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Contextual and Conceptual Statements: Object Performance

Contextual Statement

For my Moving Object paper this semester, I have teamed up with Martin and Shaydn to make a project. In the past we had more “freedom” in terms of what we wanted to create, since the start of this paper we have felt restricted and narrowed because of the context within the paper, moving object has been one of the more challenging studio papers in terms of what we are used to compared to the past. We are forced to follow a theme and because of this we had to cut down many of our original ideas, in saying this though there are some good sides to it because we have come to learn new skills and an entirely new way of thinking. Overall this experience has been a positive and negative journey due to having our perspective’s changing and adapting to new ways to approach our ideas.

Coming off from our last project (http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html), our team has always wanted to make a game which we could be proud of, so for our last project of our degree we decided to do just that. Our original idea was to make a fun and interact able game with many mechanics implemented into it, so sticking to the theme of “Alice in Wonderland” we decided to make a puzzle game as the world of Alice is quite abstract and unique. With this project we took an approach where we stick to the theme, but we are also adding our own ideas to it, so that people can find the game more interesting and unique, what we are making will be purely for people’s enjoyment, they will be able to solve puzzles forcing them to think differently and to be entertained while at it. (http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/online/alice-wonderland-puzzle-a-free-online-game.html)

Alice in Wonderland is a classic tale known worldwide by not only children, but also teenagers and adults ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). We thought about how we can use this theme and to adapt to it, along with our own ideas into the mix of it, but we also did not want to stray too far away from the original setting. We firstly looked at the plot of Alice in Wonderland, how she falls down a rabbit hole, meets friends, goes on a long journey and then comes back to reality which is also known as home. We used this storyline to try and replicate it within our game, how she is forced into an unknown world without any knowledge looking for a way to get back home. By using the plot of Alice in Wonderland, we were able to have a more structured setting for our game from start to finish, we took key elements from the original story line and changed them into a modern setting intake.

By using the abstract theme and setting of Alice in Wonderland, we thought about how we can create a unique world and environment based on a modern phenomenon and we figured because Alice is a teenager, we thought about what most teenagers would have and one of them would be the cell phone. With the rise of technology nowadays, one of the more notable rises is the cell phone era, nowadays a cell phone is essential to everyday life (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008)., it has many benefits that would help you and without a cell phone, it would be very hard to navigate or communicate with people while outside, so we wanted to use this concept and make a game out of it. Everything within the map relates to Alice in Wonderland or technology in one way or another, meaning we are sticking the theme and not striving away from it, what we didn’t want was to show by telling, but instead through the use of puzzles within our game. The end product should have our ideas along with an Alice in Wonderland Theme as the backbone of the whole game.

With the help of Unreal Engine 4, we hoped to make a game where people feel immersed, fun and enjoyable in a modern world with an Alice in Wonderland theme. We had puzzles, cinematics and heaps of fun mechanics implemented in hopes to have players feel excited, just like watching the movie, always making them wonder what is next and is there to explore. By being in our game players will be solving puzzles to open doors, they will wonder what’s beyond the doors to the next stage and so long as they are wondering what’s next into the world then our job as a team is done.

References:

-          Alice | Sabian Assembly. (2016). Sabian.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://sabian.org/sabian_alice.php

-          Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K., & Walsh, S. (2008). Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739-741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030

-          What is Information Era | IGI Global. (2016). Igi-global.com. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/information-era/36120

-          Sanctuaree l Andy Leung (2016). Retrieved 1 October 2016 from

http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html

-          Alice Wonderland Puzzle a. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2016, from http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/online/alice-wonderland-puzzle-a-free-online-game.html

 Conceptual Statement

For my Moving Objects paper, this semester I have teamed up with Martin and Shaydn to create an enjoyable and fun game called “Elica” which is a modern intake on the classic tale “Alice in Wonderland” ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). The original idea of “Elica” was to let people have fun by solving puzzles and riddles to move on in within the game, what we wanted to create since the beginning was a game with heavy mechanics and game development, so by using the aspects from the world of “Alice in Wonderland” we came up with many ideas and from those ideas we produced a lot of content all relating the theme of “Alice in Wonderland”, Overall the idea is to take Alice in Wonderland and twist it into a modern day theme, where it is relatable to a larger target audience who don’t necessarily have to understand or have read the novel or watched movies.

We wanted to base Alice’s story in our own world and project that through the lens of playing through a familiar yet mysterious environment and having to overcome obstacles along the way which is an underlying theme from the novel ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). Alice goes through many hardships and one of the main hardships is being alone and isolated from others. In our game you are placed in a world where you are lost and you have no clue what is happening unless you move forward, we thought that this would be a good idea as we are trying to relate to how Alice is feeling within the movie.

We also took upon a more modern approach on Alice in Wonderland, because we figured out how Alice is also just a teenager, we figured that it would be a good idea to reference her to the teenagers of our generation. There is something in common the teenagers of our world would have compared to Alice and that would be the always feeling lost and wanting somewhere where they feel that they belong to ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). The feeling of being alone came from Alice as she felt it at many parts throughout her journey in Wonderland. At certain times she would helpless, weak and discouraged.

Our level design is quite abstract and unique as we have walls within walls, giving off an idea where you need to break free from the place, just like in Alice in wonderland, where she is needed to break free of her fears and to move on. The level was designed in a way where the first section is your safe place and as you play the game and slowly proceed throughout the sections you will feel challenged and needing to solve riddles along with puzzles to move onto the next area and to get out.

The point of most game is to get from start to finish and in this case it is to try and get home from the elevator (rabbit hole). Within the story, Alice faced with many problems and is forced to adapt too many situations, so we referenced this within our game by putting obstacles and puzzles for you to solve in order to get home. Elica will be a game about trying to get home from a foreign unknown place. The game explores the idea of loneliness and the ability to adapt to the situation. We want to engage users in something new and unique all while expressing our creativity while using Alice in Wonderland as a reference.

What we also implemented were many platforms where players will have to jump upon in order to collect a piece of a puzzle, after collecting all the pieces they are then able to move onto the next stage, I thought this was a pretty good idea, because it brings in the puzzle aspect along with trying to solve problems before moving onto the next stage by being one of the mechanics that makes our game.

The relationship nowadays with teenagers and technology is something not be ignored, technology helps teenagers and people in many different ways to the point where it is needed to just live. Each action within the game relates to how technology is being used and one main factor of technology that we are using is the cell phone ("What is Information Era | IGI Global", 2016). The cell phone has many functions and one of its main function would be navigation, so we made the cell phone very essential to the player as it can help you with information and tell you where to go, what we also did was put battery packs throughout the map so that you have to collect them or else your phone would die essentially meaning game over. (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008).,

All in all “Alice in Wonderland” has been around for 150 years with many different takes on the story by many different people, “Elica” is our take on the story of “Alice in Wonderland” and we relate to it nowadays.

References:

-          Alice | Sabian Assembly. (2016). Sabian.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://sabian.org/sabian_alice.php

-          Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K., & Walsh, S. (2008). Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739-741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030

-          What is Information Era | IGI Global. (2016). Igi-global.com. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/information-era/36120

-          Sanctuaree l Andy Leung (2016). Retrieved 1 October 2016 from

http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html

-          Alice Wonderland Puzzle a. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2016, from http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/online/alice-wonderland-puzzle-a-free-online-game.html

[andyleung80058]

This is the opening sequence. The items and text will be replaced but the base model is done, and very minimal work has to be done to this to make it presentable.

[andyleung80058]

Map update testing the panning textures being applied to the streetlamps which are used throughout the entire map.  

Since last time i have added some more props to make the second section more complete having added road blocks, fountains, cones, a food stall, sitting areas etc.

[andyleung80058]

ecilA testing a moving object looping using Matinee. I feel like our map is too dull and so this is one aspect that may add more flare and intrigue the user. I am also currently making the word ecilA in Maya as seperate objects so we can have the name floating. 

[andyleung80058]

Objectperformance #35

The following riddles were created with reference from:

http://sabian.org/looking_glass6.php

1. “Oh Humpty why do you sit atop that wall,      Youre clumsy and going to fall,      The kings men arent here,      Quick come down before you disappear”

2. “You fell with the rain,       The kings men couldnt put you together again,       Alone they left you,       Broken and waiting,       For a hand to save you,       From the company of Hades

Side riddle:

“How old did you say you were?  seven and six months,  No you never said anything of the sort”

[andyleung80058]

Shaydn has been looking into riddles recently, we still haven’t decided which ones we will will use, but hopefully we will soon

Objectperformance #34

The following riddles were created using the site below as reference.

http://sabian.org/alice_in_wonderland5.php

1. “You are taller,       Than if you were smaller,       But if you were smaller,       You would see more than if you were taller.”

2. “In one hand you grow,      In one hand you shrink,      One hand will show,      So be careful not to blink,

3. “3 inches is a wretched height to be?      Only those smaller than thee will see what cant be seen”

My teammates and friends can choose which one they like the best, they all imply the same thing so any of them are fine to use.

[andyleung80058]

Object Performance: “Asset collection and creation”

When going into a project that requires a certain aesthetic and particular setting or environment there is a lot that goes into fulfilling that and having it up to a certain standard that meets your demographic. 

For us, ecilA’s setting is very specific in design but basic for the overall ‘City’ concept. Making it obvious that its a city and giving off that certain ambiance of what an actual city would be like is essential in executing our base environment correctly. When adding our own touch to things we needed the foundation to be set and this would be done through the base structures and props. Time wise and considering non of us are prominent 3D modelers, we have become accustomed to utilizing Royalty Free 3D models for our own use and only 3D modelling our own models when they are basic enough to get done quickly. 

http://www.turbosquid.com/  - “Our Royalty Free License allows extended freedom to use content in a huge variety of creations.”

https://www.cgtrader.com/

Sites like “TurboSquid” and “CGTrader” are the go-to for when we want 3D models without much hassle. In the first screenshot you can see the downloads that i have in my library as well as seeing that they most of them have materials on them that come with it. Sometimes these materials and objects are corrupted and need to be edited in Maya but most of the time its all about importing it correctly. CGTrader is more or less the same but doesnt have a library filled with your previous downloads. All you have to do is choose you model and make sure it is free and not too high poly. 

This process ends up saving us a lot of time and allows us to focus on level design (Placing the objects in the game) and the core mechanics. When it comes to it as previously mentioned, we will go on maya and make ourselves a basic object (Showcased in the screenshot below)

Basically this post is to clarify or even justify why we use downloaded models and that it is perfectly okay to use in our project as it is royalty free and we are not using it for commercial use. 

[andyleung80058]

Since we only have two weeks left for the semester, we have made a to do list, just like last semester.

By making a to do list, it is a lot easier and clearer in terms of what we need to do, to try and finish our project, the tasks are highlighted in different colours differentiating whats the most important tasks and the least

This is our to do list for last 2 weeks. The green marking is the essentials, while the pink and yellow arent need to run the game and present our artifact, although they help a lot. We are all looking into riddles for Alice in Wonderland, hopefully tomorrow we should have one each. Martin is focusing on level design in the second and third areas, this is coming along nicely, and I give him praise for that. Andy is working on the Matinee for the 3rd door cinematic. The cinematic isnt necessary but it is a nice add on to our project, and being the last door, the cinematic makes it feel like a grand opening, something nice to look at. It also adds to the object performance side of things as well. From what I have seen he seems to be well on track to making it look very nice. I myself am going to focus on the first riddle, and create an object that players use to open the first door. This object will be hidden when “Alice” is big, and shown when she is small. I also want to look at the health bar, but to do this we need photoshop on the main pc.

All and all, I think we are progressing nicely, we are on track, communicating well, and pulling our own weight. I am still working on my organisation skills, but I am definitely not falling behind at this point.

[andyleung80058]

Here is a video of how our 2nd gate opening. It is a mechanic where the wall is breaking down into small pieces which we thought was pretty cool.

[andyleung80058]

Here we have a mechanic taken from Alice in Wonderland where our character is becoming smaller/bigger this is a relevance to how Alice becomes small and big by eating. This is a good reference and what we will do with this mechanic is make a tiny place just for the small Alice to explore, which will be a good asset to the game. This mechanic was done by Shaydn and i give him props for that

[andyleung80058]

With the puzzles, we drew reference from crash bandicoot. Crash Bandicoot was my first ever video game, the game which started my crave for video games, its only fitting that it is one of the main inspirations for my first video game I create. The above video show myself failing at jumping on a platform, but I can guarantee it is doable. At the top of these platforms will be one of the spawn points for a side quest or riddle/puzzle.

The below video isnt the game I took reference from, (took reference from actually playing the game itself), but it show cases nicely what I drew inspiration from.

https://youtu.be/imGP1RYXJlo?t=170 

[andyleung80058]

This video show cases the pick up mechanic and the door opening mechanism. It has already been decided that the first riddle to get out will be find the object based off a passage of words. The bright light in my head is shown to be the light at the end of the tunnel. I was trying to create a grand atmosphere and contrast it largely from the starting area (e.g. forest -> buildings).

[andyleung80058]

I decided to add a second battery (placeholder in the video). The reasoning for this was I was concerned that players wouldnt have enough time to solve riddles / puzzles. The “supercharged” batteries are not randomly generated like the originals (purple ones), and are going to be placed near objectives so that if you need to get to a hard to reach place you are given a little bit of breathing space.

[andyleung80058]

This mechanic will be the main function in how people will progress and play the game, by collecting batteries players are able to live and solve puzzles that we have set out for them

This is just an update, showing I have implemented the battery mechanic into the main version. I am concerned a little how we dont have a battery yet for our pickups, and are still using the placeholder. It is on the to do list, hopefully we get that done because I feel that it will change the feel of the game altogether.

[andyleung80058]

After adding some content and objects, the map is looking more fulfilled, with this we have a clearer idea in the direction we are heading towards and how we want to put everything such as puzzles and characters.

This is our current map. As you can see it has been filled out more, and looks more like a city. Obviously not finished, but its nice to see the contrast in the maps, as well as our progress over the past few months. I genuinely feel happy with how we are progressing, we have got our shit together and are working cohesively. We are currently adding bits and pieces to the map and it seems to be coming together nicely. The below links show how our progress in terms of map development has come along.

Contrast1: http://qqers.tumblr.com/post/151972318864/i-found-this-footage-of-what-our-layout-originally

Contrast2: http://qqers.tumblr.com/post/151972355715/we-then-created-the-above-layout-the-video-show

[andyleung80058]

We then created the above layout, the video show cases the starting area mostly finished. As you can see the layout is much wider with more space to run around in.

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Here is a small clip of our level at the beginning.

I found this footage of what our layout originally looked like right after the first layout re-arrange.