Decimations of information through design

YEAR 2, WEEK 4 - exploring rulebooks

Approach:

My hopes for learning some new concepts were cut short this week as I became violently ill the first half of it. But It gave me some time to do some re-reading of game rulebooks as well as their overall design to make some written inferences on their flow and structure. The first was Pandemic created by Matt Leacock and published by Z-man Games, and the second being Coup by Rikki Tahta and published by Mame Games. Even though I had previously looked these books over for help in crafting my own experimental games rulebook I found some new ideas in its construction.

Summary: While I personally feel the design is all over the place (broken grids sections of chunky text as well as unresolved empty space), it does have some very useful methodologies I wish to use later on. The use of icons and images for one, as opposed to just referencing items in the game shows them as visual assets. And when that asset is called on in the rules there is a little imagination. While that doesn’t seem like a lot I understand what the intent may be. Mostly that the person reading the book may be looking for key indicators rather than absorbing the whole book.next os the copywriting if the rules. While it does mostly focus on how the game operates it makes sure to draws special attention to in-game words like outbreak, and infection. This has brought up the idea that I may need to engage in critical reading the rulebooks of several games that I may wish to take inspiration from if I have a desire for the game is playable. With that in mind, I can practice on an older game I had developed over the summer with Scott.

Questions for the Week ahead:

Does the idea of informal learning draw me because I'm drawn to pedagogy and as a result could I analyzed perhaps the innate ability to teach and learn games? or is it the game's ability to exist beyond its current space.

Decimations of information through design

YEAR 2, WEEK 3 - game as a method if information learning and Exploearion through experimentation.

Approach:

currently, I am taking 2 classes in game design in which I am tackling smaller projects to understand core ideas, and what I can take away from game design is that it can operate as an independent collection of loops. And while that may sound like a criticism it’s where I think is one of the strengths of the medium. A Key learning aid is an idea that you can learn a new concept over repeated exposure to it and with that in mind if something like a narrative was ascribed to a loop could that help a person learn a storyline better or would that not work because of the lack of guidance of a strict narrative flow?

Shifting ideas:

Currently, I have several questions that were raised over the course of 3 weeks and the most prevalent is if the ephemeral aspects of a game could be used as, if stated crudely, as a vehicle of informal learning. Games have the ability to teach a player new skills over time and the ability to synthesis said skills into new ideas, however, that only amounts to in-game mechanics, at least that is where the limited understanding I have with space. However, as an entertainment designer, I am away that recreational media always has some form of subtext underwriting the rest of the story. Media used to engage a player on important issues or concepts may be where I could start, as the narrative design would help fill out or augment certain ideas (social issues, literary pieces, complex ideas).

Reading list

Rules of Play by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen

The Art of Game Design Book by Jesse Schell

Questions:

As I am working with a group of 3 in one class and as an individual, in another, I do wonder what benefits come from either methodology. It would be more idea, (at least to me if I were a part of a group as I’m not exactly confident in where my work can live currency)

Ive also got to understand where it is I see my work existing. I know that I want these skills but perhaps I need something more solid.

Interactive experience prototype: atmospheric design

YEAR 1, WEEK 14 - safe - 04.19.2020

APPROACH:

So this whole week was getting to the point of making a working prototype that allows the viewer to experience a few instances of animated 3D sound. This discussion was actually a result of scaling back after realizing I can't make games in unity. and with 5 weeks I could provable set up a scene but there was no way I could have made a game without just taking someone else's design.

so what did I get out of this experience? a lot of backend work actually.

Unity has some new interfacing they are trying to implement, which lucky me, only a few people had started talking about. it's moving from originally supporting independent addons for VR to a mixed XR packaging system made for some minor headaches, but we persevere. fun enough I was able to learn a sizable chunk of workflow stuff, especially when it comes to file handling.

unity's support for blender is someone lackluster and without plugins, is very unstable, I was able to make my models move from blender to unity with all my nodes and materials intact, funny enough this is something a lot of people seem to be annoyed over.

CHOICES:

Checklist of stuff

1. interactivity

2. VR ready

3. 3d space and sound

4. and capable of proving a meaningful experience?

5. it works (this is the most important)

I actually got all down! except for 4. there is no quantifiable amount of choice in this space, it's just an environment, but it does create another space for a person to exist in. They can look around and observe some nice in-game animation.

REFERENCES:

This reference was a total godsend, I had no idea how to make my 3d sounds Dopler effect actually manifest in 3d but just one tiny button (after 2 hours of googling) later it worked.

CURRENT QUESTIONS AND THE WEEK AHEAD:

I feel that I can't update anything more meaningfully in the last week here, but I do plan on asking people to look over the environment and give me some feedback, did it feel good? Was it enjoyable? (do you think it was a waste of time?) not really. but I feel the observation of what came out of this work is also important in it's outcome.