STARTING POINTS RESEARCH
Thursday, November 7th
Task: research elements from each Design Idea we came up with today. How did other games/designers go about portraying these elements?
DESIGN 1: CONTRAST
Waterfalls
New Year’s Eve ball dropping video – dropping explosives straight down on a vertical wall. Your job: to build a wall climbing vehicle that can climb up that wall filled with holes and things to get to the finish line [see min 7:51]. The obstacles could be dropping from above, making a strong link to waterfalls.
Behind the Waterfall [concept]
Hiding items, rooms, and all kinds of things behind waterfalls is one of the oldest concepts in the history of games.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: Secret Passage hidden behind the waterfalls.
Super Mario Odyssey: Cascade Kingdom: Moons hidden in the waterfalls, have to explore the cascade to find all moons
Fireflies
The Lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera with over 2,000 described species. They are soft-bodied beetles that are commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey – maybe could be used for affordances, fireflies guiding you through the world.
Firefly: A Social Wearable to Support Physical Connection of LARPERS
The Firefly is a wearable designed to encourage the physical and emotional connection of players of a LARP (live action role play game). It is worn as a bracelet whose colour changes depending to their connection to another Firefly. This wearable design reflects the positive personal and emotional impact that casual and deeper social interactions may have on people. Preliminary observations of the Firefly within the context of a LARP shows its potential to support collaboration and close interactions for collocated wearers. The Fireflies can inspire others designing social wearables, i.e. wearable technology that supports and enhances social experiences, within and outside the realms of play and games (Vanhée, Isbister and Márquez Segura, 2018).
Sunlight
Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand
It’s the story of a vampire hunter who was more powerful during the daylight hours. Platform: Game Boy Advance. You had to choose your time zone, so in the game, it was daytime when
outside was day and it had a solar sensor, so if you went outside midday, you would have more power (Plunkett, 2017).
Photosynthesis:
The sun shines brightly on the canopy of the forest, and the trees use this wonderful energy to grow and develop their beautiful foliage. Sow your crops wisely and the shadows of your growing trees could slow your opponents down, but don't forget that the sun revolves around the forest.
Magnifying Glass Clock:
When the Sun shines on one magnifying glass, it powers one smell, after a few hours another, etc. The clock is using sun light to tell the time (Lee, 2013).
Sunflower
Sunflower Clock:
Sunflowers are the symbol of faith, loyalty and adoration. They track the sun during the course of the day – heliotropism, which is why they are called sunflowers (Lee, 2013).
LIFO: short indie horror game
Things and enemies hidden in the sunflower field, the flowers being quite tall, good place for hiding – the sunflower field, crop duster scene in North by Northwest.
DESIGN 2: HISTORY, FRACTURED WORLD
Separation
Six Degrees of Separation
Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. Often called as 6 Handshakes rule. As a result, a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps (Rouse, 2019).
Degrees of Separation (game):
Degrees of Separation is a 2D puzzle-adventure game that requires players to harness the elements of heat and cold to succeed – uses contrasting forces to keep players apart.
Caves
Spelunky
2D platformer with endless subterranean adventures thanks to the game’s procedurally generated cavern, means no two levels are ever alike.
The Cave:
It’s a magical talking cave that lures people into it to explore their darker personality traits, believing they can "learn something about themselves and who they might become". Aladdin cave “only one may enter”, referred to as the Diamond in the Rough. Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie: “It says the path will only reveal itself to those whose intentions are pure.”
Camping
In video gaming, camping is an extremely logical and extremely fair tactic where a player obtains a static strategic position of advantage.
Camp fire – a necessity for heat, but the smoke might endanger you. Sacrifice? The Hunger Games
Chrono Trigger:
This is such a quiet, interpersonal scene in which the party discusses memories from the interesting perspective of Robo. The light of the campfire illuminates the nearby trees and creates such a serene atmosphere. Occasionally you'll find people sitting around the campfire and they will start to sing a song.
DESIGN 3: IMMERSIVE WORLD
Epic Music
Journey
The music is dynamic and reacts to player movement and speed of play, it truly helps you connect with the world.
Interactivity is the main thing that differentiates video games from film — and the most successful music in video games gracefully facilitates that interactive experience (Visconti, 2016).
Loneliness
Firewatch
Firewatch shows encounters with tragedy, death and illness all in the ways we humans deal with such issues: reclusiveness, humour and confusion (Ahmed, 2016).
Journey
The multiplayer makes you realise we may be a bit more connected than we think (Allen, 2017). 6 degrees of separation?
Immersive
Emotion Controller
Stanford engineers design video game controller that can sense players' emotions (Carey, 2014).
What if we could use, for example, Smart Watches to detect the pulse of the player, adapt the game to that and make it more interactive and immersive in this way?.
STARTING POINTS RESEARCH: REFLECTION
This exercise was very refreshing and it helped me think of certain things in different ways than I used to.
For example, the Solar Sensor, which synchronises the game world to your timezone, is a really good idea that allows the player to connect to the game at a new level. The two clocks from the TED talk are really good too. It's a different approach I always like to think about ever since I discovered it when doing my Reflective Journal research last year. I also like the Spelunky game: the fact that the caves are procedurally generated and no two are the same gives the game a whole other touch and replayability level. My favourite from today would be the Emotion Controller. If we can incorporate a pulse-reading mechanism in the game, we could do crazy things. I like all ideas, but these are my favourites. I think we have an abundance to choose from tomorrow and try to come up with a first game idea.
References
Ahmed, E. (2016). Firewatch: the videogame that deals with dementia, loneliness, love and death. [Blog] NewStatesMan. Available at: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/games/2016/02/firewatch-videogame-deals-dementia-loneliness-love-and-death [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Allen, R. (2017). Three video games that will encourage you through post-college loneliness. [Blog] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/the-ascent/three-video-games-that-will-encourage-you-through-post-college-loneliness-e29bdc85cb19 [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Carey, B. (2014). Stanford engineers design video game controller that can sense players' emotions. Stanford Report. [online] Stanford: Stanford University, p.1. Available at: https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/game-controller-excitement-040714.html [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Lee, J. (2013). Design For All Senses. [online] TED. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/jinsop_lee_design_for_all_5_senses [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Plunkett, L. (2017). The Kojima Game That Made You Play In The Sun. [Blog] Kotaku. Available at: https://kotaku.com/the-kojima-game-that-made-you-play-in-the-sun-1796303870 [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Rouse, M. (2019). Six Degrees Of Separation. [Blog] WhatIs?. Available at: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/six-degrees-of-separation [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Vanhée, L., Isbister, K. and Márquez Segura, E. (2018). Firefly: A Social Wearable to Support Physical Connection of Larpers. In: CHI Conference. [online] ResearchGate, pp.1-4. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324668911_Firefly_A_Social_Wearable_to_Support_Physical_Connection_of_Larpers [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].
Visconti, D. (2016). This Is the World’s First Interactive Video Game Symphony. [Blog] TEDFellows. Available at: https://fellowsblog.ted.com/this-is-the-world-s-first-interactive-video-game-symphony-8b24004cc54c [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].