I’m pleased to say there’s been considerable progress this week, particularily on the storyboarding end of things. I’ve charted out specific character dialogue, items, fight scenes (crafted through the consversation tool) and quests to be inputted into ARES, with the aim of creting a much more robust story.

At this point I’m fully committed to the trees idea, as it’s where the passion lies. It also presents more of an opportunity to learn something new –environmental history is a definite passion of mine, and this is a chance to investigate its little nuances in a highly manicured downtown core, which has a multitude of local, reigonal, and national narratives tied to it. It’s also a chance to engage more with the work of Dr. Dean, who has focused on this area in the past. She helped put together an exhibition for the Bytown Museum on the Lover’s Walk not too long ago. It had a predominantly environmental focus, speaking to the evolution of the canopy on the slopes, to environmental changes caused by construction, mudslides, and the evolution of industry on the waterfront, and other factors that have played a significant role shaping the way Ottawa looks today. I actually managed to incorporate some of the work into the ARES game itself, without having to focus too much on the walk itself.

Academics aside, I’ve quite fallen in love with the way the trees engage with the player (hopefully). The opportunity to storyboard –with an actual story– is great, and I’m very happy with the colourful host of characters I’ve created to support the overarching environmental narrative. My hope is that this project doesn’t become a guided walk around Ottawa, where you take a look at a tree, read some facts, and move on. The aim is to be more like historical fiction, where you engage with content but in a new, renegotiated way. I listened to the World of Warcraft soundtrack when creating the dialogue and fight sequences, and I’m hoping the richness that sprung out wasn’t all in my head.

Next steps would be to read up on similar projects, like “Tecumseh lies here,” and see how they integrate digital storytelling with the need to educate people –and not blur the lines too sharply about what is fact versus fiction. Of course, the obvious second next step is to keep inputting everything into ARES.