Story Research

Still hopelessly stuck on story. D:

We did make a few decisions though. We've decided that we're going to adapt an existing story to our chosen environment. Our artstyle will also be monochromatic with contrasting colours every now and then when the scene calls for it and it's most likely going to be 2D.

We had a look at Rumi's fables to see if there's anything worth adapting there. I found that a lot of Rumi's fables has strong religious undertones, this is shown when Rumi explains what his fables actually mean (Gibbs, 2008; Kassam, 2011). I'd rather stay away from religion as a core theme in the game to be honest because it's not something that I want to talk about in our story and religion is generally a touchy subject. It won't be a very good core theme for us to portray I think.

Also thought of Arabian Nights for the story structure. Basically, you've got what you call a "frame story" and within the frame story you have someone telling multiple stories. So it's many stories within a story. In the case of Arabian Nights the main character, Scheherezade, is the narrator. In her original storyline the King marries a new virgin girl every day and executes her the next morning. He does this out of anger as his first wife was unfaithful to him he began to believe that all women are evil and untrustworthy. One day there are no virgins left because he killed them all, Scheherezade is the only one left. She volunteers willingly though. On the wedding night Scheherezade tells a really good story, but stops in the middle saying that there's no time to finish. The King wanting to hear more lets her live for another night to finish the story. That same night she starts a new story more exciting than the last, but stops before the end. And so this cycle continues. Many stories within a story. By her last story the King already loved her and had three sons with her, so she never got executed.

Similar in structure, the movie Slumdog Millionaire (Colson & Boyle, 2008) also has story within a story. The frame story is where Jamal is in the interrogation room. The other stories that fit in to this are his recollections to how he knows the answers to the questions in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". At the end we full circle back to the interrogation room and continue the story in the present time.

I'm not sure how well this structure would work though, it's something to consider.



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 References:

Colson, C. (Producer), & Boyle, D. (Director). (2008). Slumdog Millionaire [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Gibbs, L. (2008). Rumi: The Fable of the Lion's Share. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from http://journeytothesea.com/rumi-lion/

Kassam, Z. (2011). Two Tales from Rumi: The Snake-Catcher and the Serpent & The Elephant and the Travellers. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from http://simerg.com/parables/two-tales-from-rumi-the-snake-catcher-and-the-serpent-the-elephant-and-the-travellers/