This interactive novel is a mix between a computerized novel and an interactive game. There are four different participants, which are mainly important for this work: the author Rob Swigart, the producer Brad Fregger, Activision the responsible publisher company, and Nexa Corporation who are responsible for the programming process.
The player plays an unnamed astronaut protagonist which came back to the earth and sees that there are no more humans at all. The player gets assisted by a storytelling mainframe called Homer.
Every done task leads to new unlocked data, which are links of information. And only with the help of these links, the player can find out what happened with the humans and reach the end/goal of the game.
For more information about Rob Swigart and his works follow this link.
Swigart, Rob. Portal, A Computer Novel. Activision, 1986
The seventh chapter of Marie-Laure Ryan's book Narrative as Virtual Reality deals with selective interactivity, or the hypertexts to be more exact. A hypertextual system is composed of fragments of texts that are electronicly linked to each other. Each fragment contains multiple links to several other fragments that will be displayed if the reader chooses to click on the respective link.
In the seventh chapter, Hypertext: The Functions and Effects of Selective Interactivity, Ryan Displays an x-ray image of the theories that circulate the academic field. She initially catalogues types of interactivity, lists the effects of such texts, offers a text typology with detailed explanations and finally names the properties of electronic medium and its relevance to hypertexts. It is conveyed that there are different interpretive scenarios for the readers as they deal with hypertexts; each casting a tailoring a different role for the reader. One might consider such a reading experience like navigating through the landscape of text; solving a puzzle by trying to put pieces together or like walking in a supermarket with a shopping cart and putting the desired fragments of text in the cart. She observes that while the there are different approaches to the mode of creating a story out of the aforementioned fragments of hypertexts, the central goal on the part of the reader is to overcome the fragmented structure and achieve a coherent story.
Furthermore, Ryan defines terms such as 'reactive interaction', 'random selection', 'selective interactivity', 'hypertext' and 'ergodic literature' in order to support her cluster of categories for forms of literature. Similarly, she lists variations of interactivity, atractive aspects of interactivity to the consumer, elements of the electronic medium and conceptualisations of interactivity.
In the part which she calls an interlude, Ryan focuses on the hypertext Twelve Blue by Michael Joyce in order to practice these theories as well as to convey her conclusions. Ryan Points out the inconsistent and uncertain aspect of hypertexts: the reader of a hypertext is left uncertain whether he has read the full text after he seemingly finished reading. Additionally, the Reader is alone in his reading experience as communicating the individual reading experience is complex and complicated. However, every hypertext has a fixed entry Point, although the course of the reading experience is an individual one.
In her article The first great works of digital literature are already being written Naomi Alderman makes a strong case for video games being a prominent form of digital literature. Nowadays, literature which originated from oral storytelling has many faces and voices. Alderman focuses on the story telling aspect of narration and there are many video games on the marked that make a point of telling a story. Some offer a 'free play' and a 'story mode'. While 'free play' does not necessarily have a set goal, the 'story mode' usually does. Follow this link to read Alderman's full article.
Games, such as Dear Esther, stress the importance of the story in the game by reducing the player's possibilities in the sectors of making decisions and taking action. Other games, such as Little Big Planet or Tearaway, combine aspects of hit-and-run, mini-game and riddle or task solving with a narrative voice that reminds of a classical night time story telling situation. Both games encouraged the player to build an own story line or mini game. Furthermore, they promote their online community in which players can share their creations. The interactivity between the game and the player as well as between player and other players bears characteristics of a hypertext.
Tearaway includes the player not only in the usual way of letting him control the protagonist of the game, it also includes the player as a separate character in the game. The cameras and the microphones of the PlayStation Vita enable the game to add video sequences, photos of the player and his surroundings and his voice to the story line. As the sun, the player looks over the letter on his journey. Video sequences add to the story telling aspect of the game.
The player has less of an impact on the story in Little Big Planet; however, it stresses its story telling character. The main narrator of the game is Stephen Fry who is a popular narrator of audio-books, television series, films, documentaries and video games. The familiarity of his voice, his story and character introductions, and his extradiegetic quality add to the narrative quality of the game. Hugh Laurie who took on the role of Newton in Little Big Planet 3 points out that story telling remains story telling whether it is a book, a film or a video game. As and old friend and colleague of Stephen Fry, he also indicates Fry's adequate casting as the narrator of the series.
Incidentally, Stephen Fry is the narrator of the of the film adaption of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). The story, which has been picked up in several television-, radio, and book series, has also been depicted in an interactive fiction. An interactive fiction relinquishes any kind of visual features and only consists of written words. The platform reminds of the layout of a chatroom or online forum and the action is conveyed solely through words. The inter-textual experience of the game is build on the phenomenon of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; however, a solid knowledge of Douglas Adams' works do not ensure a successful gaming experience. The player still has to take the game as an individual work in order to solve it. Familiarity with the conventions of interactive fiction and trial & error runs added to the knowledge about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are necessary to solve the puzzle. The simplicity of the game make this form of literature accessible to a broad reader-/player-ship.
To play the game and to find other interactive fictions follow this link.
Reading a text in a classical print version or a hypertext in a digital version is a main aspect tackled in this text. Michael Joyce claims that reading hypertexts is a highly individual experience that is difficult to share. When a reader clicks on a certain word, one might reach a different description no one else has reached before. By knowing this, a discourse can be established between readers exchanging their different reception and understanding of the text. These different interpretations lead the readers to build up a cultural knowledge and makes reading an interesting experience. It is the dynamic of the text and not the plot that makes reading an experience.
In his short story Twelve Blue Michael Joyce tries to derive some cognitive lessons about the knots and bolts of the reading process. Normally every hypertext starts with an entry address so that the reader knows what to expect or where the journey is going. In Twelve Blue this this is not the case, the entry is presented as a hallway with twelve corridors in different colors. It is the reader´s role to define the way of entering the story. It is a platform with twelve lines divide the picture into eight vertical bars. It is the reader´s role to click on any space he chooses to open a link to a short story, so the sequence of the story is determined by the reader and not the writer hence the adventure.
Dear Esther (2012) is a video game developed by Dan Pinchbeck for the Chinese Room an independentproduction company. The game does not follow the traditional conventions of a video game, because it imposes a minimum interaction of the player and does not require many decisions to be made or tasks to be accomplished. Instead, the focus is put on the story line which is narrated by an epistolary narrator. It is a piece of interactive visual storytelling.
Dear Esther offers two hours that will leave you feeling edified, contemplative, and possibly even emotionally moved. It is a story of a shipwrecked castaway on a Hebridean island, delivered through spoken lines of sumptuous, disconnected prose as you walk around detailed landscape. The text written in the game is florid, flitting all the time in an unsettling way between past and present. At the beginning of the game, the narrator will talk about the history of the island. Later on his commentary becomes stranger and more impassioned. The mystery the story poses is supported by the picturesque landscape which becomes increasingly gloomy through the setting sun. The subtle music adds an uncanny feeling to the journey over the island.
The aspect of immersion in Dear Esther differs from experiences of reading a linear narration as well as from the experience of playing other video games. As a player your focus is shifted to reading instead of experiencing the story line of the game by being a deciding factor of the action. The experience becomes a much more passive one than in role play- or hit and run games. As a reader the experience is altered through the games visibility. Instead of creating the image in his head the reader is presented with the world he immerse to.
Four years after its original publication, Dear Esther is still an ongoing project. To find out more about the original game as well as updated versions follow this link.
