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Wandering light: an interactive visual novel

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Wandering light: an interactive visual novel

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Content WANDERING LIGHT
AN INTERACTIVE VISUAL NOVEL
by
Madison Emery
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May 2022
Copyright 2022 Madison Emery
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to: the Wandering Light team, my advisors, the IMGD MFA Class of 2022, the
amazing people at USC that supported me throughout this project, and my friends and
family.
ii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................ ii
List of Figures........................................................................................................................................ iv
Abstract................................................................................................................................................... v
Chapter 1: Introduction...................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2: Wandering Light — Overview........................................................................................ 2
2.1 Game summary.............................................................................................................. 2
2.2 Story Overview............................................................................................................... 2
2.3 Art Style Inspirations.................................................................................................... 3
Chapter 3: Design and Experience Goals...................................................................................... 4
3.1 Design Goals................................................................................................................... 4
3.2 Experience Goals........................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 4: Thematic Explorations.................................................................................................. 5
4.1 Baba Yaga — Using the Ostracized “Other” as the Guide...................................... 5
4.2 Comfort of Home versus Reward of Self-Discovery.............................................. 6
Chapter 5: Explorations in Interactive Narrative....................................................................... 8
5.1 Prior Art — Games.......................................................................................................... 8
5.2 Prior Art — Folk and Fairy Tales................................................................................... 9
Chapter 6: The Development Process........................................................................................... 10
6.1 Pre-production............................................................................................................. 10
6.2 Alpha............................................................................................................................... 10
6.3 Future Development.................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 7: Production Post-Mortem............................................................................................. 11
7.1 Successes...................................................................................................................... 12
7.2 Areas for Improvement............................................................................................... 12
Chapter 8: Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 13
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................... 15
iii
List of Figures
1 4.1. Wandering Light Story Flowchart.......................................................................... 7
iv
Abstract
Wandering Light is an interactive visual novel developed for mobile that combines
the familiar foundation of folktales with an investigating mechanic (via a magic lantern) to
create an interactive experience that explores the rewards and complexities of
self-discovery. As they play through Wandering Light, players have the freedom to explore
and find the insight, epiphany, and emotional processes that can only be discovered in the
fictitious and fantastic.
v
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Intent of the Project
My personal philosophy around the importance and value of strong narrative
experiences is built around a quote from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried: “A thing
may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth,”
(O'Brien, 2011). This core ideology, that human beings need fictitious spaces where they can
obtain inspiration, catharsis, and resolution that cannot be found in reality, inspired much
of this project. Here, the audience can find their way to and experience epiphany in a way
that is not possible in real life. This epiphany marks a recognition of an internal truth that a
person feels and acknowledges but cannot articulate in mere words. The ephemeral and
spiritual qualities of the epiphany, then, suggest that written language is an insucient
medium to accommodate such a phenomenon. Therefore, I believe that interactive media is
the form of artistic expression that can best encompass the ine able and foster
self-discovery. By combining interactivity and fiction, this project makes a conscious e ort
to abandon the realm of what is conventional in order to access the tools, mediums, and
a ordances the digital era o ers.
1
Chapter 2: Wandering Light — Overview
2.1 Game summary
Wandering Light is a mobile narrative game that allows players to process the
complicated journey of self-acceptance. Inspired by the Baba Yaga folk stories, the story
follows a young girl who has been sent into Baba Yaga’s forest to acquire a life-saving cure
that can only be found in the grandmother-witch’s garden. Players must navigate the
scene and progress the narrative by using a magic lantern to find hidden clues and paths
that let you explore the woods. By tapping and dragging their finger around the mobile
screen, players wield the power of the magic lantern as it shines through the dark forest to
reveal secret places and quest items. Along the way, the player will meet fascinating
characters that will teach the player more about the forest — and about themselves. As
they venture deeper into the story, players will have to make choices about which paths to
follow and, eventually, choose whether to embrace the unknown or return to what is
familiar. The game is a 2D interactive narrative for mobile developed in Unity, and the
target demographic is all genders, ages 18 and older.
2.2 Story Overview
The story begins from the point of view of a young girl that has been sent into the
haunted woods to retrieve a medicinal plant that can only be found in Baba Yaga’s garden.
The witch has a sinister reputation, as does the forest, but the girl says her family is
desperate for a cure. The player finds Baba Yaga, and she agrees to help the girl if she
completes a series of tasks. She gives the girl a magic lantern that will allow her to navigate
the mystical woods, and requests 3 items. The player uses the lantern to illuminate the
scene, finds two di erent paths through the forest, and chooses one to follow.
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As they continue to uncover secret paths, talk to the forest dwellers, and acquire
Baba Yaga’s items, the player learns a secret about the main character. After an encounter
with a white stag, the light of the lantern shows the girl’s shadow, revealing that she has a
pair of antlers growing out of her head (since the player has only seen the world from the
girl’s POV, they are unaware that this girl is not a normal human like the rest of her family).
Her family is frightened by her condition, forcing her to file down her antlers, and they
believe the magic herb from Baba Yaga is the last resort for a cure.
The player acquires the final item for Baba Yaga and returns to her. Baba Yaga casts
a spell on the items and they become a magic lantern identical to the one she gifted earlier.
She gives the girl an o er: she can take the lantern and stay in the forest, where she can
live freely as herself, or she can return home with the cure and never return to the forest.
The player must make one final choice that determines the game’s ending. If the player
chooses the lantern, the girl remains in the forest and is able to use the lantern to go back
and explore the forest more. The player now gets to visit the paths/areas that they had not
chosen previously and explore with the magic lantern there as well. Once the player has
visited every area, the game ends with the girl reflecting on her personal journey and her
excitement for the journeys yet to come.
If the player chooses the cure, Baba Yaga snu s the magic flame of the lantern and
sends you away. The player, now engulfed in darkness, finds their way to the edge of the
forest. As the girl sees her family, she has a moment of doubt, and the player is given one
more chance to return to the forest. If the player chooses to turn back, the lantern
magically relights as the player re-enters the forest, and they play through the same
ending as before where they get to visit the unvisited areas. If the player chooses to leave
the forest for good, the game ends with the player approaching her family, who are relieved
she has the cure, but shocked that she did not perish in the woods as they expected. The
3
girl reflects on her decision and why her need to belong outweighed her desire for
self-acceptance and freedom.
2.3 Art Style Inspirations
In order to evoke the feeling of storybooks and folktales, we drew inspiration from
shadowbox/papercut art for the overall look of the game. This also plays well with the light
and shadow dynamic built into the lantern mechanic.
To reflect the emotional shifts and internal processes in the story, we decided on a
color palette that starts with dark, cool tones and gradually grows warmer depending on
the ending that the player pursues (similar to the color shift of a sunrise). As the player
uncovers and illuminates the forest, the warming colors reflect a growing familiarity with
the space and with oneself. However, pursuing an ending that leads back out of the forest
(a denial of the self) causes a shift back to the darkness as the player chooses to extinguish
the chance for self-discovery in favor of assimilation.
Chapter 3: Design and Experience Goals
3.1 Design Goals
Wandering Light’s design is centered on folk and fairy tales, especially Baba Yaga
stories, in order to play on conventional tropes that audiences are familiar with and invert
their expectations. A young girl’s journey through the woods is a common metaphor for
growth into adulthood, but fairy tales tend to end with morals about obedience. This game
complicates the traditional narrative of needing to eventually return home, and instead
suggests that one might actually belong in a space on the fringes of society. The choice for
mobile as a platform instead of PC was also an important design choice to mimic the
intimacy of a handheld book to further tie in the folktale connections. Finally, the lantern
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mechanic was a key design goal, as it thematically represents the character’s internal
process while also creating a more interactive/engaging experience than a traditional
visual novel.
3.2 Experience Goals
Wandering Light emphasizes the feelings of joy and wonder that accompany the
journey of self discovery through the use of the lantern mechanic. This represents the need
to venture further, even when it is dark and frightening, in order to reap the rewards of
discovery. Ultimately, the player must journey through the darkness in order to understand
the price of each option and truly decide what they want.
This game also utilizes choices and multiple endings to convey the complexity of the
rewards of self-discovery versus the fear of rejection and isolation. While the intent of the
game is to encourage self-exploration, adding the choice to return home makes the player
stop and think about what is actually most meaningful to them. Through playing this game,
players will have the space and opportunity to deal with their own internal conflicts
surrounding self-acceptance.
Chapter 4: Thematic Explorations
4.1 Baba Yaga — Using the Ostracized “Other” as the Guide
Baba Yaga is an ambiguous figure that moves between worlds, and her portrayal
shifted due to the rise of Christianity and its prejudice against Slavic traditions. Before she
became known as the infamous witch character, her original role can be traced back to a
midwife. Being tasked with child delivery gave her the status of being able to cross the
boundary of life and death. Due to her status as a demonized figure on the fringes of
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society that has connections to birth/crossing boundaries, Baba Yaga makes an excellent
choice of character for the player’s guide on a journey of self-discovery. They are united by
being cast as an ugly outsider that can find freedom in the woods. She o ers the player the
opportunity to remain in the woods, a chance at rebirth, and fully cross the threshold into
the unknown.
4.2 Comfort of Home versus Reward of Self-Discovery
Creating two endings allowed the game to capture the tension of choosing to leave
behind what you know for what is frightening yet ultimately fulfilling. Up until the addition
of these choices, the game was mostly about the joy of discovery and overcoming the fear
of the unknown. However, there was nothing that conveyed why self-acceptance and
discovery are important, and what one risks losing when they choose conformity. In order
to reflect how denial of the self stunts personal growth, we added the path choices.
Choosing to remain in the forest gives players the opportunity to visit places that they
otherwise would never see if they left. They do not know what they are missing, but they
are aware that they have lost something, since they know there are still paths to explore.
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Fig 4.1. Wandering Light Story Flowchart by Madison Emery, December 2021
The intent is to demonstrate how self-exploration is ultimately cut short when we
prioritize belonging over self-love. It is a frightening journey, but one that must be made if
people want to grow.
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Chapter 5: Explorations in Interactive Narrative
5.1 Prior Art — Games
Pry
Like my thesis, Pry relies on gestural controls that relate thematically to the content
of the story. The player pries into the life of the protagonist , just as he pried into Jessie and
Luke’s relationship. The act of zooming in/expanding more detail also mimics a kind of
interrogation or pulling the truth out of our unreliable narrator, like a person opening up to a
confidant. The player can uncover more and more of the story, allowing themself to explore
further and spend more time with it, but they ultimately can’t change the story. It impacts
the emotional experience, but doesn’t actually give total control over the narrative. The
branching story ultimately converges, it just allows the player to dive further and further.
Twine and Hypertext Fiction
My journey to become a game designer started with Twine and creating hypertext
fiction. I have been particularly influenced by the interactive fiction created by Porpentine,
especially her work With Those We Love Alive. It relies on evocative writing to fill in the
visuals and uses hyperlinks in a unique way, arranging them on the screen to form a kind of
map that the player must explore to progress the narrative. I appreciate how With Those We
Love Alive gives the player the feeling of travel even without a character or avatar to move
around the screen, and wanted to incorporate this in the game. However, I wanted to take it
one step further and create a mechanic that increased the interactivity beyond clicking
links. At that point, I knew the game was going to be based around folk tales and set in a
dark forest. This is when I took inspiration from a Twine horror story, My Father’s Long,
Long Legs by Michael Lutz. At one point, the main character descends into a maze of
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twisting, dark tunnels. The screen, which only had text, goes dark, and the mouse cursor
becomes a point light. The player must use this “flashlight” to continue reading and find the
next hyperlink, just as the character fumbles around with a flashlight. Shining light through
the darkness as a mechanic fit perfectly with my themes of self-discovery and the fear of
the unknown, and puts the player in the same position as the character to increase the
emotional connection.
The Death Mask
I was the writer for Mariana Cacique’s thesis game “The Death Mask.” I learned a lot
from Mariana, including how to write and design for a narrative mobile game. One of my
favorite features in the game is the gestural controls/UI Mariana created for the
choice-making mechanic. It adds a lot of polish, and I found the drag/release gestures
worked well with the thought process of making a decision. This greatly informed the
design of the lantern mechanic and UI layouts. This game also features multiple endings,
and figuring out how to balance them was challenging — the player needed to feel some
satisfaction with their ending, even if they had not correctly solved the mystery. Similarly,
Wandering Light has multiple endings, with one ending being the “intended” result.
However, we have worked to ensure that both endings have a satisfying result that
encourages replay, rather than frustration at getting the “wrong” ending.
5.2 Prior Art — Folk and Fairy Tales
Vasilisa the Beautiful is a Russian folk tale by Alexander Afanasyev that features
Baba Yaga, and it is the story that most heavily influenced this project (Hallett & Karasek,
2018). Wandering Light began as an adaptation of Vasilisa the Beautiful, and her use of the
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flaming skull inspired the idea of using a touch-and-drag light source as a mobile game
mechanic.
Aesthetically and thematically, the show Over the Garden Wall also served as a major
inspiration. It deliberately plays on the fairy tale logic of ugly people are bad, and pretty
young women are naturally good. The forest in the game draws from this, as it falls more
into the realm of the creepy Grimm tales rather than bright, sanitized storybooks. The art
style also inspired the game with how the colors shift with the emotional arc of the story. In
Over the Garden Wall, the adventure starts bright and autumnal, but as things get more
dire, the scenery shifts into a cold, grey winter.
Chapter 6: The Development Process
6.1 Pre-production
Pre-production for Wandering Light began in October 2021 after I decided to switch
from my original thesis idea, which was a mechanic-driven project, to a narrative-driven
game. I knew that I wanted to create a thesis project that concentrated on internal
meaning and experience rather than refining a complex system. I knew I wanted a game
that took place in a magic forest, since I wanted to lean on familiar tropes of fairy tales, and
I wanted a mechanic that matched the experience goal of fostering the joy of
discovery/exploration. After some prototyping, I decided that the magic lantern mechanic
best embodied the joy of conquering the unknown.
6.2 Alpha
In December, I made a significant design change in order to scope down the project
and realign the creative direction. I decided that I wanted the thematic focus of the project
10
to be centered on the internal conflict of deciding between self-acceptance or community.
I felt the original story and design focused on the excitement of exploration, but had little
to do with the diculty of fostering self-worth and searching for a place to belong.
Ultimately, it appeared that the best way to convey those competing feelings was through
an experience that required multiple choices, with the final decision being an irreversible
conclusion.
Originally, I did not want the game to have multiple endings for scoping reasons —
creating multiple branches increases the scope and time required to complete such a
game. However, the game felt flat and uninteresting because there was no motivation for
the player to stay or leave the forest. Eventually, I realized that the conflict of choosing
between community/acceptance and self-realization was significantly more interesting,
and that the player needed to feel a sense of loss as a result of their decision to stay or
leave. Giving the player active choices significantly changed the game’s original design,
however, it better enforces the goals of the project in terms of encapsulating the
contentious dynamic of choosing self-discovery instead of continuing along with what is
conventional.
6.3 Future Development
At its current state, the project is still in Alpha and our next milestone is completing
the demo to be shown at thesis defense and the MFA Thesis Show in May 2022.
Chapter 7: Production Post-mortem
7.1 Successes
One of the biggest challenges of this project was the fact that I had taken a leave of
absence from Fall 2020 - Spring 2021, meaning I did not have the foundation laid out by the
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thesis prep courses going into this project. Resuming my MFA was incredibly challenging,
and I recognized very quickly that I needed to constantly keep scope in mind. With this in
mind, I was able to set expectations with the team I recruited about what we could
reasonably accomplish while staying true to our project goals. The members of the team
expressed their own personal interests in the project and its goals, and it has been a
privilege to work with a team with such intrinsic motivation and strong desire to create.
The shift to a game with multiple endings in December was unexpected and set
back our production milestones, but I believe it is one of the greatest successes of the
project because it added a much needed sense of urgency and increased the stakes. For a
while, the game prototypes managed to elicit the joy and wonder of finding hidden objects
in the dark with the lantern, but there was nothing that created the tension of learning
self-love in the face of rejection and terrifying unknowns. While it changed the scope of the
project and impacted how developed the demo will be by thesis defense, giving the player
the agency to choose finally got the game to line up with the experience goal of allowing
players the catharsis of coming to terms with identity and belonging.
7.2 Areas for Improvement
While I have a very talented and supportive team, I found myself struggling with the
new role of creative director. This project showed me just how time-consuming delegation
and team management are, and how I should have relied on my producer more to organize
tasks and milestones. Eventually, I had to recognize that I cannot do everything on my own,
and there is no replacement for proper team management.
Additionally, the fact I had so little time due to my leave of absence often distracted
me from the process and I became too concerned with the final product being the
reflection of my work. As a result, every time I hit a production delay, I would start making
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design changes to try and create a project that fit my project goals, but could still be in
Beta by the MFA Thesis Show. Eventually, I realized how this was just creating more
problems, as the shifting design meant I was unable to properly delegate tasks to my team
members. Staying true to the project goals is what ultimately saved my thesis, as it forced
me to stop constantly iterating and re-align my focus with the process. This led to the
addition of choices, a change that centered the project and gave clear steps forward. Going
forward, I will think on this project and remind myself to trust the process and stay faithful
to the project goals, rather than having a myopic focus on the product itself.
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Wandering Light is a mobile narrative game that takes the familiar space of the
magical forest and fairy tales and utilizes interactivity to turn it into a space for players to
wander within themselves as they wander through the woods. In fairy tales, children are
meant to enter the woods, learn a lesson, and then return home. Wandering Light imitates
these tropes but uses them to explore something deeper than a morality lesson. The player
must consider all they have found and learned on the journey, and with the knowledge of
what they have to lose in mind, reflect on what they value most. Whether they choose to
accept their identity or choose to minimize themselves in order to have community, players
are given the space to ponder these equally valid desires and emotions. The production
process, especially after returning from a year-long leave of absence, has been incredibly
challenging, but I needed this experience to learn to let go of the desperation for success
and perfection. The greatest successes of my thesis have occurred (and still occur) when I
gave everything over to the process and the ultimate goal of creating art that reflects what
truly matters to the project, rather than putting so much value on reaching Beta by May
13
2022. Going forward with this project, I am satisfied with how the game has grown into an
engaging and complex look at the possibilities/a ordances of interactive fiction and how
they can be combined with folk tropes to create fantastic spaces for epiphany and
self-realization.
14
Bibliography
Hallett, M., & Karasek, B. (2018). Folk & Fairy Tales. Broadview Press.
O'Brien, T. (2011). The Things They Carried. Chelsea House.
15

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Wandering Light is an interactive visual novel developed for mobile that combines the familiar foundation of folktales with an investigating mechanic (via a magic lantern) to create an interactive experience that explores the rewards and complexities of self-discovery. As they play through Wandering Light, players have the freedom to explore and find the insight, epiphany, and emotional processes that can only be discovered in the fictitious and fantastic.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Emery, Madison (author)

Core Title Wandering light: an interactive visual novel

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Degree Conferral Date 2022-05

Publication Date 04/27/2022

Defense Date 04/27/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag branching narrative,fairytales,Folklore,interactive narrative,narrative design,OAI-PMH Harvest,visual novel

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lemarchand, Richard (committee chair), Bilson, Danny (committee member), Fullerton, Tracy (committee member)

Creator Email emerym@usc.edu,madison.emery@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111136615

Unique identifier UC111136615

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Emery, Madison

Type texts

Source 20220428-usctheses-batch-934 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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