In my last Supervisor Tutorial, Daniel suggested that I looked at some of the things I mentioned in this post.
I did not manage to get to play these games, but I did do some research on them.
The Witcher
Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist from the Witcher. It starts off with him being unconscious suffering from amnesia. It's his goal to recover his memory and find out his true identity. It is stated that even at the end of the game, he still isn't entirely sure who he is.
Planescape Torment
In Planescape Torment the protagonist known as The Nameless One who is an immortal who can die countless times. Each time he dies he suffers from Amnesia. It's his goal to remember what has happened and discover why he is immortal.
Amnesia Dark Descent
The protagonist is known as Daniel who goes off to explore a dark forbidden castle. The story involves an Amnesia potion. Which is originally given to prisoners which are tortured to ensure that they will be just as terrified the next time they are tortured.
These are all very interesting stories involving memory loss and will certainly give me ideas for my Room Escape game.
Friday, 28 February 2014
Monday, 24 February 2014
Lecturer Tutorial 2: Progress Report
Today, I had a tutorial with the lecturer, Ian. As it was a progress report, it was more to see how I was getting on than giving me advice on my work.
Here, we discussed the draft I had done in sketchup and why I came to the conclusion that a bedroom would work.
I told him that once I had created the room design in sketchup that I was going to trace around it for Flash from different perspectives and angles.
I told him I had a storyline worked out and he was happy that I had been working on my blog.
Even as a progress report we still came to the conclusion that I needed to work out the order of what tools and items would be used, in order to escape..
I then confirmed that Daniel, my supervisor, had stated that one level would be best for this type of game and that less than 15 minutes of engagement would be suitable. Ian was fine with this as he said that Daniel, as a supervisor would know what's best.
In conclusion he said that he hoped the game would not get too small and that the extent of the work is one of the things that is taken into account when marking. This is valuable information and definitely something I will take into consideration when creating my game.
Here, we discussed the draft I had done in sketchup and why I came to the conclusion that a bedroom would work.
I told him that once I had created the room design in sketchup that I was going to trace around it for Flash from different perspectives and angles.
I told him I had a storyline worked out and he was happy that I had been working on my blog.
Even as a progress report we still came to the conclusion that I needed to work out the order of what tools and items would be used, in order to escape..
I then confirmed that Daniel, my supervisor, had stated that one level would be best for this type of game and that less than 15 minutes of engagement would be suitable. Ian was fine with this as he said that Daniel, as a supervisor would know what's best.
In conclusion he said that he hoped the game would not get too small and that the extent of the work is one of the things that is taken into account when marking. This is valuable information and definitely something I will take into consideration when creating my game.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
Supervisor Tutorial 2: Storyline Plot
In this tutorial, I informed Daniel on what I thought would be a good storyline for my game. I explained that the main character would have suffered from memory loss and it's the users goal to escape from the room and in turn find out how they had lost their memory.
Storyline Plot
For the storyline of my game, my supervisor gave me several artifacts to research which all involve main characters whom have lost their memory and suggested I looked at some of them. They were the following:
Conclusion
I will research these some of these artifacts as suggested by my supervisor as they involve memory loss in them. These will help me learn how I can incorporate memory loss into my game.
I have already seen both Memento and Total Recall so that is a good start!
Storyline Plot
For the storyline of my game, my supervisor gave me several artifacts to research which all involve main characters whom have lost their memory and suggested I looked at some of them. They were the following:
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Conclusion
I will research these some of these artifacts as suggested by my supervisor as they involve memory loss in them. These will help me learn how I can incorporate memory loss into my game.
I have already seen both Memento and Total Recall so that is a good start!
Friday, 14 February 2014
Research: Narrators in Narrative games
I began to research the things which Daniel suggested in our tutorial.
Daniel stated it would be a good idea to look at these three games because they all involved narration and to also look at his work Icarus Needs as it tells a story.
I decided to give these games a go but have not yet completed them apart from Icarus Needs
Thomas was Alone
An indie game narrated by Daniel Wallace.
Daniel Wallace manages to pull off both serious narration and comedic narration throughout the game. The narration helped to explain not only the surroundings (which showed what you shouldn't touch, such as the spikes, referred to as krytonite) but also helped to tell the story too.
Bastion
A more serious narration given. Used throughout the game as you progress which help to tell the story and set the scene. The narrator refers to the protagonist and kid "then kid takes his shield". I liked that the narration would let the user know what the enemies they saw were and what they had to do with the story.
Stanley Parable
The narration in this game is very important to the game. Without the narration the user would definitely not have the same experience. The narration always refers to the Protagonist as Stanley stating "Stanley did this... Stanley did that". The narrator does not state what the user should do, but instead narrates what the user is doing. For instance "Stanley walked up stairs to his bosses office" then if you choose to walk downstairs instead, the story would change "but Stanley just couldn't do it".
Icarus Needs
A hyper comic to where the user can navigate through using the arrow keys or WASD. It's the users goal to navigate around collecting objects trying to complete tasks in a bid to escape from your dream. Even though it's not a room escape game I find this game very valuable to my artefact.
Daniel stated it would be a good idea to look at these three games because they all involved narration and to also look at his work Icarus Needs as it tells a story.
I decided to give these games a go but have not yet completed them apart from Icarus Needs
Thomas was Alone
An indie game narrated by Daniel Wallace.
Daniel Wallace manages to pull off both serious narration and comedic narration throughout the game. The narration helped to explain not only the surroundings (which showed what you shouldn't touch, such as the spikes, referred to as krytonite) but also helped to tell the story too.
Bastion
A more serious narration given. Used throughout the game as you progress which help to tell the story and set the scene. The narrator refers to the protagonist and kid "then kid takes his shield". I liked that the narration would let the user know what the enemies they saw were and what they had to do with the story.
Stanley Parable
The narration in this game is very important to the game. Without the narration the user would definitely not have the same experience. The narration always refers to the Protagonist as Stanley stating "Stanley did this... Stanley did that". The narrator does not state what the user should do, but instead narrates what the user is doing. For instance "Stanley walked up stairs to his bosses office" then if you choose to walk downstairs instead, the story would change "but Stanley just couldn't do it".
Icarus Needs
A hyper comic to where the user can navigate through using the arrow keys or WASD. It's the users goal to navigate around collecting objects trying to complete tasks in a bid to escape from your dream. Even though it's not a room escape game I find this game very valuable to my artefact.
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Supervisor Tutorial 1: Location, Duration, USP, Research
Today, I had a tutorial with my supervisor Daniel Goodbrey.
He we went through several different points relating to my game "How I Escaped".
Location
I showed Daniel my mock up of which I had done of the room in Google Sketchup, he stated that these were good planning techniques and I should proceed to use them, but having it as a bedroom was too typical and it needed to be change to another room instead.
Conclusion
I thought that this was a good idea and agreed that it needed to be a in different location. Instead of having the room as a bedroom, I will need to find a more suitable room for my Room Escape game.
Duration
He stated that having the duration of the game at around 10 minutes would be fine. He also stated that my original idea of having the game as one level instead of three levels would be a better idea, as three levels would be too many for a game like this. Daniel also stated that if I should only include more levels if it suited the storyline of the game and it shouldn't have to be compulsory.
Conclusion
Due to the nature of the game, some users will be completing the game faster than others. I will have to do user testing to ensure that the duration of my game will last around 10 minutes on average.
USP
My supervisor commented on both of my USP's (unique selling point).
Narration: Originally I had wanted to do the narration myself since it would mean that more work is done by me and thus a higher grade. My supervisor said that if I manage to find a voice actor online, this would mean more marks as I'm going out of my way to find others to do things whom are more capable than I am and thus it would be more professional and lead to a higher mark. The supervisor stated that the appropriate voice acting website will found in a later date and it's important to concentrate on the other aspects of the game first.
Clue system: At first I wanted to create a clue system as when users get stuck they can simply use clues so that they'd no longer be stuck, which would thus mean that that the user would not be taken out of the gaming experience by going on video websites such as YouTube and looking up walkthroughs. My supervior stated that, although a nice idea, the clue system should not be a necessity since there are benefits to others making walkthroughs. We came to a conclusion that walkthroughs online actually help promote a game, particularly if the person playing the game has a large following. He stated it was best to not priorities this feature, however if there was a good unique way to include this, then it should be okay.
Conclusion
Once I am further in this project I will find the appropriate voice actor for my project. My supervisor stated that he would find the website for this as many of this co-workers would know a good voice acting website which would suit my game.
Now that a USP of a clue system has been dismissed, I believe that this will in some respects create a better gaming experience as the user would have to think more on how to solve the game rather than relying on the clues given. User testing will still be done, not so much in regards to how a clue system should be put in place without abuse, but on the difficulty level of the game as a whole.
Research
The supervisor said that he liked my USP of narration and suggested researching games which also have narration in them. He stated to play the following games: Bastion, Thomas was Alone and Stanley Parable. Out of the three, Thomas was Alone was one which I had heard of but have never played.
Daniel also mentioned that I should have a look at his hypercomic game that he created called Icarus Needs as it also tells a story.
Conclusion
I will be looking at these three games and making a post on them reviewing how they use the narration to tell a story, including the voice, accents and also the atmosphere created during the narration. By doing so, this will give me a better idea on how I should incorporate the narration in my game.
I will also be taking the same approach with Daniels Icarus Needs game, however with this game I won't be looking out for a narration but how the story is told instead.
He we went through several different points relating to my game "How I Escaped".
Location
I showed Daniel my mock up of which I had done of the room in Google Sketchup, he stated that these were good planning techniques and I should proceed to use them, but having it as a bedroom was too typical and it needed to be change to another room instead.
Conclusion
I thought that this was a good idea and agreed that it needed to be a in different location. Instead of having the room as a bedroom, I will need to find a more suitable room for my Room Escape game.
Duration
He stated that having the duration of the game at around 10 minutes would be fine. He also stated that my original idea of having the game as one level instead of three levels would be a better idea, as three levels would be too many for a game like this. Daniel also stated that if I should only include more levels if it suited the storyline of the game and it shouldn't have to be compulsory.
Conclusion
Due to the nature of the game, some users will be completing the game faster than others. I will have to do user testing to ensure that the duration of my game will last around 10 minutes on average.
USP
My supervisor commented on both of my USP's (unique selling point).
Narration: Originally I had wanted to do the narration myself since it would mean that more work is done by me and thus a higher grade. My supervisor said that if I manage to find a voice actor online, this would mean more marks as I'm going out of my way to find others to do things whom are more capable than I am and thus it would be more professional and lead to a higher mark. The supervisor stated that the appropriate voice acting website will found in a later date and it's important to concentrate on the other aspects of the game first.
Clue system: At first I wanted to create a clue system as when users get stuck they can simply use clues so that they'd no longer be stuck, which would thus mean that that the user would not be taken out of the gaming experience by going on video websites such as YouTube and looking up walkthroughs. My supervior stated that, although a nice idea, the clue system should not be a necessity since there are benefits to others making walkthroughs. We came to a conclusion that walkthroughs online actually help promote a game, particularly if the person playing the game has a large following. He stated it was best to not priorities this feature, however if there was a good unique way to include this, then it should be okay.
Conclusion
Once I am further in this project I will find the appropriate voice actor for my project. My supervisor stated that he would find the website for this as many of this co-workers would know a good voice acting website which would suit my game.
Now that a USP of a clue system has been dismissed, I believe that this will in some respects create a better gaming experience as the user would have to think more on how to solve the game rather than relying on the clues given. User testing will still be done, not so much in regards to how a clue system should be put in place without abuse, but on the difficulty level of the game as a whole.
Research
The supervisor said that he liked my USP of narration and suggested researching games which also have narration in them. He stated to play the following games: Bastion, Thomas was Alone and Stanley Parable. Out of the three, Thomas was Alone was one which I had heard of but have never played.
Daniel also mentioned that I should have a look at his hypercomic game that he created called Icarus Needs as it also tells a story.
Conclusion
I will be looking at these three games and making a post on them reviewing how they use the narration to tell a story, including the voice, accents and also the atmosphere created during the narration. By doing so, this will give me a better idea on how I should incorporate the narration in my game.
I will also be taking the same approach with Daniels Icarus Needs game, however with this game I won't be looking out for a narration but how the story is told instead.
Tuesday, 11 February 2014
Working Processes: Creating the Room [Sketchup] - The beginning
In order to create a Room Escape game it's important to first construct what the room will look like first. This way, when the user rotates around the room, the appropriate dimensions, size and prospective will be given.
With this, I will be able to rotate the camera around my design in Google Sketchup and then use those graphics to trace around with Adobe Flash.
Firstly I changed the model settings of Google Sketchup by setting the units to metres to 2 decimal place.
I started with the walls. I made them 3 metres high and 5 metres wide and 0.04 metres in thickness.
After I done that, I coped and pasted these, rotated them and then set them around the room to create a square. Afterwards, I then used the square tool to draw the floor in. The floor ended up being 5 metres by 5 metres with a thickness of 0.04 metres.
I then drew a rectangle on a wall to represent a door. I used the push/pull tool to drag out the door and make it 3D.
Afterwards, I then went onto adding a window.
To create this window, I made sure that I did this as a new component so that it would not interfere with the wall itself. This in the long run would make it easier to move and scale the windows size.
I used three rectangles to create the window. One for the frame and two for the windows itself. I used the push/pull tool to pull out the window frame and push in the windows. (The person is there by default).
I then viewed the Google Sketchups component library for some objects. I looked for a single bed. This gave a wide range of beds to choose from.
I found the one I wanted. This one looked most appealing to me because it was very simplistic and one that I could use my imagination with once traced over in Adobe Flash.
I then looked for two more items in the components. Drawers and a table.
The main parts of my bedroom was now complete. I will add to this when I have more ideas on the plot of my game.
With this, I will be able to rotate the camera around my design in Google Sketchup and then use those graphics to trace around with Adobe Flash.
Firstly I changed the model settings of Google Sketchup by setting the units to metres to 2 decimal place.
I started with the walls. I made them 3 metres high and 5 metres wide and 0.04 metres in thickness.
I used three rectangles to create the window. One for the frame and two for the windows itself. I used the push/pull tool to pull out the window frame and push in the windows. (The person is there by default).
I then viewed the Google Sketchups component library for some objects. I looked for a single bed. This gave a wide range of beds to choose from.
I found the one I wanted. This one looked most appealing to me because it was very simplistic and one that I could use my imagination with once traced over in Adobe Flash.
I then looked for two more items in the components. Drawers and a table.
The main parts of my bedroom was now complete. I will add to this when I have more ideas on the plot of my game.
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