Having decided to focus my efforts on a plot that is explained by picking up clues using GPS, I've been throwing ideas around on paper and gradually building up a reasonably complex conspiracy/science fiction style plot that is full of red herrings and alternate explanations for certain events. I want each user's understanding of what happened to be different depending on the route they take around the area.

The format it will take will be mostly text-based, though if I have time, I'd like to maybe add some small illustrations too, to make it a bit more interesting. When you encounter a clue, a sound will go off in the application, and a window will pop up containing the appropriate clue. You'll be able to scroll through a list of all the clues you've collected and open up a previous one to check again, if necessary. An important point is that the list shouldn't give any indication of the actual order of the clues, or how many there are out there, as this encourages the user to complete the collection. They need to be encouraged to end their story only when they are satisfied that all loose ends are explained, whether or not there are more secrets that they could have uncovered.

Since I'm not particularly planning on releasing it to the public as an application in its own right, I'll deliver a summary of the whole plot in this post, through the clues that I'm using. In a sense, there IS a linear narrative to the whole thing, but the idea is that the user takes parts of that narrative and constructs their own..

You take the role of the character, Dan Foster, whom we initially know very little about. When you begin the application, you wake up by the Hoe, at dawn, covered in bruises and bloodied, and you can't remember anything that happened, why you're there or even your own name. Go down the promenade to the left and you'll find a series of blood drops and tyre skid marks that lead you to the coast, where you spot a car in the water. If you went to the right, you would find your identity badge, with your name and occupation as an agent for something called IronLabs, a government agency, and a broken needle used to administer an odd blue liquid.

Back to the car, and you investigate its contents to find three men inside, brutally killed, the front edge of the roof having been ripped off. One of the guys has an odd, purple discolouration to their wrist and there is mysterious black ooze everywhere. An alien attack? A super-human? A were-wolf? You?.. Consider the possibilities. You also find a briefcase, but cannot open it as it is locked. You keep hearing people's conversations and random sounds that are happening several metres away, yet your ears momentarily pick them up, along with deafening distortion. You also find more black ooze lying around in certain places.

At a couple of points, police cars will rush past, and if this happens, your access to the car would be blocked if you haven't already visited it, because the police would have gotten to it first, and you never would have picked up the briefcase. You might find a mobile phone that contains a four digit code, and if you did get the briefcase, you'll be able to open up a report on a mysterious "Species X", whose attributes include increased speed and jump height, extremely brutal strength, a purple, veiny skin discolouration and super hearing/sight, but temporary and minor traces of these abilities are often "contagious" to regular humans.

Eventually, you might find your own mobile phone. The leader of a group called "The resistance" phones you, telling you that you escaped from IronLabs because you know their secrets - they harbour and experiment on alien life forms and now wish to hunt you down and silence you. They are an organisation set up to oppose them, and wish to meet with you at the sundial on Armada Way. If you go there without having been to the car crash, you are shot dead by a sniper... if you did see the car crash, you alert yourself to certain individual who was watching you, and has killed the sniper for you. His voice appears in your ear, beckoning you to meet him and leaves you with an interesting revelation when he asks that you simply pull up your sleeve. You find that your arm is purple and veiny!

When you meet the mysterious character, whose whole body and face are covered, he explains how you were both human modification experiments at the hands of IronLabs and that he is a full embodiment of "Species X", whereas you are only a partially formed specimen. You have both been on the run for some time, and the agency wish to kidnap and bring you back, as they attempted to last night. The character's aggression saw to that, but he cannot explain why the resistance are after you. A government report you find elsewhere specifies that you had already met with them weeks ago, and suggests that they may fear that you will be prepared to go to IronLabs with information about their names and whereabouts.


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As you can see, there are many facets, and it's difficult to find all the answers. Even if you do, it's still left fairly open as to whether Dan is an experimented super human or merely someone who works for the agency, saw something he shouldn't have, and caught mild versions of the abilities like a contagious bug. If I had more time I would want to make it even more complex, but I think this is quite a good example of the clue system for "hiding" parts of a narrative.

Some workbook scans: