Hannes Interactive Movie

ID 1723092

The first step was to research the phrase “machinima“: “Machinima is the use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation.“ The first concept for the machinima was a “dancelike interaction concept“. Users, watching the video could choose the dance moves and perform different combinations. But hereby the story wasn't intense enough.
The next idea was one with an interactive storyline, which was based around a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) phenomenon. As in every RPG, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and take control over many of its actions. The character evolves due to killing monsters and animals or completing tasks that NPC's (non-player character) give him.
What happens if a NPC comes to life and gains his own intelligence and the freedom of choice? He may questions his existence and seek the origins of his world. Hannes, a former NPC deer begins his journey through the little forest it inhabits. The viewer can interact and decide at breaking points of the story, which way he wants to send the deer. Every decision has an effect on the ending. It changes with every “wrong” or “right” decision.
The Game was created with the recent MMORPG “Guild Wars 2”, a sequel to the original “Guild Wars”. In MMORPG's massive amounts of players come and play together. To emerge out of the crowd, players can customize their own Characters, representing them in the game. I used this fact for my own benefit and inquired many people to play a part as actors and background artists.
In the end, I realised, that my estimated working hours weren't sufficient. Often the gameitself has boundaries and i needed to find a creative way to overcome them. I came to the conclusion, that “Machinima” is an interesting way to tell history and make difficult topics more accessible to a younger audience.