Monday, November 7, 2011

Contextual Statement

Designated with the role of Lead Character designer within the JusPlay – Fired! Ipad Multiplayer Interactive group. Consequently possessing previous character design experiences equivalent to minimal roles, I eagerly volunteered with the mindset of testing the limitations of my personal design capabilities. Unfamiliarly treading the lead role, accustoming to conceiving main ideas with influential consequences over the project required time and steady exposure. This role encompassed physically expressing conceived ideas onto paper considering the implications of features, understanding the traits characters adopt in perspective to the gaming audience. Where claws as a feature would attract a male dominant demographic instead.


Presented with the task of locating a game theory present in multiplayer gaming a sufficient basis of knowledge was lacking being oblivious to the existence of theoretical consideration prior to game creation. Collectively with multiple gaming perspectives as a group a strong foundation of gaming ideas were present however, these concepts lacked theoretical engagement. Following the realization that only ideas were constantly juggled ‘Game Theory’ research was implicated where Nash Equilibrium revealed itself immediately. Nash Equilibrium stretched beyond individualistic play into strategies contained within the concepts of co-operative play. These strategies represent a gamer’s responsive thought process, outlining possible outcomes a player subconsciously approves favorable following actions and strategies made visible by fellow players. Comprehending gaming incentive there are several possible instances for Nash Equilibrium to occur during moments of multiple players achieving the highest possible payoffs. Nash Equilibrium encompasses outcomes influenced from gaming possibilities and explores the infrastructure behind co-operative strategy formulation. A theory that can be considered to conform to a socially adapting and evolving world conspicuously appealing to personal interests, being directly implicated within this world. Subsequently our statement was conceived upon this theory. “We are exploring the idea of Nash Equilibrium through a creative practice.”


Following the solidification on a steadily developing idea interest gradually diminished through the realizations of the lack of a theoretical approach. Fitted with the role of lead designer I constantly exposed myself to inspirational pictures before discovering a genre worth exploration, robots. The proposed game accommodated towards the guidelines of Nash Equilibrium demonstrating the necessity of its’ existence. During the conceptual stage of theoretical development we essentially moved towards the idea of the ‘stag hunt’, a theory contained within the realms of Nash Equilibrium with a stronger implication on multiple play. Suggesting player co-operation for the purposes of achieving maximum payoff where deviation results in an individual receiving reduced payoff. Through consideration of the theory a storyline was formulated in support. The storyline depicted the typical factory lifestyle with literal connotations with the game title ‘Fired!’ Workers are caged onto conveyor belts and sent to furnaces where the Conveyor belts and cages are the leading supporters of ‘Stag Hunt.’


Following the role of lead character designer the basis of my research pursued visual inspirations of pictures of previous games. Considering features that characters possessed and what qualities they radiated to gaming audiences. Our game was to outline ideas of cuteness and a slight comical style where consideration towards safe rounded shapes was applied. Sharp shapes and edges appear more fierce and dangerous compared the safety of spherical shapes which was a theme constantly expressed through the characters. While, the physics of motion in accordance with appropriate physical appearance was also a subject appropriately researched visually where I had to develop an understanding of the mechanics of robots. Also to compensate for the creation of both male and female characters a comprehension of the features that differentiate male and female robots was required. Understanding the significance of slimming and rugged features along with color schemes.


During the development of the game several constraints following time were evident resulting from the abrupt decision to alter games completely. While, the group was fixed with roles still unexplored with suitable depth suggesting only a limited skill level in game construction. In accordance to expectations the idea was to create three level game only to fall short to creating a single level game. Ambition was set high over-estimating both ability and time. Regardless of shortcomings I believe the idea of Nash Equilibrium and Stag Hunt is present which was our leading concern from the creation of this game. Although the decision to deviate from the original game resulted in a series of misfortunate happenings it was considered a necessity to create a game that accompanied Nash Equilibrium completely. Resulting from the entire Studio game creation process the existence and presence of gaming theories present in today gaming has been made clear compared to the prior obliviousness. Consequently I have created a stronger foundation for character development for game creation, understanding the necessary steps and methods to implicate before and during game creation, by following the necessary stages.

Last Day

Today is the final day before hand in where game finalization and journals, blogs and contextual statement are to be completed for tutors to mark. And with that, the studio will be complete following this entry.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Final Bits

Today was the final week before having everything done where today
was spent finalizing this journal and keeping the blog up to date while ensuring the gmae is completed.
This was when a lot of details of the game was accomplished.
We were able to create separate divisions in the game between player 1 and 2 on the in game screen.
There is a shooting function that will be replaced with waves for the magnets.
There are three lives shared between both players.
There is a random speed function of workers going into the furnace at randomized speeds.
Sounds a are implemented but only with tests sounds and can be edited when needed.
Background music will also follow this same pattern.
Tehre is collision when a bullet comes into contact with a worker making it disappear.
Once workers reach the ruance they disappear and a life is lost.
For now all that remains is a working score system, pause screen and replacing of correct images and sounds while there is a basic main menu.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Finalization + Voice Over

Today was coming together to finish off as much of the game as possible. In order to help Daniel the programmer I opted to install Xcode and Cocos2d programs as well.
The cutscenes were further developed at this point as the idea to implicate voice-overs for the cutcscenes.
First scene:
Such a beautiful day to go to work, says the workers coming into the factory. Oh yes it was a beautiful day for some but for these workers… they are in for a treat.
Second Scene:
Tim our main character heading through the door like every other day that he walks through here.
Third Scene:
But on this day Tim sees one of the meeting doors opened. Little does he know what he is about to hear is going to change his world.
Fourth Scene:
Tim over hears the boss in a meeting with members of the board of faculty. “Keep firing everyone leave no one behind Gahahaha”. As scary as that sounded he thought to himself “I have to tell everyone the news!”
Fifth Scene:
Tim speedily runs through the corridor to tell everyone that everyone is getting fired.
Sixth Scene:
As he gets to the doors of the factory, he opens the door real quick and as the rays of light hits his eyes. Words could not explain the expression he felt when he opened those doors to see what has happened.
Seventh Scene:
Oh the horror he says as he sees his fellow co-workers in cages and tied up all on the conveyor belts heading into the furnace where they are getting fired!
Eight Scene:
Pick up arms with friends in hand and save those workers!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Simulated and Immersive Environments Finished

Today was the final day before handing in the two pages of a contextual/reflective statement for Simulated and Immersive Environments before finishing the paper completely. So today was spent finishing and writing the statement for hand in before twelve am and making two pages exactly with 1,112 words total. And with that, another paper was finished with hopefully high marks.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Simulated and Immersive Environments Work

To accommodate for the Simulated and Immersive Environments hand in approaching I spent today reading over the notes collected over the past nine Simulated lectures. This was to understand the work more and required re-reading all over the powerpoint lectures thus far. This required much time to make sure every word was understood.