I am passionate about stories, especially interactive ones. But I don’t think anyone has done interactive storytelling correctly yet, so this website exists.
I’ve modified a plugin to create a story box, where you can type in your next move, and the story responds to you. See it in the first story here – Shawn Brawne. The possibilities of this box are exciting with unlimited input options by the user. The puzzle story category especially will show this feature off, because you’ll have to enter the exact answer without being told (only clues and hints). And I’ve had the plugin designed to give a limited number of guesses at my command. Muahahaha!
It’s going to be so much fun. I’m writing a story right now called The Mystery Of Paradise Island. It’s the kind of story that makes you think of this quote (or vice versa)…
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.”
–Mark Twain
Hmmm…. “Explore, dream, discover” would make for an excellent tagline for this site, but I’ve already chosen “Get lost in another world.” I might very well change it though, because I really like that.
Anyways, Paradise Island is a genre shifter story. That’s because when I watch a movie, sometimes I’ll think, “dang, what if this serious story turned into a comedy.” As for interactive storytelling, it gives the user control over the entire direction of the tale, which in many ways is better than giving them a single decision in the grand scope of things. When you change the genre to horror, you’ll get pretty much exactly what you wanted, whereas “go into the basement” could bring any number of unknown results.
It’s tricky to write a genre-shifter story, but I have three storylines so far and they’re pretty great in my opinion. You’ll go through and choose “adventure, adventure, thriller” and then wonder what would have happened if you chose romance at the second fork. It’s a bummer that I’m the one who has to write them, because I’d love to try something like this myself. But I’m certainly going to do it if nobody else is!
I hope you’ll join me on these adventures! Feel free to send me an email with ideas, suggestions, tips, or questions. I welcome them all.