Published on February 18th, 2015 | by Guest

Video games that prove that phones and tablets can be great platforms for interactive storytelling

Technology changes things, and there’s no better proof for that than taking a look around you, and trying to remember how everything looked a decade ago. Even when it comes to smaller timescales, technology still has a great impact – think about how video games evolved, shifting from PCs and consoles to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. While nobody can argue that video games are good means for entertainment, they can be a whole lot more than that. In fact, one of the recent trends in the mobile video game industry is to create games with an interactive story, thus making smartphones and tablets great platforms for interactive storytelling.Here are some of the games that perfectly illustrate this model.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead comic books were tremendously successful when they were first issued in 2003 – so successful that they were adapted into TV series, webisodes, books and even video games. One common element in all this content is the surprise element, and the fast paced action. As you can easily guess, the mobile game is no different, telling the story in a very captivating mode and being completely interactive. A player’s actions throughout the game takes the story in a different direction every time, so the story of two different players is rarely identical. The Walking Dead game consists of five different parts, the first being available for download for free, while the other four come as in-app purchases. You can download the Android version of The Walking Dead here, or the iOS version here.

Episode

Episode is a platform for interactive mobile games developed by renowned mobile game maker Pocket Gems. Unlike The Walking Dead, which may be a bit too brutal and gory for younger audiences, most of the games on the Episode platform are designed to be friendly for all ages. There are several interactive games available, each following a different scenario that may resemble a real-life situation such as the first day on campus, finding your perfect half or taking a shot at Hollywood fame. For science-fiction lovers, Episode also has some supernatural stories involving vampires and superpowers. Regardless of the scenario you choose, the story will evolve based on your choices throughout the game, so it’s really up to you to shape the story the way you want it to unwind. The Episode platform is updated regularly, so you can expect new scenarios to be available. Get the Android version of Episode here, or the iOS version here.

Framed

Framed is a game that challenges the status quo of interactive games by coming with an entirely new format: interchangeable snippets of story that you need to put in the right order to create an outcome. Basically you get several blocks, each containing a pre-defined video sequence that you have no control over. However, by changing the order of the blocks, the video sequences will lead to a different output every time, thus earning Framed the title of “interactive game”.

Framed has received more than 25 awards so far, including “Best Puzzle Game” at Intel Level Up Awards 2014, “Best Narrative” at Brazil’s Independent Games Festival 2014, “Excellence in Design” at IGF China 2013 and many others – check out the official website of the game to see the whole list.

You can get Framed from the App Store for a fair price of $4.99. Unfortunately for Android users, Frame is currently exclusive to the iOS platform, but given its tremendous success, we’re sure it will find its way to Android at some point.

This is the guest post by Christopher Austin and Dirt Bike Games 365!

Tags: interactive, phones, platforms, storytelling, tablets, video