Choosable Movie Plot Path

A

Anxu

I once read a book that had different paths that you could choose from.

Example
Bob walks in to his bed room and finds a burglar.
* Bob gets down on the ground and begs for mercy: Turn to Page 231.
* Bob turns around and runs to the kitchen to get a knife: Turn to page 418.
* Bob offers to give the burglar his family jewels: Turn to page 69.
* Bob ignores that the man is there: Turn page 250.
* Bob begs the man to call his friends and come and take everything, since he has insurance: Page 733.

Well, I was wondering if any movies exist that has selectable paths/choices that the user can choose from?
Many times when watching movies I think 'hey, that guy has a more obvious and better choice that he could make, but isn't taking it'.
(Before someone says it, I'll say it, sure sometimes you want unusual or unexpected things to happen and sometimes silly choices made by a character add to a story. However giving a user more control over a character could make it more personal and make the viewer more part of the story).

Is DVD or Blu-Ray capable of doing the above?
 
Last edited:
Sort by date Sort by votes
I think these are called "video games"… ;)

No technical reason why you couldn't do this on a DVD, though I personally wouldn't want to make one as you relinquish a lot of your creative control. Could be very entertaining if done well though.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It is possible on a DVD, just keep in mind that a DVD has about a 2 hour limit for high quality video. With all of the possible outcomes, your movie length stays the same but the video needed to be stored on the disc is exponentially increased. Online would probably be a better format. We thought about this a few years ago and that was our decision too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
chilipie said:
I think these are called "video games"… ;)

No technical reason why you couldn't do this on a DVD, though I personally wouldn't want to make one as you relinquish a lot of your creative control. Could be very entertaining if done well though.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Sorta like Dragon's Lair... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvk8E9RwT5g

If the production value was high and the overall story was tight, I'd be very interested in seeing how something like this turns out. Keep us posted!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anxu said:
Is DVD or Blu-Ray capable of doing the above?
Click to expand...

Sure is. :cool:

There are dozens of trivia games that you can get, to be played on regular DVD players & TVs. No computer required.

Some of them are quite complex, with multiple teams/players & score-counting, too. I 'spose the DVD player has a small amount of RAM reserved for temporary, assignable data - aside from remembering at what point to resume after having being stopped.

Dragon's Lair (mentioned below) & the other Bluth games were all very linear (only changing course when it's time to play the "die" sequence), but all of those are available on plain ol' DVD as well. (Space Ace, Dragone's Lair & Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp are bundled together, btw) and available as a regular DVD-player bundle, if desired.

Bluray is supposed to allow for a lot of interactivity (including changeable web-enabled content & updates), but I don't know anything about it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I can't remember the film (doh!) but there was one released theatrical where they had several different endings and randomly sent the cuts to different cinemas so that the public would never know which ending they were going to see...

Needless to say, it didn't catch on...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
there was a pretty cool little zombie/undead/infected thing a while back online. where at certain points you had an option to make a choice. it worked pretty well, cant remember what it was called though.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
LastSunsetFilms said:
there was a pretty cool little zombie/undead/infected thing a while back online. where at certain points you had an option to make a choice. it worked pretty well, cant remember what it was called though.
Click to expand...

The interactive zombie movie
it's on Youtube
there's also an interactive thing in the features on Final Destination 3 where you can choose the fate, but it's kind of lame.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've looked at this stuff a lot and even partially developed an interactive project. It's tough and rewardless. If you want to do it right though, what you want to look for is the daphne laserdisk emulator. There are programs available that will let you create your own interactive film using the original technologies from games such as Dragon's lair. Still works great to this day.

Warning: becuase of your path branching, either it will be very limited, or you will have to dial production values way down. A 10 minute choose your own adventure with a 2 way split every minute would branch to over the length of a feature film.

If you just want to do it for fun, it could be totally cool, i'd play it. Check out the Daphne stuff, and here's my film of Dragon's lair for no reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgtDXfNhBFU
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top