Programming Assignment 2: An interactive story with a character

Due: Sunday, Feburary 24th at 23:59
Group size: max 2 people
What to turn in: Single ZIP file with Python files, asset files and an item data file (assets from URL is ok)
Note: If you use code or assets from others, remember to give credit where it is due

Write a program that lets the user experience a short interactive story (few minutes long). The story should be entertaining, instructive or thought provoking in some way. You may come up with your own story or use stories from other media (i.e. not stories that are already in interactive format).

As well as being an exercise in creating a functional piece of code that supports interaction, this is also an exercise in clearly guiding the user through an engaging experience with a well defined setting, goals, actions and consequences.

• The story should include:
  • A clear beginning, which could be in the form of a scene that gets played out or a text introduction. This beginning should set the context for the user's actions during the story.
  • An interaction with at least one character (actor) that serves a key role in the story. The type of interaction is up to you.
  • The use of at least 2 objects that the user picks up and uses in some way.
  • Two clear endings, one good and one bad, that result from the user's actions and interaction with characters.
• The assignment will be judged on these factors:
  • Does the program run properly from beginning to end?
  • Is the goal of the user clear from the beginning?
  • Are the user's available actions always clear?
  • Does the program provide implicit constraints on actions - not just explicit ones?
  • Is the user's flow with the story maintained or does it get broken?
• Keep the following questions in mind:
  • What kind of camera perspective would help the story. You may want to experiment.
  • Can you use sounds and lighting to make the story more engaging? Can you use them to provide implicit constraints?
  • What can you accomplish through dialog and text? Sometimes text can be more effective than only images. Again, think of the implicit constraints you can achieve through story text (it can help defining and maintaining context and roles).

• As before, you can use Panda3D models from the Panda3D website, but to broaden your choices you should also consider bringing in or creating models in Blender and exporting them to the *.egg format using Chicken 1.0 EGG Exporter for Blender 3D (LOCAL)