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Pablo.C.S
Jan '20
1

What if your favorite comic character wasn't killed off, or what if the relationship between the characters you were rooting for came to fruition?

Most mediums aren't interactive, but I'd argue that interactivity is an important, and an especially underdeveloped component of narrative writing.

Videogames are the best example of interactivity coming into play with a narrative, but there are also "choose your own ending" books and occasionally there is an interactive film or two, but these are few and far between.

Most rare however is a choose your own ending comic, I've personally never even seen or read one, at least definitely not a mainstream comic. Comics are a visual medium and I believe would be very well suited to engaging in this type of narrative formatting.

(For instance, a choose your own ending novel might get confusing to read through, especially a longer length one but a comic could work better with the format.)

I believe that there should be a genuine effort in trying to distribute more media that takes into consideration the viewer/reader as a participant and maybe even character in of themselves in the context of the narrative.

I've observed for the past few years, the steady incorporation of more and more choices into the stories of (single player) games, to the point that player choices are becoming selling points, especially in newer or indie IP's.

So it's not like the idea that making an interactive comic would be that much of a risk, if ever there was a time to create an "interactive" comic I'd say it'd be now.

There are a lot of good reasons to make multiple branching paths, a story can have more chances to be popular, since the reader can read whatever branch suits their tastes and isn't constrained to a central story they may or may not enjoy.

Further, such choices can often add impact to their narrative experiences. For example: how much more impacting would a happy or tragic or romantic sequence be if they reader their-self caused it, through the branching pathways of their choices instead of it being an inevitable part of the story.

For this format to work, It would start with a base comic, to set up the backstory and the characters, maybe around 30 pages or so. This base would be universal and can fit in regardless of the story branch.

Then around about three main story branches, a good/happy, a neutral and a bad/tragic storyline. Each branch can reveal more about the world and characters and even be able to cross over details with eachother to split into more "sub" branches.

Undeniably this would be a LOT of work, but it could be a unique, popular and very creatively satisfying project to do.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about this as a concept and I just thought I'd share the idea with you guys. I genuinely believe an interactive comic or webcomic as an idea deserves to be explored.

Maybe you have a better way of going about writing this kind of project, or maybe you think it's a terrible idea. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it. :slight_smile:

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TeddyLemon
Jan '20

I’ve seen a few interactive comics, not a lot but their definitely there. I remember reading two stories on webtoons, it was really interesting.

At the end of each episode, options would appear where readers can comment and choose which one they opt for. The option with the highest number of votes will then be the scenario the author will draw for the next episode.
Its a lot of fun as a reader to have the ability to move and change the story, but from my exp with these two reads things kinda went downhill. Like readers would always choose the worst option of all which then leads the main character into prison or someone dying :joy: Its really funny

I want this to be a genre honestly, Its exactly like a video game but your in it with a lot of people. I wanna read more of ‘em :joy:

Freemints30
Jan '20

Awful Hospital is pretty good take on interactivity. With the exception of a few instances, the readers get to choose items and suggest what the main character does and options t fighting boss battles. Thou this has occasionally led to her death but it doesn't matter too much. Its still on going so here.

https://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/intro.html3

Carossmo
Jan '20

I planned to do something like these on certain episodes for my comic though :open_mouth: dunno how that will play out

Pablo.C.S
Jan '20
TeddyLemon

Of course! I forgot about community driven webcomics, yes I guess that is technically an interactive comic.

But I was thinking more a comic that was written beforehand, with a fully fleshed out script instead of a more improvised story written based on fan interaction. The branching scripts I thought of wouldn't really interact directly with reader but indirectly through allowing the reader to choose the actions, but not write the story itself.

Besides, most of these community driven stories still only have one main storyline, it doesn't actually branch out into alternate routes per se.

And yeah I agree, it's hilarious to read these community driven comics, they always end up with the worst possible outcomes XD

nixxusnibelheim
Jan '20

Funny you mentionned this, I've been running a Halloween Event since well...halloween because I was always interested in this kind of storytelling.

That's exactly how I feel! I'm currently working on a short pilot to see how the public reacts to it, also getting my feet wet on the process. The story is quite simple but I've learned a lot from it already.
If I ever try something similar in the future, I would definitely add more story in each update, be more linear here and there to be able to develop the narrative so people can be more engaged in the characters and story.

The biggest difficulty so far is the branching storyline, if you don't have buffers, it'll be really time-consuming to draw every update in realtime if you want to follow a weekly schedule.
The feedback have been awesome, people reacted surprisingly different than we thought which is super exciting. Especially when they come up with their own theory and I'm sitting there like "damn if I had the gut and time to do it, i'll definitely explore those ideas and let the reader shapes the story" :joy:

That's mostly why I would like to try a second project like this and try to push the limit of this format. This current one is like a practice round xD

(in case you're curious)

DokiDokiTsuna
Jan '20

I did an interactive comic for a little while on another forum. I lost interest in it pretty quickly (to be honest it was a huge project that was probably doomed from the start) but it was fun while it lasted.

Reading through this topic kinda makes me want to try it again. Maybe someday~

Kaylim
Jan '20

Hi there, I've been involved off and on with the interactive fiction community for years. I think it's right up your alley. There a lot of interactive graphic novels and comics out there and a variety of ways to make and share them. I've found a lot of my favorite ones on steam or itch.io for free or cheap.

They do take more work because obviously you have to draw and program out different branches and keep track of what the reader chooses. The choices can be very simple (like you mentioned, just having three endings) or very, very complex.

You can either program them yourself in something like Unity 2D or use a 'game-maker' platform to help you along. Ren'Py is very popular (particularly with the BL genre!). Twine is popular with more text-based fiction.

Here's the itch.io page for interactive visual novels/comics. I find a lot of great stuff on here: