Following:
hateship/loveshipConversations
For the players whom enjoy some social interaction and characterisation to their gaming experience, I’ve created a simple conversation interaction that allows the player to approach an NPC, ask two questions (in any order, it remembers which one has been asked so you can leave and come back), and gain some additional knowledge about the game and the narrative behind it.
Collectables
For the die-hard completionists (like myself), I have hidden 3 objects around the map (titled “relics) that can be collected in any order and shown with a lovely little diagram at the bottom hinting at how many are left, what it might be and even with a nice fade out so it looks good during gameplay.
Rusted Car - 2nd Part of the 3; “Point & Click” Investigation Activity
Animated and fully working in Unity.
Much like the dumpster (part 1 of 3), when approached the player is prompted to press X, then the animation plays opening the trunk of the car (as the license plate and wheel falls off for extra flair). Inside the boot are some old models I did for a previous game, but for this game the new coin will be the pick-up. Now to just find a sound effect that sounds like a rusty car door!
It is unfortunate I haven’t had time to blog on here as much, the sheer volume of things I have been doing has prevented anything other than those things to be my time. I do have a post on the camera angles I’m using in my honours project lined up and in writing, I just need a little more work on my game before I can get the screenshots I need.
One thing I solved this morning, however, was the name of my game. It’s been a long time since I tried to consider the name for my game, it’s been “Untitled Project” for so long now. After some deliberation I decided on a few rules for the title.
1) More Than a Word: The title needed to insinuate something about the message of the game, the narrative of the game or the process the player goes through whilst playing. Nothing too obvious, but it couldn’t detract attention away from the message.
2) More Than 1 Word: It’s been a big trend of the past few years to name your independent game after one singular word, or perhaps “The Noun”. Much like contemporary horror films (usually of a 15 Rating).
3) It Has To Be Interesting: Playing off of the curiosity of the player is a big part of the game, and so as it will be shown in an exhibition with a couple hundred other games, it should pull the person in. Therefore I wanted the name to read more like the title of a novel or documentary. I heavily considered the use of a colon, until I got the final name.
So with these in mind I rattled a few ideas about, consulted the online thesaurus a few times and decided to name the game “The Columns in The Fall”.
“Columns” insinuating the pillars of the remaining relics of a past society, and “The Fall” meaning both the fall of the previous inhabitants of this world, and the fall of the snow signifying death and winter/the final season.
The thing about the title that drew me to it is that the term “Columns” is slightly subjective. At first I believe most would consider it meant the pillar-like buildings and relics in the street section of the game, implying what the people had left behind were buildings and object. When if one continues past that they will find the columns are actually in the museum further into the level. The museum and the books and art it holds is incredibly well-preserved and well-lit, denoting the idea that it is of great importance which is the idea I wish to portray (knowledge and art (a reflection of knowledge) are the most important thing in our society). Enhanced by the actual, physical pillars outside and inside the building, the player would do well to look past the obvious and the material to find the true meaning behind the game’s title, and our world.
Congrats Double Fine!
Without me, that counter would have said “87,120 Backers”.
It seems strange, but that genuinely makes me feel great. Another lovely thing about crowdsourcing.
While designing the camera system to be housed in my honours project game, I came to some very strong realisations that have helped me carve out a strong identity and artful meaning behind the game that adds to the already implemented metaphor behind the narrative. The narrative was written to reflect the destructive nature of a materialistic, consumerist society. The stark and desolate world that has replaced the now archaic and delapidated remnants of a world obsessed with stuff and clutter, reflects the meaninglessness behind such pursuits, while the well-lit, well-preserved library/art museum reflects the importance of art and knowledge. To me, the pursuit of knowledge and the subsequent art that is created to reflect that knowledge are the only obsessions a man should hold throughout his short life in this society. Obviously this ignores charity, goodwill and family; however this is less about promoting good ideas and more about shining a light on the negative ones (also the juxtaposition between pursuits of a progressive society help strengthen the narrative in a non-cluttered way, so I focused on just this for this short project). While making decisions on the hows (and whys) of a camera system (on which my project is built), I came to the realisation that there is the opportunity to add an additional layer to help stregthen the narrative, outside of the writing itself, by implying it with the level structure and camera choices. The game environment is split into three parts, each with their own purpose and subsequent camera to reflect that purpose. Section 1 is to introduce the world, and to give a feeling of confusion and curiosity to help guide the player to find out more about this world. Section 2 is to allow exploration and interaction, and to give a feeling of self-guided learning and wonder. Section 3 is to allow a space for reflection and to give the game, and its narrative, a conclusion. While logging this to help enhance these feelings and purposes with camera choices, I realised that the structure of the level is very similiar to the process of learning. Curiosity, Exploration, Reflection. Every time someone has shown a desire to learn about a subject, they become curious no the topic, they interact and explore the field, and then apply that learning to reflect and conclude their feelings on the subject. Each of these steps is accompanied with the feelings of confusion, clarity and wonder, and contentedness respectively. The opportunity to extrapolate an additional layer to the narrative that might help enhance its base purpose, to reflect my feelings on the subject of consumerism, is one not to be missed, and regardless of when one realises this opportunity awaits, do not let it slip past as it can really beef out your world and its meaning.
Montage of Shots Filmed From Below from Quentin Tarantino Films
I love the uniformity of the majority of these shots. Almost all of them are like POV shots, putting the audience in the role of corpse or as a character in a submissive stance. Then there’s a couple of contextual shots like the Kill Bill actions shots that require two characters in combat situations or even just to listen to Christopher Walken and the famous pocket watch.
(via http://theemotionmachine.tumblr.com/post/18347270486/habit-loops)
There is a structure behind most habits which behavioral psychologists refer to as “habit loops.”
Habit loops consist of three main parts. First is the cue, the trigger from the environment that tells your brain to go into autopilot and which habit to use. Next is the routine, which can be a mental or physical action you take whenever presented with the cue. And lastly is the reward, which is what you get from the habit that fulfills a craving in your brain.
When this pattern of “cue-routine-reward” gets repeated many times it becomes more and more automatic. This is because the more we repeat it, the more it gets wired into our brains (in neuroscience, this is called “long-term potentiation.”) However, by better understanding habit loops, we can more easily disrupt the cycle and rewire our brains to new habits.
Once you identify the “cue-routine-reward” behind your habit loops, it becomes much easier to make a plan on how to change them.
Psychologists have found compelling research that making a plan to act in a certain way at a certain time and place makes it much more likely that we will commit to these new behaviors. These are called implementation intentions.
The basic idea is to form an if-then plan to help instill new habits. Write down and repeat your plan, such as, “If situation X arises, I will perform response Y.” X refers to the cue from your environment. Y refers to the new routine you want to replace with the old routine.
You’ll probably make some mistakes along the way. Maybe some days you’ll miss your cue. Maybe other days you’ll find it easier to just resort to your old habit. It’s reasonable to expect that it’s going to take some practice before your new habit loop is set in motion.
As Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, writes:
