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For my final project, I am hoping to collaborate with Allissa Chan in order to create a choices-based video game in which a user is faced with different opportunities (or not) depending on how they interact with characters in the game. With this in mind, I decided to research choice based video games and how they worked.

trailer for night in the woods game

The first game that I looked into was Night in the Woods, a game available on Steam created by “a teamup of Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Scott Benson (Late Night Work Club), and Bethany Hockenberry”. Published January 10, 2017, the game follows a cat who returns home after dropping out of college. Available for PC, Mac, and PS4, the game operates by changing dialogue and scenes based on which characters the user interacts with more. Even though the consequences of user choices within the game are subtle, they have a significant effect on the relationships that the user creates with each of the characters, providing an extremely different and personalized experience.

The choices in Life is Strange make for more dire consequences within the game.

trailer for life is strange game

Released on January 29, 2015 and developed by Don’tNod entertainment, Life is Strange follows the story of a girl with the ability to go back in time.  The choices that the user makes directly affects the choices available from then on, as well as the relationships that the user has with the other in-game characters. What I find inspiring is the amount of detail of the game and the amount of choices and consequences that seamlessly connect together.

Both of these games can be considered relevant to our final project work in that it shows how a series of events can be triggered based on user choices.