Game Play Log 4

25/3/2016

Game Play Log 4

How does morality influence the choices you make in the game?

Wolf Among Us

I found the game ‘The Wolf Among Us’ enjoyable with a good story. The characters I found relatable and at times felt empathy with them. When playing the game I found that morality was imbued within the gameplay choice situations. Many of the choices given were either negative or positive. E.g. aggressive choice or passive choice. It was then depending on what you choose determines how the story would then progress. Your choice also determined how NPC’s would behave from there. e.g. the game gives little pop ups like ‘(character) will remember this’. 

The game also forces you to make moral choices quickly, which could result in either something good happening or something bad to happen. For example, when you have to choose between going to Toad’s or going to Prince Lawrence’s home. By choosing to go to Lawrence’s home in the game you have potentially saved him from death, but if you were to make the choice of going to Toad’s and then to Lawrence’s after, you would find the latter dead on the floor instead of sitting in the arm chair. 

Though you are playing the game with your own morality in mind you also have to consider the character you are playing as too. In the game world the character of Bigby is known for being aggressive and angered easily. As the player controlling Bigby you have to consider what he would do in the situation and how he would react to certain NPC prompts. In a way you end up ‘role palying’ Bigby and empathise with him. This influences the morality of the choices made because you aren’t just playing as yourself anymore, you are now playing as another character in a world that differs from yours.  

Telltale Games (Developer).(2013).Wolf Among Us [Video Game].United States:Telltale Games

Production Cinematic - Update

Weekly Update

Last week I went and recorded the dialogue for early sound with Jonathan, Mikayla and Jerwin. After Jonathan finished with the sound Mikayla and I tried syncing it up with the animatic. We found that the start went a bit fast which resulted in us cutting a few things out, but this helped us give more time for other shots. 

For the animatic I worked on roughing up the shots and where the actors would be situated with each shot. After yesterdays feedback session though, it was pointed out that the position of the butter should be situated better. Which I can agree to because at the end he his hidden away in the corner mostly which is not where you would want to position your main character. A few other shots should also be fixed up and the addition of the butter's expression would make the animatic stronger. 

Next week, according to the schedule we should be filming. The location where we would be filming would be in our apartment kitchen. For lighting Mikayla is going to try to get a few lights from her father while she's at home. 

I plan to edit the animatic and finish film prep hopefully in time for filming. 

Game Play Log 3

17/3/2016

Game Play Log 3

Do the choices you make in the game contribute to the sense of meaningful interactive moments?

Fahrenheit

In the game when you were choosing what to say it was too fast. The time for responses went by too quickly, making the player choose hastily. Through this you could really feel the fast paced ‘speed action’ of the game as it followed a somewhat ‘real time’ gameplay. Even though it is the type of game it was made to be the reaction time to certain dialogue choices were too quick paced,  which made for a stressing time as the player since you need to make lightning fast reactions to a supposed ‘real time’ game situation. 

The choices also lacked much in information as the only thing the player has to go by are in the form of short, singular word prompts. Not to mention the fast timer that pressures you into making a split second decision before fully realising the choice you made as the player. 

In my opinion I think in terms of the ‘sense of meaningful interactive moments’ depends a bit. At the start as you play as Lucas, once you get out free and away from the crime scene there is a sense of achievement and relief. Its because your actions have (if done right) made Lucas less actions resulting in the player being less anxious. This ‘sense’ makes it more meaningful as the player feels one with the character. Whereas during conversation sequences when selecting suitable dialogue to respond with has less of a meaningful interaction. With the use of short word prompts and quick fire timing the decisions are hastily chosen without much knowledge of what could happen as a result of what was said. I quote from the reading by Domsch, he said that “choice situations differ in the amount of information that is given about the consequences of the different options,” which makes sense in that if theres less information you can not judge precisely about the consequences of the choices you make.

Production Cinematic- Storyboard

Storyboard

Storyboard so far.

A few concerns with timing but that will be figured out during the animatic process.

Production Cinematic-Script Final

The Final Script

A few changes made to dialogue.

Production Cinematic-Progress

14/3/2016

Team Meeting

We went through character concepts to choose a final design for Butter. There are still some finalization to be done on the character. Key parts of what was wanted of Butter was discussed. Things such as his 2D facial expressions, body shape, clothing etc.

The script was changed once more. The changes we made were to some of the dialogue. 

Old Line:

"I'm bready for you"

New Line:

"I 'AM' the cream of the crop"

15/3/2016

Finishing up parts of the storyboard with Mikayla. I got started with setting up the animatic and getting it under way. Mikayla and I decided that it would work best if I draw the person and the butter and she works through roughing out backgrounds in the animatic so we have a fair share of work between us. 

Game Play Log 2

11/3/2016

Game Play Log 2

Did linear storytelling in your chosen game(s) engage and excite you as a player? Explain why or why not.

Prince Of Persia

The game itself I found boring and hard to engage with even though I was watching someone else play. It was a very narrative based game with a story that the player followed closely while playing. During the game after completing a certain action a cutscene appeared to lead the player to the next move but I found the combination of visual clues and the cutscenes drew the player away from discovering things for themselves. In other words most things were spelled out to the player and lacked a sense of ‘exploration’. At certain points in the game the player was required to follow certain prompts otherwise they couldn't proceed to the next stage. The controls were also annoying and uncomfortable, possibly because I often don't play computer games but I felt it would be more comfortable using a ps3 remote or something of the like. For the camera, the control seemed simple enough, just use the mouse to move/ control the camera but during the games it would move itself to weird angles that did not benefit the player and ultimately drew the player out of their immersion of the gameplay. 

The game itself I felt followed a very ludus structure. A ludus game, as defined by Marie-Laure Ryan “are strictly controlled by pre-existing rules accepted by the participants as a part of basic game construct.” I felt that this was definitely the type of game ‘Prince of Persia’ was. There were pre-existing rules that the player was to follow and was accepted by player in order to proceed through the game. 

In conclusion, the game ‘Prince of Persia’ did not excite me and was hard to engage with during gameplay because of control factors and a controlling linear narrative that lacked any creative pleasure to the player. 

Character Profile

Character Profile of Butter

Written up with Mikayla

Production Cinematic-script

Production Script

Production Cinematic - Production Schedule

4/3/2016

Production Schedule

Above: Draft Production Schedule

Below: New Final Production Schedule

Changes: Michelle C became the new director and Myself and Mikayla swapped a tasks. She will now be doing the title and credits and I will do the editing. 

Game Play Blog 1

3/3/2016

Game Play Log

How does your game tell it's story? Is it successful?

Never Alone

The game tells it story through narrations at the start of each chapter and sometimes in between game play when the player has reached a certain 'checkpoint'. Along side the narration at the start of each chapter it has an animated part of the story in the traditional Inuit art style playing with it. The visual story telling establishes the story, character and it's setting. The controls so how you control the characters give it a different feeling when you're playing. Its realistic movements like how the character jumps and runs add to the experience of the game. When the player finishes a certain ‘chapter’ they are offered an option to watch an ‘insight’ or to continue with the game. The insights provide more information about the games background. Showing the viewer more about the people, their culture and where they live;lifestyle from where the game is based. 
   

I think the game is successful to an extent. When you start the game you are given the story, so what is happening in the current time line of the game. You know, after a bit into the game that as the character Nuna and her arctic fox, you are initially going out to search for something during a blizzard, but then as you go back to the village there is a man there that stands among burning remains of a village. He then proceeds to chase after Nuna. At that point as the player you know you have to run away from him but afterwards it becomes a puzzle adventure game. It’s more the game is giving you one mini puzzle after another until you reach a certain point on the game. It feels like a slow reveal of what’s happening. 

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the game. I found the visuals created an extra depth in the game and made for a good experience and enjoyable. 

Production Cinematic- Script, Roles, Feedback

29/2/2016

Monday

After pitching our ideas to the group, it was decided via, systematical voting. The script we went with was Mikayla's idea; 'Butter Up'

The Animation would be a hybrid of 2D and 3D. The animation would be 3D modeled and animated with a 2D facial expressions.

Major Roles:

Me - Producer

Mikayla - Director

Jerwin - Head of 3D

It was a group decision that everyone would end up helping each other to get what is done, but Sound and 2D would be primarily Jonathan' s area. Michelle. C would be assistant 3D animator and Zack would be assistant 2D animator. We tried to separate the roles so as to fit with others strong points. 

We filled out a production schedule and have yet to run it by lecturers/supervisors.

3/3/2016

Thursday

Butteam Feedback

Butter Puns worked stronger and made sense whereas if the butter was making puns about everything it became confusing as to what was happening.

The pun "you can't churn me down" was a strong pun that worked well and was well liked.

Keeping it within the 30-40 second length is going to be a challenge and will require a bit of trimming in the script. Some scenes may need removing/shortening.

The design of the butter is crucial and will need a lot of thought in terms of design and how it would move since it is an anthropomorphic character. Looking at 'Howl's Moving Castle's Calcifer would give good inspiration/reference to the butter character. 

It was suggested that we get butter and 'play' with it to research the properties of butter, so how it 'acts', it's texture, basically figuring out its aesthetic.