Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and Making Comics, came to speak to SCAD. He was an awesome public speaker and had a mesmerizing PowerPoint presentation to go with what he was saying. Still, amongst all the things he said he mentioned something which I found very inspiring and useful for my thesis. He spoke about comics, movies or games and how they are viewed as a form of escape from our world; an imaginary shelter. But then he said that he doesn't believe that we escape into those worlds but rather that through visiting them we understand more about our own world. We can gain insights through these forms of entertainment and bring them back with us and grow from those experiences.

Well, this after all is what my thesis is about.

Studio2 - Abstract2

A revision on my abstract based on suggestions in class.

Abstract

Learning through experience is an integral part of human development. Children use play to discover more about themselves, about others, and about their environment. Computer games similarly serve as a tool for self-discovery but they also grant the user with the ability to explore his or her morals and consciousness in abstract situations unattainable in the real world. Having virtually no boundaries, games can offer players a peak within themselves and answer for them the question “what if?” Despite the fact that thousands of people are playing the same game, it still manages to establish a very personal relationship with the user. By helping the protagonist of a story solve a problem or defeat an opponent, the player’s emotional engagement in the conflict leads him or her to experiencing real growth through its resolution. Possessing such an intimate link, games do not substitute reality but instead add on to it by presenting players with a mirror through which they can experience and learn more about themselves.

Studio2

Below is my first go at creating an abstract for my thesis.

Abstract

Learning through experience is an integral part of human development. In order to experience scenarios unattainable in real life, the human mind employs dreams to answer the most basic question – “what if?” Games offer the unique opportunity to experience an advanced form of lucid dreaming where the dreamer is everything from the hero to the anti-hero, from the emperor to the soldier, from deity to man. Doing this, the game offers the player a peak within himself and grants him the experience and emotional involvement of living through a fantasy which is rivaled only by dreams. Despite the fact that thousands of people are playing the same game, it still manages to establish a very personal relationship with the user. By helping the protagonist of a story solve a problem or defeat an opponent, in reality the player is emotionally engaged in the conflict and experiences a real growth through its resolution. Possessing such an intimate link, games not only entertain, but present a mirror of possibilities, granting the user with character growth in fields unattainable before in the waking world.

A late update

Well, class is long over and the topic will be changing. For santimental value, I'va posted a link of the prototype I came up with. The story is semi-written, the graphics are mostly placeholders (except the first couple of screens) and the interacting quite limited.

It was, nevertheless, quite the experience and I will be salvaging a lot of things from it so I am happy with completing that much.

The link to it is as follows:
www.oldrealm.com/studio1/FinalPrototype.html

The file is about 5mb so it will take a while. I didn't put a preloader because it wasn't originaly meant to be put on the net like that.

And now onward to the second project!
~Vlad

Writing tips

After reading a few things (including my own) and speaking with one of my professors who has been doing RPG's for many years I think writing in second person would be much better.
The "I" never quite did it.

So I am reading again David Freeman's "Creating emotion in games" to get some good tips for creating the story, situations and characters.

I also found the following site with some neat tips on writing fiction:
http://www.pgtc.com/~slmiller/index.htm

Thesis workshop: afterthoughts

Last class we had two professors as guests to take a loot at all the projects.
Now here are the afterthoughts:

A change is required. After looking at my thesis proposal, I was advised to find focus for my project. Right now my thesis is trying hard to be too many things but is nothing in particular. Having planned on having an interactive story, character growth and the dynamic backgrounds I was advised to concentrate only on one of them. And since the story and the backgrounds have been done before, creating character growth is the challenge to be tackled.

The question "How is what you are doing different from things that have been done?" still bugs me. Everything is different than anything that has been done before. This brings us to the statement of Heraclitus that a man can not step in the same river twice since he's not the same man and it's not the same river. People from the painting department don't have to invent new ways to stretch the canvas - everyone is using their own techniques and their creativity shows in that.

But I'll have to play ball..

I am still doing everything I said I'll do, but I'll focus on the character development and the mechanics to pull it through (which will in fact still change the story) and I'll still have the backgrounds. The only difference is that I'll concentrate on one thing instead of three.I wasn't aware how important the wording was for the thesis.

Now I am looking for different ways to introduce the user interaction. The good old "click here to go there" or "choose from the following list of actions" wasn't received too well. It had to be more "abstract."

One possibility which I found quite intriguing is to give a glips inside the protagonist head by using a space populated with words relevant to the scene. An example can be found at the following address:http://levitated.net/daily/levTextSpace.html

Another option is to provide images in a separate menu when the occasion arises that will represent different emotional states. So the user doesn't choose a pre-written explanation of what he want the protagonist to do but rather chooses the emotional response he would like. For example, clickin on an angry avatar face will make the protagonist deal with the current situation in an aggressive way.

I am open to suggestions - the wackier the better. To sum up, the character was summoned from who knows where (he is the Idea of destruction to bring about the end of an epoch. Not in a evil way, but in a "necessary evil" way - like a forest wildfire is good now and then.) The character feel guilt but doesn't know why (he fell in love his previous incarnation and still brought destruction in the end.) The character is hearing a voice in his head and is going crazy (the voice is a remnant of his previous ego.) So along these lines, any suggestions for interaction goes.

I'd personally love to tie in the crazy voice in the head with the user-choices.
So much for now.

Scene 1 Look and Feel

This is the look and feel of Scene 1.

(click on image to view larger version)

Art Mk.2

Wrapping things up with the caravan cart.

Art!

Finally to the fun stuff!

I just started working on some art for the wasteland scene where the Idea is born.
Work is still in 3D, once I get it done and imported into Photoshop then the real details will start showing up! :) Funfunfun!

So For nowI've got the frame of a caravan cart
and a basic topographical view of the wasteland.