THE FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS:

The most time consuming area of interactive development is the preparation of the story and function documents, developing SYNOPSIS, SCENE SCRIPTS, FLOWCHARTS, CONCEPT DESIGNS, STYLE GUIDES and STORYBOARDS. These are the usual steps taken to produce an interactive interface. Design all the documents for easy understanding by the client, other writers, designers, programmers and even users, for use in feedback sessions.

Most SCRIPTS FOR MULTIMEDIA begin as a written synopsis, an outline and a breakdown of the content, containing simple statements about what the user gets to do. The SYNOPSIS can be one line or a paragraph, but no more than a page, describing the basic plot, motivations of characters and user activities. An OUTLINE is about three to ten pages, like a short story version of the synopsis. It includes all the action, without dialogue, elaborating on dynamic elements like story, characters and style. A BREAKDOWN details each scene or web-page individually.

If you study any web-site you’ll notice that all the information is broken down into easy to use chunks. A good way of making preliminary notes is by using index cards or post-it notes, so that they can be arranged on the floor or wall of the workplace.

This method quickly establishes a very useful VISUAL INFORMATION SPACE that can be easily changed and then translated into exact FLOWCHARTS and NAVIGATIONAL GUIDES. From these basic plans come the advanced time-lines and complex story bibles that we see in computer gaming applications. Ironically, the multimedia writer must create a very coherent plan so that the user can potentially (in some cases) get completely lost in the material.

These plans are the guts of an interface; describing the content and visual style, containing all text, dialogue and narration, while keeping the applications purpose in focus. They usually contain descriptions of characters, environments, sounds, music, ideas for navigation metaphors, plus code numbers for cross-referencing to other programming resources.

• SCENE SCRIPTS: Detailed paragraphs arranged like a film script, with descriptions of on-screen conditions and transitions, details of first person gaming activities, interactions between characters, motivations and outcomes of multimedia elements, etc.

• STORYBOARD & FLOWCHART SCRIPTS: Revised and abridged from the above, keeping important action/incidental dialogue relevant to the frame, suggesting style guide notes. Allow the pictures to tell the story when formulating storyboards.

• CHARACTER AND STORY BIBLES: One page or major doorstoppers; with many synopsis, unused treatments of loosely connected scenes that set mood and pace, descriptions of themes, character breakdowns, plus family trees and the collected back-story index.