Year 3-Week eight-10.12.21- Sick Day
Small edits and reworking
I've been working a lot on personal workflow and time management, being a GTA and a master's student there's a lot of things to juggle and I feel that sometimes students take priority over my research. as a result. I have stayed up more than a few nights catching up on my work. So this week I did something else entirely. I took a break and disconnected and thought about my own research. (but that stuffs fun)
The way Scott talks about the inspiration for his work I feel i need to lean on how the games I'm referencing do their narrative work. I see my writing as a growth area in terms of interactive storytelling. It's why I'm so intrigued by level design. how can I lead a player? how can I make sure they don't get lost in my story? or moreover, how can I make them get lost on purpose. I need to see how other games do that perhaps this week.
Scott and I had also talked about wayfinding in my outline and applying visual stamps as to what happens where. this is a blurry representation of what that is. (which I plan to recreate in Illustrator sorry scott) of that line.
and surprisingly I did find something I was excited about. the navigation sections "look fun" which to me means *filled with 3D modeling work* over time I've grown to love modeling 3D backgrounds. I just haven't had time to render out anything like a whole level or city yet. and I'm anxious to try.
Fast and messy
last map I made I got a bit lost in the reeds, (weeds?) as to how it should look for wayfinding, where the was character going and how did she get there? were there opportunities to diverge from her path? so in this case I made something more slapdash 3dimensional. bare bones to see what I needed. paper maps are fun but I knew I'd get a bit too lost in making it look nice so this is the best case right now.
what do I see here? I see a long like from point A to B to C with very little diversion. and in all honesty, I do like games even linear ones to give players a sense of exploration. perhaps that's one strength I see already. can I give players an opportunity to meander in a game set on the premise of "you have so many hours to save your loved one." should I punish the explorer, knowing full well I'm that style of player?
also, is punish too hard a word? perhaps reward but with a negative integer? not everything we read about a character needs to be flattering. not everything about a character should be. Orpheus was a dork.
Are the choices we make in a game what make the experience ours?
Over the last two weeks, I was wrapping my mind around this concept.
"A game is a book" is a game is a book. a game is a book. in this process, I thought on the idea of the advent of printed media and the social construct of corruption through technology. before violent games, there were violent movies, before violent movies, murder novels. before that shock stories in newspapers. in each of these instances, people were upset that this. YES, this will be the downfall of society. My own personal issues with that aside. I do see it for what it is. an observation of what we see the predominant medium of narrative to be. it's new, to the Luddite new is scary. but I'm not going to talk about them because they're boring.
Stories find their way into our homes in a variety of ways, shapes, and forms. And for some reason, they are always devalued because they aren't like the medium that came before. I've struggled with the idea of how to marry the concept of narrative and game together. because they felt disparate. and while I no longer have that issue I struggle with putting into words that games are just more easily accessible stories. what's wrong with making stories accessible? I would think to myself listening to podcasts about the arguments as to whether or not games are art. they are by the way. The only problem is you can launder money with it as easily so its place in the fine art world is moot. but that aside I cant help but to think.
games are books but the pages are way more fun to turn.