Postmortem of Curtain Call Chronicles

Introduction

This game, by definition, falls under the category of an interactive fiction game. it has a full-bodied script and cast of characters. The player takes on the role of a rookie entertainment reporter who is young and driven by his job assignment to try and explore an old story in the entertainment industry. During this time he tells this story by visiting companies, talking to entertainment industry workers, checking out videos, newspapers, news, reviews, and so on. The story was originally modelled on a story I adapted from a pair of co-stars in the Chinese entertainment industry. The twists and turns of the story between them touched me deeply: in the showbiz industry, between celebrities, there are also true love and inspirational stories. So I took the opportunity to create a complete story, and my understanding of their emotions found a satisfying home.

Before Creation

For me, this game is extremely challenging. It was my first time making a game in unity and I didn't have a lot of art skills. Although it was technically difficult to implement, I had a full desire to create a story.

This story is based on a pair of actors in China, Shen Teng and Ma Li. These two have created many literary works in China, including plays, films and TV series. After working together over and over again, their image of being in pairs is also very deep in the hearts of the audience. Because of this, there are also some public opinion storms. They were cyber-violated by many people because they were suspected to be really in love. In order to resolve such a negative impact, they chose to enter into their respective marriages and never worked together again for the next five years.

Such a deplorable story that I felt sorry and lost as a viewer. People are good at judging all public figures on a moral level, so celebrities who are still in the entertainment industry nowadays put on fake masks, speak and act cautiously, and no longer reveal their true nature. They seem to live a glamorous life, but they have no freedom in their private life. The audience doesn't care about the mental health of these celebrities, they just want them to make a positive and sunny image. That's why over the years, fewer and fewer acting stars with real personalities have become famous. The new stars have the same story and the same persona.

In Progress - Script

Based on this thinking, this story was written, in which the story is basically based on events that actually happened to the archetypes. The two people for whom I am the prototype have been given new names, Stark and Lizi, and their relationship development is not explicitly stated, but one gets the impression that there are complex feelings intertwined in the story. The main phases are as follows: meeting and micromanaging, working together to become famous, encountering the furore of a casting change, reacting in the face of scandal (i.e., going their separate ways), etc.

To make the story more playable, I designed some different story branches to tell the different stages. I worked on the script using inky to make the story interactive. This turned what was originally a story told unilaterally into a story that the player gradually explores the details of various pieces of information and thus perceives.

As for the player's perspective, I thought about it for a long time, and at first I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the male protagonist of the story, i.e. Stark, to show his journey and the reasons behind his behaviour.

But after I thought about it, I didn't think it would work. Firstly, no matter how much I know about the archetypal character behind stark, he is always a public figure, a star. The image he presents on the public stage, no matter how real and full of life it is, is only what we see, speculate and infer. I can't really express my feelings on his behalf.

So I take the role of a bystander to express my understanding. This bystander is called Alex, a rookie entertainment reporter who eventually sorts out the story by getting information from various sources. Such a setting is also very much like the journey we go through as fans, as viewers, when we go to learn about a celebrity. This kind of player setting is more likely to gain players' empathy.

And in the design of the game script, I didn't really make any definitive judgement. I just helped the player to restore the information, diminish the leading nature of the information, and enhance the realism of the information. The intention is to allow the player to make their own interpretations and inferences once they've been given the information. I'm hoping for different interpretations.

In Progress - Gameplay

The original script has already been strung together through Inky, a software that has the playability of an out-of-the-box book. However, I felt that the game would become harder to read without the involvement of images and graphics. Maybe I am not confident in my script and feel that I need a richer form to attract players.

So I plan to make a 2D interactive fiction game in unity.

This means I have to create images and scenes. As someone who doesn't have much of an art foundation, this is a difficult hurdle.

First of all the whole atmosphere of the game I wanted was cyberpunk style, so I designed the characters all decadent looking. And for the designs of the story's hero and heroine that appear on the screen, I went back to practical and more vibrant colours. I wanted to use this contrast to highlight the difference in style between the stars and the audience with minimal creative cost. It's not that I'm lazy, but I want to achieve a better effect within my ability on the basis of originality.

As for the set design, I couldn't really afford to build it, so I found some artists' works on artstation.com as assets.

Finally, through some code writing in unity, I strung the script with the screen and finished the work.

After the creation

I invited two friends to play this game after it was finished. One of them was familiar with the prototype of the story as I was, so he immediately guessed whose story it was about. He was surprised by the plot and eggs in the story. The other didn't know the prototype, so found the game refreshing, but a bit long and boring.

This made me reflect, because it came across as if the story was for the fans. And I had hoped that it would be aimed at the general public, to an effect that would cause everyone to think about the state of entertainment stars. I was the one who hadn't honed the script enough.

And there should have been some difficulty settings added to the game's production. Originally, I wanted to make it an information-gathering, mission-based game, but the time allocation didn't work out that way. It made the game blander and less interactive. After that, I plan to design some missions and increase the difficulty of the game based on the script, and add some data constraints. The increase in difficulty will better enable the player to reach the mindstream of reading the story. I hope there are more players who see this game and can play it and give feedback. Because I really want to change it into a more meaningful and interesting game.