CYOA Game using Figma and AI
- Gianna M
- Dec 6, 2024
- 5 min read
I proposed and developed an interactive prototype of a choose-your-own-adventure game based on Sabaa Tahir's novel, An Ember in the Ashes, as an independent project for honors credit in my young adult fiction class. I utilized Figma to create the prototype for the game and Adobe Express to generate characters and settings using artificial intelligence.
Instructions and the interactive game prototype can be accessed here:
The Making of An Ember in the Ashes as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game
My choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) game based on Sabaa Tahir’s young adult novel, An Ember in the Ashes, explores various choices from the perspectives of protagonists Laia and Elias. The novel contains underlying themes of how adolescents, shaped by nature and nurture, make decisions in a world where free will and fate coexist. Using Figma, I created an interactive game that integrates Tahir’s writing, my original text for moments not depicted in the novel, and images generated by artificial intelligence in Adobe Express to bring the characters and settings to life. Additionally, I referenced academic research to better understand key psychological factors that influence adolescent decision-making, such as instinct, regret, morals, and social influence. By analyzing characters’ motivations and predicting how decisions can change the outcome of a story, I gained a deeper appreciation for An Ember in the Ashes.
In adapting the story, I focused on Laia and Elias’ core decisions, which meant placing less emphasis on certain secondary characters and omitting scenes that did not directly lead to key moments. Additionally, I chose to include dead ends to narrow the scope of the game, which challenged me to imagine outcomes without fully writing all the scenes leading to those results. For example, players encounter a dead end where Laia has failed her mission because she has not gathered valuable intel. The Resistance helps her escape Blackcliff, but they do not help Laia save her brother because she did not fulfill her end of the deal. Such outcomes allowed me to redirect players to the main storyline while emphasizing the consequences of action or inaction.
The game also features several possible endings, all of which adhere to the augurs’ prophecy, and explore the implications of fate and free will. In the novel, the augurs foresee different possible futures for Laia, Elias, and Helene and know which outcomes would never come to pass. For example, Helene was never destined to become Empress; she was fated to serve as Blood Shrike to either Marcus or Elias. During the Fourth Trial, players can choose whether Elias allows Helene to kill Laia to win the trial and be named Empress. Regardless of their choice, Marcus emerges victorious, fulfilling the prophecy.
Similar to both the novel and real life, the morally superior choice does not always lead to the best outcome. The story is set in a cruel world where people are physically punished for disobedience; this is reflected in several outcomes. I included several morality-based decisions to allow players to empathize with the characters. For example, early in the game, Elias must decide whether to help Laia or leave her to face Marcus and the Commandant. In the novel, when Elias comes to her aid later in the story, he admits that he did so because “The first time, I felt bad. I let Marcus hurt you the day I met you, outside the Commandant’s office. I wanted to make up for it. And then later—at the Moon Festival and with Marcus… I couldn’t just let you die” (Tahir 364). Elias expresses regret for his previous inaction because it went against what he knew to be right. By allowing players to make choices as both Laia and Elias, they, too, are faced with decisions influenced by emotions. If players choose for Elias to abandon Laia when she needs help, they may choose to help her later, sharing Elias’ feeling of guilt. This aligns with psychological research stating that regret, unlike disappointment, is a result of active choices rather than passive contingencies (Blakemore). Laia and Elias each experience regret by actively choosing or not choosing to do certain actions, which is prevalent throughout the game.
Some choices, however, have little impact on the story because they are weighted differently or lead to inevitable outcomes. For example, Laia expresses regret in the novel for fleeing during the raid instead of staying to help her brother, Darin. In the game, even if players choose for Laia to stay and help, Darin is still captured, and Nan and Pop are still killed. These fixed moments ensure that important events come to pass, such as allowing Laia’s path to converge with Elias’.
I also leveraged psychological research to identify which choices would be predetermined in the game. Research shows that ethical decisions are often “emotion-based, automatic, and intuitive” (George). I concluded that choices are sometimes driven by an instinctual response based on a person’s inherent nature, rather than logic and deliberation. For example, when Elias throws his body in front of Laia’s to protect her in the Fourth Trial, he notes that he does so because “[his] body knows what to do before [his] mind” (Tahir 387). Players cannot change Elias’ initial reaction because they are responsible for thinking through their decisions and cannot change Elias’ inherent nature. It is only moments later that players can choose whether to continue to protect Laia or allow her to die.
One of my favorite aspects of this project was delving into the alternative outcomes for significant scenes. A key turning point for Elias is the Third Trial when he is tasked with killing Helene and as many members of her platoon as possible before they kill him. In the game, players can choose whether Elias immediately issues the order to kill the enemy, or if he issues the order only after having seen the consequences, including the deaths of two men in his platoon. In both scenarios, Elias’ friends die at his hands, but acting immediately spares two of Elias’ soldiers. As is true with life, players may never feel fully satisfied with their decision, wondering if a better outcome was possible. Whether the Third Trial resulted in the deaths of twelve or fourteen men, players will likely feel unsatisfied and regretful of the choice they made, wondering if there was a way that no one had to die. This scene is a powerful example of how adolescents may act based on their anticipated emotional outcome of a choice (Albert). In the novel, Elias hesitates to give the order to kill because he cannot imagine being responsible for the deaths of his friends, allowing his terror to influence his decision.
Ultimately, my CYOA game accurately captures the complexity of decision-making, from analyzing various influential factors to the possible direct and indirect consequences. By putting players in the shoes of the characters, I hope the game fosters empathy for the challenges that young people face and encourages reflection on the positive and negative factors influencing their behavior in everyday life.
Works Cited
Albert, Dustin, et al. “Peer Influences on Adolescent Decision Making.” Current Directions
in Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 2, 16 Apr. 2013, pp. 114–120,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276317/,
Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne, and Trevor W Robbins. “Decision-Making in the Adolescent
Brain.” Nature Neuroscience, vol. 15, no. 9, 28 Aug. 2012, pp. 1184–1191,
George, Jennifer M., and Erik Dane. “Affect, Emotion, and Decision Making.”
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 136, 14 Sept. 2016, pp. 47–55, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074959781630365X,
Tahir, Sabaa. An Ember in the Ashes. New York, New York, Penguin Random House, 2015.
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