First Blog for DIGM 540

Between the dates of 1/6/20-1/8/20, I've been thinking about my potential project for this course. My general idea comes from branching narrative paths. What I've learned during my undergrad at Bloomfield College is that it is generally difficult to develop a game with meaningful branching narratives. Ultimately, it is like developing another game on top of your existing one. For example, if you want certain character interactions to lead to a different pathway based on the player-character's choice, you have to make new assets (art, music, effects), possibly a new gameplay interaction, and dialogue. While working on my undergrad project, I had no choice but to create an illusion of meaningful choice while keeping the game strictly on a linear path. The general idea for my project will be how to make a dialogue system that can make branching pathways easier to develop on a game engine like Unity. Certain apps like Fungus already exist, but how would you make dialogue options more meaningful and robust? Fungus feels a bit limiting, so I would like to improve upon this. The final goal is to eventually go back to improve on projects I have already done based on the potential results of this project.

Week 1 - Research narrative systems
Week 2 - Research narrative systems
Week 3 - Research Game AI
Week 4 - Research Game AI
Week 5 - Reframed question towards Game AI.
Week 6 - Find AI and training tools to work with
Week 7 - Pick a primary tool and develop short scenario
Week 8 - Pick a primary tool and develop short scenario
Week 9 - Playtesting and Refinement
Week 10 - Final Results