

The Wolf Among Us is the game I’m going to be using as an example of magical realism, although it’s also a great example of a crime/detective game. The player poses as Bigby Wolf (the big bad wolf), the sheriff of Fabletown, a hidden community of fairy tale creates that live among humans in 1980′s New York City. Bigby is feared by all because of the heinous acts he committed in the past before the fairy tale creatures crossed-over to the human world. This does upset him, but he knows that he is trying to be a better person by protecting them in this world as their sheriff. When a working girl and fable, Faith, is killed, Bigby sets out to bring her killer to justice - we see a variety of well-known characters throughout the choose-your-own-destiny narrative, such as Georgie Porgie, Snow White, Toad of Toad Hall, Jersey Devil, and Beauty and the Beast; these characters are shown in human forms, put on by “glamours”, disguises they wear to blend in with the human world. 

Just like VA-LL HALL-A, this games stylistic choices in terms of art style are something that stand out to me immensely and will surely inspire me throughout this project.

Overall, I believe that when writing the rest of my script, and creating artwork for the backgrounds and characters in my interactive graphic novel, I will most likely be taking inspiration from a variety of texts that are of the thriller, film noir, and romance genres.