Boundless Stories is an application in development. The finished product will be an
iPhone app, and it will also be a program you can run on your computer. What it will do,
from the user's standpoint, is this:
- You create a character. Like RPGs and MMORPGs, your character has skills and abilities,
represented by numbers, where skill at level 1 means you've tried it before but aren't very
good at it, skill at level 10 means you're competent, and skill at level 20 means you're
pretty darn amazing at it.
- You choose to start a story. These stories name you as the main character.
- Like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, if you remember those (if not, look
them up on wikipedia,
or check them out in a bookstore or on amazon.com), the story branches
often. At each branch, you have a choice of what to do, which affects how the story goes.
A branch could be as simple as choosing to take either the left or right fork of a road.
IF so, the different results you get might be that one fork leads to Okisee Village and
the other leads to Pyramid Mall. Alternatively, a branch could be very complex. You could
have to choose whether to call 911 or try to perform CPR yourself, for example. Each choice
made affects the story.
- In these stories, sometimes you will be presented with a challenge to your character's
skills. The classic adventuring example is a locked door: if you try to break it down, you
test your character's ability to break down doors (represented by your skill level) against
the difficulty of breaking down THIS door, rolling the dice to determine the outcome.
Success and failure will have different results.
- Your choices along the story path, and your attempts at the skill-based challenges,
will affect your character through "experience" - which translates to higher stats in
skills, of course.
So, essentially, these are branching stories with a hint of the RPG. Think of the RPG
element as a dash of flavor.
It is particularly appropriate for the iPhone because you can do the story in small
bits over time. You can make a choice or try a challenge, and read what happens next.
Then, since your bus just arrived, you can put it in your pocket and make the next choice later.
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