Tag: Retrospective

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IGO720 - Module 4

Narrative Design

Week 4.1 – 18th February. 2022

This week we explore narrative design, and look more closely at how we can implicate stories into our games, and the methods used to do so.

This is one of the key areas that we have already discussed whilst creating our Game Design Documents, especially for the “player fantasy” part of the document.

We are discussing this topic now, quite early on in our development processes, as narrative plays a huge role, in every part of a game – from game mechanics to the beginning of the character design.

By the end of this week, we will be able to:

  1. Evaluate the potential of different genres of story to support gameplay.
  2. Plan the use of storytelling methods, such as cut-scenes, dialogue and environmental storytelling.
  3. Create characters in response to archetypes and gameplay roles.
  4. Reflect on the implications of nonlinearity and interactivity for storytelling.

Personal approach to narrative

As mentioned earlier in my blog, being a new children’s book author and illustrator, story telling for me, is all about sharing my imagination with everyone, in a way that the story comes to life and takes children and adults on a fun filled adventure, rhyming throughout.

My key focus is probably the same as many other writers, and illustrators, allowing the reader to be fully immersed in a different world, allowing the reader to be that character and embody the journey.

Story Telling Strategies…

Iain Lobb explores the key issues for narrative designers, such as; plot, character, structure and interactivity, and looks at the storytelling strategies used by a range of indie games.

One of the methods I would like to focus on, and look at in more detail includes; “environmental story-telling“, by allowing the player to read the situation, of the atmosphere, using sound effects, background noises, and visual signs.

Ideally I really want to focus on the element of “show, don’t tell!”As this is something that I understand a lot of gamers to enjoy.

One of the first parts of the game, is to introduce a simple but effective, opening cutscene animation of the main character, to give you some history of where you going and why.

Choosing my Theme…

The 4 tips Fan highlighted in his GDC talk , was;

  • 1 . Is your themes something your into?
  • 2. Does your theme support the game mechanics?
  • 3. Does your theme communicate the goal?
  • 4. Does your theme have both familiarity and Novelty?

I would like to say, that my answers from the above points, are; 1) yes they are, 2) yes they do, 3) yes it does, and finally, 4) yes I hope so.

I always aim to create something a little bit different, not to just make it stand out…but to try and capture different emotions, and keep you engaged at all times, in a different world.

One of the ways I am hoping to so, is by physically acting it out first, then, laying out a story board, then putting it into action, and test out with the game prototype, created in Unreal’s Engine 4.

Extra Credits

In the YouTube short lecture, by a team called Extra Credits, they discuss ways to help you, “Shape a Game Design“. One of the most important parts of you game design is to thoroughly understand the fantasy.

They quote;

Allow the players to “Live the Fantasy”

(Extra Credits. 2016)
)

So the next question to look at is, “how” I intend to do this?

Retrospective of 4 weeks progress

Below a few points to analyse how I am progressing, problems and how to move forwards.

  • 1) What I have done well? Made a 3D character in Maya, tested out animations in Mixamo, for see-through areas, all parts of the body move correctly, and nothing sticks out. Blocked out a rough layout in Unreal Engine 4, added materials and lighting effects, to get a visual of how, and where things are placed, within the level. Wrote the narrative for the game, highlighting all areas/items that will be introduced, within this level. Plus coded the characters state machine, set up the animation blue print.
  • 2) What needs to be done? To set up the blend space, so that each movement transitions nicely into the next on. Add and create my own 3d assets, to set the atmosphere and art-style for my unique environment. Sound effects, to add to the characters movements so far, a title screen, and a UI design, plus the cutscene animation.
  • 3) What I am working on? Creating the blend space and linking all animations correctly, and testing how fun it is to play with what mechanics, I have so far introduced and getting feedback from others.

Week 4.2 – 22nd February. 2022

What is Embedded Narrative…

Embedded narrative is not only crafted by an Author – using cutscenes scripted events and usually has a back story. The linear style, means throughout the level, you are guided in the direction that the story means to start and finish. However this can sometimes be a little tedious, because it can become repetitive.

With this in mind, I am choosing to add elements of open world to my game, so as well as having a story, with events or actions to be accomplished in a certain way, you also have options to do other little side tasks, which just add to the story. Although if they are not under taken, it will not affect your progress from the original narrative path you are on.

Structure and Narrative progression mechanics

In Carstensdottir, Kleinman, and El-Nasr’s 2019 academic paper; “Player interaction in narrative games: structure and narrative progression mechanics”, they analyse all the methods, in which the player gets to interact with narrative in a video game.

This is the route I believe I am going down, especially knowing that Progression through Discovery refers to mechanics where the player must locate story content in order to progress the story.

They reveal that usually this particular method, is usually achieved with other game mechanics such as, exploration, and investigation, which is very similar to how I would like my linear game level to play out. They quote;

Interaction design of interactive narratives games has been largely unexplored in the literature, and we argue that considering and analyzing the design patterns used in successful commercial games is the first step towards understanding how designers can design effective narrative experiences for a variety of domains, such as education.

(Carstensdottir, Kleinman,El-Nasr 2019)
)

Considering what I have in mind for designing, for the final major project, later this year. The specific part. “understanding how designers can design effective narrative experiences“, is something I would like to explore further, and continue looking into how semiotics, are used through narrative in games, to help produce a much deeper meaning of interactivity.

Narrative Design Document

We are asked to create narrative design document as part of week 4’s activity. It must include the following;

  • Setting
  • Characters
  • Plot
  • Mood
  • Narrative
  • Structure
  • Storytelling Techniques
  • InteractivityTheme

The narrative document, is quite straight forward for me at this stage, as I do have a clear concept and know exactly what I want to do…the only thing that hinders my progress is being a beginner with coding.

As I have mentioned earlier, I need to constantly practice blue prints/ visual scripting, and so far using Unreal engine everything is in place. But I know it only takes one wrong node to connect up, and the characters actions may not be that, of what I have planned.

Bibliography

Lobb, I. 2022. “Approaches to Narrative in Games” [online] Available at: https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/251/pages/week-4-approaches-to-narrative-in-games?module_item_id=13034 [Accessed 18 February 2022]

Fan, G. 2013.“How to choose a theme for your game?” [online] Available at : https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/251/pages/week-4-choosing-a-theme?module_item_id=13035 [Accessed 18th February 2022]

Extra Credits. 2016. “Understanding the Fantasy – How to Shape a Game’s Design” – Extra Credits. [online] Available at : https://learn.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/251/pages/week-4-understanding-the-fantasy?module_item_id=13036 [Accessed 19 February 2022]

Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E. and El-Nasr, M.S. 2019. Player interaction in narrative games: structure and narrative progression mechanics.In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-9). Available at : https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3337722.3337730 [Accessed 22 February 2022]

Categories
GDD730 - Module 2

Industry Insight – Part 1

Week 9.1 – 23rd July. 2021

Work Experience

This Week commences with asking us to share our experience of “working in a team with specific industry insight“. I have never had the opportunity to work with a games company, but after everything I have been researching and putting into practice, this is something I am keen to start!

I have even began to experiment with Unity now, using my own art, and some of the props from Unity’s Playground.

I want to learn more about moving the character from a to b, practice increasing the distance that the character travels, with a variety of different moves. But in keeping with my method, Kanban, I am aiming to achieve one thing at a time.

Below is the first time, of putting a whole layout together myself. The only assets that were not my creation was the character, the wooden flooring and log flooring at the bottom of the mountain, the box down stage left, and the staff behind the character.

(Figure 1 : Norton 2021. trees/foliage/mountains/background – in Unity)

Development

I found when I first pieced this together, the result of the character moving from the wooden square, (downstage left) to moving up the hill, still didn’t work. However I wanted the staff to fall from the sky, and land in the bush, then a slight particle/magical stars effect would beam off, (highlighting the object, so you know, you need to collect the staff).

1st Problem

The staff landed straight, then flopped to one side and dropped down. I wanted to show it getting stuck in the bush, and lodged at an angle, and I wanted my little character to move towards the staff.

1st Solution

I changed where I placed the 2D collider, and this is how it now plays. I added the 2D capsule collider around the staff, plus made the character follow the target. The staff is now the target.

The below link works on browsers such as Safari, Google Chrome, and can be watched only on mobile phones. Hopefully you can view…

Don’t forget to press the right or left arrow..on your keyboard.

http://www.keepitburningthegame.com/Unity/debbs2/index.html

REALM

In the Article – Embedding Reflection and Learning into Agile Software Development, Babb, Hoda, and Norbjerg introduces a new method called; REALM (Reflective Agile Learning Model). It shows the results from other development practices, in India, New Zealand and USA. They show how we as practitioners could integrate reflective practice in agile software development, the benefits of the method, and ways we can adapt and evolve when applying it to a software team.

  • REALM uses reflective practice to develop micro habits for uncovering tacit knowledge among a software development team.

After researching Realm, I understand to be a way of putting a retrospective, and many other agile methods into action, to aid towards the teams growth and development. Also it reminds you, with all agile methods, its key to practice continuously, otherwise the process of producing the artefact becomes the only focus, and reflection is easily forgotten about.

They specifically focus on “Tacit Knowledge“, and find ways to express what is difficult to others to understand such as; personal experiences, insights, and intuition.

Reflection-on-action is the “after-action report” on how repertoire has changed. It’s during reflection-on-action that teams attempt to answer questions regarding what to keep, discard, and modify in repertoire.

(Babb, Hoda, and Norbjerg. 2014)
.

Agile Methodology – Kanban

Since starting the Masters in January, once we researched into retrospectives, and agile methodologies, I chose to stick with Kanban.

I have tried to apply the way of thinking throughout my blog, and more so throughout any research and new processes I have learned.

I find retrospectives to be a positive step forwards in any project that I have completed so far, and find it rewarding knowing what you have worked on with the team is being discussed. It either works, has to be removed, or be adjusted, but either way the fact that your teams work is being talked about, makes you feel like, what you are doing as that individual is important, and is significant to the final artefact.

“Good Crunch“

The article The cruel optimism of “good crunch”: How game industry discourses perpetuate unsustainable labor practices is specifically based on Game Developer magazine and Game Developers Conference presentations. It discusses the good and bad crunches that happen through the development of a game, explains what a crunch is, and advises you about careers in game development.

Crunch is a term used to describe periods of extreme workload

(Edholm et al. 2017)
.

Their overall goal was to understand how crunch continued, despite growing attention to its costs, assessing the themes of bad crunch and its potential outcomes, before discussing good crunch as a form of cruel optimism.

  • Their research aims to encourage developers to aim for a more sustainable and progressive labor practice.

“we found that developers were very aware of the costs of crunch, sharing frequent horror stories of lost weekends, destroyed relationships, and even physical health issues arising from overwork.”

(Cote and Harris. 2021)
.

The above quote I can relate to now in our current team, yet we are not working for a company, but for our new project, we needed to produce an artefact within a team, and at the start of this module I did begin to push myself so much through the week and work over the weekends too.

However, I did start to feel unwell and loose my energy for studying. Everything became more of a chore, and I was so stressed that I couldn’t concentrate. Rather than enjoying myself learning new and exciting things, such as; creating a brand new game concept, and how to develop a new artefact for the end product and learn about Pitch Presentations, I was just worrying and progress felt like it was “grinding to a halt“.

I had to take a step back…explain to the leader, then she was gone. (details on week 3)

Though, after this episode, the rest of the team have worked consistently on their own, collaborating continuously together, and bonded as the weeks have passed by. We are now comfortable to say our opinions and reservations out loud, we don’t get offended if it’s not what we want to hear, we accept and move forward in a positive light.

Week 9.2 – 27th July. 2021

Spry Fox – ‘Innovate in your Pants’

From watching the Spry Fox’s video; ‘Innovate in your Pants’ the programmer Andrew Fray, reveals, what it is like to be part of a team, who produces innovative new and exciting games, but with the whole team being completely remote.

He shares his knowledge about creating new artefacts, whilst being in a distributed team, and states that not only is it practical, but it can be rather rewarding.

Games produced by Spryfox…

  • Triple Town, a freemium strategy puzzle game with city-building game elements for social networks and mobile devices
  • Steambirds, a strategy flying game for mobile devices
  • Road Not Taken, a rogue-like puzzle game
  • Realm of the Mad God, co-created with Wild Shadow Studios.

Team Comparison – to Spryfox

From my experience so far throughout the co-creative design and development practice module, I can definitely relate to the way the company operates. Firstly by;

  • Working within a distributed team.
  • Using Google Documents to collaborate (but lots more then 2 pages)
  • Using Trello as a way to keep track of what people have done, needs to do, or is working on.

One of the questions we are asked to think about is; “what principles can you apply to your own day-to-day operations?”

For me, the most important principles to apply to the teamwork module are;

1) Communication, as this would greatly improve if, we made more time to video chat often, to build on our relationships.

This is what we have put into practice from one point of view: the team meetings, every Wednesday at 12midday. We usually end up staying past the hour, and chatting about anything else that we could improve in the game.

But on the other hand what Fray means is simply by socialising with each other, which we don’t do, due to our timezone differences and work life responsibility’s.

2) Less paper work, only having a couple of pages each, I feel is definitely enough to show your concept clearly, and is easier to simplify.

We started with so many documents, it made everything complex and I personally didn’t think we needed it at all. Finally after week 4, we narrowed things down, and clarified what was actually helping us, and I simplified the Trello board, and the other team members worked on the remainder documents.

This is what helped us to bond better, because we were finally all on the same page. From this action we have improved with everything we have made so far towards the prototype, and are really pleased with what we have finally achieved.

Week 9.3 – 28th July. 2021

Hi9 & Business Start-Up

Wo king shares his industry experience for tech start ups, he explains that for him sharing the workload is crucial to the teams development to move forward.

They aim to create technology thats easy for everyone of all ages, the user experience/ research is his primary focus.

He states, that it’s important to learn machine learning, on data and algorithms, it helps you to understand how humans learn, and from this we can improve the technology we produce.

“Learn machine learning even if you are not good at maths or good at coding.”

(King. 2021)
.

Challenge – Keep Up the Good Work

The list below, shows a few points, how I will avoid crunch by;

  1. Not working over the minimum time if possible, that I stated on the team charter. (not to burn the candle at both ends)
  2. Making sure I have clear notes on what I need to discuss with our supervisor and group webinars, over the next few weeks, to be able to get a clear response.
  3. To continue to do my own research with Unity, in order to understand more about the engine, and not ask.
  4. To Catch up with my blog, create less stress for myself.

Below is our plan for the end of the module.

References

Babb, J., Hoda, R. and Norbjerg, J. 2014. Embedding Reflection and Learning into Agile Software Development. IEEE Software, 31(4), pp.51-57.

Cote, A. C. and Harris, B. C. (2021). The cruel optimism of “good crunch”: How game industry discourses perpetuate unsustainable labor practices. New Media & Society, p.146. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14614448211014213

Edholm, H., Lidström, M., Steghöfer, J. P. and Burden, H. 2017. Crunch time: The reasons and effects of unpaid overtime in the games industry. In 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track (ICSE-SEIP), pp. 43-52. IEEE.

Edery, D and Cook, D. 2010. Spry Fox; Innovating In Your Pants – Part 1 Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/913/pages/week-9-spry-fox-innovate-in-your-pants?module_item_id=54740 [Accessed 23/07/2021]

King, W. 2021. Hi9 & Business Start-Up. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/913/pages/week-9-hi9-and-business-start-up?module_item_id=54742 [Accessed 27/07/2021]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1 : Norton 2021. trees/foliage/mountains/background – added to Unity Playground

Categories
GDD730 - Module 2

Practice Pitch Week!

Week 6.1 – 2nd July. 2021

Research – And Now the Hard Part…

To begin this week, I have found a really good chapter in; Scott Rogers book Level up – A Guide to Great Video Game Design. He lists all the key objectives, that need to be seen or mentioned throughout a pitch presentation.

Rogers states the importance of making each part of the pitch a) easy to read, b) to show a few words at a time, c) show more pictures, d) make sure you have a variety of images, and to keep your audience engaged!.

Key areas to include below;

  • Title screen with Logo
  • Company Profile
  • High Concept
  • Who your game is for?
  • Why everyone should care about your game?
  • What your game is about?
  • How your game will be awesome/ What makes it different?

He advises to only show some of your best pieces that will make your game stand out from the rest, and not to show more then necessary, as it could overwhelm your audience you are presenting too.

“A pitch is a streamlined, easily digestible version of your game design document. It contains everything that’s great and original about your game with out all the “twiddle bits”.

(Rogers 2014 : 451)

The Art of Game Design

In comparison to Jesse Schell’s book; The Art of Game Design, discusses the 12 pitch tips, however the only tips that I need to apply are; showing passion for the game, understand from their point of view, be aware of all details, and to be confident.

I always think confidence can sometimes make you sound like a “know it all”, but in this instance, Schell explains by believing in yourself, you are showing that you believe in your game, and your team.

“Being confident means you are sure your game will be perfect for the client and that your team is the perfect team to pull it off.”

(Schell 2013 :528)

This now leads me to discuss our performance, with the practice pitch.

Week 6.2 – 7th July. 2021

Pitch practice in action!

This slide needs to be worked on – more detail to be added about the game references we are using. We cannot assume the audience knows our references already. We need to highlight what particular element that inspired us from that game.

(Figure 1 : Land 2021 Game References)

This slide was never added, but after the feed back from the judges, I think we need to add it in here, straight after the concept slide, with a Mood board to show the colours we were going to be using.

I think it helps to clarify to the audience what the stages are, and helps to make the level seem more engaging. They will have an idea of the end goal for the first level.

(Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Game Map)

How the player moves, what actions they do and how to control them needs to be shown. (following with another slide)

(Figure 3 : Larkin 2021 Mechanics)

Retrospective of the journey so far…

Their are three main areas, that are considered throughout the retrospective; 

What should be started?

  • 1) A coloured mood board.
  • 2) Adding the isometric map into pitch deck, visually show where the player starts and finishes.
  • 3) A short storyboard to introduce the characters, background and game name.

What should be stopped?

  • 1) Burning the candle at both ends.

What should be continued?

  • 1) Using the 10 Pitch slides.
  • 2) Developing the game demo.

Retrospective is key to reflect on what happened, any iterative processes put in place which didn’t work, analyse why and devise a plan to avoid it happening next time around. But keep simple.

As Schell would say:

Your pitch should be accessible, have surprises, have a good interest curve

(a hook, a build, tense and release, a climax), etc. It should have a good aesthetic design, favoring images over words whenever possible.

Your pitch should be elegant, focusing primarily on what is unique about your game, why it will succeed against the competition, and why it is a good fit for the person you are pitching it to.

(Schell 2013 : 477)

Further Research – Pitch Retrospective -Gigaom

I have delved a little deeper into pitch retrospectives from a judges point of view, and have found this tweet, that is a really great point.

My first experience for the practice pitch, and my after thoughts were completely on track with this quote below. I started to feel like we were trying to make the game more complex than need be.

I feel its good to show why you should play the game, what the characters do, what the rewards are, to keep you glued to the screen, but I don’t think we need to add anything else.

“The trick, therefore, is to present something simple: while this may only be a subset of what you do, it may be enough to move you forward. The more complicated it is, the less of a pitch it becomes.”

(Gigaom 2018)

References

ROGERS, Scott. 2014. Level Up ; The Guide To Great Video Game Design. 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SCHELL, Jesse. 2020. The Art of Game Design ; Book of Lenses. 3rd edn. Tailor & Francis Group

Gigaom: When is a startup pitch not a pitch? Retrospective thoughts on TechPitch 4.5. 2018. Available at : https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/gigaom-when-is-startup-pitch-not-retrospective/docview/2027693963/se-2?accountid=15894 [Accessed 07/07/21] Chatham: Newstex.

Full list of Figures

Figure 1 : Land 2021 Game References

Figure 2 : Norton 2021 Game Map

Figure 3 : Larkin 2021 Mechanics