The Elements of Interactive Fiction in “Prominence”

Abstract

“Prominence” is a new adventure computer game. It is also new as a genre of interactive fiction in the corpus of electronic literature. Hence, the study of “Prominence” in the context of interactive fiction genre is also a study that has not been carried out yet exclusively in the aspect of its structure. For that reason, this paper aims to primarily focus on the structure of “Prominence”. Mainly, the structural elements of interactive fiction in “Prominence” that will be discussed are pronged by four elements; a computer program, potential narrative, world model and game. By focusing on the four main structural elements, this paper shows how “Prominence” works as interactive fiction. The interactor’s interactivity with all these four elements of interactive fiction in playing, engaging and navigating discourse would likely give a diverse sense of aesthetic experience while interacting with the play, which is called immersive pleasure. The discussion on these elements of interactive fiction supports the interactor to successively challenge their self to fit into the play and draw inference on new ideas and information they find during an interaction.