Area 51 Post Mortem

Area 51 is an interactive story game made with twine. The player has broken into the government base at area 51, and is free  to roam and explore the facility.

Role: Narrative Designer, Writer, Programmer

Made For: A Science Fiction Narrative Assignment

Game Description:

That whole meme of raiding Area 51 is what got you really thinking about it. No one knows what's really in there. For all you know, they really could have alien life. You're ready to find out. But first, you'll need to get in.

TL;DR - Highlights

• First twine game
• Made it for a science fiction class
• Went in with a strong understanding of what I wanted
• Mapped out basics before adding details
• Teacher ended up using it to show future students a good example of final assignments, which was pretty cool

Post Mortem

Making the Game

To make this game, after deciding the vague plot that I wanted to create, I plotted out each story beat, setting up when different decisions could be made and what the outcomes of each would be.

By the time I had plotted everything out, I had my decision tree, outlining what would happen at each branch, but without details.

I went back through each beat, now adding detail to them. Where I had previously said 'describe how you get the alien out here', I actually added the detail to describe the moment to moment, and actually give that explanation. I also added narrative to fit the different decisions a player could make, rather than ambiguously stating that a decision would be made at that point.

As I went, I also pasted the detailed text into Microsoft Word. Seeing it written in a different font/format helped me to notice if I had made any mistakes, such as repeating words or phrases, spelling or grammar errors, or unnecessary detail/rambling. It also allowed me to track how long the total story had become.

As an afterthought, at each story ending, I let the player know which ending they had gotten, and how many there were in total. This could help add replay value, as players may have incentive to find the other endings if they know how many there are and which ones they are missing.

What Worked

Going into this project, I had a clear idea of exactly what I wanted to be. I knew the direction I wanted the story to take, the metaphors I wanted to make, and (some of) the endings I wanted to present. Having a direction all planned out helped to keep me on task and limited problems with writer's block.

What Didn't Work

Because this game was made for a class that had expected a short story, not a video game with branching narratives, there was a word limit in place. After explaining that I wanted to do this instead, my professor allowed some flexibility in terms of word count, but it was still a limiting factor. There were a few areas where I had to skip details or explanations which could have greatly enriched the story, but weren't strictly necessary and were just too wordy. As a result, the story definitely isn't as strong as it could have been.

Results

Area 51 was my first hands on experience with twine, and, though the story itself could definitely have been stronger, I'm ultimately satisfied with the experience. It was a great practice in branching narrative, and pushed me to write in a genre I usually wouldn't have tried. And, as an added bonus, my professor thought it was really cool and got my permission to show it to future students as an example of a great final assignment.