Picked at Last: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game

This project uses the format of a web-based choose-your-own-adventure game to integrate allusions, themes, and symbolism presented throughout Hellenic and Medieval literature. The research draws upon translations of The Aeneid by Virgil, Perceval by Chrétien de Troyes, Physica by Hildegard of Bingen, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as well as various Celtic, Germanic, and Greco-Roman myths and figures. The game itself draws on writing theory as exemplified in The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, which sets the archetype of what constitutes a Hero and the stages a character must undergo to become that Hero. Hosted on an online game creation program called Inklewriter, the game presents a scenario, starting with a knight, waking up in a tree with no previous recollection of getting there, and the reader is given clickable options to choose in response to the situation.

The ultimate purpose of this project is to serve as an educational resource, wherein links to the alluded material and analyses of symbolism can help students find source material based on their interests, serve as a guide for critical analysis of literature, and exemplify how writing theory can be implemented into a narrative. Though this project is presently incomplete, the link to the game contains the introductory scenes and the following analysis exemplifies the writing process, explains the choice and integration of alluded material and symbolism, and describes several scenes that are to be completed in the future.