Christmas Show - Inspiration

In regards to my personal development, particularly my plans to put on an exhibition next term, I have put some work in the NUCA Christmas Show. As the entry doesn't have to be Christmas themed I made a shallower, smaller version of the shop to submit. I thought about submitting a print of other parts of my project but the depth of the box frame seemed ideal for another shop, and it will be nice to see how it will work as an exhibit.

I hope this experience will be helpful, it has definitely been enjoyable getting back to using paper again.

EDIT: In doing this I was inspired to make an alternate menu system which takes place completely inside the shop. I had been thinking about this earlier while making the first menu system, and feeling it needed to be more coherent. After showing a few people and getting some positive feedback towards this I have set out making an alternate system today, as an idea of what could be done. It can also be seen here http://www.rosieball.com/Site/Showreels.html

Playthrough Video

I have spent all day making my prototype in Gamesalad Creator, before today I had a rough skeleton but now I have fleshed it all out except for the levels. That means I have a working menu system! I have recorded a play-through in Camtasia, and put it on my portfolio site. It is the first video on this page...

http://www.rosieball.com/Site/Showreels.html

Memories

I have been neglecting development of my game content, in terms of level design and narrative - which in this game go hand in hand. The embedded illustration of the levels illustrates the narrative, memories which the old man describes as they appear.

I will be dedicating my time to this during and post Christmas period, but I will need to put some updates level designs in my Revised Game Guide document. To get the ball rolling again I asked a friend who works in the health care industry, specialising in home assistance for elderly people, if she could remember any tales anyone has shared with her. I was particularly looking for happy memories, as my game memories are all meant to be positive. Her response was incredibly insightful, a mix of happy and sad memories...

One was of a lady who had to leave her family farm in order to downsize her property after her husband passed away, fortunately her son now runs the farm but she now lives in a cottage nearby with few visitors.

One man loves to smoke his pipe and talk about sailing, now that he no longer has the health to sail. He believes the smaller boats are better, fancy cruise ships are just showing off.

Another man reminisces about his dancing days, he used to teach the Samba, Ballroom dancing and others, but now he can't. He fell in love with his wife when they were young and they still live together.

I was pleased to get some happy memories, if coupled with a sad one each time. I know a few things my own grandparents have said about when they were evacuated, or not evacuated, and what they enjoyed from their childhood. I will need to draw some new level designs before submitting my Revised Game Guide, and I will try to incorporate some of this research.

Revised Game Guide Document

Lately I have been working a lot on my programming research and trying to establish a prototype menu system so that, over Christmas, I can work on my animation with a bit of peace of mind. That said however, I am also submitting a revised Game Guide document to communicate how the game structure and aesthetic has changed and progressed since my last Game Guide document was written (although useful, it is definitely out of date).

As the entire document reflects the aesthetic themes of the game, you should notice the title page reflects the level menu screen progression - the shelf of jars, from digital to paper. 

The other pages have also been changed to match the transition from digital to paper.

The entire game should also reflect this transition, through the start screens and animated sequence at the beginning of the game you are taken through the digital 'real world' into the white paper 'real world' in order to represent the starkness and depravity of sugar during WWII, when you are suddenly and contrastingly thrown into the 'sweet land' made entire of the opposite - pure colour and all digital. This is the kind of development with the game the new Game Guide should communicate.

Edit: I am also emitting any use of texture or stock image that I did not make myself, from all documents and game content. Examples of this include the wallpaper background and elements used in the end of year show reel, the shelves and picture frames.

The British Museum: Exhibition on Age and Medicine

Yesterday I went to the British Museum and saw an exhibit related to the theme of ageing, it was a display of medicine that the average human would take in their lifetime. It showed a mix between male and female, covering important stages of different people's lives - daily arthritis medicine, hip replacement medication, vitamins and supplements taken over the duration of several pregnancies.

Along the side there were photographs of people at various ages, telling little bits of peoples lives. I found the photos made the exhibit very personal, and really emphasised the rest of the exhibit. Each photo was a memory to someone.







On the way I took a few photos of the underground, as I have been thinking about making a memory in my game based on the underground.

Narration: Audiobooks

In re-doing my Game Guide Document from last year I was reminded that I planned for the game to have narration, to create a story book feel. I have been thinking about this lately, after listening to several audiobooks over the summer, ranging from the wonderful Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter to some terrible, free audiobooks including various Jane Austen works. Traditionally, the narrator of the audiobook will also do the character's voices as opposed to radio style adaptations where there are additional voice actors to play each part, and usually sound effects and music. This can work well to create atmosphere and to make convincing and enjoyable characters, but I feel the more traditional style with one narrator would suit my game idea better.

Having one voice do all the narration and character parts, or even no character parts at all, would leave adequate mystery for the audience to interpret their own versions of the characters (as previously discussed in length in my last post). Whether this works as well when you can see the character design, as you would do in my game, I have yet to figure out. For now the plan is to go ahead with narration as the main storytelling device, and I have suitable voice actor in mind.