Interactive Platforms Productions

For Interactive Platforms Productions I designed an interactive game entitled 'Fonesic'. This was originally intended to be primarily for IOS, but due to differences in the prototype I have also designed a HTML format and a test video of the project on my I-phone 6s. The phone plus a couple of the art-boards in the interaction were designed through Adobe Illustrations. The audio was primarily acquired through Free Sounds, but modified through Adobe Audition and the entire interaction was created on Adobe XD. 

Inspirations

All endings

There are a total of 4 endings which can be achieved in Fonesic. If the player makes a terrible choice or the phone battery runs out they 'fail' the identity check automatically. The interactive choices determine which of the endings are achieved. The best ending was designed to be an ending that was only reachable for me because the phone in the interaction was designed to be my own phone. That's why I made the best ending hard to reach, while the other endings are easier to achieve.

I tried presenting Fonesic as an HTML code to see if the results turned out better than the IOS version did. Although the speed of some of the audio is a lot slower than on the IOS version the hover effect at least is present in the HTML version.

Fonesic IOS test

I tried out the interactive experience on my phone to see how it would perform. Because exporting to phone was a lot tougher than I realised I decided to also make this video a behind the scenes detailing how the experience works and the secret in order to uncover the ending which was reserved only for me. BlackMagic Ursa was used for the filming of the Fonesic IOS test.

Critical Evaluation

From the different platforms I could have chosen for my Interactive and Platform Productions project, I created an interactive story using Adobe XD. The interactive story was called Fonesic and it was designed as a IOS security game with the concept of the audience 'finding' a lost phone and going through a computer simulation of a normal day in order to prove they were the owner of the phone. Interactive choices were used to guide the story and proof of the identity. I found the experience had a different result than what I had originally planned. Originally, it was a virtual reality dream sequence in order to identify whether the audience was me, but I abandoned the concept because it felt too complicated a plot to engage audiences. To simplify things, I tried making an interactive wireframe on Twine software, but eventually switched to Adobe XD hoping to create a wireframe for IOS. I ended up making a test video for it and creating a HTML version because I encountered a few issues with the IOS version. It was a pleasant surprise for me as when I first designed the interactive project; I didn't imagine it would be as accessible to multiple platforms as it actually was.

I felt pleased that the IOS and HTML version was neither better nor worse than the other, but it disappointed me the hover effect I had applied to a large fraction of the project could not play on IOS because it was unsupported. The hover was coloured and shaped to look like a sent text message to contribute to the feel that the project was an actual phone, much like the other designs were. How I had to work around the problem with the hover effect not showing up on the finished interactive choice was to remove it. For the artboards which contained a hover option of different options I had to make it visible so audiences could select an option to proceed forward, as opposed to being stuck on an artboard because the options wouldn't be displayed without hover. Regardless of this I filmed a video of the interactive game on IOS to show how it works on multiple platforms instead of just one.

When I attempted to export the project to HTML the hover effect worked but a few of the images of emojis didn't show up and the audio was not always responsive for a few of the artboards. In the end these issues did not affect the viewing experience for both platforms and I could disable the keyboard so the only way past the interaction choices was to make a choice. One thing I don't think I would do again is include the number of artboards I used. The estimate time of the project's completion was a 5-7-minute experience, but it got harder to stick to this time frame with more artboards. Fortunately, I could cut down on some artboards making it easier to reach this time frame. Because I had no skills in Adobe XD and Illustrator, I had to use LinkedIn Learning in order to learn how to use it to create Fonesic. 

I also used Audio Audition to change audio files downloaded from Freesounds and the voice messages from friends and family. Unfortunately, I did not have time to test out the different and transferable features the code software Anima offered. Fonesic was designed so the audience could pass the identity check but struggle to reach the best/ secret ending. This is because the phone in the interactive experience was mine and the scenarios were mainly based on actual events. Same was for most of the images I used, which would introduce the time and location of the interactive experience. The best ending, I was hoping for my audiences to achieve would detail they passed the identity check, but question if they are the owner of the phone or if they know the owner well enough. The original title was called 'Are you, my Owner?', but it didn't engage as much as I had hoped.

I switched the title to Fonesic because I wanted to address how iconic the phone was both to the interactive experience, and how we have become far too engrossed in technology to the point it is a large part of our lives. Therefore, I treated the battery level on the created phone as an actual life meter for the audience, which would automatically end the experience faster as a game over if the battery level ran out. Particular bad choices would also serve as a game over. The phone bar was treated as a progress check, so audiences knew how close they are to reaching one of the four endings of the experience. Trying out my project on IOS went well overall despite issues with the speed and visibility of a few interactions. Changing the project size to an appropriate size for IOS phone as opposed to 1920 x 1080 would have probably made for slightly faster interactions. The party game Jackbox TV acted as my inspiration for Fonesic as I loved the idea of the party game being organised by the interactive choices of other participants.

To conclude, the results of my interactive platforms production was a success, but with a lot of different results to what I was expecting. What I would do differently next time would be to format the project to an IOS format and merge my gained skills in Adobe XD with the associate software Anima. I was, however, able to put my past action plan to improve on my audio skills, but the quantity of artboards included in my project made it difficult for me to track the average length it would take for someone to take to complete the project. My alternative action plan is to apply all my past action plans for my Final Major Project, including pre-production. I would like to make this project serve as a prequel to my final major project or at least play a part in it. I find my alternative action plan will combine all my experiences and action plans and present I have understood what I have learnt throughout every single module I have completed in MA Digital Media.