Write Your Way into Animation and Games

CHAPTER 20 Simulation Stories and Free Play

 

Nick Iuppa & Terry Borst

In the previous chapter we showed how the Leaders team constructed a branching simulation storyline from anecdotal information that was gathered through interviews with experienced soldiers. The information was condensed and re organized into teaching points and turned into a complete learning experience.

Because of the rigors of the branching structure, the participants in such simulations could feel that they are locked into the flow of events in the story, and for that reason have no sense of their own freedom of decision making or their ability to affect the outcome of the simulation. Without this sense of freedom, the simulation becomes less believable, less interesting, ...