Arthur Black is an interactive horror story aimed at children aged 11-14. The story follows a Grandfather telling his granddaughters the story of a young boy named Arthur Black. The website includes hover points where users hover over the screen to find the text to the story and then click the moving widget to continue.
I began by writing out the story and what animated functions I wanted for each page of the website with a pen and paper. I like to start with physical materials rather than digitally so I can scribble and make notes and this then gives me a good starting point when I begin working in my chosen software.
I originally started to sketch the imagery for my website, however when looking at my sketches and knowing my own abilities, I knew my own drawings would not meet the standard that I wanted to produce, so I decided to use found imagery and manipulate them in Adobe Photoshop to give them my own style and flare to fit my story.
I followed an 'Ink Smudge' tutorial to create the spooky effect on the images. I also made the images black and white to convey the feeling of mystery and horror.
I chose to use Adobe Muse for this project as I wanted to include a lot of interactive elements and with my past experience with Muse, I know it's easy to do and produces professional results. I included hidden hover elements in the story, urging the user to find where the text is on each page and piece together the order of the sentences to follow the story. These 'magic moments' were put in to engage the audience and provide them with a fun experience, instead of a story with static text boxes and next arrows. The hidden elements make it a much more fun and enjoyable journey for children, along with adding mystery. Not only did I add hover effects, I also added sound effects to draw the readers in and make the story come to life. I think it's important when creating for children to draw them in as much as possible so they stay connected and don't get bored.
When adding the sound effects to my story, I noticed that it's very difficult to find an exact sound effect that you want and most importantly, for free! Therefore, I downloaded various sound effects that I thought suited each part of my story and went into Adobe Audition and cut and blended sounds together to create my own unique sound effects to draw my readers in.
View the story here