Still hopelessly stuck on story. D:
We did make a few decisions though. We've decided that we're going to adapt an existing story to our chosen environment. Our artstyle will also be monochromatic with contrasting colours every now and then when the scene calls for it and it's most likely going to be 2D.
We had a look at Rumi's fables to see if there's anything worth adapting there. I found that a lot of Rumi's fables has strong religious undertones, this is shown when Rumi explains what his fables actually mean (Gibbs, 2008; Kassam, 2011). I'd rather stay away from religion as a core theme in the game to be honest because it's not something that I want to talk about in our story and religion is generally a touchy subject. It won't be a very good core theme for us to portray I think.
Also thought of Arabian Nights for the story structure. Basically, you've got what you call a "frame story" and within the frame story you have someone telling multiple stories. So it's many stories within a story. In the case of Arabian Nights the main character, Scheherezade, is the narrator. In her original storyline the King marries a new virgin girl every day and executes her the next morning. He does this out of anger as his first wife was unfaithful to him he began to believe that all women are evil and untrustworthy. One day there are no virgins left because he killed them all, Scheherezade is the only one left. She volunteers willingly though. On the wedding night Scheherezade tells a really good story, but stops in the middle saying that there's no time to finish. The King wanting to hear more lets her live for another night to finish the story. That same night she starts a new story more exciting than the last, but stops before the end. And so this cycle continues. Many stories within a story. By her last story the King already loved her and had three sons with her, so she never got executed.
Similar in structure, the movie Slumdog Millionaire (Colson & Boyle, 2008) also has story within a story. The frame story is where Jamal is in the interrogation room. The other stories that fit in to this are his recollections to how he knows the answers to the questions in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". At the end we full circle back to the interrogation room and continue the story in the present time.
I'm not sure how well this structure would work though, it's something to consider.
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References:
Colson, C. (Producer), & Boyle, D. (Director). (2008). Slumdog Millionaire [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Gibbs, L. (2008). Rumi: The Fable of the Lion's Share. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from http://journeytothesea.com/rumi-lion/
Kassam, Z. (2011). Two Tales from Rumi: The Snake-Catcher and the Serpent & The Elephant and the Travellers. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from http://simerg.com/parables/two-tales-from-rumi-the-snake-catcher-and-the-serpent-the-elephant-and-the-travellers/
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Stories
At the moment we're still really stuck on story. I think the problem is that every time we start talking about ideas we all start thinking about the gameplay and how the game works/looks rather than how to tell the story with the game. How can you tell a story with a game if you don't have a story in the first place? That's the important part we're missing and I feel like we can't make much progress until we have that sorted out.
It's also getting really hard to make decisions. Edrian, Tim and I would like to do a horror story for the game. They didn't tell me about what they really thought until later because they were afraid of disagreement. I told them that you gotta say what you think whether anyone agrees or not because nobody's going to know and nothing gets done if you don't. Anyway, Maggie talked to us about being innovative for the game, how one part of the game has to be really different from other games. For the horror story we're thinking it's the environment the person plays in that can be more interactive. For example, at a certain point in the story a particular scene or atmosphere should be reflected in the space. So maybe the lighting would change, shapes would merge out of the walls, and so on. However, Ben is vehement that horror is the "easy way out" and that you can't have much of a story around horror. I disagree with him to be honest. You can't condemn a genre like that on the assumption that horror stories are made just to scare people and that it's impossible for a horror story to have any deeper meaning. In every genre you have your good stories and your bad stories and every genre has their own code and conventions. The quality and what it means depends on how you write it. It is in no way determined by the genre. So in my opinion the assumption that it's the easy way out and that it can't have a deeper meaning is erroneous. It depends on how you write it.
I think having differing opinions is normal though. This kind of thing also happened last semester when most of us didn't agree with using rockets to make a network. At the end of the day it all falls down to the majority vote.
It's also getting really hard to make decisions. Edrian, Tim and I would like to do a horror story for the game. They didn't tell me about what they really thought until later because they were afraid of disagreement. I told them that you gotta say what you think whether anyone agrees or not because nobody's going to know and nothing gets done if you don't. Anyway, Maggie talked to us about being innovative for the game, how one part of the game has to be really different from other games. For the horror story we're thinking it's the environment the person plays in that can be more interactive. For example, at a certain point in the story a particular scene or atmosphere should be reflected in the space. So maybe the lighting would change, shapes would merge out of the walls, and so on. However, Ben is vehement that horror is the "easy way out" and that you can't have much of a story around horror. I disagree with him to be honest. You can't condemn a genre like that on the assumption that horror stories are made just to scare people and that it's impossible for a horror story to have any deeper meaning. In every genre you have your good stories and your bad stories and every genre has their own code and conventions. The quality and what it means depends on how you write it. It is in no way determined by the genre. So in my opinion the assumption that it's the easy way out and that it can't have a deeper meaning is erroneous. It depends on how you write it.
I think having differing opinions is normal though. This kind of thing also happened last semester when most of us didn't agree with using rockets to make a network. At the end of the day it all falls down to the majority vote.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Concept Art for Environments and Characters
Did a bit of concept art. I did one environment of the mountains in the Winter Wasteland and four characters that are unrelated to each other. The characters are just ideas at the moment, don't know if they'll actually be used.
The mountains were based on what I think the mountains in the Winter Wasteland would look like. I imagine they'd be tall and covered in crags and precarious precipices.
As for the characters I was inspired by Bastion, Adventure Time, Journey and the Tuareg tribe.
From top to bottom, left to right:
The Child: Has fur hat and fur cloak--both made from various beasts of the Winter Wasteland. Also has super poofy pants. The Child is innocent and naive, doesn't know much about the world and oblivious to the dangers around him/her.
The poofy pants were inspired by the Ura in Bastion.
Bunny Boy: Another child. He lives in the underground jungle beneath the Winter Wasteland. Wears animal hat and salad leaves, like most other children of his people. He has never seen the Upperworld before so is not aware of the Winter Wasteland. He hears stories about it and wanders up there while unsupervised. He's super curious. The style for Bunny Boy was inspired by the art style used in the Adventure Time cartoon series.
The Moth: Specialised soldier in the Winter Wasteland for fast, unexpected kills. The special helment prevents your breath from being seen by condensing it back into water and keeps the heat in. This one had no specific influences, but I drew this one to have more of an Arabic feel to it and continued on with the poofy pants fashion.
The Noble: A noble lady living in the wealthier region of the Winter Wasteland where most of the resources are hoarded and distributed among its wealthy citizens. This one had strong influences from Journey and the head scarves of Tuareg women.
In terms of gameplay I really like the gameplay in the game Limbo. The art style we're going for is leaning towards Limbo as well but with splashes of colour here and there to make a contrast to the monochromatic colour scheme.
Here's a video of Limbo at the beginning:
As you can see a lot of it is trial an error and you need to think about how to get out of a mess all the time so it's not just a mindless hack and slash where you do the same thing over and over without much thought.
__________________________________________________________________________
References:
TobyGames. (2012, February 10). Let's Play Limbo - I'M DEAD - Part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved July 27, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGtDesNPl2o
The mountains were based on what I think the mountains in the Winter Wasteland would look like. I imagine they'd be tall and covered in crags and precarious precipices.
As for the characters I was inspired by Bastion, Adventure Time, Journey and the Tuareg tribe.
From top to bottom, left to right:
The Child: Has fur hat and fur cloak--both made from various beasts of the Winter Wasteland. Also has super poofy pants. The Child is innocent and naive, doesn't know much about the world and oblivious to the dangers around him/her.
The poofy pants were inspired by the Ura in Bastion.
Bunny Boy: Another child. He lives in the underground jungle beneath the Winter Wasteland. Wears animal hat and salad leaves, like most other children of his people. He has never seen the Upperworld before so is not aware of the Winter Wasteland. He hears stories about it and wanders up there while unsupervised. He's super curious. The style for Bunny Boy was inspired by the art style used in the Adventure Time cartoon series.
The Moth: Specialised soldier in the Winter Wasteland for fast, unexpected kills. The special helment prevents your breath from being seen by condensing it back into water and keeps the heat in. This one had no specific influences, but I drew this one to have more of an Arabic feel to it and continued on with the poofy pants fashion.
The Noble: A noble lady living in the wealthier region of the Winter Wasteland where most of the resources are hoarded and distributed among its wealthy citizens. This one had strong influences from Journey and the head scarves of Tuareg women.
In terms of gameplay I really like the gameplay in the game Limbo. The art style we're going for is leaning towards Limbo as well but with splashes of colour here and there to make a contrast to the monochromatic colour scheme.
Here's a video of Limbo at the beginning:
As you can see a lot of it is trial an error and you need to think about how to get out of a mess all the time so it's not just a mindless hack and slash where you do the same thing over and over without much thought.
__________________________________________________________________________
References:
TobyGames. (2012, February 10). Let's Play Limbo - I'M DEAD - Part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved July 27, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGtDesNPl2o
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
More Thinking
Did a massive brainstorm to help us develop a good story. Split it up in to setting, characters, and style. Once we have that we can build a story around it. I think it would be easier doing it this way rather than coming up with the story first. This is because we don't know what we want yet.
We're really into the Winter Wasteland setting. Other settings we have are jungle, ocean, desert, and tripped out world. We're thinking that we could incorporate certain aspects we like about these other settings into the Winter Wasteland. I'm hoping to put desert tribe inspired peoples into the Winter Wasteland though, I think that would be really interesting.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Different ways
Yesterday we hit a bit of a dead end on different ways of telling a story through a game. We found out from a lot of our discussions that most of the ways we thought about have already been done before. I'm wondering if it actually matters whether or not it's been done before though. Imagine, through generations and generations of humans thinking and making things, I doubt much is truly original any more. I think it's more about doing the same thing, but in a different way. Or using something for something else that you won't normally think of. Basically, using something that's already there but in an ingenious way.
Some things we all agreed on was that we wanted the game to be like a story book. I imagine the game we want to make is like a book, movie, and game mashed up together. For me, I want the narrative to have a natural flow and many possibilities. I obviously don't have children, but I think when you tell children stories one day you'd run out of stories to tell. They'll want you to tell them a new story.
So keeping that in mind I had an idea of what we could do. We could have a selection of characters, locations and decision points. The character and location would be selected randomly. As the person plays through the story, each decision point has the chance to spin the story in a new direction.
Let's say we have 5 characters, 10 locations, and 5 decisions to make in 25 stages.
nPr = n! / ( n - r )!
so:
( 5! / 4! ) x ( 10! / 9! ) x ( 5! / 4! ) x 25 = 5 x 10 x 5 x 25
= 6250 stories
They won't all be different though, which is something my group pointed out. It depends on the decision the player chooses whether or not the story would take a new turn. If 2 out of 5 of the decisions can change to something completely different then I think there would be this many different stories:
( 6250 / 5 ) x 2 = 2500 stories
Another thing is that if there are so many decision points where the story could change, how do you make sure that the story still makes sense? That's the difficult part. It WILL be difficult, but it won't be impossible. I think we could do it well, it all depends on how you write each decision so that it still makes sense with previous events.
________________________________________
This idea got banned though. Mainly because the group thinks it would be too difficult and the work load for this would be too great for the time frame that we have.
Some things we all agreed on was that we wanted the game to be like a story book. I imagine the game we want to make is like a book, movie, and game mashed up together. For me, I want the narrative to have a natural flow and many possibilities. I obviously don't have children, but I think when you tell children stories one day you'd run out of stories to tell. They'll want you to tell them a new story.
So keeping that in mind I had an idea of what we could do. We could have a selection of characters, locations and decision points. The character and location would be selected randomly. As the person plays through the story, each decision point has the chance to spin the story in a new direction.
Let's say we have 5 characters, 10 locations, and 5 decisions to make in 25 stages.
nPr = n! / ( n - r )!
so:
( 5! / 4! ) x ( 10! / 9! ) x ( 5! / 4! ) x 25 = 5 x 10 x 5 x 25
= 6250 stories
They won't all be different though, which is something my group pointed out. It depends on the decision the player chooses whether or not the story would take a new turn. If 2 out of 5 of the decisions can change to something completely different then I think there would be this many different stories:
( 6250 / 5 ) x 2 = 2500 stories
Another thing is that if there are so many decision points where the story could change, how do you make sure that the story still makes sense? That's the difficult part. It WILL be difficult, but it won't be impossible. I think we could do it well, it all depends on how you write each decision so that it still makes sense with previous events.
________________________________________
This idea got banned though. Mainly because the group thinks it would be too difficult and the work load for this would be too great for the time frame that we have.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Project Nominations
Heard some really interesting project pitches from the class today. The one that interested me the most, other than my own groups project of course, is Jenny's pitch. Her one is about making good use of a space and portable homes that can morph in to the space that you need.
I really like the idea of that and it works so well with the idea of sustainable living. For me, I always wanted an underground house. They're pretty well insulated, they could be really strong structurally if you design them properly. The ground reinforces the strength I think. Also, since it's underground it stops me from getting burned by the sun, which is a problem for me as I burn easily. I think it could be interesting to experiment with different shapes to use in making portable homes though. For example, hexagons and triangles. They're so strong and save a lot of material. I think it could be possible to use those shapes to make a portable house that could morph.
For my own group's pitch we got some interest from a few people. It might be nice to have just a few more people. This would make the work load easier to handle, but people would be more difficult to co-ordinate and make group decisions. Overall though, I think it would be a good idea to add in a few more.
I'm a bit worried about my role though. I'm worried that I won't have enough to do because I only have experience with art-making and making stories. I could organise time and people, but other than that I don't know what my role would turn into after we've got the story down.
I really like the idea of that and it works so well with the idea of sustainable living. For me, I always wanted an underground house. They're pretty well insulated, they could be really strong structurally if you design them properly. The ground reinforces the strength I think. Also, since it's underground it stops me from getting burned by the sun, which is a problem for me as I burn easily. I think it could be interesting to experiment with different shapes to use in making portable homes though. For example, hexagons and triangles. They're so strong and save a lot of material. I think it could be possible to use those shapes to make a portable house that could morph.
For my own group's pitch we got some interest from a few people. It might be nice to have just a few more people. This would make the work load easier to handle, but people would be more difficult to co-ordinate and make group decisions. Overall though, I think it would be a good idea to add in a few more.
I'm a bit worried about my role though. I'm worried that I won't have enough to do because I only have experience with art-making and making stories. I could organise time and people, but other than that I don't know what my role would turn into after we've got the story down.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
More ideas
Not much happened today, just getting presentation for project pitch ready for tomorrow.
Got some more ideas in terms of the setting of the story though.
The Winter Wasteland has a lot of similarities to the deep sea environment. Both are cold and eternally dark. Both are rather harsh environments for living things.
In the Winter Wasteland we understand that humanoid inhabitants are struggling to survive, but what about certain tough plants and animals? It's highly probably that there are survivors and they would have changed and adapted over time to live in the environment. Just like the creatures in the deep sea. So maybe in the Winter Wasteland there could be carnivorous plants (generally they live in extremely nutrient poor soil), bioluminescent plants and animals like in the deep sea and so on. Also, the stars could be like the marine snow that falls down to the deep sea. The stars could fall/drift down every once in a while and the character can collect these to use as a safe light source, since fire would attract enemies. However, over time the fallen stars would disintegrate and become nothing more than greyish white dust.
Got some more ideas in terms of the setting of the story though.
The Winter Wasteland has a lot of similarities to the deep sea environment. Both are cold and eternally dark. Both are rather harsh environments for living things.
In the Winter Wasteland we understand that humanoid inhabitants are struggling to survive, but what about certain tough plants and animals? It's highly probably that there are survivors and they would have changed and adapted over time to live in the environment. Just like the creatures in the deep sea. So maybe in the Winter Wasteland there could be carnivorous plants (generally they live in extremely nutrient poor soil), bioluminescent plants and animals like in the deep sea and so on. Also, the stars could be like the marine snow that falls down to the deep sea. The stars could fall/drift down every once in a while and the character can collect these to use as a safe light source, since fire would attract enemies. However, over time the fallen stars would disintegrate and become nothing more than greyish white dust.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Signed off
Made some adjustments to our proposal form yesterday and today we got it signed off. So that's good.
Last night I wrote up some possible settings that might work for a game. Showed it to the group to see which ones they like. All of the settings come from my dreams, which are pretty crazy most of the time.
There are four worlds that are suitable for a game and might be interesting to think about. They are: World of Magicians, Winter Wasteland, Tower, and Snake Worlds.
World of Magicians
In this world magic is relatively common and very real. The only difference is how people treat it in different cultures.
On the fringes of a relatively wealthy continent is a small town. Here, being a magician is an honour and using it to benefit society is nearly an absolute responsibility. Families and people with magic here have a strong sense of noblesse oblige. However, one witch hated her family for caging her up like a bird, forcing her to be someones she's not.
In a poor, industrial country where parents throw away their children for food, knowledge is power. That power is magic. A slum boy and his friend, scrawny like a bundle of twigs, are in an orphanage. The bullies make them eat mud every day and they beat them bloody. They tore out the slum boy's left eye and killed his friend. He ended up learning, and learn he did.
In the desert as wide as the ocean prosperous towns spring up here and there where the water glitters and date palms sway. Houses made of orange mud bricks all decorated colourful and bright stand draped in silks and precious fabrics that shimmer with every breath. Here, you're not a real magician unless you've had an adventure regardless of your power.
In another country of cold, white stone, faith is purity and justice. Magic is only for the unclean; the Untouchables. They're really just afraid of things they don't understand. A vengeful, wounded ghost seeks help from a young boy who is an alchemist's slave.
Winter Wasteland
Here, snow blankets the land and the trees are all black with death--strangled by the frost. Here, the sun doesn't smile. The night is eternal. The moon is nothing but an empty shell and the stars don't sparkle like ours. They're dull and faint, like stale bread crumbs scattered across the sky.
Fire is a rare gift, but make sure to panic if you see that friendly, warm, yellow light. For dwarves have resorted to cannibalism and they're not the only ones. Everybody wants to live.
It's so cold that you can't even feel your hands. Oh, that's right. You don't have hands any more. You had to get mechanical ones because yours froze and broke off years ago.
Tower
Welcome to the afterlife. There are many strict rules here that you find out as you go along, but beware. If you break them you die. Rather unpleasantly in fact. This is because the number rule is that you can't die again, and if you do you're very, very naughty. There are many doors in the tower, behind each is a world to explore. Try as hard as you want, there's no escaping this tower or its worlds. Sucks to be you.
Snake Worlds
It's okay if you get eaten by a snake, because there's a strange world inside every snake. Inside every snake world is also an exit snake. Just gotta get the exit snake to eat you without knowing so you can get back out to your world.
And that's all four worlds. Winter Wasteland we all agree is the best one for us and we want to incorporate the industrial aspect of that really poor country in World of Magicians.
Notice that in all of these little blurbs the tone is rather dark. Ben said that it wouldn't be suitable for younger kids and he wants something that people of all ages can enjoy. Basically a game for everyone. I disagree with him though. If you try to make a game that actively tries to please absolutely everyone it's impossible. You end up with a mediocre game that has a bit of everything in it but none of the aspects and faces are good. They're not bad, but they're not good either. I think it would be better to focus on the story and what this story is all about rather than worry about the audience for now. Personally, I think children can appreciate scary, or dark stories. Why else would you find anthologies of scary folk tales for children?
We all have different ideas on how this game should be and that's really frustrating me because we're all thinking in different directions. It's hard to agree on one thing when we all want different things. It frustrates me and it worries me when that happens and it's putting me on edge because decisions haven't been made yet.
Last night I wrote up some possible settings that might work for a game. Showed it to the group to see which ones they like. All of the settings come from my dreams, which are pretty crazy most of the time.
There are four worlds that are suitable for a game and might be interesting to think about. They are: World of Magicians, Winter Wasteland, Tower, and Snake Worlds.
World of Magicians
In this world magic is relatively common and very real. The only difference is how people treat it in different cultures.
On the fringes of a relatively wealthy continent is a small town. Here, being a magician is an honour and using it to benefit society is nearly an absolute responsibility. Families and people with magic here have a strong sense of noblesse oblige. However, one witch hated her family for caging her up like a bird, forcing her to be someones she's not.
In a poor, industrial country where parents throw away their children for food, knowledge is power. That power is magic. A slum boy and his friend, scrawny like a bundle of twigs, are in an orphanage. The bullies make them eat mud every day and they beat them bloody. They tore out the slum boy's left eye and killed his friend. He ended up learning, and learn he did.
In the desert as wide as the ocean prosperous towns spring up here and there where the water glitters and date palms sway. Houses made of orange mud bricks all decorated colourful and bright stand draped in silks and precious fabrics that shimmer with every breath. Here, you're not a real magician unless you've had an adventure regardless of your power.
In another country of cold, white stone, faith is purity and justice. Magic is only for the unclean; the Untouchables. They're really just afraid of things they don't understand. A vengeful, wounded ghost seeks help from a young boy who is an alchemist's slave.
Winter Wasteland
Here, snow blankets the land and the trees are all black with death--strangled by the frost. Here, the sun doesn't smile. The night is eternal. The moon is nothing but an empty shell and the stars don't sparkle like ours. They're dull and faint, like stale bread crumbs scattered across the sky.
Fire is a rare gift, but make sure to panic if you see that friendly, warm, yellow light. For dwarves have resorted to cannibalism and they're not the only ones. Everybody wants to live.
It's so cold that you can't even feel your hands. Oh, that's right. You don't have hands any more. You had to get mechanical ones because yours froze and broke off years ago.
Tower
Welcome to the afterlife. There are many strict rules here that you find out as you go along, but beware. If you break them you die. Rather unpleasantly in fact. This is because the number rule is that you can't die again, and if you do you're very, very naughty. There are many doors in the tower, behind each is a world to explore. Try as hard as you want, there's no escaping this tower or its worlds. Sucks to be you.
Snake Worlds
It's okay if you get eaten by a snake, because there's a strange world inside every snake. Inside every snake world is also an exit snake. Just gotta get the exit snake to eat you without knowing so you can get back out to your world.
And that's all four worlds. Winter Wasteland we all agree is the best one for us and we want to incorporate the industrial aspect of that really poor country in World of Magicians.
Notice that in all of these little blurbs the tone is rather dark. Ben said that it wouldn't be suitable for younger kids and he wants something that people of all ages can enjoy. Basically a game for everyone. I disagree with him though. If you try to make a game that actively tries to please absolutely everyone it's impossible. You end up with a mediocre game that has a bit of everything in it but none of the aspects and faces are good. They're not bad, but they're not good either. I think it would be better to focus on the story and what this story is all about rather than worry about the audience for now. Personally, I think children can appreciate scary, or dark stories. Why else would you find anthologies of scary folk tales for children?
We all have different ideas on how this game should be and that's really frustrating me because we're all thinking in different directions. It's hard to agree on one thing when we all want different things. It frustrates me and it worries me when that happens and it's putting me on edge because decisions haven't been made yet.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Project pitches
Alright, throughout the holidays we've had multiple discussions on what we want to do for the next semester. We didn't have anything solid until yesterday.
We talked with Maggie and she showed us an approach to getting something really solid. That's to think about what we actually want to do and what skills we want to develop for after we graduate this course. For me, I actually have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. It's actually kind of terrifying because I don't know what I want, but I do know that I'm on the right path. It's when you know that there's this destination and you know that you want to be there, but you don't know where it is, what that place is like and when you're gonna get there. Only thing you're sure of is that right now, you're on the right path to getting there.
I do like writing and making stories though. Ben and Tim want to get into making games but not sure what specific role they want. Edrian wants to do photography, have his own studio--go in an artistic direction. With these all in mind, we came to the conclusion that making a game would be good for all of us. So that's pretty much what we're planning to do.
We want to create a game with unique storytelling elements and change the way games are played. In a lot of games you simply do what the game tells you to do and basically that's it. Nothing new there, just doing what you're told. For me this doesn't really take me in to the story. From my perspective, it should be like playing in a movie or a book, except it's in the format of a game if you get what I mean. I want to feel an emotion from a game. Make me feel wrong, horrible, afraid, relieved, happy, a sense of achievement. Make me think. Obviously, it should be fun and enjoyable as well. I find plenty of movies and books can make me feel and think, but when it comes to games I haven't found that effect yet. I haven't been moved to tears, I haven't felt compelled to know how the game ends due to burning curiosity. Maybe I haven't played enough games or maybe I'm playing all the wrong games, but I'd like that effect to happen in the game we want to make.
We talked to Andy about it and made little adjustments. After that we filled out a draft form.
Showed it to Daniel this morning to see if he would sign us off. However, he believes that what we're doing is impossible for the time frame and the idea of games as a way of telling a story is something that everyone's been wanting to do for years but hasn't really happened yet. To be honest I'm going to ignore that. We were told that this is the time to make a risk and really mess up trying to do what we're interested in, something that we haven't tried before. I view this as an opportunity to do that. Who knows, we might churn out something amazing.
Hopefully we can convince Andy and one other to sign us off tomorrow. I'm itching to make a story for this out of my crazy, vivid dreams. You'll hear more of this tomorrow. I've got quite a few settings down that we can try out to place our story. I've already cut down on some that I don't think are suitable though. Will show the suitable ones to group tomorrow.
Also, Nick has joined the group. I fully welcome him in our group. I know that he's a very hard worker and he's really good at anything he puts his mind to. He gets along well with everyone in the group too, so I don't think we'll run into a lot of problems in that respect. Only thing left is seeing how the way he works can fit in with ours.
We talked with Maggie and she showed us an approach to getting something really solid. That's to think about what we actually want to do and what skills we want to develop for after we graduate this course. For me, I actually have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. It's actually kind of terrifying because I don't know what I want, but I do know that I'm on the right path. It's when you know that there's this destination and you know that you want to be there, but you don't know where it is, what that place is like and when you're gonna get there. Only thing you're sure of is that right now, you're on the right path to getting there.
I do like writing and making stories though. Ben and Tim want to get into making games but not sure what specific role they want. Edrian wants to do photography, have his own studio--go in an artistic direction. With these all in mind, we came to the conclusion that making a game would be good for all of us. So that's pretty much what we're planning to do.
We want to create a game with unique storytelling elements and change the way games are played. In a lot of games you simply do what the game tells you to do and basically that's it. Nothing new there, just doing what you're told. For me this doesn't really take me in to the story. From my perspective, it should be like playing in a movie or a book, except it's in the format of a game if you get what I mean. I want to feel an emotion from a game. Make me feel wrong, horrible, afraid, relieved, happy, a sense of achievement. Make me think. Obviously, it should be fun and enjoyable as well. I find plenty of movies and books can make me feel and think, but when it comes to games I haven't found that effect yet. I haven't been moved to tears, I haven't felt compelled to know how the game ends due to burning curiosity. Maybe I haven't played enough games or maybe I'm playing all the wrong games, but I'd like that effect to happen in the game we want to make.
We talked to Andy about it and made little adjustments. After that we filled out a draft form.
Showed it to Daniel this morning to see if he would sign us off. However, he believes that what we're doing is impossible for the time frame and the idea of games as a way of telling a story is something that everyone's been wanting to do for years but hasn't really happened yet. To be honest I'm going to ignore that. We were told that this is the time to make a risk and really mess up trying to do what we're interested in, something that we haven't tried before. I view this as an opportunity to do that. Who knows, we might churn out something amazing.
Hopefully we can convince Andy and one other to sign us off tomorrow. I'm itching to make a story for this out of my crazy, vivid dreams. You'll hear more of this tomorrow. I've got quite a few settings down that we can try out to place our story. I've already cut down on some that I don't think are suitable though. Will show the suitable ones to group tomorrow.
Also, Nick has joined the group. I fully welcome him in our group. I know that he's a very hard worker and he's really good at anything he puts his mind to. He gets along well with everyone in the group too, so I don't think we'll run into a lot of problems in that respect. Only thing left is seeing how the way he works can fit in with ours.
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