Alternate Endings: Choose Your Own iPhone Adventure

[Andy Chalk]

Alternate Endings: Choose Your Own iPhone Adventure

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Choose Your Own Adventure [http://www.apple.com/iphone/]-style murder-mystery that plays out like an interactive movie.

Available from the mental_floss [http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/]. "If people are going to experience some sort of media, do they want to just sit and watch it, or do they want to interact with it? A game is on one end of that, a movie is on the other end of that. So we're playing in the middle of the spectrum."

We probably don't want to read too much into this, but Alternate Endings is the second "choose your own ending" game built around live-action video that we've seen in the past few weeks. Admittedly, the YouTube-based Time Machine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87768-The-Time-Machine-An-Interactive-Video-Adventure] is significantly shorter and simpler, but you don't need an iPhone to play it, either. With inexpensive, high-quality video cameras and shameless friends looking for some quick internet fame both in ready supply, could we be looking at the beginning of a new kind of homebrew interactive entertainment?

A quick preview of Alternate Endings is available via here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D59hyX-yzoo].


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[Nimbus]

When they wput this movie into cinemas, then I'll be impressed.

 

[Gotham Soul]

Why do I get a weird feeling it's going to evolve into a poorly-acted FMV game?

 

[rail16]

since it's not stated in the story, the price is $1.99

 

[iStory]

I love choose your own adventure! I just released a choose your own adventure story player and creator, for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can make your own CYOA stories and even complete text adventures.
Check it out at http://istoryweb.appspot.com, or search for iStory on the app store!

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

When they wput this movie into cinemas, then I'll be impressed.

remember the movie in futurama where the audience votes for their own outcome? That's what'd be like.

 

[matsugawa]

Why do I get a weird feeling it's going to evolve into a poorly-acted FMV game?

Evolve? I think it's already there. After reading the other article about The Last Express, this lump of filth stands out like a sore thumb. I know I'm not supposed to knock a 'game' without playing it, given what we have to work with, I think a fair assessment can be made. This is exactly what's wrong with live-action in videogames. Granted, it's probably really hard to get decent actors on board (ones professional enough to forgive the choice of medium and not let it affect their performance) something that's only going to be played on the dumbest of the dumbed-down smart-phones, but it doesn't even seem like the crew could be bothered to take this seriously. Have FMV games left such a bad taste in our mouths that no one wants to try to prove wrong the unwashed masses who demand quality yet never change.

The interactive adventure film genre (and live-action sequences in games in general) needs a swift kick to the backside, and putting something like this for something like the iPhone is not going to do that. I'd say it's more like a swing and a miss, but this thing looks like it won't even think about trying to swing.

(side note: the only game series that genuinely gets away with "subpar performances" is Command and Conquer: Red Alert, because that game is never supposed to take itself seriously, and we love it for that.)