Interactive Narrative Story
Mapping the Interactive Experience
Yiyang · Andrew · Henry
Explore the Maze ↓Established core puzzle mechanics — collecting 6 letter fragments to form the password "THREAD" — and multiple endings: Won, Observed, Thread Weaver.
Transitioned from concept prototype to functional beta, including AR/VR and physical poster platforms, integrated with the WebGAL visual novel engine.
Expanded from P1's concept image generation to decision tree construction, VR code debugging, and video clue editing.
The "safe" Sheridan network environment. Lowers the player's guard and establishes campus reality.
Represents the Digital Hub and your guide, ARI. A cold, high-tech, structured digital space.
Threat, surveillance, and the Minotaur virus. "High-danger" color for critical clues and visual interference.
Secondary accent used throughout the experience for UI highlights and transitions.
Clean, corporate layouts forcibly overwritten by raw digital strokes, "spray-painted" errors, and aggressive system messages.
Screen tearing, pixelation, and chromatic aberration. The geometric, fragmented red eye is the benchmark for this style.
Grid-based maze referencing. Glowing vector lines and topographic grids represent the "Digital Labyrinth" within the Web Hub and AR nodes.
Minimalist, clean Sans-Serif
Helvetica, Roboto, or Inter for all "official" instructions and standard Hub menus.
ARE YOU BLIND?
Distorted, handwritten spray-paint styles or Monospace/Terminal fonts for the Minotaur's taunts, hidden codes, and system errors.
Sheridan students on the Trafalgar campus.
Tap into students' curiosity. They encounter posters disguised as official notices (e.g., Wi-Fi surveys) around campus. After scanning the QR code, they are instantly transported from the physical space into a digital "maze."
A nameless hero. The participant becomes a player within the labyrinth, in hopes to escape it. Unknown. Guided only by instinct and clues.
A cybernetic system that watches, responds, and creates glitches/chaos to stress and deter the player from escaping the maze. Continues to sabotage different digital areas of Sheridan.
A counter-system to the Minotaur. Its sole purpose is to guide and provide extra hints/truths. Felt through the tone of messages — different from the Minotaur.
Modern systems give you choices, not true free will (sense of agency).
The Minotaur represents raw, chaotic nature, while the player represents human intelligence — using strategy, planning, and tools to defeat it.
Mazes and puzzles may be challenging but can always be solved through trials. We want players to leave feeling satisfied about their problem solving and agency.
Glitches in the system and world create tension and uncertainty.
Free to have choice but often within boundaries and limitations.
Sheridan's digital network has been compromised by a malicious virus (The Minotaur system).
The network reaches out for help from students. An internal helper (ARI) guides them.
Student enters the digital hub through a physical poster on campus.
Navigate the glitched network, securing compromised areas by solving puzzle locks.
Different choices throw players into different puzzles. Fragment letters makeup "THREAD".
Obtain all fragments, unlock all compromised areas. Exit instruction is given. Escape the maze.
A fusion of String of Pearls + Hub and Spoke with parallel narratives.
Story nodes connected by participant actions — finding fragments/clues. Participants choose their own adventure in reaching the last clue that reveals the exit password.
The same website page is used to let the user enter the password to exit the maze. Start and finish on the same platform. Dead ends restart the game or send players to try different puzzles.
Player enters the link, scans QR on poster, or the entire poster itself to enter the game hub.
Find the glitched service disruption poster on campus and discover a hidden VR room (shortcut).
A special item is hidden in this poster. Solve it to find the clue.
Envelopes, 3D prints, and posters hidden on campus. Explore the lore by meeting ARI in person.
Simplified one-path timeline — ~15 minutes
Wrong choices trigger a Game Reset
These different components are modular to the game. The weaving of the story narrative helps connect everything.
Main hub for fragment collection and story/game progression. Features map navigation, node selection, visual novel storytelling, and a lore archive.
This platform provides deeper lore and narrative context. Player enters an answer at the end to progress. Each node unlocked grants a fragment and a segment of the WebGAL story log, gradually revealing the truth about the Minotaur.
In-game helper monitored by a game-master. "Meet your helper" — Players find the real physical model at endgame. Bridges the digital experience to a physical in-game character. The final trans-media ending.
An envelope from Ari containing a note-clue for the player. Hidden in the library.
Exit the digital classroom set up by the Minotaur system. The answer is a shortcut — a space for receiving a clue by "securing the area." The clue provides the full exit password as a reward for escapees.
Provide location hint. Only one of the possible nodes; there are other ways to complete the game.
Point camera to the marker image. When AR is enabled and the camera is pointed to the marker, the overlay appears revealing a letter fragment.
This node is not detrimental to the user's success in exiting — the overall interaction structure compensates for potential glitchy AR/VR experiences.
Completed all online multi-choice puzzles. Have the full code to exit. Three exit routes:
User returns to the hub page for more story information or help, or enters the password to exit the maze at endgame.
We did 4 user testing rounds on the hub and changed a lot
People didn't know what to do — added a guide for users to solve puzzles.
Added a progress indicator and route map to let people know where they are.
Added save/load progress to the hub so users can continue later.
Added an end page to give users a satisfying exit experience.
"AI was seldom used because of its uncertain behaviour. The energy and effort spent into ensuring that a prompt was well made was the trade off for manual labouring. Discernment between AI-able tasks and tasks that should require our own building became apparent through the development process. We were overall successful in creating and chaining different experiences together without AI."
Project management was done through Teams and WeChat. Teams served as a central file hub where records of conversations were kept — web hub links, testing links, and document files. Testing was done in person.
WeChat provided quick conversations about project direction and was used for its translation ability.
Proposal · Ideation · Plan
Scope testing · Project Elements Creation · XR/UI Development
Test MVP · Refine Development
Deployment data monitor · Reflection on deployment · Maintain until end of service