Experience the Chilling Tale
Like Never Before
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From the chilling mind of Edgar Allen Poe, author of some of the most well-known and celebrated classics in American Gothic Literature comes a re-imagining of his all-time thriller, The Fall of the House of Usher. Set amongst a “dull, dark and soundless day”, the adventure begins as you approach the estate of your childhood friend, Roderick Usher. There's something not quite right about the home, and as you venture through the estate you begin to think that what you thought you knew about your dear old friend is a mystery unlike any other. This interactive experience will take you through the house as you begin to uncover deep secrets and realizations that could change everything, it's up to you to decide how far into the House of Usher you wish to dwelve.

Audience
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Throughout the decades, Poe has fascinated countless of generations with his beautifully written exploration into the world of the macabre. When it was first published, it appeared in the September 1939 issue of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and later revised in 1840 for his collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque . Burton's Gentleman's Magazine was a publication with various poems, essays, fiction and more and was aimed towards a male demographic. As time has passed, Edgar Allen Poe's work is popular in a demographic that has far surpassed that, it is read by middle-school children, college students, adults, the elderly and everything in between. Poe speaks from a different kind of perspective that is often hard to find and creates fantastical journeys into dark realms that is alluring for readers of all ages. The primary age-group of this interactive experience though would be those in the ages of 15 to mid thirties, a wide range of ages, but ideally one that embraces mobile technology and web reading more. The main aim at targeting this demographic is to also create an application that promotes classical literature and games based around intelligent reading and comprehension versus pure mindless entertainment. The Fall of the House of Usher can have many kinds of outcomes, and each playthrough could end up completely different, but in playing, you are able to explore Poe's literature while also exploring a darker and more psychologically driven kind of story. This type of story is also perfect for the Fall period, as Halloween and the macabre become popular topics, past-times like this game also raise in popularity. As a summary, this story is mainly attempting to target those that embrace mobile technology and could instead of a mindless game, explore a classical piece of literature and study on psychology masked as a spooky thriller.

DEVELOPMENT
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This story was produced througohut the span of around a month with a few core developmental phases occuring. The first development phase was the asthetic development and beginning to figure out what direction the project would take. From the initial creative brief it was determined  that the tale would follow a bit of a darker route and celebrate the original tone of the piece, through futher developement more whimsical elements began to be added into the process- including the ideas of having more geometrical characters.

The development then went into splitting up the story and how the events would transition. The big thing I wanted to accomplish was that although the house of Usher had a set amount of events that had to occur, it was up to how you decided to explore the home that would determine the way you understood the events of the story or your engagement with the story.

THE HOUSE
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The most important aspect of the game was the development of the home that you could explore. The home was devised originally with various paths that you can take on both wings of the home. Each hallway had around three rooms that you could walk into and explore further. Some rooms, such as the Library allow you to both explore features of the story that add to your knowledge of the events and also allow to take a break from the story and read other Edgar Allen Poes, for isntance.

The House set was developed using, of all technologies, the Sims game. The Sims allowed the development of the house to be fast, efficient, and consistent in color schemes. The Sims also allowed for fast rendering that, for the production schedule of the game, was perfect. Creating the hosue out of the original planned specifications turned out to actually be impossible, the original specifications of the hous were not realitically laid out when one ctually began to constuct the home. Rather, large elborate fake sets were constructed in almost random order off the main path to allow the house to still make sense within the original constraints. This odd home feature added to the eeriness of he home and it's perceived impossible to escape nature.

ATMOSPHERE
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After the home was developed and began to be mapped out, the development of the atmoshpere began to take dominance. Text from the story was placed on the relevant pages, but more had to be added. Whether it was gif images that had suddle fades, the sounds of girls singing demonically or the ever present background music track- the atmosphere of the story was incredible important in creating a cohesive narrative.