ARTIST STATEMENT
Reconnect is an interactive story created by Lola. The story follows a young detective, Matthew, thriving to achieve his long awaited promotion. When assigned a new case, he was shocked and saddened to find out that the latest victim was one of his childhood friends. During the investigation, Matthew discovered some upsetting truths about his childhood friend’s death. Along this journey, Matthew learned that it was never too late to reconnect with a loved one.
Using Twine, Lola created passages that gave the audience control over the narrative. The audience get to play a role similar to that of a shoulder angel or devil for Matthew’s decisions. Lola intended that the audience would find out that the righteous path is the only way they could help Matthew solve the case and get his promotion.
During this project, Lola took inspiration from various sources regarding coding and the role that the reader would play. An interactive game by POCKETGEMS called Episode (2014) was one of the main influences that targeted the techniques of the reader’s participation in an interactive story.
During the narrative, Lola gave Matthews’s character depth and dimension by adding an emotional sub story that could have an impact on the reader’s decisions. Lola did this to give the reader an opportunity to reflect.
Reconnect achieved the requirement of the project brief. The interaction between Matthew and the readers is informal which builds trust between them. By using a range of technical and visual techniques, Lola created an aesthetically pleasing interactive story.
Link — https://vimeo.com/168720775
FINAL TWINE FILE
