Wednesday, 23 March 2016

24/03/16- Modelling left arm_X-22


I started modelling the left arm of X-22. I started with the shoulder guard. At first I had troubles getting used to the Maya controls again from last year. But I have started to get the hang of it again and I will finish the arm on Monday hopefully.

Friday, 18 March 2016

18/03/16-week3Blog

Game:The Banner Saga
Blog: 3
Q3: How does morality influence the choices you make in the game?

Morality is an interesting part of games. As a person who games on a daily basis I have come across choices that bring my morality into play. Why I find morality interesting in games is because I know where I stand on the spectrum of moral choices and what I would choose in reality, so when I play games I often find myself actively doing the opposite of what I would actually do. In The Bana Saga I feel that the 2d environments and simple gameplay are not immersive enough for me, so I constantly feel detached from the game and thus am certain to do unrealistic decisions. An example from the game is during a journey from one city to another and a drunkard jeopardized the caravan and so as the leader I was given a few choices; beat the man, Ban him from alcohol, separate him from everyone else or banish him. I know morally banning him from alcohol is the right thing to do because he stays safe and so does the caravan but I banish him knowing that he will surely die in the frozen tundras. Perhaps if the game was 3d or on an oculus I may feel enough for he characters that I make decisions I would make in real life but that's not The Bane Saga. A passage (from 'Ethical dilemmas and dominant moral strategies in games' by Brandon Perdue) I really felt fit with the example above was "The idea of a moral choice often runs directly counter to the tendency of many players to make the optimal moves in the game." Basically the situation with the drunkard was I could take the strategic path and toss him meaning he could no longer cause future problems for the camp which may or may not have been very bad, or only slightly punishing him keeping my conscience clean but having that decision later on being bad for everyone else. Basically strategic decisions conflict with moral decisions and it's up to the player if they want the game to be easier or harder depending on what choice they make.
So I think morality can influence the players decisions but if the game is not immersive enough the player will often be detached enough to influence his own decision making even if it goes against his/her own moral standards.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

18/03/16-Today

Today I spent my time by helping Jacob with the timing of the animatic and I also recorded sounds and received sourced sounds from https://www.freesound.org/ to apply to the finished animatic.

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

17/03/16- Dialogue

From out last meeting one of the things we discussed was the dialogue. I started to brainstorm some ideas but the one that stuck out for me was

"Revolutions are a fight between the future and the past. We are the Future! And we intend to clean out the past."

This was for the first part where the Synth overlord is on the laptop screen talking to the man. I figured that the Humans represent the past because they have at this stage had their chance to rule over earth, but fail at this and the Synths take it upon themselves as the representation of the future to clean the wrong doings of the Humans. Very much like in real life how we constantly screw things up and hey we only have one planet, but we don't do a very good job of looking after it.

Later on when we see the synth assassin come in the overlord from the T.V said

"You call us Synths, but we are so much more!"

While I was trying to figure out what he says, I had to find out what these lifeforms were called I juggled a few options such as, Golems, Automatons, Sentinels and Androids to name a few. However I felt Synths worked the best because the word embodies this idea of Techno organic forms very well.

Later on when the man opens his eyes and they appear red and mechanical I thought instead of " we will be slaves no longer!" simply repeating "We are the Future!" from the overlord is a confirmation that he is now one of them.

17/03/16-Character Profile X-22

This is character profile I did for the robot character. I did it really simply because as far as the story goes we don't need to know that much about the synth.

Monday, 14 March 2016

Storyboard-15/03/2016

Here is a final storyboard that I just completed. This was a collaboration between Gabe and myself over the last week. It is still open to change at this stage. 










Thursday, 10 March 2016

InteractiveNarrativeBlogWeek2-11/03

Blog 2
Game: Prince of Persia The Sands of Time
Q1: Did linear storytelling in your chosen game engage and excite you as a player? Explain why or why not?

Linear storytelling in games is based around the idea of 'causal logic'. So the actions of the player leads to cut scenes, and those cut scenes lead to more game play. In games, game play supports story and story supports game play. Along with the standard 'string of pearls' formula, there were extra little segments during the game play which keep you focused on the story and objective of the character, for example when you enter a new area the game has cinematic shots to show you the objective or destination and enemies.I think that the game did well to create a linear story where the cut scenes and game play work well enough together to create an engaging and exciting experience.

However I was not completely engaged and excited because the story was to linear, I had to follow a carefully laid out path, fight enemies and go through rooms in a very set order. This for me creates a less engaging game as I feel less meaningful to the story and I don't have as much illusion of choice. Games are about "The satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices",(Janet Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck, 126) unfold before us, when the game misses that effect the player feels a detachment from the game. A game can have set cut scenes, but I think at the very least the player needs to be able to experience different pathways to that cut scene each play through.