Dark Forest is an application (app henceforth) that I engaged with in my exploration of different types of digital literature. Dark Forest is an interactive horror themed electronic book (eBook) (Living a book Inc., 2013). I was excited to try this app as I am a lover of the horror genre. I was intrigued as to what an interactive digital book would be like. I have used interactive apps in the past, however, they were educational apps and Dark Forest is for leisure.

What is an interactive book app? Henning (2014, p. 21) describes interactives apps as having features including speech input, social interaction, multi-touch visuals, and geolocation. Son et al. (2020, p. 424) add some interactive features and multimedia components of storybook apps use touch-based input (called touch gestures, e.g., tap, pinch, swipe, and drag). Readers performing these touch gestures activate content, actions, or animations that are embedded within story illustrations (Son et al., 2020, p. 424). Dark Forest only uses touch-based input for its interactive purpose.

I downloaded the app from Apple’s App store and used it on my iPhone. When the app loads the welcome page is a basically a sign-up page, fortunately you can choose “not now”. The next screen is another landing page which gives you an option to read Dark Forest, write your own book, read other books from the developer, or learn about the author. After choosing to read the book you are briefly taken to the cover of Dark Forest. The app shows how many free readings you have left (something I only noticed when I had one reading left – oops).

Once you select “Read Now” you are taken to the beginning of the story where the protagonist named Louis is introduced. The interaction portion of the story is introduced straight away, you are given two or three options and you tap the screen to make your choice, after your selection the story proceeds. A few selections in, it becomes apparent that certain selections are only available if you pay for them; I did not.

Dark Forest is accompanied by music and beautiful artwork. You are given the option to mute the music, which was a choice I utilised as I did not enjoy it. Other functional options available include font choice, increasing or decreasing font size, language (English or Spanish). The options are available to change at any time.

Things I enjoyed about Dark Forest:

• The story, it is short, intriguing, and easy to follow along
• The illustrations, they were beautiful and suited the vibe of the story perfectly
• The combination of the selected music (typical for the horror genre, spooky sounding) and artwork worked with the story
• The clean and simple design of the app, having the menu on the top right-hand side throughout the story was very helpful
• The interactive aspect of this app was fun (and saucy sometimes), I liked not being overwhelmed by option
• The app resumes where you left

Things that could have been done better:

• I found it very disappointing that the artist behind the illustrations nor the music were credited anywhere inthe app or in the app store. There is a “Meet the Author” option available on the first page, along with the authors name being visible once the game starts on what is story’s front page
• The app is currently only available in two languages, English and Spanish, expanding the story in different languages may attract more readers who are a fan of the horror genre who want to experience digital literature
• You are limited to a certain number of free readings before you are required to pay to use the app

Outside of this app, “choose your own adventure” is quite common in fictional books, for example, the Give Yourself

Goosbumps by R.L Stein novels where you were given options and then you could turn to a particular page to see what the character would do. A number of interactive book apps are focused on children and learning. However, there is some debate on whether digital literature such as eBooks actually have an added benefit in learning compared to traditional books (Hashim & Vongkulluksn, 2018).

Overall, the app fulfills its function, it is not a story designed to educate and it is simply for leisure. However, interactive apps can have other purposes such as in education, and certain apps can be used by libraries to support education or simply provide a different format of reading. In the context of libraries supporting education, Brooklyn Public Library is an example of a library that offers tablet lending (Hening, 2014, p. 18). While most of the literature focuses on supporting the learning of school aged children, I think it is also important to consider that tablet lending could also have apps to support adults learning, furthermore, they could just provide entertainment.

 

References:

Hashim, A. K., & Vongkulluksn, V. W. (2018). E-Reader apps and reading engagement: A descriptive case study. Computers & Education, 125, 358–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.06.021

Hennig, N. (2014). Apps for librarians : Using the best mobile technology to educate, create, and engage : using the best mobile technology to educate, create, and engage. Santa Barbara, California: Libraries Unlimited

Living a Book Inc. (2013). ‎Dark Forest – HORROR GameBook. App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dark-forest-horror-gamebook/id695442145

Scholastic. (2020). Escape from the Carnival of Horrors. Give Yourself Goosebumps GYGB: Escape from the Carnival of Horrors. https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/escape-from-the-carnival-of-horrors-by-r-l-stine/

Son, S. H. C., Butcher, K. R., & Liang, L. A. (2020). The influence of interactive features in storybook apps on children’s reading comprehension and story enjoyment. The Elementary School Journal, 120(3), 422–454. https://doi.org/10.1086/707009