05 · Interactive Storytelling · 2026

72 Hours Without Light

An interactive story designed to help international students rehearse practical decisions during a 72-hour power outage.

OwnershipFive-person team project

This page presents the shared team deliverable. The supplied course files do not contain a contribution log, so I do not assign myself specific production tasks here.

Research question

How can an interactive narrative make Dutch emergency-preparedness guidance more relevant and memorable for international students?

Approach

From question to evidence.

01
Created a fictional international student, Eva, whose everyday dependence on digital services makes the outage concrete.
02
Structured a mostly linear story with four scored choices and two endings, balancing global narrative clarity with local effectance at decision points.
03
Grounded the design in identification, narrative transportation, social cognitive theory, and regulatory focus, while translating emergency-kit guidance into consequences the player can explore.

What the work found

The prototype connects preparedness information to choices about water, food, warmth, communication, and cooperation. It aims for informative and instructive effects without losing the affective pull of a character-led story.

Limitations & next step

The shared prototype demonstrates the narrative logic but does not provide evidence of learning impact. A next step would test comprehension, recall, emotional response, and accessibility with international students. The team report states that generative AI was used for background imagery, with language tools used for copy support.

Evidence from the source work

Selected artifacts.

Full interactive story screen asking what Eva should check first during the power outage — Source visual: an early decision point about using the phone, checking the room, or contacting others. Shown as the complete prototype screen.

Full interactive story screen showing Eva receiving local knowledge from John — Source visual: a later story beat where local knowledge and access to official Dutch-language updates become part of the player’s strategy.

Full positive ending screen for 72 Hours Without Light — Source visual: the positive ending, which reinforces that good decisions during a crisis help but do not replace advance preparation. Background imagery was generated with AI, as disclosed in the course report.

Methods & tools used here

Narrative designBranching structurePersuasive communicationEmergency guidance translationDigital prototyping