Considering the research on short stories, locative gaming stories, and thinking of memories in the places, as well as keeping in mind the results of the previous testing of the game, here are conclusions I’ve arrived to and plan for the narrative in the future.

Story

It seems a good idea for a locative game story is one where the you as a player are trying to find someone - like, in Uncle Roy All Around You, uncle Roy, or in I Like Frank, Frank. This seems like a good plot for a story that has player moving in the environment, essentially, trying to find the character.

Additionally, the short films I watched followed a pattern: A main character leads a stable, boring life: The normal day of the main character is shown. Then, there is an inciting incident, call to adventure if you will, which leads to some kind of change by the end of the story. Even if the outside influence comes from another person/thing, there is pivotal moment where main character takes action. There also often is one strong motif, i.e. fluffy rain, paper, masks.

In previous testing of the game, I found out that what works best for this type of game is actually that there are a lots of small narrative scenes instead of longer scenes that are one scene. The more riddles/narrative scenes the better, the shorter the narrative scenes, the better.

With these things in mind, I’ve come to following conclusions:

1. The narrative should be about Elaine going missing. This is more simple than her having an unhealthy relationship, and gives player and the main character same, easily understandable goal. Also, the narrative of Elaine going missing gives story added mystery, and Maria (main character) extra motivation.
2. The motif of the story should be crows, as they are already in the games’ marketing material, and also found in Dundee if you know where to look. I should quickly look into crows, which I should do today as today is for research.
3. The story should follow a structure similar to the short film structure. Normal day of the character (Maria just chilling with Elaine), inciting incident (Elaine going missing), pivotal moment where a character takes action (Maria uses magic to find Elaine), some kind of change by the end of the story (Maria dies by the result of using magic? Nah, she’ll have to change in some way - I’ll figure this out). Crows are the motif, and they could bring and tempt Maria with magic. Whether Aurora should be a character or not, or unnammed spirit who has connection with the crows, is to be figured out as well.
4. There should be more scenes. It is possible I will have Maria steal what was Elaine’s/Aurora’s scenes in the original concept, and go from Magdalen Green to Balgay Park, and from Balgay to Duphope, from Duphope to Law. Or simply have more riddles in one place.