Chapter Four

The essence of an Interactive fiction

Time Location

The story's time location means defining the historical period of the game: Past, present, or future. This is a critical issue in the process of the design, because it draws the wide lines for details design, as much as influences characters design, The plot, and the quest. If you are talking about the medieval time, you can't assume that the cast (characters) should include aliens, or that the quest is to save the earth from the UFO attack, and you can't arm your hero with a laser gun. There are some exceptions of course, but one should basically make a good storyboard to convince the player that this era mixture is justifiable (no one is buying that "Aliens built the pyramids" theory anymore).

Designing the character's customs usually indicates time location in theatre and cinema, so does props (and general scene) design. Time indication (or visualization) has its own traditions and ways (that might be considered clichés in some cases). The best examples are Judge dread and fifth element as examples of futuristic worlds in costume and props design (the flying cars in 5th element and the costume design in Judge dread).

Some movies start with a phrase on the screen saying: "Chicago 1998". Some other films might locate the movie period by referring to a famous incident that happened at the same year (Vietnam war, man walking on the moon,..). Some directors express time location by choosing the filming location close a place that has its own time significant (007:The world is not enough, scene near the millennium dome in Greenwich-London, indicated that the events are certainly taking place after 1999, since the dome was already constructed). Or they might just leave the specific time location to the spectator's imagination, if it wasn't a critical issue. So a contemporary Chicago is enough, and a medieval England with its old castles and green fields does the job.

Story-based, and adventure computer games are mostly time related if we are talking about adding some sense of reality and immersion.

Cinemaware's Rocket ranger is about World War II and start with a Hitler scene with his troops. Nocturne specifies certain years as a part of each level's title: "Chicago 1933, wind city massacre" justifies the use of 30's cars and machineguns, and explain the emphasis on the Mafia concept that was very popular in Chicago at that time (except that they weren't employing zombies then, as the game suggests). Knowing the time location might be important in some of the game stage, but it is clearly shown in weapons and props design. Tomb Raider-The last revelation tells the first stage time, and leaves the player to guess the second and third stage timing, but he will surely know that it is more contemporary. For Lara uses some really advances weapons. But still, she is digging in the past, so designing the location where the adventure took place had to have some historical and mythological significance, so choosing a Maya ruins in south America, and the Pyramids in Egypt was the perfect choice. Final fantasy doesn't mention time at all, It is a parallel world they are talking about, the world map is different, and the characters definition is altered from the human figure, although they look human. The environment, weapons, and vehicles design is obviously refereeing to a futuristic technological advances, which might bare a time location definition.

[Time location] - [Time] - [The Genre] - [The plot] - [The quest] - [Characters] - [Point of view]