{"id":240,"date":"2025-10-06T23:24:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2025-10-06T23:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T23:24:28","slug":"the-prophecy-brought-by-butterfly-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"The Prophecy Brought by Butterfly Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Video games are a form of narrative that are severely underutilized. Books are cemented as <em>the<\/em> vehicle of stories and narratives, and movies are now being considered serious vehicles of narrative in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Film_studies\">film studies<\/a>. While <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Game_studies\">game studies<\/a> exists, however, it is not given the same credibility as a field of narrative. That frivolous stereotype leads to a lack of credit given to the fantastic narratives in some games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two of my favorite video games are narrative games with a clear message and themes. They are stories in their own right; they are simply told via an interactive form. One of these games is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.celestegame.com\/\"><em>Celeste<\/em>.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Celeste \u2013 Nintendo Switch Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iofYDsA2yqg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Credit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NintendoAmerica\">Nintendo of America<\/a> on Youtube.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Celeste_(video_game)\">Celeste<\/a> <\/em>is a narrative about anxiety and perfectionism told through a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Platformer\">platformer<\/a> game. The other game is<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instarsandtime.com\/\"> <em>In Stars and Time<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"In Stars and Time \u2013 Launch Trailer \u2013 Nintendo Switch\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9U0BKmgKen4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Credit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@NintendoAmerica\">Nintendo of America<\/a> on Youtube.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/In_Stars_and_Time\">In Stars and Time<\/a><\/em> is a narrative about hope, hopelessness, and friendship told through a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Turn-based_role-playing_game\">turn-based RPG game<\/a>. Both of these games are stories in their own right, and to discount them as narratives because they use form as a narrative device is saddening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These games, as well as others, have made me want to use the vehicle of video games and interactive content to create my own story. I have been developing the story of this game for about a year and a half, and this design is what the start screen may look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/203460284@N02\/54837269793\/in\/dateposted-public\/\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54837269793_11275a98f6.jpg\" alt=\"The Prophecy Brought by Butterfly Wings\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This design is mine, but credit to these artists for the images used to create it: viceroy by Dolly Holmes from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/browse\/icons\/term\/viceroy\/\">Noun Project<\/a> (CC BY 3.0)<br>Sword by Ilham Juliandi from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/browse\/icons\/term\/sword\/\">Noun Project<\/a> (CC BY 3.0)<br>staff by Amanda Hua from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/browse\/icons\/term\/staff\/\">Noun Project<\/a> (CC BY 3.0)<br>staff by Amanda Hua from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/browse\/icons\/term\/staff\/\">Noun Project<\/a> (CC BY 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My game is going to be a turn-based RPG game, and I want to look at destiny, choices, and the expectations we put on children in media through this game. A unique feature of gameplay that I want to use to tell this story, a feature that makes it impossible to make this story not as an interactive story, is the ability to restart the game. I want to take inspiration from games like<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Undertale\"> <em>Undertale<\/em><\/a> which use the form of the media to shape the narrative. There are only bad endings in my story unless you break out of the expectations of the game, and do not let yourself choose either a purely &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;bad&#8221; path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are five main characters within my game: one initiates the plot, one is the antagonist, and there are three protagonists that you can choose from. These five characters are central to the plot and each have a symbol that represents them. The antagonist is represented by the woods, each of the three protagonists are represented by a weapon, and the initiator is represented by the viceroy butterfly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/24089765@N05\/43690702875\/in\/photolist-dgWdXX-wcziCB-29yNgNB-pCnU5K-Y4Fw2F-23UYLbU-fkPaKG-KJsa9L-HTeWFs-27uxorx-56kpeh-oQJAVT-oQKxdP-fdCGML-NeJaVj-2a649sv-EGEjSB-29Px2wA-GzE8MH-KDq491-ogsCZy-faUWDB-27tJ6CW-oTsBJJ-z7Bff2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1847\/43690702875_170428129a.jpg\" alt=\"Viceroy Butterfly!\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Credit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/24089765@N05\/\">Amy Woodward <\/a>on Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Images are incredibly important to stories, and images are even more important to stories made through video games. Video games are a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Multimedia\">multimedia<\/a> approach to art, which means that each part of them play a role in creating the story whether consciously or not. Images like symbols for characters are obvious ways of creating stories using multimedia approaches, but I want my game to be one where each aspect of it, from gameplay to art to sound design, are important to creating it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This game is still just plans and a dream, but it will be real one day. It will be a story not just for me, but for all, and this start screen may be part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This story was based on <a href=\"https:\/\/assignments.ds106.us\/assignments\/your-story-as-a-game\/\">Your Story as a Game.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video games are a form of narrative that are severely underutilized. Books are cemented as the vehicle of stories and narratives, and movies are now being considered serious vehicles of narrative in film studies. While game studies exists, however, it is not given the same credibility as a field of narrative. That frivolous stereotype leads [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-assignments","tag-ds106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds106.acemolloy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}