The Valued Land

Artist Statement

What if you could choose your heaven?

For this assignment, I define my story as being a simple source for prompting self-reflection, gratitude, and of course some entertainment. It contains shadows of the traditional story structure, the whole beginning, middle, climax and denouement business, but mostly this story allows for exploration and giving some control on what the reader wants out of the story.

I wanted to encourage an interpretation surrounding the themes of self-awareness, gratitude, altered perspectives and personal values. I hope that the story prompts a reflection upon these themes, but does not force a specific one. I designed the story so that the interactive element creates a personal investment and personalized outcome, while speaking to the reader's decision within the story as well as in real life.

I was inspired by my playgroup's experience with Wanderhome, specifically the world we built and the overarching goal we had given our characters. The world, Big Gulch, is the home to a diverse range of creatures, all with their unique interests, passions and businesses. I incorporated this into my story by showcasing the range of booths at the market. I also made a special homage to my own character from Wanderhome, Danny the dancing fox. In our Wanderhome gameplay, we travelled far and wide to find the Land of the Gods (which I renamed to the Divine Land for my story), only to realize that we in fact preferred life in the Big Gulch and that the Land of the Gods, although a beautiful heaven, could not offer all of the things we loved about living on Earth. 

I was also inspired by the zine we made as a group assignment. Our overall theme and tone for the zine was medieval tavern, which I fused with the WolverInn from my Wanderhome gameplay to create the hotel/tavern in which the reader wakes up to begin the story. I liked how the tavern in our zine was a space in which many separate adventures and missions occured, and in which many different characters are drawn there. 

Finally, I was inspired by Black Mirror's Bandersnatch. I tried to incorporate a similar balance of the reader's apparent power in the story's outcome with a structured narrative. I would say my story has less options for reader choices, but in the Bandersnatch way, it is to ultimately guide the reader into absorbing the story's theme.  

Works Cited: 

Brooker, Charlie, creator. "Bandersnatch." Black Mirror, Netflix, 28 Dec. 2018.

Dragon, Jay. Wanderhome. Possum Creek Games, 2021.