Reflection on Interactive Narrative

For our third and final project we were given the task to create an interactive narrative.We were given the same main objectives as the other two project (stated in my other two evaluations)however we were also given a brief with certain objectives. These objectives were:

1 - Produce an interactive narrative using still images positioned onto the timeline in Flash CS3.
2 - This interactive narrative should utilise a branching structure that forces the user to make a number of decisions as they progress through the narrative piece.
3 - Narrative should be the primary concern.

I feel that I completed two of the briefs points however I didn't properly complete the second point. When I first started using Flash CS3 I found it very hard to

understand especially the Actionscript. I have a strong idea in my mind that I thought would work however trying to show this on Flash was not so easy. Every time I tried to create a button an error code would appear and I could not find where the problem was. This was one of the things that I found most difficult and it is definately something that I would like to improve on.


I am really pleased that I actually completed the narravtive because of all of the difficulties I had when trying to create the narrative, however I was really happy about the positive feedback that I received from users. They all said that there was a strong narrative that was easy to understand and they liked the fact that the user was guided to the end outcome.

If I had the chance to this project again then I think that I would definately input some branches into the narrative because even though the users liked the outcome I thought that it would get repetitive because there is only one storyline, but as I was really struggling with Flash I wanted to go with the safe option and start off with something simple yet effective which I think I have achieved.


What I really liked about this project is that it was an individual project. This was the first one that I did and as I result to this I was able to make all the decisions and choose what I wanted to do, which I really liked, even though I liked working in a group it was nice to make the choices.

Spatial Awareness
I have used the whole space in the frame with my photographic image partially because I wanted the viewer to have the impression that they were the person in the kitchen, however the downfall for this was that in some of the frames it was hard to see the text so there are a few slides that have different colour fonts whic looks a bit untidy, other then the text I feel that I used the spatial awareness well.

Media/text
I inputted text to give the viewer instructions that forced them to choose a certain object, this made the whole narrative alot clearly and alot more user friendly. I think that font was bold enough for people to see and I used the correct colours that contrasted well with the background.

Stills and Audio
My whole narrative was made up with stills keeping to the same theme which I feel was a conscious decision because it kept the narrative going. I wanted to add audio without lyrics becuase I thought that it would distract the audience however I am starting to try and create my own music because I cannot keep using other peoples work/music.

Audience Interaction
My main aim was to make sure I had audience interaction so I feel I completed this quite by asking the user to help 'make a sandwich', without the user that sandwich would not be made.

Like I said above my main improvement on this project is to gain more experience in the Flash CS3 software as I feel I could really benefit from this piece of software over the next few years.