Immersive Engagement Proposal - Jay's Blank Studio

Premise and Purpose

The Hero’s Journey is a project that has been worked on by previous Digital Storytelling students from previous years and is a continual project where new things are added each year to create a wonderful world. This is a project that caters to new students, as well as new for people who are considering entering the college world. There are a total of 12 steps. The step that I am working on, step 5 of the Hero’s Journey, is supposed to represent the part of the hero’s story where the hero takes their first step into the new world of their journey that they’ve embarked on.

It’s supposed to be engaging because, not only is this supposed to be viewed within a virtual world where you can interact with almost anything that catches your attention, but it was made to help encourage new and potential students to join and pursue their passions at the college, and to take that first big, and intimidating, step into the world of Peninsula College.

Audience and Market

The intended users for this are anyone who has an interest in Peninsula College, as well as new and even current students—whether they are technically savvy and can comprehend how things are working in this virtual world, or if they are just curious how this was made. There is hope that this project can appeal to them because of the integration of art and technology to create something that is truly amazing.

The usage of virtual worlds, information, and art integrated into one thing is not something that is new; many interactive and games catered to learning and teaching already exist—even things that exist within virtual worlds.

Medium, Platform, and Genre

The Hero’s Journey takes place in the virtual world of Second Life, which is a virtual world where anything can be created and used for other user’s personal—or, in this case, educative—purposes. SL has a function where people can communicate to others via instant messaging (IM), or even vocally. Each user remains anonymous unless they decide to share in their In Real Life (IRL) profile who they are outside of SL.

The strength of using Second Life for this project is that, unlike creating something physically, you are able to create almost anything that your heart desire—this includes replicas of things that you find in the real world, as well as things that do not exist at all. There are practically no limitations when it comes to creating something and customizing yourself within the space. The real limitations that I can think of is that people who aren’t tech savvy, or don’t work well with virtual spaces because of the nature of them would not find the process or nature of Second Life to be appealing to them. I also believe that, without the right technical and graphical components, as well as a lack of internet access, it can be hard for people to participate in Second Life.

Second Life is a 3-dimensional (3D) virtual world that can only be accessed through the usage of a computer or PC that can run the application. The genre of Second Life itself is virtual reality.

Narrative and Gaming Elements

The Hero’s Journey itself is a narrative that outlines events that could happen to the hero of the story; not every step is completed in the same order, and some can even be repeated. The objects that are found at each step, and surrounded everywhere as you walk along the path and other places of note, also contribute to the storytelling of the Hero’s Journey as they each have their own story, meaning, and interpretation attached to them.

The tone of this story is to be a sort of guide to people, and a way to showcase a journey that everyone goes through, even if each person’s circumstances are different, or don’t happen at the same time. It’s supposed to encourage others to identify themselves with where they are in their own journey, and to inspire themselves to seek out solutions to get them to the next step.

Some people can consider the Hero’s Journey as sort of a self-fulfilling game for themselves, with themselves as the main character of the story—aka, the Hero. Except, unlike other games, there is no real loss. The only thing you are capable of achieving is learning something new with each step, and the act of trying even if it fails at the end.

User’s Role and Point of View (POV)

The user sets themselves up as both the observer and the Hero—just as though they were playing a game of their own, but using themselves rather than a different character. They can consider this a first-person interaction through an observant lens.

Characters

The non-playable characters (NPC) are the animals and objects that are scattered throughout the Hero’s Journey that can be seen as the hero walks the path. Their purpose is to help enhance each step with their own stories and meaning behind them, to hopefully inspire the hero as well and make them ponder while they navigate.

Structure and Interface

Chronologically, in the Hero’s Journey, the starting point is at Step 1: The Ordinary World Before the Adventure Begins, and ends at Step 12: Becoming the Mentor and Return with Education Elixir. This is meant to be viewed from one point to the next until the user/hero makes it to the end; however, the user/hero can go back down the path and view each step and its location at any time. They will be able to navigate using their own character.

Each step is labeled, so it is unlikely that the user will get lost as they navigate the path and stop at each step. After they have viewed and visited each location and the objects it has to offer, they can progress on from there.

Storyworld and Sub-settings

The island that the Hero’s Journey is on in Second Life is called Etopia, which is an island inspire by the Pacific Northwest (as that is where the location of Peninsula College is located), and littered with forestry and animals found in the PNW. The path weaves towards different ecosystems and weather biomes that showcases the multi-faceted areas and locations that are set within the PNW. It can be challenging, creatively, to create a world with different types of seasons and ecosystems, as it takes time to create a diverse setting and make it all work with each other; however, I think because of that, it makes the entirety of the Hero’s Journey very interesting and intriguing to navigate through.

Our time period is present day, but with different genres mixed within—a mixed theme of science fiction, fantasy, and Neo-Pirate Steampunk.

User Engagement

I think being able to have interactive objects that contain things within each object will help with making people feel engaged as they explore our project and wander around. The goal of the project is to both gain something out of it—learning something new about the college or themselves, or about the virtual world—and to have had a good experience with engaging within the virtual space, whether or not they have experience in this type of space. It’s important, as storytellers, that our audience is able to identify something that they have discovered and carry that with them for whatever task they decide to pursue next; either that, or they are able to enjoy whatever they have read and watched.

I personally believe that is no need to add tension to this particular project. This is meant to be a learning experience, as well as a fun one, so there shouldn’t be any reason to create tension in a space that is supposed to be calming and fun. That means that there are no set rewards or penalties as well, aside from gaining experience and learning something new.

Overall Look and Sound

I am leaning towards the usage of text and imagery to tell the story, as I feel that it is easier for me to write as a way to visualize and tell my story rather than using imagery (though I do think that using imagery will help a lot in what I am trying to convey).

The overall look, I feel like, is supposed to be welcoming and whimsical, as well as eye catching with the bright objects, all at the same time.

Interactive Scavenger Hunt

Things that people can find in the scavenger hunt are the objects and animals that have been littered around Second Life, which can help with people teaming up together and possibly becoming acquainted with each other. While each team, or individual, finds each animal and object, they can have the opportunity to learn more about them and how they intersect with the Hero’s Journey.

Since Etopia is supposed to be a virtual and personified representation of the Peninsula College campus and its resources, each location is a representation of the buildings and locations found on campus.

Marketing of The Hero’s Journey

I think a few ways for our project to be marketed is on social media, as well as by advertisements throughout our college campus for those who go to class in person. From my knowledge, students are the most active on Facebook and Instagram, so I believe that those two areas are the best areas to market our project. Things such as flyers and maybe even an electronic banner/slideshow with our project marketed on there would be a nice way to advertise our project as well.

I believe that it would not hurt to have someone who is an expert at marketing and management help us advertise our project outward to others, as well as encourage the creators participating in this creation make efforts to advertise as well in some way shape or form.

J.E.D.I. Hub Overview

As part of the project of our Digital Storytelling World, we have been tasked with creating objects and choosing an animal to go with our Area of Study that’s found within the J.E.D.I. Hub. I have decided that my storytelling animal will be a Jellyfish. It is a little bit of an unconventional animal, as most of the animals that you will see on Etopia are either land or sky animals; however, I believe that there is a way to incorporate a sea creature to a storytelling world such as this. I plan to make sense of it as I create my story and the objects that I have to go with it.