A Chorus Line

Artist Statement

Initially when I started the process, I had tossed around quite a few different ideas across varying genres. It was kind of hard to find something that I could relate enough to in order to create a game about it. Although, during that process of me trying to figure out what I wanted to do I was listening to a playlist full of my favorite Broadway numbers and that’s when it finally clicked. I’ve done theater for years and have many friends that are pursuing an actual career out of it so, I decided to create the game based off that. At first, I wanted to create it in the same format of A Chorus Line the musical, but I found that it wasn’t really challenging and could easily get confusing bouncing around from character to character. After that realization and our time critiquing others drafts, I found that I needed to find a way to craft this story in a way that would allow for more twists and turns. So, when I went back to the drawing board, I chose to create a character that was more of a struggling performer. Someone who thought they had paid their dues enough to catch their break. When I had the bases of who the character would be, I decided I wanted to make this sort of a realistic representation of how hard it is to make the right decision and how that makes getting your dream even harder. So, I decided to make the three different endings vary in extremes and even if you obtained a happy ending there is still a chance that makes messing up everything you worked for easy. After I knew how I wanted to do my endings it kind of made the wants and needs clearer. I knew the character wanted to make it big, but they needed to learn at what cost and if they were ready to pay that cost at this point in their life.

The difference between the wants and needs in this story mainly revolves around the characters want to succeed and star on Broadway. This want is based purely because of fantasizing. I think a lot of people, myself included, end up fantasizing where they want to be in their life and not necessarily factoring in the work and trials that could come with the life, they dream of for themselves. In this character’s case they have received their musical theater degree and are working in Times Square and yet they haven’t managed to break through the mold. The situation isn’t what they had fantasied about which creates a sense of desperation and insecurity. When it comes to their needs it is different depending on the ending of your story. One of the endings helps discover the need of having faith and not being quick to abandon something if it’s not working right away. Another ending helps discover that taking risks is important and sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is better than not doing it at all. One of the last endings reminds the character to focus on the end goal and don’t let anything that’s not worth it distract you.

The decision points and branches in the story help address these motivations in different ways. For example, one of the decision points is whether the player wants to completely ignore their work duties or worry about finding a replacement. This decision point is the beginning on the spiral of right and wrong in the story. Another example would be when you get your big break only to find out that the show is starting off Broadway and you are forced to choose between quitting and finding something better or sticking it out. Also, another example is during one of the audition segments you have the option to focus on the task at hand or sink into your insecurities and confront your co-worker whose also in line for the part. All in all, whatever choice you make ends up leading you to a certain ending that addresses what need the character should learn because of their choices.

How I came up with the story beats was basically writing down many of different options that could occur in order to end in the general direction that I had wanted to go in with my story. I knew in the beginning I wanted to start off with this character having prior obligations other than just auditioning every day of their lives to make it more interesting. After that I thought of ways to make it more difficult for the character no matter what option they pick it still somewhat negatively affected their reputation. I wanted to really show how getting your dream can still negatively affect you in some way. Many aspiring artists stories side conflict relates to their side gig and I wanted to make that a point within this story. I also wanted to show how even if you obtained an opportunity it can still go badly. Mainly I wanted to use story beats that could serve to develop the character or humble the character.

I had a few challenges when developing this story. First, trying to find ways to give my original story more choices and twists to maintain interest in the game as a whole. After we finished talking about our drafts in class I felt as though my story, despite the fact that it was just a work in progress, didn’t have a lot of room for growth. Another challenge I faced was that once I got an idea of the story and got through planning everything all the way to the endings that I had preset, I found that I wasn’t satisfied with it. I felt like there needed to be more to really solidify the lesson that came with their needs. I got to the basic ending but felt that maybe peeking into the future would help because of the choices they decided to make. I thought this was a good idea because in real life you don’t really feel the weight of a choice you made until its directly effecting you.

 

I worked to align the reader’s interest by making the reader the character, so all of their interest and what they want their motivation to be is truly up to them. I feel like this only helps maintain interest in the story as well as make the motivation in the story more or less up to them during the game play.