Directed Project 2020 – Entry #9

So here are my latest rough notes about the project!

I’m intentionally copy pasting here without touching them. It’s the kind of ‘notes to self’ I’m usually writing when I’m trying to flesh out a game’s design or any story, really.

 


ENTRUSTER:

NAME: Al

AGE: Teenager? (Why? To induce a greater sense of protection/responsibility for the player? Not sure it would even work)

WHY DO THEY NEED A EBUDDY:

Loneliness?

Confinement? (Do you really want to make something about Covid? Can you even remember what your social interactions/day-to-day life used to be before Covid? Do you even understand teenagers these days with all their tik-tok and stuff? :D)

Are they living in the same world as ours? (Currently still mildly interested in exploring an ‘alternate reality’ type of world for them, the app being a bridge between 2 dimensions – the confidant’s and the entruster’s — where is the app coming from though? And what would be the political views of that alternate reality? What would be interested to explore here regarding my main theme — trust?)

Are they an outcast?

Romantic interest, one-sided?

TONE:

How lighthearted do I want it to be?

CONFIDANT:

Why would someone want to become a confidant?

Loneliness?

Savior syndrome?

Curiosity?

APP/MODERATORS:

Who would create such app and why?

=>Why am I even doing this?

Ways to create intimacy in interactive media? Ah the soul searching moment

Is the question of relevance even relevant?

So many questions

Explore new models for intimacy. Fluid, playful, joyful.

The joy of discovering someone. Of trying to help, of seeing them going on with their lives. The cheer, simple joy of connecting with someone.

Maybe the Entruster doesn’t have any ‘problem’ but just wants to share with someone.

Storytelling: Entruster enjoys telling about their lives. The Confidant enjoys imagining about someone’s life.

As a writer I’m interested in almost anyone’s life as long as I can have a hint that ‘there’s more’ — to discover, to understand, to decrypt, to explore.

The ‘there’s more’ is not really about a ‘problem’ or something to solve. It’s most of the times… some contrast, some hiccup, some discrepancy, something that’s not going as expected.

Someone says something but shows something different. Someone says something that’s contradicting the usual expectations.

It’s all I need, mostly, for the Confidant. A quirk of any kind that could lead to more.

In the context of trust, the app, etc. it could manifest in various ways:

– Maybe the Entruster doesn’t actually trust something or someone (the app? The confidant? Someone else in their life?)

– Maybe they seem too trustworthy but are not

I still have this twist of the entrusted asking for advice, with the confidant giving one, but then ending up doing the complete opposite, and most likely blaming the confidant for any potential failure.

Maybe less binary: At least they already know what they want to do, so the binary choice given to the Confidant is like more confirming one aspect of the full thing, but not the full thing.