As you can probably tell, I chose to work on my twine game, pitch deck, podcast, and game writing sample. My twine game is called “Become a Legend” and was inspired by one of the stories I’m working on. Revising the work wasn’t an easy choice because my podcast was crafted to be my expanded draft already, but I just had to make this idea come to life. The pitch deck for Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash received some great feedback that I implemented, and I feel like it’s a good example of what I’ve learned this semester.
Creating an expanded podcast with Alexia to begin with gave us an advantage for our final draft. Dr. O graciously advised on ways to improve the audio and awkward transitions throughout the whole podcast which we wouldn’t get without producing the entire thing first. As for the game writing sample, I commented in my latest blog post about how I’d like to get into the industry or do something similar. I love putting myself in the shoes of a character and exploring how they’d handle situations in the world they live in. It was fun for me, but also useful and helpful.
As for my own writing this semester, I think I’ve grown and expanded my potential. Not only am I more confident in how I craft blog posts, but also how I made multimedia artifacts that I’m really proud of. Oftentimes I doubt my skills and ability to write, so having a great support system and constructive feedback was my saving grace this semester. I put a lot of effort in the writing for this course, too, and I’m reaping the benefits as I wrap up my projects with minimal adjustments after giving my all with any first drafts.
Because I took this course along with one for technical writing and editing, I think my understanding of multimedia writing had a solid foundation when coming to class because the subjects tied together more than I expected. I knew they were similar in guidelines, and most multimedia writing feels straightforward with wiggle room for style while technical writing cuts jargon and has careful diction. Design principles and effectively communicating with the desired audience were two big lessons reiterated by both courses, too.
The exposure to different rhetorical choices felt normal as I’ve studied rhetoric over the course of my academic career, so it was nice seeing it being implemented in multimedia rather than research writing. My writing process hasn’t personally changed, but I’m not sure if it ever majorly will since I’m a major routine person. I find myself resorting to the same methods even when I try out new techniques. The foundation for me is the overall tone: If I can’t decide how I want the work to feel, how can I decide what kind of story to tell? I write out key phrases, words, and anything else that could inspire me when I revisit my work. My notes are scattered, sure, but they come together to make the final results I have here. I feel like I constantly put my best foot forward with my assignments, and in my opinion, it paid off.
Twine Game
If there’s one thing I’m guilty of, it’s taking the story I crafted last summer for long form and using it in this course as my inspiration (a lot, actually). I’ve done this for a multitude of reasons including the fact that I know this universe like the back of my hand now and describing it is something that comes naturally. It’s also been a nice challenge trying to adapt a story structured to be a novel to fit within other forms and conditions.
That being said, my idea for making it into a game basically fell into my lap. I sketched out a chart with the objects I wanted to include to bring magic into the world, the villain who has it, where the villain is located, and how to get to them to begin with. Understanding the layout of the storyline early on made it easier to translate it into passages and code.
Problem solving by trial and error within Twine was the only way I accomplished anything. I used their guide, consulted Reddit, Googled a lot, and found other blogs that helped me make things happen. My story isn’t even that complex in terms of passages, I only have 24 total. I tried to use the coding to my advantage and formatted things that return to certain points. For revisions, I didn’t do much else other than separating out some text in a few passages and adjusting images. I’ve experimented with my options and tried to resize them so they’re consistent like Dr. O advised, too.
The location images were already around the same size, so I left those and focused on the artifacts. I wanted them to fit the story and not be jarring in comparison to the text, and the ones I had just weren’t fitting that vibe. I found new images, copied the hex code for my game color, and matched their backgrounds. It took some editing, but I finally figured it out. The photo border is slightly noticeable, but much better in comparison. I was considering adding audio, but my brain hurts at this point in the semester. I’ll probably add it later on when I have some free time!
Pitch Deck
So I have a confession: I watched Hulu’s Rosaline for the first time before working on the assignment and it’s totally the reason for choosing two of the lead actors. Their chemistry and wit reminded me of Casteel and Poppy, and I loved their energy. This kept me on a roll where making the mood board flowed right into the next task. I was worried about picking the lead actors, but it turned out to be one of the easiest parts of the process.
The choice of Armentrout’s novel was my first pick, and now she’s revealed that a Hulu show is in the works! Super exciting, but sad I couldn’t have been the one to make the pitch–I mean come on, clearly I was onto something. The story is exciting, and although sometimes the plot can feel repetitive, the worldbuilding is beautiful and readers can relate to Poppy.
I added on a costuming mood board and linked the sources for the movie revenue based on feedback from Dr. O. I’d originally intended to but totally forgot so luckily I had the links saved! The costuming is in the same realm as movies with a medieval fantasy feel, as you can probably tell. Overall, the process for this project went better than I expected and I’m proud of the revised draft.
Game Writing Sample
The process went smoothly for me with the project, and I kinda chatted with Skye to brainstorm some ideas for things to incorporate since they’ve already taken this course. They were a great help since they know all about my story, so Athelya was familiar. I enjoyed being able to do something fun and challenging. I also find myself thinking of barks for other character’s I’m reading about.
Explaining the concept of the world she lives in was hard to get through without the context of the story. I tried to really give a good summary throughout the elements I added in the expansion. The major changes mainly translate to increasing the content of the project, and I feel like I did a great job at doing that.
Expanding the game writing sample was a perfect choice for me. It challenged me to dive deeper into a character I’ve created on top of trying something new. I learned to combine creativity with a more technical feel to make content that’s insightful and straightforward. My original version on Barks Game Writing only had a brief introduction to Athelya, her photo, and 15 barks. I expanded upon her introduction and wrote about things like the setting, her voice notes, and her strengths/weaknesses. I also doubled the barks. I think these additions really display the range of details I can creatively provide in a professional setting.
Podcast
The good energy between Alexia and I made this project go super well! Somehow, the work felt divided equally and went so smoothly. We thought we’d take a long time to get things done, but we were able to knock it out with days to spare. The one thing that proved to be challenging was fixing the audio file differences between us both. We worked hard on fixing the issues for this final version!
Alexia came over on a Saturday evening and we played the audio file in Audacity over and over until we fixed every small detail we could notice. We adjusted the grain, volume of voices, awkward pauses, words that stood out, and other flaws in the file. This was actually super fun because I got to do it with Alexia. We still enjoyed the process, finding solutions together and testing the audio. The audio ended up sounding so much better with a more consistent flow, volume, and pace as a result! I’m super proud of us.
I’ve learned a lot about the podcast scripting process, audio editing techniques, and purpose of podcasts by expanding this project. I feel that this final version stands up to the fully-fledged artifact criteria in time, quality, revisions, and content. Luckily, our podcast page had a good format and didn’t require any changes. The revisions all went well and were easy to take care of with Alexia being on my team!