Starcrossed began as a way to explore media and fictional tropes that we consume daily. Story-telling is an important part of how we communicate messages and teach lessons. Formulaic tropes can be widely applied to a variety of stories, serving as literary tools that allow for easier ideation. They can also be overused or underdeveloped, creating misconceptions and inaccurate depictions of characters, people, and personalities. 

How can we rewrite common fictional tropes to redefine what they mean to us? How can design and user experience play a part in story development? What tropes do or don’t resonate with an audience? These questions were explored through surveys at MassArt, a series of character and world-building workshops, and testing different storytelling mediums such as script-writing, comic illustration, and storyboard animations.

The result of the project was a set of character design illustrations based on the results of the surveys & character workshops, concept art of each character and their interactions with each other (as well as the tropes they embody), a pilot comic featuring two of the main protagonists, and a storyboard animatic to visualize it altogether in a trailer.