Reply to Questions/Comments

Is the identity of the architecture reliant on the people, or can it speak for itself using aesthetics?
I think I'm going to work with a combination. Not every object in the room will be mentioned in stories, and not every story will mention one of the objects. I'm going to really work at getting detail into the drawings of the room, bits of dirt and dust and stain on furniture or the floor, all the random marks and things that get knocked into things over time, dents near the bottom of the warddrove, paint chipped off the wall, bite-marks on a child's chair, etc. So each object shows its history to some extent, while the stories flesh out those histories and add to them.

How many stories are in reserve, to be used and rotated through, and keep from being too repetitious?
Not enough yet, will be working on that while working through everything else. But so far, there are seventeen (less than a page to go on the eighteenth one). I'm also planning on adding more stories to the project over time, maybe every few months or something, stir a few new stories into the mix - history doesn't have a stopping point.

Why avoid it looking like a flash site, would it look too "new"?
It would look too cheesy. *g* At least for what I'm doing. Flashy and shiny and glowing doesn't work well for depicting something old and as organic as what I want to do in this - it would be a very different sort of room were it all done in vector-based, flash-like graphics, far too cartoonish. Though I'm not shooting for photo-realistic (I know better than that), I want it to be a believable, relatable space. I want there to be a strong sense of time clinging to everything in the room, the sort of dingy bits of damage that occur to objects when they've been used for many years.

How long a period of time is it covering, and would the same object really be in the room all that time?
Currently, the stories cover a range of about a hundred and fifty years. (Though I don't include any specific dates, there are clues in the surroundings, speech patterns, clothing, activities, etc. - pop over here and skim a story if you want a better idea.) The persistance of the objects.. admitedly, I'm taking a little liberty with. However, it's not all the same set of furniture through all the stories, things move around, there are some things mentioned in one story that aren't mentioned in another. Some things are moved to other rooms in some time periods, and later moved back, some things are added or taken away. It's not that one person furnished the room and no-one ever changed it, it's more like one out of every half-dozen tenants leaves something behind, whether it's a little table or a vase or a warddrobe too large to take with them.

Will the stories interact?
Already do. :) Though never in an obvious way (like someone referencing something that happened in another story), there are repetitions of actions, emotions, ideas, objects, and possibly characters. In one story, a little girl is poking around the furniture in the room, and finds a small, embroidered handkerchief tucked away in a drawer. In another story, another little girl lovingly spreads out a small, embroidered handkerchief across her pillow when she makes her bed, saying a short prayer for her father. The connections are never plainly spelled out - I'd rather let the reader create them, while reading a story, have them suddenly go hey! I wonder if that's the same handkerchief as in that other story..., things like that.

You should keep the sketches warm and realistic, not too monotonous and monotone, to keep the viewer's interest. / I think you should scan in your drawings for the site.
I agree. ^_^ As mentioned, I'm not going to try for photo-realistic (sodefinitely drawing, photo montage really wouldn't fit this, and I've never done any modeling on the computer), I'm not that insane, but I put a lot of thought into my materials. I decided on charcoal both because of its ability to capture a lot of textures and types of surfaces, as well as its atmospheric qualities. It's very warm, very organic, and though it's only one color, I think the amount of texture I can manage with it will keep that from being too dull. And charcoal is very conducive to making things look old.

As for transitions and movement from one direction to another.. I considered setting up a three dimensional space, but I think it would be really hard to get that to mesh with the organicness I want. I think I can keep it two dimensional, and still have it be immersive. Moving one wall to the next.. I'm still debating whether to do a straight cut, or show a movement along one wall over to the other. I think once I get some drawings done, I'll do a test of each, and open it up to what everyone things when there's something to look at. :)

Are the stories going to be real stories about real people?
Inasmuch as a bit of my own point of view or experience is tucked into little corners of everything, yeah, but by and large, no, definitely fiction. I feel safer that way. ^^; At the same time, I'm always culling things from memories or things I've read or conversations I've overheard or whatever - there's a story about a neglected young girl locked into the room, with no human contact whatsoever, that's based off of things I read over on a psychology site about feral children. There's a story about a couple of young guys playing around on BBSs back in the '80s or so, that's an amalgram of things I remember and things I read from around textfiles.com (one of my fav sites to nose around).. So most things have some basis somewhere, but the stories and characters are fictional overall.

Will users be able to affect the website for other users, or just themselves?
Initially, I was planning to just have it be for themselves, but I've been putting a lot of thought into that randomization element lately, so I'm considering a few different things now. Probably just themselves though, I think that's enough variation to start with... that, and I've a hunch it'll be closer to my coding ability to pull off. ActionScript and I really aren't on the closest of terms...

Any other suggestions, questions, comments, story ideas, ANYTHING, hugely appreciated, all the comments so far have really got me thinking about some things, thanks. :)