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[niamhsglobalproject]

week 2

The reading due this morning had an interesting narrator

l4 l5 reflect l6 sight

compromise

vr chat world creation

maybe linking up with pen pal group?

Week 2 global project

The reading due this morning had an interesting narrator. I enjoyed hearing about Lazlo’s work but also wasn’t too keen on the narrators view of looking down on design that wasn’t activist. I think that creativity doesn’t have to be limited to improving something and this highlights the difference between design and art. Does good design have to improve something? Is art the same? art can provoke thought that could be considered activist in terms of bringing attention to different situations. this is most likely the approach we will take for this project as we tackle different motives and themes by making conscious creative decisions throughout.

L4 L5 reflect, L6 sight

While i was sceptical with the group pickings, i knew if i wanted to improve my skills, learn from previous projects as well as other group members, i would have to put forward a plan of action to ensure each meeting is the most productive. (Our initial meeting being most crucial). This way, we wouldn’t be fumbling or going around in circles as if we followed a structure for our brainstorming, we could cut out the tangents and focus at the task at hand. 

My proposition for this will be to firstly have a refresher summary of each others pitch. We could pick three main points to our own pitch so that we can see what the most important elements/ which part each individual likes the most about their idea. From there we could make a 5 way Venn diagram or equivalent to see the overlaps in our ideas to see which points to automatically bring forward. And then we can go through and select more elements that we would like to bring forward as well. We should discuss socio-geographical similarities and differences as another starting point for content and context. It would be a good idea to settle on a theme as early as possible too so this could be chosen within this process. We can then look into video game genres as well as engines to allow us to decide on which engine we would like to use for the game. 

pitch 3 point summaries

5 way Venn diagram

Socio-geographical similarities and differences/ socio-geographical challenges and solutions for sustainable development in global communities.

Select a theme to work from

Game genres

Questions for Kyiv

to gain more context of Ukraine and Kyiv, i did some research into socio-geographic specific issues.

Ukraine relies on £3billion per month in financial aid from allies to see this year through. They have already had £73billion from these countries however US support seems to be faltering and packages have suffered major delays. 

It gets very cold in winter, as of Wednesday 7th Feb 2024, 355 homes in Kyiv were without heating in their homes. (Dniprovskyi district)

Moth/pest issues on crops

Rush hour traffic

how is living in Ukraine? "Generally ok, though we experience lack of produce in shops and deficits of gasoline. It is caused by disruption of logistics. Also lack of jobs because a lot of businesses closed down or partially open. In view of this less money for people. But there is electricity, water, gas , internet. Most necessary services work. A lot of people walking around, including military and regular citizens. In the night there is curfew."

Difference in technology

Barriers 

Notes from Fred’s talk on Wednesday:

First draft is explaining to yourself, word vomit. Pair it back 

Moodle Harvard referencing . Up to 15 mins for video essay

Phases of the moon as a tool?

After seeing everyone’s pitches on the Monday, i saw overlaps with Liz’s idea of digital pen pals. One of the cosy game examples i had included in my own presentation was “kind words”. To look into how similar these ideas were, i bought the game on steam as it was only £3.99. The game works as you send anonymous letters with a request for advice. Other anonymous users can then respond with their own advice or kind words. You can also send paper airplanes with quotes/ affirmations etc that are distributed to others playing the game. There is also a sticker trading aspect that is used in conjunction with sending responses to other’s letters as well as thanking other users for taking the time to respond. I found the community to be very wholesome and encouraging. I think the anonymity of the game enabled this as there was no judgement or prejudice, only real advice based on each situation. I’d like to potentially share this with my own group and mentioned the game to Liz in case her group would like to explore how the game works. 

Wednesday was particularly frustrating for me. I had prepped and come into the studio with an open mind and tools to approach a collaborative talk with my group so that i didn’t come across as stubborn or dismissive. While this day was more focused on the essay side of the project, with no allocated time to focus on generating initial group ideas to show to Ukraine, it was hard to have the time to develop this aspect and utilise my plan stated above. Three members of the group however were able to have a conversation on ideas for the project. Me and Layla ended up being excluded from this talk as we were sat in other spaces around the room and were unaware this talk was going on. As not everyone was involved in the brainstorm, the outcomes didn’t include aspects from either of our pitches. I was definitely upset about this and felt like withdrawing. We hadn’t set up a means of communication like we usually do, (such as a WhatsApp groupchat) so once the session had ended, so did the discussion.

I also didn’t have a tutorial from Lara or  Fred so felt a bit lost in terms of what steps i should take next, which is why i took initiative to email for clarification. Once knowing we needed one representative per group to give a brief overview of ideas, for Kyiv to respond to, i was then able to get back on track and put my stubbornness aside to progress with the group. Lewis emailed us on the Thursday to hopefully set up a means of communication as well as schedule a meeting as a full group. I then helped set up the WhatsApp as i had nearly everyone’s numbers already. This allowed us to start conversation on ensuring everyone was on the same page. 

On Friday, i went into the studio so that i could be more productive. Joe was also in, helping with the first year students and Kateryna invited me to join in with their group tutorials for their nature/performance lab. It was really interesting to see the same issues as we had dealt with in the same projects last year. I really felt their frustrations with group members not showing up but hopefully we provided them with reassurance to keep pushing on and for them to know they are on the right path. I really liked one of the group’s outcomes for the nature lab. They have four different animal masks that represent different issues within nature. I liked the message that they were going to convey and also the execution of the one mask that was finished was great. 

Once we had been around all of the groups, i then went back to my own work. 

Kateryna showed me CLO3D, a 3d fashion modelling software. She explained that this could be a good tool to use if I would like to make 3D avatars to put into our game or into spatial. 

I think if we decide to go with a more realistic visual, we can use this software to create stills that can be used as sprites or models for our game. 

Research how indie teams work with clients etc

Relation to the game how use the similarities and differences 

Reflect on the place for each other in terms of relationships through the making and the actual tame 

[niamhsglobalproject]

Week 9

this final week was incredibly stressful. as a group we had set a deadline for Sunday for all game making. this would give us monday- Wednesday to finalise our individual essays, blogs, and group presentation.

this deadline was however not met as lace was not ready with the player controls that she had been working on for the previous 2/3 weeks.

I feel as though this work was disproportionately delegated once again as I felt that I had to absorb the workload to ensure the outcome was finished in time. while I was struggling to troubleshoot elements of my own parts of the game, I was dipping into trying to find lace resources to motivate her to keep trying to get the outcome we needed.

I took on combining the projects too to the best of my ability without compromising the functionality of each scene. the most difficult part of this was switching over the sprites and controls. in the end I kept the player element that I had been using as lace's sprites wouldn't spawn into the multiplayer host or client.

due to all of the delays in completing the game, we were unable to have a test run through before the deadline/presentation. this was really frustrating as we had given multiple deadlines that included contingency times to ensure that we would be able to have a run through.

using System;

using Unity.Netcode;

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerController : NetworkBehaviour

{

    [SerializeField] private float speed = 3f;

    private Camera _mainCamera;

    private Vector3 _mouseInput;

    private void Initialize()

    {

        _mainCamera = Camera.main;

    }

    public override void OnNetworkSpawn()

    {

        base.OnNetworkSpawn();

        Initialize();

    }

    private void Update()

    {

        if (!Application.isFocused) return;

        //Movement

        _mouseInput.x = Input.mousePosition.x;

        _mouseInput.y = Input.mousePosition.y;

        _mouseInput.z = _mainCamera.nearClipPlane;

        Vector3 mouseWorldCoordinates = _mainCamera.ScreenToWorldPoint(_mouseInput);

        transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(transform.position, 

        mouseWorldCoordinates, Time.deltaTime * speed);

        //Rotate

        if (mouseWorldCoordinates != transform.position)

        {

            Vector3 targetDirection = mouseWorldCoordinates - transform.position;

            transform.up = targetDirection.normalized;

        }

    }

}

I put the above code from the multiplayer tutorial  into my player prefab, for mouse control.

Asked chat got to give me a code that would use WASD or arrows instead of mouse input. This wasn’t right as the character would only go up/ forward in whatever direction it was facing. 

After inspecting the code, I removed the few lines to do with the rotation of the character and this fixed my issue so now the input would move the character in the correct direction while remaining in the same view. The movement style reminds me of Mario games where even once the player stops moving the input button, the character continues to slide slightly which is more of a style decision in my opinion rather than a mechanics issue. 

using System;

using Unity.Netcode;

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerController : NetworkBehaviour

{

    [SerializeField] private float speed = 3f;

    private Camera _mainCamera;

    private void Initialize()

    {

        _mainCamera = Camera.main;

    }

    public override void OnNetworkSpawn()

    {

        base.OnNetworkSpawn();

        Initialize();

    }

    private void Update()

    {

        if (!IsOwner || !Application.isFocused) return;

        // Movement using WASD keys or arrow keys

        float horizontalInput = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");

        float verticalInput = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");

        // Calculate movement direction based on input

        Vector3 movementDirection = new Vector3(horizontalInput, verticalInput, 0f);

        // Normalize the movement direction to prevent faster diagonal movement

        movementDirection.Normalize();

        // Convert movement direction from local space to world space

        Vector3 moveDirectionWorld = transform.TransformDirection(movementDirection);

        // Move the player object

        transform.position += moveDirectionWorld * speed * Time.deltaTime;

    }

}

The next issue I ran into was trying to have each player being client owned so that when a player moves their character, it moves it on the server so that everyone can see. This took a very long time to figure out where the error was coming from but it ended up being the version of the network manager installed. I changed this to the 1.8 version and this problem was fixed. 

I had a 40 minute call with Tony on the Tuesday to see if I could pass the data from the avatar creation to the player prefab section on the network manager inspector within the multiplayer scene.

he sent over a video for me to watch that was a very simple way of storing the character selection.

the only issue with using this video was without starting the game over again, and maintaining the multiplayer network aspect, it wasn't possible to call on the stored character selection data.

in the end I had to leave this part as unfinished and just select 1 prefab to use as a character sprite for everyone that plays the game. I would like to revisit and hopefully make this aspect of the game possible as it is a major part of the game's interface.

the next step for me was to figure out how we will distribute our game to players in Birmingham and Kyiv. I had the option of distributing the game as a file, optimised for Mac but hopefully functioning on Mac windows and linux or to upload it as a webGL. this took quite a bit of trial and error to ensure the script functioned without errors allowing the project to be exported, and then for the user experience to be identical to what was seen in the "game" window of unity's editor. in the end I pursued both WebGL and application so that we had increased odds of the game working on the day. the cut scene wouldn't work on the webgl format so I attached a link to a google drive linking both the zip file and application. I chose google drive so that the students in Ukraine would also be able to access the files. I then put this link in our spatial portal on the backup video of how the game should run.

ultimately, if the multiplayer aspect to our game works, the brief and clients needs will be met of creating a portal between Birmingham and Kyiv.

[niamhsglobalproject]

Week 8

monday

last group call with kyiv- try organising multiplayer run through

showed the rest of the group the update on avatar selection

spatial- scan of digital lab

tuesday

helped lace by researching the multiplayer aspect- found good tutorial and began to work through the video

I think if I am to have the avatar selection be brought forward throughout the game, I will need to change every image of the selected avatar with selected items of clothing to their own individual sprites.

wednesday

more spatial work- used kateryna's advice on using photoshop to import with transparent backgrounds for logo and text apart from bio sections as it was becoming time consuming and i thought it would be easier to read if done this way.

for presenting my blog as a more polished process log, i selected this layout:

i went with this one as it has that retro pixelated vibe that we aimed to have with our game.

how each aspect of the game tackles socio geographical issues raised and considers the needs of the client/audience as well as the planet:

character arriving on train (public transport) targets gasoline deficit and issues in Birmingham and Kyiv surrounding rush hour traffic and delays

having the player choose a nightingale or a lion addresses the subject of global warming effecting environments and ecosystems, showing the two national animals coexisting in a space, wearing uniforms/ clothes similar to those regularly worn in each location offers a transfer of experience

being set in a school brings a sense of nostalgia and allows regression to a time that may have been impacted by coronavirus or war. this also relates to the source found in week 1 (article) about zelensky cutting down on loopholes allowing young people to use further education to postpone their conscription.

[niamhsglobalproject]

WEEK 7

Monday

Monday focused on spatial and how we will use it to demonstrate our work. I volunteered to organise this for our group as the software seemed straightforward and easy to use. While i was in the studio, i got a head start on creating our portal space, just allowing it to be functional. 

This week saw the most development in unity for me. Every tutorial i had tried up until now was either outdated or simply didn’t work in the way I wanted it to. While I was able to pick up small bits from these different tutorials, it was hard to find the basics that weren’t just over explaining the software’s interface. I was meant to meet with Mattia on the Friday to discuss the work and see how our plans could be achieved, however i didn’t hear back from him to confirm our meeting. This meant that it didn’t go ahead and i had to turn to my last resort was to use chatGPT to create a tutorial. Surprisingly, this was extremely effective as i could ask very scenario specific questions and chatGPT would compile all of its knowledge to give me a tutorial and even script when needed. A lot of the help was giving me the script to enable different features within unity such as using buttons to transfer the user to a different scene, as well as being able to use a button to toggle the visibility of an image. 

As lace messaged me on the Friday saying she is struggling with the tileset and I’m guessing the bounds of where the sprite is able to move to, i may see if she’d like to do the spatial element to our work so that i can look into what she needs to be able to create what we need. I also sent her a video tutorial to see if that helps her iron out any issues that she’s having. If the tutorial doesn’t work for her, i will suggest to her that using chatGPT could solve any problems. 

This week i was meant to create a to do list from the list of what Eileen needed us to do for her to create the cut scenes in our game as well as everything else we needed to complete. These consist of:

a speech bubble text box (pixel art)

Train concept art (take inspiration from Ukrainian trains and British trains)

Location for the train arriving (a generic city?)

Background for teacher welcoming into the school

Spatial

**Multiplayer aspect**

Chat/emoji aspect

Naughts and crosses aspect

Background for the studio

Library with information in books

Set a day for the live element (Thursday?)

[niamhsglobalproject]

WEEK 5

Before starting the avatar creation scene, i remembered Chris Hendrick’s YouTube account. Chris hendricks worked on the creation of club penguin from may 2005 and has many videos on his input on the project, the process and issues faced. 

Club penguin was made with flash, however as flash no longer exists, the information and methods used would have to be transposed.

While club penguin was on a more isometric perspective, they used a 3D model for their avatar. The colours and clothes were all overlays and animations were made in a software called swift3D. This was so that it could be pre-rendered and put into flash meaning it didnt matter if there were loads of faces on the object. 

As i didnt have access to my computer all of this week, I picked up some of the digital art tasks to take some pressure off the others in the group and to ensure i was still being productive. I let the others know i was able to make some art for the head teacher that welcomes you to the school when you first arrive off the train. My vision behind this was to create a hybrid character that was both a nightingale and a lion. This took two attempts as my first attempt didn’t have the right proportions and was looking very flat. To combat this, i decided to use a rough template to get the proportions and positioning of the character’s head/ eyes. Below are pictures of my first attempt vs final attempt.

[ insert images]

Towards the end of the week i also decided to move on from the login menu. As i was having difficulty using firebase as an Authenticator, i thought i would come back to it once other progress had been made. Therefore, i tried to start the avatar selection menu. Using the similar methods to club penguin, i made some sprites from lace’s avatars that meant the character and the clothes were separated. I also used Layla’s background that was intended for character creation and got to work. So far, i was able to make the base buttons to choose if the player would like to be a nightingale or lion and then buttons for a selection of the clothes. What i think i will find difficult with this part of the game creation will be programming the buttons to work as intended. Figuring out how to split off between the lion and the nightingale and then how to show the correct set of buttons for each outfit. 

Due to the difficulty I’m having learning the software, i emailed the lead for the games development course to see if he had any resources or had any students that would be interested in collaborating. This would just be for the fundamentals and hopefully to give a more hands on approach to learning Unity. 

My aim for next week will be to finish the avatar creation menu and to complete the plan and first section of my essay. 

On Monday we had a good catch up as a group, we were able to call lace in the afternoon to see where she’s at and we’re able to make a to do list after having our call with Ukraine. Layla was able to share the feedback that we have received to far on the survey and this confirmed that our concept meets the wants of the students in Kyiv. 

Introduction 

Why chose and why it links to needs of client and brief 

[niamhsglobalproject]

WEEK 4

Week 4- global project

Towards the start of the week i focused on our section of our figma. I thought it may be difficult for the Ukrainian students to realise what to contribute to our project so I created some subsections to give us imagery to work from when making backgrounds and sprites for our game. While we had the questionnaire that liz had made, we thought that it wasn’t specific enough in questions as we were getting feedback from peers within the course, they let us know that they were confused and required more clarification on some questions. Layla then made a new questionnaire that hopefully will give us more specific response that can be used within our continual research. 

While the reading on transdisciplinary practice was last week’s reading, i didn’t get the chance to read it before the discussion. I had a busy week travelling to Belfast on the previous Tuesday and with st Patrick’s day on that weekend, i was able to do some work but the reading was lower on my priority list. This is why i placed it higher on my to do list for this week.

What are the needs of the client?

To be able to navigate through the app 

Not feel too “gamey”

Either have dual languages or wholly English 

Promote sustainability

Combine elements from Ukraine/Kyiv as well as England/ Birmingham - neutral weather, etc.

Provide an amount of escapism

[niamhsglobalproject]

WEEK 3

The first few weeks i had struggled to reflect on level 4 and 5. However i feel as though now, i can really see my collaborative skills developing in terms of resilience. Previously, i would let conflicts between peers (whether small or large) derail the groups progress, take it personally and even let it wind me up so much so that it would negatively impact my work. Sometimes i can struggle with change once the initial thought process is complete but working iteratively requires the reviewing and altering of ideas throughout the project. 

So far, there has been compromise with lewis wanting to pursue 3D aspects to the project. The way we were able to do this was to use an isometric viewpoint to have static 3D backgrounds, we could then extend the game into spacial as an added feature or even potentially for cut scenes. This 3D element was also thought to utilise Hemza’s skills as he is very proficient in 3D work in Blender. 

Another change that may be difficult for me to process will be Liz joining our group late. During the national project, we didn’t see eye to eye towards the end of the project and even back in the Performance lab last year. I don’t want this to negatively impact our group work or outcome so will be leaving any thoughts and opinions outside of group meetings and will attempt to come in with a fresh mind at every interaction. Giving her the benefit of the doubt and a chance to start fresh. 

I think one of the reasons why i am finding it easier to bounce back from these points is the interest i have in our concept. I’m lucky enough that the other members of our group like the features that i brought to the table in my pitch and would like to include and build on them in our final outcome. Lewis has also decided he would like to branch off from us and create a more 3D immersive monument exhibition working with Maria rather than a game, which seems like he will be happier to create something along those lines. Hemza has also decided he would like to work across both groups which is great as he will be a great asset to transposing any concept imagery into 3D isometric stills through blender. This will also free up more time for me and Lace to work on the code for the game. 

Over the past two years, i have been able to dabble into different technologies that can be used with gaming. The closest i have gotten would be back in semester 1 of first year using a mixture of blender, a small bit of unity and shapesXR to bring to life three spaces within VR. I used blender the most and felt most comfortable with it out of all of the softwares used so learning Unity will be my main challenge for this project. I also think this will be most beneficial to my future career if game development is what i choose to pursue as Unity is one of the three main game engines used in industry and having even basic knowledge of C# will be a great asset to employers. When researching game engines last summer, i decided unreal engine would be a better suited engine for me as the fee structure, their node based coding, free assets available every month and being a purpose built engine by real game developers really appealed to me. I am more than happy to learn Unity though as it seems like a more commonly known engine across the university/ visiting lecturers and Lace’s brother in law has worked a lot with the software while developing Fall Guys. He has expressed that he would be able to help us if we need any troubleshooting or help with code. Lace is also familiar with the software so even having someone with a bit of experience readily available for questions will make learning easier for me. 

Our call with Kyiv was reassuring to see that they were kind of on the same wavelength as us in terms of themes and ways of collaborating. I did feel as though they didn’t know about the portal aspect of the brief but that wasn’t an issue as we can still use their ideas and combine them with our ideas. In particular, i thought Yulia’s and Anastasia’s ideas matched the most with our group. With Yulia’s telephone game proposal, i think we would be able to use the methodologies mentioned in order to create concepts and artwork for the game. I put this on the figma to see if she was interested in using her idea in this way. As for Anastasia, her video game proposal was really strong and fleshed out. Her art looked incredible however she was very set on her overall game concept (a single player JRPG that revolved around regulating emotions). I do feel as though it might be difficult to collaborate with Anastasia as she is very set in her idea in terms of concept and interest in creating character design only. I think we can involve her in the project by seeing if she would like to design some costumes for the nightingale sprites, taking inspiration from Ukrainian fashion. 

I think that the reading for this week will be useful when it comes to my essay, I found part 2 very interesting but more difficult to understand in small sections. Part 1 however, was quite motivational in terms of encouraging me to create more. Even if there are failures, the more you create, the more success there will be. 

On Wednesday, we sat as a group for the main portion of the day. I decided to get a big piece of paper out so that we could visualise and refine our ideas so that it was clear what we’d be producing. And it would also be easier to brainstorm ideas. From this we were able to come up with a narrative that fit the theme we were looking to go with, which was to have the game set in a primary school. The user would be a student, arriving to school on the train (as the train systems in both Kyiv and Birmingham are significant.), they would then meet the head teacher of the school who would give context to the game and almost tell why the student was there and why the school is as it is. The student/user would then spawn into the studio location in the school. This will be the main space for communication between Kyiv students and Birmingham students. From there, the user can choose if they would like to go to the library, canteen, or playground. The playground will hopefully have some 2 player classic games for the users to play, the library will have information about both locations in the form of interactive books. And the canteen could have something related to the farming aspects of Kyiv but this is still up for consideration. 

[ insert images of mind map and narrative plot]

On Thursday, i wanted to try and get started on the game aspect of our project as i knew it would take the most time and effort. I had a teams call with lace as she is also working on the game. We tried to get the collaborative project to work but for some reason we couldn’t get the work that lace had done previously to show up on my end. We spent an hour attempting to get it to work but in the end, we decided for the sake of progress that we should work on separate parts of the game and then combine them into one project once complete. Lace was going to continue to work on getting a hand on the environments/ isometric aspect of the game and then i was going to create the login/ verification so that the user of the game can keep their avatar and username whenever they come back to play the game. I was also aiming to start creating the avatar creation screen. 

The verification screen started off strong as i had a YouTube tutorial to follow, i was able to download all of the elements and import the script part of the file. For some reason I wasn’t able to correctly import the main part of the file. I would import it into the project section at the bottom of the screen but when i went to open my packages it wouldn’t show as being in the project. This meant i was unable to progress in this aspect of the project. I spent most of the day either trying on new files, starting the process again or just going through everything i did to ensure it was just as the video had instructed. 

By having the user pick between a nightingale and a lion, this will further emphasise the fact that they are in an alternate reality and aren’t in a regular school environment. A lot of cosy games use animals as characters or NPCs. I think they increase the creative aspect of the game’s design and makes interacting with these characters more intriguing. 

[niamhsglobalproject]

Week 1

While our lectures were taking place in the morning, I decided it would be a good idea to take notes and jot down any initial thoughts that came to my head/ key points that I found important. This way I didn't subconsciously rule out anything before starting the module properly. In my free time, I converted my shorthand notes into a mind map using miro. (See below). While my knowledge of Ukraine and Kyiv are minimal, me and my family housed two refugees from Kyiv back when the Ukrainian- Russian war began. They stayed with us for 6 months and this gave me some insight into life in Kyiv and how different our countries were. For one, their education system seems to be a lot more strenuous. throughout school, each pupil is given a potential grade by their teacher. the student is then expected to match this grade in their exams as said grade is already given to the student. From speaking to Maria (who is a year older than me) she said it is a lot of pressure to be expected to achieve these grades. In order to attend university, you also need a certain level of English. this surprised me as i didn't think English would be a necessary language to Ukrainians. Another difference would be their conscription regulations. both Maria and Tetiana explained how many people attend university to postpone their conscription. From checking that this is still true, I found this article on Zelensky's recent alteration to conscription regulations in order to combat student waivers

From these initial thoughts, I found video games (specifically MMORPGs) to be my strongest ideas. This is why I decided to put it forward to the group.

By definition an MMORPG is an "Massively multiplayer online role-playing game". it is a communal World online where many players can participate in different activities to further their goals and exploration. The players share the same world with other players and can move about or converse with one another. An RPG requires three main things: Story/narrative development. Free decision making. and character development.

Some key examples of MMORPGs are games such as EverQuest, released by Sony in 1999 (see below)

Runescape, developed and released by Jagex in 2001 (see below)

Both of these games are considered MMORPG classics. Everquest was the first commercially successful MMORPG to use a 3D game engine. It sold 3 million copies worldwide and reached an active subscriber peak of 550,000 as of 2004. When the game released, we were on the 5th generation of gaming consoles. to put the games sales into perspective, The Sega Saturn sold 9.25 million units worldwide and the Nintendo 64 sold 32 million copies worldwide. As for Runescape, the game has had over 300 million accounts made and is recognised by the Guinness world records as the biggest and most updated free to play MMORPG.

More modern games such as Club Penguin (see below) which ran from 2005-2017. While this example is up for debate on whether or not it is classed as an RPG, it is definitely a great example of an MMO and a great example of the type of game/ server I think would be really cool to create, maybe due to it being the game I have the most experience with and grew up playing. My opinion, Club penguin would be classified as an MMORPG as there were interactive narrative elements embedded in the game, with the Elite Penguin Force (dungeon crawler-esque levels), lore that would be distributed in forms of limited time events or the newspaper, as well as self directed narrative through social play with other users.

What lead me to start looking into games such as these was the whole idea of creating a "portal". initially, I thought of a game that goes by the same name "Portal" (see below) which is a two player co-op. It is mainly played locally, with either two players on the same console or connected through LAN (two separate devices connected through a LAN cable). according to some forums found online, you can also play portal remotely with online multiplayer. The premise of the game is to work your way through a series of levels, acting as the protagonist trapped in a scientific facility governed by AI, using only a portal gun.

being able to see and experience the same thing as another while 1534.53 miles apart is something amazing and I think the element of escapism that comes with games as well as being able to connect two places could really help with morale and community.

According to google, the 5 themes of geography are:

Location (Where is it located?)

Place (What's it like there?)

Region (How and why is one area similar to another?)

Movement (How and why are places connected with one another?)

Human-environment interaction. (What is the relationship between humans and their environment?)

The definition given for Social Geography is "the study of people and their environment with particular emphasis on social factors."

From these points, I was then able to respond and conduct nearly all secondary research in the form of this mind map.

2023 article on community in Ukraine:

Here are the initial theme ideas we collaboratively brainstormed at the end of last year:

Next, I wanted to look into more themes that I could explore and relate back to our project. some of the first themes I came across were (themes of human connection):

Death and rebirth

Bearing the burden of responsibility

Aiming toward the highest good

Honoring the sanctity of things

Energy transfer

Going back to MMORPGs and their need for a narrative, I then had a look into themes used within writing. I put these alongside themes found within collaborative practice and other themes that I felt fit the brief. these are compiled into the mind map below:

A popular form of escapism within gaming is the uprising "cosy" game genre. with calm and soothing elements within gameplay, it would be interesting to explore further how this genre enables escapism. "A cosy game generally means there are no high stakes or difficult challenges. The aim of the game is to, quite simply, have fun." this type of game could be great to create as we would be able to create a setting that is neither Ukraine or England and doesn't resemble political conflicts, it could focus more on our similarities.

While online games like Roblox have an age guidance of 13 and up, it originally had a younger audience of pre-teens. the childlike elements of play and a wide range of mini games however have been increasingly popular within the 17-24 year old age rage according to Roblox's shareholder letter. I think just like cosy games, games such as Roblox present escapism that transport the user to live through the years that they may have lost to the pandemic.

[niamhsglobalproject]

Notion

https://www.notion.so/Global-Brief-1e00fa726b8d44ba8ee9d1d8154e3f73