The Extraordinary Denial
Of Mr. Charles Bannister
SPECIFICATIONS
ROLE
Writer, Programmer
GAME ENGINE
Twine
TEAM
Solo project
TIME FRAME
2 Weeks
DESCRIPTION
The Extraordinary Denial Of Mr. Charles Bannister is an interactive short story where the reader plays the role of an intrusive thought in two different characters heads, guiding them through a night full of difficult revelations and inner conflicts.
CONCEPT
Writing about grief
I wanted to write a story about the journey to acceptance after a traumatic event, and I wanted to make it feel believable and relatable. I have never been a 40-something year old man who lost his son, but I wanted to attempt writing one, as if I was him, myself.
NARRATIVE
Seeking solace at the bottom of a bottle at a local pub, Charles has decided to leave his wife after a tragic event tore his family apart. Having immersed himself in denial, Charles is eventually confronted by a neglected truth and has to come to terms with what it means to accept it.
After the tragic passing of his beloved wife, Phil abandoned his daughter and became a homeless man, but for the first time in twenty years, he is presented with the opportunity to reconcile with her. With nothing to his name and a bad record as a father, Phil struggles with the morals of reuniting a broken family.
PROCESS
6 steps of grief
After deciding the topic of the story I wanted to write, I researched the stages of grief and used them as guidelines for the different parts of Charles' journey. I listed down some behaviours that could further communicate these stages to the player.
Common grieving behaviour
These behaviours would be communicated with actions, so I listed down some habits Charles could repeat throughout the game and then I created a mindmap with only the most essential events written down.
I further solidified the details of the events, and then filled in the rest of the gaps with actions that would enforce the behaviours I listed.
Once the planning was done, I wrote the story in a Google document, dividing up the sections into reasonable passage sizes, and marking the clickable text with brackets.
I followed a simliar process for Phil, but since this project was a school assignment, and having one character wasn't living up to the requirements, he was sort of added as an afterthought and therefore did not receive as much attention and planning.
To make the story more engaging I sometimes included an alternative choice for the player to pick instead of progressing the story. These options would give the player a glimpse of Charles' destructive path before sending them back to the beginning of the game, drinking at the bar. These alternative options were only added to the beginning of the game and the glimpses did not include any essential information.
To involve the player even more, I gave them the role of an intrusive thought in each character's head. They tell the character what to do, and depending on the character they will either obey or fight back, potentially leading to an argument.
I also played around with the idea of challenging the player a bit before they could get to the clickable text
REFLECTION
I'm generally happy with how Charles' journey turned out. I might've been able to make the gameplay more engaging but I feel like I went on a journey, myself, learning about Twine and writing a character that's so different from myself and my experiences. I probably wouldn't change a thing about his story.
Phil, on the other hand, is my biggest regret. I was pressed for time, so I didn't have time to elaborate on his story enough, causing him to amount to nothing more than a heap of exposition. He feels too much like a supporting character, whose existence solely lies in giving Charles a pep talk and that is not at all how I intended him to be. If I took time to rewrite Phil, I would've told his story differently.