SCOPE:

In film writing, the full scope of a story needs to be exploited, in the way that incidents may need to be enhanced by locations, and the way the lives of characters change by the end. Fully SCOPING-OUT all areas of development now includes such things as story bibles, marketing tie-ins and action figures.

This is a large part of preliminary multimedia development, expanding further on the lateral hypertext facility. SCOPING-OUT a project incorporates genre, narrative and marketing ideas. Links can be made between all sorts of media within an application, but also to other kinds of resources and products available on the web or in the open market place.

Movies released on DVD can present the film in different formats and languages, while also including an editing suite to recut scenes, director/actor commentaries, production docos, animatics of storyboards, music, unseen footage and bloopers. They can also present special links to online gaming web-sites or to purchase promotional clothing.

Consider these points as you 'scope-out' a project:

• What does the user have to accomplish in the interface?

• Are there different skill levels involved?

• What puzzles mysteries or clues must be solved/gathered?

• Who is your Protagonist or Hero? Who are the Villains?

• What are their various skills or competing qualities?

• What reward does the user receive at the end of the experience?

• What other media or products can be applied to improve this experience?

• What makes your interface different from the rest?