Daily To-Do and Reflection
Phase 3
18/11/19
Refer to notes in [Sketchbook 1, Pages 9-11]. Figuring out which 3 ideas we want to pursue. Asking some questions to prompt research and work. Creating a To-Do list for each member of the team for the Portage Experience idea. Creating mood boards for the team to use for; environment, level structure, colours, objects and shapes. An idea to include playing the harmonica was born, from a fact, Adam and Alex found while researching, that voyageurs would smoke a pipe every hour and measure distance in this way. We liked this but didn't think using smoking in-game would be suitable, so replaced it with something more pleasant for everyone to observe.
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19/11/19
Designing an Uphill Algorithm with the team for the Portage idea. [See Sketchbook 1, page 13] Finding melodies to use and the number of notes that make up that melody. Also collating sound effects to use for sound designing from the Sonniss GDC package.
To Do:
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Create folders of groups of sound effects referring to particular sounds, e.g. nature/ambience, movement, objects in motion.
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Map out one of the melodies, which notes need to be played where.
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Finish mood boards
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20/11/19
A quote by Albert Einstien that need validating but rang a bell that felt relatable to the experience we wish the portage game to include "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us the Universe. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest. Our task must be to free ourselves from this by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." Found while researching through documentaries on the Boreal, searching for unique facts or interesting snip bits that could be used as interactions in the game.
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21/11/19
Today, James helped us out with the prototyping for the Harmonica interaction idea we had come up with, building an uphill algorithm to make it appear as though the character is learning to play. Each attempt, I wanted the progress of learning to sound as humanly natural as possible. So the complexity of the notes being played starts off simple, and has the algorithm gets a greater success, more harmony notes are played and learned. Because of how James has scripted the prototype and to better understand the music being played, I need to take those melody tabs I found and convert them into music scores. As a team, we have agreed upon what the anti-game idea should be and have generated tasks to begin on ideation for the FoodWeb game idea. To do found on Trello.
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22/11/19
The decision to focus on Portage idea for our project. To Do:
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Research into sounds towards personal, environmental and mindful to back up the sound design for the project.
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Create a sound library folder with sounds from the Sonniss GDC Audio Bundle.
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Come up with a large variety of possible interacts to have in-game.
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25/11/19
Collected all relative sounds from GDC 2018 pack, I need to download all the others possible. Including 2019, 2017, and 2016, 2015 which I need to contact Sonniss for. As a group, we created a board full of interaction idea points. I'll go away to develop these ideas as much as possible.
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26/11/19
We talked as a team about the art style and have come to an agreement that the colour palette and aesthetic of the project is most important. How we recreate that we will have to develop tests of different art style. Each to go away to create a looping animation scene in a different art style to test the pipeline and how effective that style looks.
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I'm creating a scene with vector art.
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03/12/19
Define the core experience and gameplay for the game with Alex. This will produce a rounded understanding of what we need to design and make first. Other interactions can be added to this to enrich the experience.
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05/12/19
With the core features listed, I now need to flesh out the list into a better description like the Canoe/Water interactions completed today. To Do:
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Version 1 Flowchart
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Camping
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Harmonica
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Stamina
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Resting
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Dog Interactions
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Portage
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06/12/19
Working on the flowchart for Version 1.0. As I go along, I'm recording animations and sound effects that will be required. This will help with the development process. Hopefully, this can also provide the team with a guideline to schedule this project.
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10/12/19
Today we lost a team member, Adam, due to a loss of feeling of involvement and interest in the role research and marketing. He also was assigned the concept art role so I will take on the duty to create visuals in my own methods for the team.
I also feel I must learn more about the tangible aspects of our game.
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Become an expert on outdoor clothing
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Become an expert on the forest
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Become an expert on canoeing
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07/01/20
I'm writing up the USP for the Voyageur and researching other game with similarities to our goals for the completed product. The USP should highlight the key features of our game that makes it stand out from other games, explain who it is intended for and why it is better than the others.
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08/01/20
Bouncing off the USP, I've looked into the type of person that would most likely pick up our game and play. Using a User Persona Profile template, I used what I had learned from the USP to define the interests and goals for the types of people that we would target the marketing towards. This has helped me even further understand the type of game we are making. Giving me the confidence to design the correct experience.
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As I'm interested in the sound design for the game, I'm creating a storyboard animation that I will create sound effects to be played over. Much like in animated film special features, where you can watch the sketched storyboard still images with the movie's sounds and voice work played over the top.
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09/01/20
Finishing the stills for the animation, I must begin to process them to be used in editing software and pre the sounds I'd like to use. I should focus on the ambience and try to set the mood through these sounds. ​Because the editing software is on my PC, I'll do this while out of uni. In uni, I'll continue to work with Jamie and Alex on collating our information into the research proposal document.
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13/01/20
To complete the GPP, I need to develop the target audience into something with a deeper understanding than just the User Persona Profile I've created. Although useful, it is too specific. I also need to reflect on what the art direction is for the game as we have yet to explain that. This is also to be included in the GPP and should explain the art style we are using, what inspiration we have for it and why it is being used.