Fez (2012)

As the player, do you interact with a character or an avatar and how does this affect your involvement in the narrative?

Gomez is the main character introduced to the game, but h's a bit of both an avatar and a character. He is a character because he is an established citizen of his tiny town who already knows his neighbours, but he is also an avatar in that he is plain enough for the player to project their own characteristics onto him, even though we're given little. if any opportunity to do so, with most of the character 'interactions' being through Dot your 'guide'. The most emotion Gomez has to offer is an ecstatic 'happy' face when he accomplishes a goal, or plays with his fez/falls asleep on the floor in one of his long idle animations, showing off his childish personality.

Gomez suffers from a case of 'silent video game protagonist' and ergo, we cannot discern Gomez's thoughts on the possibility of his whole world and universe's imminent collapse. He isn't given the opportunity to express his own distress, confusion, or fear, or even any interest in starting an adventure. his emotions are instead left up to the player to project onto him and the player's motivations in the game narrative become his.

Gomez's status as 'character' from being an established character does not affect the game very much, as it is only a means to give Gomez a connection to Geezer who introduces him to the power of 3D game core mechanics. It's an underdeveloped bond between these two characters that stems from simply that the village, including Gomez are descended from the same people who were once gifted the view of 3D sight and that is the sole reason of connection, but Gomez is not aware of it yet. There is no further explanation as to how Geezer and Gomez know each other or why Geezer trusts Gomez with this power out of all the other villagers, but the brief backstory of a 'bond' simply creates an easier segway into kicking off the adventure, Gomez's identity as a character does not show much, nor does it impact the narrative of the game, since the village's identity is not very important to the overall narrative,  as if the Fez was simply a magical artifact rather than a lineage-specific item any character could have been tasked with saving the world, descended from mystical village or not if the lore was changed so that anyone who had the fez could see the 3rd dimension, Therefore it is clear that Gomez is more of an avatar in nature, than character.

The Wolf Among Us

 How does morality influence the choices you make in the
game?

Morality in the Wolf Among Us is easily distinguished between empathetic or apathetic responses. For example in the very beginning Toad complains about the hassle and complications of fables being constantly in glamour for the lower class, and you can choose to sympathize with Toad and tell him you'll let him off the hook, or you can reprimand him and threaten to send him to the 'Farm' the next time you meet. The primary response the game is trying to rope from us, is our desire to prove Bigby Wolf as a sincere individual to the townsfolk, a goal that is shared by Bigby himself as sated in the Book of Fables. Alternatively, we can flip this narrative and play Bigby as if he never changed from his old ways and gladly, even find pleasure in hurting others. The character's responses seem programmed to reprimand Bigby for every action in the game, trying to prompt you to redeem Bigby to them, however it can get tiresome and naggy at times.
You are expected to empathize with the denizens of Fabletown as they experience common lower class social problems such as never getting help from the government, the powerlessness of being essentially invisible citizens, thus their problems are seen as invisible, poverty, and government corruption. Even if the player has not experienced these hardships themselves, they are morally expected to sympathize with these very real world problems and attempt to try make life for the Fabletown citizens better. The game expects your first playthrough at least, to show that despite having the most supportive intentions and trying hard as you might to make morally right choices, life doesn't always go swimmingly and misfortune still befalls these people just like in real life, such as despite all the help you're offered to give Toad, the money, and promise of a second chance to afford a glamour and continue to live in Fabletown, through enforcement of law Toad is still forced to be evicted from his property with his son into the Farm, a place described as a prison. This disregard of moral choices affecting certain characters storylines makes it difficult to be properly motivated to make empathetic choices if all it's going to do is give characters false hope, thus my second playthrough of the game made it easier to be more stern and apathetic to Toad, in attempt to give him no pretenses that he would be exempt from the rules. The morality of following the rules as opposed to following your instincts is also challenged in this game, as multiple times if you do exactly what Snow White says in order to appease her, effectively the law, you're called her 'lap dog' and Georgie even wishes you'd 'come to your senses' if you choose to chase him first instead of the Crooked Man, where your choice to complete the specified, but not the most important objective, results in characters calling you an obedient dog sent to where it's told. Ergo this game encourages you to make moral choices over what path to take as opposed to the path you're explicitly told to take.

Basic Storyboard

early concept art

Fallout 2

Do the choices made in the game result in branching narrative paths? If so, how? If not, how are the choices meaningful?

Fallout 2 having the mechanic of modifying your character's traits to be more diplomatic or combat based allows for different styles of gameplay. However the beginning sequence of Fallout 2 is still rather linear, as the only way to unlock different dialogue options is to increase intelligence or other speech enhancing skills, and the only way to progress is to complete a linear mission. There is no alternative way to complete the first mission, However there are multiple pathways that can be completed in this open world. However only a few endings are considered 'canon' as a continuation of the series, thus there are only a few select events that truly have happened, that the player should set out to achieve. Likewise there are still only a few 'happy' endings and thus few of the endings are actually impactful to the overarching story of the series.

testing bug motion

Initial Animatic