My initial starting point for my final piece and for my final world didn’t start for me from my landscape or from the idea of my world as a character . I never began my process of creating my ideas from the ground up so to speak, my initial thoughts and my overall reasoning behind ideas and for my overall world came from my wanting to make a video game or to create a story and thus a world through a gaming style platform. I have a passion for video games and the desire to make my own, because of how epic they are and how awesome they can be in grandeur and possibilities . They are able to invoke their audience in whatever story they are telling and have the ability to fully immerse you in their world.

I started to take great inspiration from some of my favourite games. I drew on elements of adventure and romance with games that delivered vast landscapes, exploration and large stories from studios like Bioware, with games such as the  ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Dragon Age’ series. I looked at these games and attempted ways to find a plausible and achievable way for me to tell the story I wanted through this style of platform and decided that the best way to achieve this would be though Twine computer software. By using Twine I am able to draw from other gaming inspirations like the games from the studio at Telltale, who’s point and click games a full of player choice and story determinability, shaping and unfolding the story though customised choices from the player, whilst ruling parallel to the games overall story.

Once I had decided the style of game that I wanted to make and how to achieve that I then looked to my final inspiration which was the above shot of a large landscape with two main characters on horse back. This concept art from the ‘Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’ began my inspiration for the creation of my world. Their large medieval landscape, full of a diverse range of terrain, creatures and medieval weaponry brought out my creativity and my desire to create my own medieval world full of incredible and breathtaking landscapes, lush green forests which hide ancient ruins long forgotten. Harsh, blizzarding  mountain tops and a small, medieval town in its centre. The above shot also inspired me to think about my art style and the general feel of the world as a whole and the stories that would then unfold in them. I wanted this world to seem impressive and wanted to give the true feeling of the world though visuals and didn’t want their to be a lack of them in my final product, so I decided that it was an important feature to add. This concept art captures the essence of the Witcher game, but never made it to the final. I wanted my game to be full of amazing concept art, none of which are my own but claim no copyright laws and a free to the public, so I was happy I could use them.

I think another important and final element I wanted to get from my world and what I wanted to deliver to my audience is agency. I have spoken about agency in past blogs and how agency is such a huge part of what separates games and their stories from another story telling platforms. The idea that surrounded my world was one that I wanted to feel like it could be explored and one in which the player feels like they have some elements of control over how they shape the story and thus then how they shape the world. I hope I am able to achieve this style of world and this style of game. I want this ‘choose your own adventure’ style of game to really compliment the world the way I intended it to and thus my reasoning for choosing this platform. I hope that this can pay off and I am excited to see what I can further develop and then present in its entirety at the end of this semester.

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