Advisement Meeting
This advisement meeting was actually pretty surprising. Through the course of the 1-hour meeting I had with Maria, Peter, and Scott I was informed that I did not need to develop a project as I had initially envisioned. 2 versions of a self-contained story, one whose narrative was liner and embedded, and the other the same exact story but emergent. However, thought the course of the work in master I had been developing games the entire time. applying the same techniques and elements to said projects.
a new idea was floated my way that seemed appealing. rather than a full game, I'd refine my scope a bit more and produce a vertical slice of it. one room. "you could spend months on a levels design, with the amount of back and forth it goes through in production," Scott said. and while I don't have a month I do have a heck of a lot of enthusiasm for the practice.
my thesis project would shift from developing a project document showing that I have developed mastery in the process of level design. with the same thesis question, I had when proposing my project. What effect does narrative delivery have on the footprint of a level?
here we have the level design of the game I had envisioned a 2 story home. the narrative which is scripted to have 8 scenes, displays the story of someone trying to understand and empathize with a person they never met.
It's a story inspired by Gone Home. You lay a character who was asked to come to pick up the belongings of a relative who you remember from when you were a baby but nothing else. over the course of the game, your character tried desperately to find some connection to this estranged relative.
you spend time ruminating on the person they were and who they could have been if they were in your life. The project is meant to look at the idea of how one mourns someone they never met someone they theoretically should love.
Production notes
Taking my time this week
While this week should have made me feel the pressure of delivery like everything should have been done out of an anxious need, I find myself content. I agree with my committee I know what I want to talk about I just need to devote it to text. but I have decided to write out a timeline in accordance with the deadlines set by the school.
taken from https://gradsch.osu.edu/calendar/graduation
I've set up a timeline in accordance with this timeline set by OSU's grad program
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NwhYaF-s7sQzYVWIHqL6VLQ2NLQObDuEETjoS-RRA4U/edit?usp=sharing
and here's the first pass at my schedule. actually seeing how much time I have left to work is a little invigorating. I have worked for this I know what I'm talking about and I'm just excited to share the process as well as the evaluation of the work.
Thesis Writing
I have been advised to reach out to the writing center as well as my peers to look over my work, and that's really where I've gotten. I still have a lot of organization to get done, but as it stands I think I'm in a good place.