Alice in the Park – Alice in an Autumn Forest
Alice in the Park is a digital fairy tale presented through a series of windows containing text. Alice has seemingly fallen asleep and found herself in a magical autumn forest, where adventures—and a variety of creatures—await her. She encounters characters like a caterpillar and an ant, and discovers places such as a valley of mushrooms and an ant village. The story is told through illustrations, with occasional animations interspersed throughout.
The entire experience is built around a multi-window interface—a key feature, where each window represents a segment of the narrative. It begins with Alice walking through the autumn forest—the opening module. You view an image and read the accompanying part of the story. The visuals vary, and the collection of stories follows a cohesive plot—much like a TV series, where each installment picks up exactly where the last one left off. It functions like a long, continuous film or an interactive quest, presented in the format of a storybook or fairy tale: you simply look at the pixel-art illustrations and read along.
The story is composed of various modules, each with its own focus. In a narrative module, you read the text and click a next button—much like turning the pages of a book. There are also transition modules, which ask you to choose your next path and then show the outcome of your decision. These are distinct modules containing several windows: one poses the question of where to go, while others display the consequences—each presented as a new page in the fairy tale, where you view an image and continue reading based on the path you chose.
There are no bad endings here; it is essentially an endless, branching storybook where you decide which direction to take next. Some modules may even feature animations—sequences of images that bring the scene to life. Otherwise, everything remains the same. And the story does have an end—in the form of a conclusion. This is yet another module: the story-conclusion module.
It, too, is multi-windowed. You are asked: what happens next? Perhaps Alice has been dreaming the whole time—all these adventures were just a dream. And how does she wake up? You are presented with three options to choose from, and each choice opens a separate window. That is how the story ends. You then return to the main window, from where you can start the story all over again—reading everything, looking at the pictures, perhaps making different choices, and arriving at a different ending.
A module here represents a segment of the story. Everything functions automatically. There is a starting point, a transitional module, and finally, a conclusion module. In terms of architecture, it is akin to a text-based adventure game, featuring branching paths—specifically, two branches that lead to two different story arcs, which eventually converge at a certain point to avoid an excessive number of diverging storylines.
Alice finds herself in a remarkable setting: an autumn forest. There is a path, surrounded by fallen leaves—or perhaps it’s a park, filled with trees and various types of vegetation. It is clearly autumn, and a light breeze is blowing as Alice walks along the path.
Along the way, she encounters various little animals—amusing creatures, such as a caterpillar or an ant. The autumn forest eventually gives way to other locations, such as a dark, gloomy forest or a withered autumn field. Between these locations, you are always prompted with a question about where to go next. Eventually, you reach the end, and Alice wakes up.
This is the very first version of the program, written in Visual Basic for Windows. It utilizes a multi-window interface, incorporating both text and images. And control buttons. There is information: page number, image title. And so, Alice falls asleep… and finds herself in an autumn forest.
Alice in park version 0.1 – most first version. In this version Visual Basic Fairytale. With autumn forest, module transition and ending story. Most minimum.
Alice in park: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/apps/aliceinpark/index_eng.html