Choice: Carnival of Death Story Map

"Carnival of Death" By Hannah Humphries & David Warner

• The choice I chose from the Carnival of Death story map, created by Hannah & David, was the option to Go In or Leave as soon as you enter the carnival. Keep in mind, I'm assuming that this is a horror game since it's called the "Carnival of Death" which wouldn't seem to fit any other type of video game genre lol. 

• As soon as a "start" or "start game" was selected, I would open the game with a cut scene of a car driving at night and arriving at a carnival with a big sign that said "Carnival of Death". Then, the player's character would get out of the car, say "Hmm, I wonder why it's called the Carnival of Death? Have people really died here? Nah, it's a carnival; how bad could it be?", and then enter the carnival. Once that cut scene was over, I would have the player's character set in a carnival-themed environment while being viewed from a third-person perspective so that the player can explore their surroundings and see the character interacting with the things in their surroundings. 

• To trigger the choice of whether to Go In the carnival or Leave, I would have a pop-up message saying, "Would you like to go in?" and a pop-up message saying, "Would you like to leave?". The "Go In" message would only pop up if the player reached the giant, neon sign that said "Welcome!"; and the "Leave" message would only pop up if the player walked back to the entrance of the carnival. Both messages will prompt the player to press either a button corresponding to "yes" or a button corresponding to "no". 

• Go In Message: 
• If the player chooses "yes" to go in the carnival, then you'd see the player's character walk into the carnival.
  
  
• If the player chooses "no", then the message would disappear, and the player would stay in that beginning area. 

• Leave Message: 
• If the player chooses "yes" to leave, then the player would be awarded an achievement called "There's No Turning Back!". Also, I would have a cut scene where the player's character got back in their car and drove away from the carnival. While driving, a heavy rain would start, the player's character would say, "I didn't see rain in the forecast for tonight?", and then all of sudden, a bolt of lightning would strike a tree that just so happened to be near the same road the player's character was driving on. The tree would crash into the car of the player's character, ultimately, knocking them out. On the next cut scene, the player's character would awaken back at the entrance of the carnival, except for this time, no message would pop up asking, "Would you like to leave?".
   
• If the player chooses "no", then the message would disappear, and the player would stay in that beginning area.

• I decided that having an opening cut scene provides the player with a little bit of background information as to how the player's character arrived at the "Carnival of Death". The dialogue for this cut scene just adds to the story of the game.
  
  
• I decided to have the player's character be viewed in third person to encourage exploration of the environment. I'm always a fan of being able to see everything that's around me as well as being able to explore environments that way I know how much I can interact with the game.
  
  
• As far as the triggers for the Go In and Leave messages, I just needed something simple that would allow the player to trigger the pop up messages, and walking to something or reaching a certain location accomplishes that task. In addition to that, for the sake of simplicity, I figured a pop up message prompting the player to say either "yes" or "no" was apt for this situation.
  
  
• I chose to actually let the player leave the carnival because there are so many horror games when players want to leave or try to leave as a result of it being something they would do if they were in the situation themselves. However, they are not allowed to leave or even given the option. So I thought it would be cool to give them an achievement for making a decision based off placing themselves in the shoes of the character, but this IS a video game after all, so I developed the cut scene as a nice way to say, "You may think you're leaving, but you're actually not lol". Although some of the things I chose players have seen time and again in horror games, I think my decisions are the most satisfying for players because I included elements that demonstrate creativity, provide story and dialogue, and administer reward. Speaking from the perspective of a gamer, all of these things are very appealing and make the game much more enjoyable.