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Final game play of Finding Bae

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Final event set up!

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Result of the game-Concept and aim of our event

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of the program!

We hope you’ve enjoyed your time here and really understood what it means to be desired and to be desirable! (wink)

Based off of the choices and interactions you have made while on your dates

We are so excited to inform you we have found a 99.69% match with another participant to the program!

Pause

Your match is…

Pause

No one!

Cheer, yay, dance, clapping

Unfortunately, you have chosen to rely on a computer program to find your future soulmate, when frankly this is impossible.

People within this current day and age have learnt to rely on others, specifically computer programs like us to help you through your everyday life.

But what you humans don’t seem to realise is the digital divide you create in this process.

It doesn’t just include the typical short attention span teens, or the Facebook obsessed Mums or the increased self obsession.

Instead of desiring each other, you’ve learnt to program machines to desire you, or you desire your machines more than other humans.

Maybe insert? (Like right now, you’re all looking at machines instead of conversing with each other.)

Deep and meaningful conversations, Ritual meetups and Saturday night drinks have been replaced with double taps, left and right swipes, comments and superlikes.

When all you really want, is desire. To be desired or desire another instead of desiring a machine.

To create that connection with someone else, that quick hit of similarity with another, instead of a meme online.

We apologise if you are disappointed with the outcome of this program

But we hope that instead of being bitter you learn and grow from your experiences

We hope you take this experience and apply it to your everyday life to go out and connect with someone, not connect with the closest Free Wifi network

So instead of staring at your phone, tablet or computer maybe go out and talk to someone new

We hope you learned something about modern dating with the ‘Finding Bae’ program, but more importantly we hope you understand how to make a real connection and feel desire with someone else

So go out there! And find your real Bae!

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Creation of advertisement poster

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Structure of Finding Bae game

Episode 1 Introduction and customisation of user’s character

Episode 2 Date with Marie (Nerd)

Episode 3 Date with Kylie (The partier)

Episode 4 Date with Kai (Artistic one)

Episode 5 Date with Tiffany (Rebel)

Episode 6 Date with Simon (Band geek)

Episode 7 Date with Adam (The popular one)

Episode 8 Final verdict

The above photograph of the sequence of the dates has been challenged. Due to timing we were unable to include Olivia and Harry. We eliminated those two characters in particular as we thought the others held stronger stereotypes. 

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PROGRESS: Individual and Group 

Finished coding intro, Marie and Simon. Through the use of trial and error we were all able to work out what worked and what didn’t and how to  make all our story’s cohesive with having a title and having a small intro before the user goes on a date with the next character.

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Progress/ Group Contribution 

After many meetings and research which we did collaboratively we decided that we were going to make our dating simulator event on Episodes. We were each given character to work on how to code them and make them be able to react to different choices. I ended up getting the intro, Marie and Simon. On 16th of October we all met up to work on what each character would look and act. We also worked on how we were going to proceed with what kind of choices we choose for each character.

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Process: Episodes Interactive as the medium which we are delivering our event on

Episodes Interactive is a software created to make stories using their coding format. These stories often follow a choice format which allows the user to control the story, how it ends and how the characters present in the story react to these choices, Episodes is a popular platform for story telling and was chosen as our platform to create our dating event as it allows us ultimate options and ways to play depending on how the story proceeds and how the user reacts to the choices presented to them. For all of us who are in the group to be able to complete this project we had to make sure that we were able to code in the language which the software uses and to know the rules which are present in the software. Episodes interactive has multiple resources available such as google docs for tutorials on how to create your story through code and videos to also help.   These can be seen below. 

https://forums.episodeinteractive.com 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ4jy2UFWHk

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Software experiment-Twine

Twine is a software where the user can create choice based options to end up with an end result through their choices. The application is easy to use however with the inability to place images into the game we believe it would not be interesting for the user due to the lack of visuals.

The simplicity of the the linking questions and options made the maker to visually see each step and each option as we make.

Once each option has been typed up the I clicked play and the game is created with a dark background and bold letters. The player continues to read and chose different scenarios.

We made the decision to trial a different simulator maker called Episode as we could customise characters and create different scenes.

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Characterisation experiment drawings

To brain storm multiple designs our group have experimented with illustrations inspired by anime characters from Disney and Pokemon. The most prominent feature from each is the eyes. We’ve tried to portray each character to appear different with different personalities without mentioning it. For example the first illustration looks innocent whilst the third drawing has a rebellious persona. This experiment was highly interesting to witness how just slight changes of facial features can influence how we pick up different personalities.

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An example of Dream Daddy being played.

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An example of Doki Doki Literature Club being played.

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Research choice games - Dating simulators

Dating simulator games allow the user to to chose their end result through multiple scenarios with negative and positive options. Many popular games such as Sims use this structure. Dating simulators use the same format. Doki Doki and Dream Daddy include speech bubbles where the game player is being put into different scenarios and have different choices to react to that situation.

Dream Daddy is a dating simulator where the player can choose between seven different Dads they can date. Along with this includes mini games and multiple endings from what the user choses. The player is also able to customise their own character. The game was published in July 2017 and rose to popularity later that year.

The plot follows a single dad who has just moved into a new area with his daughter. The street where he lives on is mainly occupied with single fathers who you can choose from and form a relationship with. Upon reflection of research we found that the users aim was to escape reality to grasp a desire 

Doki Doki began its popularity in early 2018 as it was disguised as a horror game. The plot follows a male high school student who joins the school's Literature Club and interacts with its four female members. The game features a mostly a straightforward story, with some change in scenes and endings depending on the choices the player makes. It gained popularity as it appears to be a lighthearted dating simulator. However it changes into a horror game.

Throughout our research of watching users playing the game we have found that they seem to not only play for entertainment by use these games to find romantic stimulation through these characters. This research has pushed our final work to critique this notion of relying on a computer for a romantic purpose.

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Upon the decision to start creating a dating/matchmaking we knew we needed a list of characters, each with their own individual personalities and traits. To help us create these personas, we researched into the Teen Cult films; Clueless, Heathers, Mean Girls and The Duff. Each of these high school based movies prey off of basic stereotypes, with each movie being released in a different decade (1980s-2010s) clear stereotypes were identified for us to base characters on. This allowed us to create a extremely diverse cast of characters for the player to choose from. Continuing on our Teen Cult film research, we decided to further our knowledge of each contestant, to move away from the known stereotypes that everyone can identify easily, as we wanted to create complex characters. Our further research into Stereotypes if desirable and non desirable cliques led us to Television shows such as: Total Drama: This cartoon focuses on an island of teens going through a Survivor-like simulation to see who wins the prize money. However, over the course of the TV show, representation of a diverse cast of contestants is seen. Furthering stereotypes to a cast of ___ characters allows for unique interactions and the transformation of each character as they stay longer on the island is unique to each contestant, allowing viewers to understand and feel closer to the characters. iZombie: This TV show has a major transformation for the main character as she goes through a zombification process. During the first episode the protagonist is observed to be neat, organised and preppy. However, once she is turned into a zombie her entire wardrobe, hair, skin tone and more change to create a grunge, gothic emo for the viewers to follow. The staggering change the main character goes through from a Preppy stereotype to a Gothic stereotype and the all-encompassing makeover the actress receives allows our group to know that stereotypes can be identified and created with more than just personality. Bachelor and Bachelorette: This reality television show popularly pins single people against each other to win the love of one other individual of the opposite sex. A diverse cast is always utilised within this show to ensure drama and love blossoms within each episode. By introducing an elimination method, the viewers grow closer with specific contestants above others to ensure the viewer fells just as in love with the winner as the bachelor/bachelorette. This connection that is created is something my group chooses to strive for within our matchmaking event.

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Technical Difficulty (2018)

Sumaiya Rahman z5208954

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Bibliography

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Artist Statement