Chat With Sharon

On Friday I had an excellent, unplanned tutorial with Sharon, who was of great help last year. Discussing time management and my priorities for this year was very reassuring, yet we talked most about the exhibition I want to hold towards the end of the academic year. It was nice to experience another perspective on my work, and such a positive one from a non-gamer - something I am striving trying to achieve.

Sharon and I talked about building fictional worlds, and how personal they become. I am a great believer in this and want to work towards capturing this effect in my work. We mentioned how authors express themselves through their work and it can become very personal to them, but they must allow room for the audience to make an interpretation of what they see, which in turn becomes very individual and special to them. One way it can be explained is like Plato's allegory of the cave - that when observing something someone has created, you see a projection of them and their creation. Then you interpret what you see however you want, usually enhancing the projection. This is a process which can be applied to all sorts of art forms, and reinforces the need for space (or mystery) for the audience to fill in themselves.

This whole idea of personal connections with games is synonymous with hand-held gaming for me, if you can literally hold the world in your hands it becomes yours. This effect was strongest for me when I was younger, but I still feel that way about some new games now. I think it is possible with iPhone games, but rare at the moment. I have yet to find a game I feel connected too like that...

Animated Short About A Shop

 

This animated short has many similarities with my game idea! First off it has no dialogue, and it starts with a child walking down a deserted street... they then reach a spooky looking shop... sound familar?  In this short, though, the shop is creepy and it has only dolls in it. Watch the animation to get the story, I won't ruin it. But it was lovely and very helpful to see how someone has produced such a high quality animation with such similar themes to me.

Ageing in games

I was reading this article about games that have themes of ageing, and having played The Graveyard by Tale of Tales, I played Home by Increpare Games - which can be found here

I liked Home. The restricted motion, the limited options, and its a short game, but the messages are powerful. You play as an old man who has just been admitted to a care home, the game takes place in one room, with your hunger, exhaustion, happiness, and bladder meters at the top. I found it to be more direct, than The Graveyard for example. Even though your options were right there, the food on the table and the bed next to it, you just found yourself unable to reach them and before you knew it you had collapsed. This puts the player in the place of the old man, and you are as bemused as him when you find that the doctors and nurses have made some quite life altering decisions for you while you were asleep. The game ends with a visit from your daughter, which is the only instance of this in the game, yet she says she has visited every week. To me, the feeling of trust is strong in this game, you have to just trust everyone else and the character you play is happy.

I liked the enforced feeling and restrictions on this game, I also liked the basic pixel style which proved just enough to create the right environment, focussing on the messages.

Notes from 'Chris Crawford on Game Design'

I am reading Chris Crawford's book 'Chris Crawford on Game Design' and taking extracts for my research project. Here's just a few things I found to be more related to my project work...

"Common mistakes - Obsession with Cosmetics

…There are five common motivations to equip a game with good graphics and sound:

1. To further gameplay
2. To permit the player to show off the superior cosmetic capabilities of his new computer
3. To show off the superior technical prowess of the programmer
4. To keep up with the competition
5. To provide the player with images and sounds that are intrinsically pleasing

Reason #1: To further gameplay by making the player's situation and options as clear as possible. This is the only good reason for pursuing cosmetics.

…Everything you put into the game should support the gameplay. If it doesn't support the gameplay, it doesn't belong in the game.

…Imagination can just as easily be smothered by excess information as stimulated. Graphic realism stimulates the imagination, but it must leave room for the imagination to run free.

…Design is not an accretive process! Piling on more features does not necessarily make the game any better - it just makes it more complicated… Making a game bigger doesn't make it better;  it just makes it… bigger.

I need to concentrate more on the interactivity of my game, this needs to become the centre of the game. If I can make good levels, I want to eliminate most of the 'real world' sequences between levels. Less of a cut-scene kind of feel. I am happier to go back to the menu screen and show it change than show an animation, this will shorten the game and its content. Little extracts of story will be incorporated in the narration, which I now want to happen inside the levels at key points.