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VCB424 Advanced Interactive Design IV

Mystery!

Assignment

Working in groups of 2 or 3, create an interactive mystery game using Flash. Here's a really cool pro mystery game: Bow Street Runner

Here are some student examples:

Procedure

  1. Form groups.
  2. Working together, come up with a plot for your mystery. What happened? Whodunit? Why? Where? When? How? Who are the suspects? What are their motive? What are their alibis? Note: this does not have to be a murder mystery; it could be a case of blackmail or burglary or fraud or something else. Murders seem to be the most popular.
  3. Now determine how you want the "investigator" to go about solving the crime. What are the clues and how should you reveal them? How much information will you reveal and when? How should the investigator go about finding information? Work out a detailed flowchart that lay out all of the steps involved in the process.
  4. Once you have your structure, create storyboards for your pages. These should show what the various pages will look like including navigation, text placement, images, graphic design, etc. Think carefully about your interface. What should the screen look like? What sort of controls will you give the user? How will the information be arranged?
  5. Build your interface (your main screen) in Flash. You can build some or all of the components in Illustrator or Photoshop and import them if you prefer.
  6. Lay out your basic page structure in the Flash timeline. Place keyframes every 5 to 10 frames with labels. Add the common elements (things that appear on all or most of the pages like navigation, backgrounds, site ID, etc.). Start adding unique elements (text, pictures, games) as you acquire/create them. Hint: leave the first frame empty so you can insert a preloader later (see step 11 below). Also include a page for credits and a page for an intro (see steps 9 and 10).
  7. Collect your assets: shoot photos, create artwork, find sounds, music, etc. Try not to use any copyrighted material—be as original as you can.
  8. Build your mystery game in Flash. There is no one right way to do this, but there should be multiple screens (pages), and user control (the user should be able to make choices as to where he/she goes, not simply be led through a sequential story like a novel). You can determine how fancy or complex you wish to make it.
  9. Add an introduction. The introduction should set the mood with colors, pictures and sound. But keep it simple, and always give the user a chance to skip the intro.
  10. Add a credits page. Include your names, the names of any actors/friends who helped out, a bibliogrphy with reference and source material (if applicable), and the date created.
  11. Add a preloader to the beginning of the piece.
  12. Export the file as a .swf. Give me both .fla and .swf files. Also, make sure you give me the story boards & flow chart as well!

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