For my tutorial I decided to show how to have a path restart from the beginning. A lot of my narrative paths would run into two choices and some would be an obviously bad choice for the person in the position to decide. When someone chose the bad choice and really needed to understand the repercussions, I would send them back to the beginning and have them learn their lesson.

1.) You have to start your narrative and get a lot of different paths going so a player doesn’t accidentally keep getting sent back to the start. In order to make sure of this a lot of parts must be created.

2.) You have to create a box dedicated to sending a player back to the start . In this case, the player must click on a somewhat condescending “Absolutely not” to find out they are being sent back to the start. In order to link this box to the start, you must add |Start]] to the end of your blurb. It is important to note that this is very sensitive and will not link to the start if you accidentally use a lowercase “s” or misspell another box name you are trying to link to.

3.) You now have a link back to the start. It may be difficult to notice with all the other boxes in the way, but an arrow will be pointing from your box to the intended linked box. In this screen shot I have highlighted the link I formed between the box named “2” and “Start.” Side note: the app that I used to be able to draw on the screen shot won’t publish the photo without a watermark. So it’s a little unclear where the arrow begins from the “2” box but it still gets the point across.

For my final project I will be revamping my twine game. I really enjoyed working on this project and thought I had a lot to say for my topic. After playing through the rest of the class’s games I realized all the design aspects I was frustrated with figuring out are actually very doable. That being said, my plan for obvious growth with the game will include a good amount of time coding. I will edit a couple of the storylines and add a few more alternative endings to the narrative.

As for the coding, I plan on changing the color scheme to be a little more serious. I also intend on adding pictures and graphics to the background page that stays the same throughout the progression of the story. I think with a few provided visuals it will give the player a place to start their imagination. From the start, I will be adding in pictures, GIFs, videos into the separate parts of the story. For example, I have a page that asks if you would like to make your mother proud or do a keg stand. If I were able to have a GIF representing the option chosen appear after the player clicks their choice it would definitely engage them and create more interest in moving through the narrative. Another design element that I definitely intend on adding would be sound. I was having trouble figuring out how to add sound that would only play at certain parts, I was only able to add something playing in the background the entire time. That does not work with my game because the paths a player can be on are so opposite of one another that one song would never be appropriate for the game as a whole. For example, in the party scenes I see house music as an appropriate element to help the player image themselves there. On the other hand, in the mellow scenes with conversation it would be appropriate to either have no background music and just insert sound effects, or pick a low-key song that could be playing from the laptop left on earlier in the day. I don’t know for sure exactly how many/what scenes will be getting a facelift, but I know it will be a different experience from playing my original game.

In my game I will be focusing on the written narrative of the storyline for the most part. This is because I thoroughly enjoy my story line and can think of a million different scenarios and occurrences that it could allow to happen. Because of this I won’t be putting all my effort into having extremely detailed elements, but I will be incorporating numerous design elements. I definitely will be including animation, color, font, sound and image.

For my story line there are both sexes involved. Although some of the paths may seem to have more of a female or male tone to it, a girl for boy can definitely experience any of my storylines in real life. So, I am looking to remain neutral on the design. I have chosen to use a green color scheme. On the outside is a darker green surrounding a smaller box with a lighter green background fill. Above the light green box will be an image running horizontally across the top of the screen. This image will be of a party scene most likely, to set the vision I had as the creator. I have yet to decide if I will have this image stay there throughout the storyline, or if it will disappear so the player can use their imagination more. On the smaller text box, the font will be calibri and be the color black. There isn’t a necessarily “spooky” or “happy” undertone to the story for example, so I don’t think it is necessary to try and find a special font. Again, I would like the player to focus on the narrative provided and I think too much going on where the player would be reading can only take away from the most important aspect. I plan on having animated transitions. Not anything distracting but most likely a fade in/out between stages in the game. Lastly, I will be including sound. I have not figured out if this would be possible, but what I want to do would start off without any sound. Then, the player is presented with the first choice which leads to two very, very differing scenarios. Depending on which path the player choses at the start, I hope to be able to include low background music that kind of represents the “space/place” the storyline has taken the player to.

Gentrification is a recent trend that seems to take place in urban neighborhoods. This controversial occurrence consists of a displacing of low-income families and businesses by wealthy residents and businesses. This results in a loss of culture and tradition, but an increased attraction and lower crime rate. The difficulty in this topic is that on a personal level I can agree with both sides on the issue. I feel terrible knowing how much history I would be destroying if I tore down every house on Meyren. However, I would feel at ease knowing that the residents of these new houses wouldn’t have to deal with: no air conditioning, creaky steps, faulty appliances, disgusting interior, etc. I guess the deciding factor for my feelings of revamping vs. preserving solely depends on my relationship with the location. When it comes to South Oakland, I can’t think of any reasons not to create a healthier and happier environment. Although the idea of gentrification seems to be troubling to most, the early developing stages happening in Pittsburgh don’t seem to bother me.

In South Oakland, I would promote the idea of gentrification via digital media. For land developers and landlords, I see the most beneficial way of communicating my point through a website. Because I am looking to inform and persuade these people in favor of gentrification, I see a visual example of a recently gentrified area as a positive way of introducing the topic. From here, I would need to provide heavy amounts of research and information about why South Oakland would benefit from re-vamping. The reason I chose a website to communicate with these specific people is because it allows a hefty amount of information to be available at all times. Furthermore, gentrification is an evolving topic. A website allows for the addition/subtraction of relevant info.

When playing this game I got a creepy feeling from the beginning because of the use of sound effects. When I got to my friend Megan’s house and saw the scenery, I was validated that this was going to have a haunted feel the entire time. The font of this game did not spark my interest. For it was thin, small and boring in my opinion. It did not shed any positive light on the game and it was almost the main part of it. Even though this game was primarily text-driven the use of sound and image were extremely beneficial in guiding the narrative of the game. What I found interesting was the combination of cartoonish and real images because they were useful in different ways. The cartoon haunted house was a good image to use because it was very limited in design and detail, still allowing the player to imagine what they were reading. The other type of image that came into play was a more real image of the Uncle. When he came in I definitely was frightened for a moment because of his looks comparably to the house. However, this was important to recognize that the authors of this game definitely wanted to allow for creative imagination from the player, but they also intended to show you what the designers creatively imagined for some aspects.

A consequential choice was made at the beginning when I decided whether or not to show friendly emotions or not. I felt that with each “emotionally bland” choice I made I was moved further into the narrative of the story. For example, when I chose to kiss my mom I was taken back a few steps I believe, but when I played a second time and chose to wave goodbye, I was taken into the house. The sound effects were helpful in placing the player inside the spooky house. On the other hand, when I played the game Capri Toots I felt very disconnected from the narrative and scenery of the game. I did not feel like there were as many effects and this harmed the player’s experience of the game. The authors of this game did not make use of the audio and visual aspects like The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo

For my tutorial I chose to show a trick I learned by watching other tutorials, changing pitch or tone of a recording. For this particular project I used pitch controls for the character’s voices. I felt as though most of the sound effects I acquired and recorded portrayed the correct sound I had intended on. But, I was unable to achieve the exact tones of the voices; therefore, I figured out how to change the pitch to add to the realness of each character’s voice.

First, you open the library (button looking like a file cabinet) on the top left corner, then open the smart controls (button looking like a volume dial) on the top left corner as well. From here, you will chose “voice” from the drop down list on the left, which then provides an adjacent list of many vocal options. I used the Compressed Vocal controls.

From the Compressed Vocals dialog box, there is a little button in the top right corner that has four black boxes in a square and then one white button underneath. Once you click on this unnoticeable button, you are introduced to a dialog box with a bunch of different dials and controls.

Once you open this dialog box, considered the “Pedalboard,” there is a search bar at the top left hand corner. Here, you can chose what type of audio tone you would like to focus on. I chose “pitch” from the drop down list. The “pitch” option then presents a bunch of different types of pitch you can aim for. I worked with the different options depending on what voice I was editing.

For example, when I was fixing the baby bear’s voice, I used the “Octave Up” option. Once clicking on this I was presented with a red, juke-box-looking screen. There is the option to either lower/high the “tone” or change the setting on the “mix” dial. I stayed away from the “mix” dial and strictly made use of raising the tone for the baby bear’s voice.

Once I changed the numeric setting of the tone, I would exit out of this “Pedalboard” dialog box and play back the portion of voice that I had just changed the pitch of. Depending on what I heard, I may have gone back in and moved the dial again, or left it because I was content with the first tone.

For my soundscape I drew inspiration from one of my all time favorite songs by Dave Matthews Band, “Funny The Way It Is.” The reason I chose this song is because the lyrics talk about so many different occurrences, situations, feelings and actions. When I listen to the song I imagine so many different places and spaces so that is my only concern in using this idea. That being said, I plan on recording someone who I believe has a pretty, light and appropriate voice to be reading the entire song. Not singing, just reading the lyrics. This will be playing the entire time.

Depending on how many different sounds I stick into the recording will decide whether or not I add a variable to the reading. If I plan to do so, I think I would take the person reading the lyrics to Schenley park one day. This is so that the voice will constantly be accompanied by a “woods” feeling; this would be crumbled leaves rolling around, wind gusts, sticks breaking, nuts/other items falling from trees. The reason I would do this is to add a story to the project. Instead of the listener pretending they are actually in all of the different places the lyrics and the sounds that I incorporate indicate, I want the listener to pretend they are in a very peaceful place (the woods) imagining all of the places/ occurrences the lyrics will talk about. This effect could hopefully be accomplished by beginning the recording of just woods noises to set the “place” for the listener, and then start the reading which will include all different noises that you would not actually hear in the woods. The constant voice speaking the lyrics will be much louder than any of the background noises I put onto the track.

For example, here is a lyric from the song: The bomb blast brings the building crashing to the floor/Hear the laughter while the children play war.

I would include a sound recording of something sounding like a bomb blasting after the word floor. Then immediately as the next line starts with “Hear” I would include a recording of little children laughing the whole entire time the line “Hear the laughter while the children play war” is being said.

One of the lines in the song is “Watch the sky, the jet plane so far out of my reach” For this part I am going to use of the classes “created sounds” named rocket. Although jet planes and rockets are not so similar, I will not be getting near any jet planes soon, so I think the rocket engine sound suffices for a jet plane engine sound flying.

I chose the sound of the dishwasher. The scene I immediately pictured was in my kitchen because my dishwasher sounds very similar to this one. A circular table is to the right of the white, work out dishwasher with myself and my three roommates sitting in chairs around the table. Because of the annoying and loud sound, all four of us are trying to talk over it. Talking about The Bachelorette while all sitting on our computers, the dishwasher proceeds to make itself heard to the right of us. My roommate Ally can’t stand the noise any longer and storms off into her bedroom. My roommate Tal is studying a powerpoint; however, she is tapping a pen and grinding her teeth. My roommate Jules decides to aid the situation by playing music other laptop. She chooses the song Paper Planes by M.I.A. Unfortunately, this song is not very heavy on the melody of the music. The lyrics are definitely the loudest aspect of the song. The song also displays a ton of special effect noises like: gun shots, cash register clicking, fingers snapping, car door slamming. I focus in on the lyrics and start trying to figure out what they mean. The line, “I fly like paper, get high like planes” sticks in my head and begs for an explanation. I rack my brain to figure out how this female singer could fly like paper. And then I realize, “Oh, like a paper plane, that’s the name of the song!” All of a sudden I realize the song captivated my attention and I forgot about the droning sounds of the dishwasher. But, that 30 second distraction is now gone, and I am back listening to the splish-splashing loud noise coming from my right. I immediately pick up my computer and pace into my bedroom away from the dishwasher noise.

I really enjoyed the opening scene of Limetown. With the layering of the helicopter noise and radio signals I was able to immediately make an assumption about: where this is taking place, what this is about and what people this could involve. Before the man even began talking I pictured a big news coverage event. Either a car crash, a house fire or a murder scene. Once the man began talking I was pleased to find out that what he had to say was going to be negative, because that is exactly what I had imagined from the brief sounds prior to his introduction of the Limetown event.

For me, the most interesting part of the clip was about half way through at 16:30. This is when the woman introduces a “montage of voices.” With a subtle music soundtrack playing in the background, a voice begins by saying where he was during the event. Immediately following, a girl’s voice comes in, next an older woman; continuing, a variety of voices are placed next to each other. What’s interesting is that every blurb a person is saying seems to be layered under the blurb following. By this I mean that there is no pause in-between voices. Only the very ending of each voice recording seems to be slightly layered underneath the very beginning of the following voice recording. This presents a very smooth and interesting perception of what the woman originally introduced as a “montage of voices.”

Prior to hearing this I was only familiar with montages being used in a visual setting. Whether it be a montage of pictures, for example a bar mitzvah slide show; or a montage of scenes, for example a recollection of past events in a movie, I never considered a different media could attain a similar effect. The “montage of voices” in Limetown made me feel emotional. Hearing personal accounts back to back of the hardship these people faced made me realize something. The tones in the different voices were very telling of how the person has mentally and emotionally dealt with losing their loved one. Some had a stern and steady voice; others portrayed a shaky and teary voice in their blurbs. Being introduced to a montage in a audio setting was an eye-opening experience for me.

For my tutorial I chose to focus on something I taught myself while working on the video project, changing the speed of clips. I decided it would be beneficial to not only the message of my project but to the audience as well. There are two capabilities that come with changing the clip speed and duration. One can either slow it down for a “slow motion” effect, or speed it up for a “fast forward” effect. I personally felt that slowing the clip speed would display the football action in a manner that accentuated the immediate affect of the brutal physicality of a tackle.

1. You must upload your clip to the storyline.
2. Then you have to select the part of the clip you want to alter the speed.
3. Once you have the part selected, you left click the clip.
4. Then you scroll down the list and find “Speed/Duration.”
5. Once you get into this section you are presented with this screen.
6. Because the clip is at normal speed is it at “100%.”
7. To make the speed slower, you can lower the number next to speed.
8. Click “OK.”
9. The clip you selected will now have a slow motion effect.