• Forms of storytelling,
  for as long as there has been communication, there has been stories, absolutely countless stories have been told throughout time,  through pictures painted on ancient rock detailing a hunt, to telling your friends how you met a celebrity, there are many ways to tell a story.
  most people assume it's mostly done by books, as that's what you assume when you hear the word story, but thats not true at all, it is in fact mostly done in talking to others, but as of recent
  storys have become interactive, giving the reader the choice to plot the protagonists actions thanks to the magic of videogames

• Game genres.
  there are loads of games, of pretty much every genre, from horror to puzzle.
  more often than not, some games, such as puzzle or FPS dont focus on story telling, but it's not allways the case, the game "Portal" makes a very solid defence.
  
  
• Approaches
  today, stories come in many shapes and sizes, we have the standard storys where the character gets to a problem and solves it only to find a bigger problem.
  but there are many shake ups when it comes to digital media, for example, you could find that in a game, there is barely any story, maybe you're just in a post apocalyptic world with nobody else trying to survive, but you find old family albums, and diarys of long dead people that tell you their tales.
  that is the more interesting thing about interactive storys.
  
  
• Representation,
  most games now have gotten to a point where visuals have met up to reality all the way, where you can see emotion and hardships on a character just from their design.
  some games even push boundries and help real world goals, for example, mass effect has a very open idea of homosexual relationships, which should be accepted, and it forthright accepts it without question.
  in other games there are other social pariahs that are tackled, maybe not in the same way, for example Deus Ex human revolution, this has a very debate-full topic, based in a time where Human augmentation is available, yet not accepted fully.
  it leaves the player considering if it is right or wrong to evolve through machine.
  
• Emotional themes,while games can have their whole overall theme's i would say that in most games it is the different characters that have their own motorvations, rather than a whole cast about revenge.
  
• Interactive story.
  interactive storys are just that, interactive, you are give options in conversation, will you piss the other person off, will you please them. there are just option
  some times though, chosing an option can bar you from choosing others, leading you possibly to lose communication with said character, or even not being able to get a certain ending of a game.
  while it is nice to have a level of freedom, we still have a long way to go before we can make our own speach options rather than a pre-determined set

• Writing strategies 

When writing your own storys there are a number of methods you can use to get the best options, you could write segments, peicing them together as you go, making events as you come up with them.
this can leave you with a lot of left over events that you couldn't use, or expand upon, but it is one method i think works best.

another way which is best for starting up or making a character/scenario is to make a mind map, but there are loads of other methods for loads of different people.

spying on the public.

 we went out to spy on the public and draw them,
i dont actualy have the book that i did on that day, where i got a good 3 or 4 characters done, but i did do it again in a more simple way a week or so later.

these are a bunch of character i drew out and about, a few of them are actually composites, created from a few people rather than just one.

 i also created a bunch of characters with an environment in mind, that being a zombie apocolypse, i created these two people to be in a world such as that.

 

another method i used, was creating the character and building the world around them, 

this is a superhero i came up with who has complete control over all plant life, from that idea i created the character and his human alter ego.

  

and then i just had many other sketches for just characters drawn on the spot.

dream on!

there i was, in the hedge maze, all i could hear was screaming, every second, there was one, far off into the distance at what i would have seen as an impossibly far distance. the echos spanned the galaxy and back and yet i stood there, in the maze where the haunting howls of pain converged.
then i felt it, the ground seemed to shake, it was as if everything around me crumbled into dust, yet nothing was damaged.
i thought to run but i was immobilized in my unthinking terror.
i knew not what was near me, but i knew it was there, wrapped around my body like a python strangling the life out of its prey.
i could not move, every inch of my body still paralysed,  every thing i saw grew darker, until,
nothing.
i was suspended in a void seeing myself in third person, and viewing what i could only perceive as every second of my life into one being.
there was no sound any more, there was nothing, i then faded away into the black abyss, and i was alone.

i told you i dont like writing about my dreams mike, i told you.

process chart

Start at the top left

story time

I gaze out of the foggy windows of my office to the street bellow,
the light from a streetlamp coats the area in a yellow tint as the rain cascades down the window leaving the evening view distorted.
Suddenly the radio on the desk begins to crackle as it has for the past few days, I’ve left it unfixed for quite some time, Too much work to do.

a knock sounds at the door that seems to resonate through the Smoke filled room. The handle of the door turns and begins to open.
“Hello? Is this the right place?”
I turn around to see a middle aged blonde woman standing at the door.
she looks around my office as she clutches her bag closer to her.

I extinguish my cigarette in the ashtray on my desk and reply.
“That depends, where are you trying to find?”
She looks at me and I can plainly see how distraught she is.
“I- Is this the detective’s Office.” She says as she walks into the room slightly, keeping the door ajar with her arm as she does so.
“Yes, looks like you’ve found it.” Outstretching my hand to greet the lady I motion for her to take the seat in front of my desk. “I’m detective warhe”
with a firm grip her hand meets mine as I glance down I see a pale ring of skin, she must have worn a wedding ring at some point. The tan lines usually give it away.
“Elaine bullings, thanks for meeting me.”

She takes the stack of files that were on the chair and places them on the floor.

As she sits down the makes sure to tuck in her white skit underneath her and her red dyed leather bag on her lap.
“So” I say to break the silence aside from the crackling of the radio. ”I’ll get right down to it, what can I help you with?”
“it’s my daughter.” She says her head down facing the floor as she speaks “she’s gone missing.”
“Isn’t this a matter for the police ma’am?” I reply taking out a notepad from one of the draws of my desk.
“N- normally, yes, but they haven’t found her, it’s been a week now and I’m really distraught.”
I notice a tear trickle down her pale white skin and her mascara seems to blend in to as it begins a slow decent down her face.
“I see” grabbing a pen jutting from a stack of folders I place it daintily against the notepad, “did you bring any photo’s?”
With a nod she reaches into her bag and pulls out a photograph to hand me.
“I’m sorry but it’s the only one I could find, my husband.. Well, ex-husband…”
“No need to continue, this picture should do.”

Observing the photograph I can make out a man and a woman aside from the girl, Elaine and accompanied by the man, seemingly in this 30’s has a full head of hair, combed to the side and he seems to be wearing mechanic overalls.
the other person is the small girl in the photograph, wearing a floral pattern dress.
it seems like a touching family photograph none the less.

“if this is your daughter, who ias this man? The father?”
She looks up at the photo, her mascara now run down her face.
“The man in the overalls is my ex-husband.”
“I see, where were you when this was taken?”
Wiping a tear from her eye she replies with a timid seeming voice
“It was taken about two months before the divorce”
I seem like a touching family day out. Though from the situation in front of me, something tells me it’s not so special.

“ I know it sounds bad, but do you think she could have run away?”
Her head lowers once more, I can tell that she’s obviously distraught.
“She was happy, but I think the divorce has been hard on her, she was in my custody. After the hearing”
scrawling down the information in the notebook, I finish and look back to her.
“Where does your husband live now?”
“24 Maple Street, in the Algonquin area. Please. Find her”
“of course, there’s just the matter of price.”
She takes out a checkbook from her bag and as if money was no object asks me how much I needed. So what else could I do but tell her that I charge by day.
$1000 may seem a steep price, but my services are top of the range.


The next day comes as I snatch my fedora from the stand nearest to the door.
My friends tell me it’s not proper to sleep in the office leaving a home empty at night, but this office always brings me peace.
I head out the door grabbing my keys in the motion and locking the door as I leave.
Walking down to my car I make a mental note of what I have on me, my wallet, notepad, the image given to me by the woman

after a short drive I arrive on maple street and walk up to the steps of number 24.
The rundown house seems out of place in this suburbia area, it’s out of place.
I knock the door with a lout confident strike.
and wait for a reply from within…

Detective files: Alex Warhe

Name: Alex Warhe


Gender: male

Age: 34

Birthday/year: [classified] 

Marital Status: divorced, widowed 

Spouse: ex; Martha June 

Hair: brown

Eyes: dark green

Origin: american, - pennsylvania - Harrisburg 

Height: 5"9'

Ethnicity: white american


Parents /Guardians: Lillian Warhe, Robert Warhe 
Siblings: Sophie Heiner 

employer: Harrisburg police bureau , client based 
Beliefs/Religion: agnostic

Career/Past Careers: paper boy , military service - navy , bag boy (super market) , private investigator

Likes: 

imported cigars
Loves: 

his 1946 Chevrolet (1947 Chevrolet)


Talents: a keen eye for clues


Temperament: inquisitive, nosy, determined