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Reading Week - Prototyping

I used reading week to fully form my prototypes from my research (reading week = no lectures). I started with a basic paper prototype for the town idea, made a short animation for the sailing idea, then I used twine to form a narrative prototype for the inked ladies idea.

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Town Idea - the player is sent on a rite of passage to discover their purpose in life. The town elder sends them to 8 outposts from the village, each with a different test to conquer. The map tracks the player's movements between each outpost which forms the shape of the final tattoo and the colour of the tattoo changes depending on the player's success in each task. This idea is almost like a pre-amble to a bigger game, as it takes on a lot of qualities from a personality test (e.g. it could act as a character customisation level in itself).

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Using paper and string, I drew various outposts into a map and pierced the string through the paper in different combinations to show the different tattoo shapes the player could get (each playthrough would be different so the game re-playability is high).

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Boat Idea - the player is on a journey to revive daylight when millions of years ago the tide washed it away. The player must sail between ports using the stars to guide them and these constellations act as tattoos that are mapped onto the main character's skin. To prototype how the player would find these constellations I made 4 patterns split up into 4 designs. The player would have to find various patterns in the telescope viewfinder on their boat and match them up with each other. Below is a video of this prototype in use (made using Procreate);

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Inked Ladies - the player acts as a costume designer for an inked ladies circus show in town for one week. Across the week the player must gain their trust and learn about their stories from their tattoos. Below is a screenshot of a short narrative twine sample of how these conversations would start at the beginning of the game;

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Later in the week we had individual formative feedback sessions with our lecturer. I still didn't have a direction that I strongly wanted to pursue with my ideas but I talked the most about the boat concept. Despite not having a fully formed idea I knew that I wanted to make hand-sculpted/modelled props and characters to ground my work into traditional methods. We discussed photogrammetry and similar games which have used this design approach and I was told to research the process. Despite the process being a lot of hard work, I feel much more engaged with the idea knowing I can use traditional crafting methods with the university supporting the idea. This means the game I will propose to make would be vastly different in design to what many have done before, especially considering where the current games market is at (there are very few hand-crafted games).

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Suggested research from my formative feedback session:

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Harold Halibut - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slowbros/harold-halibut-a-handmade-adventure-game/posts/1948010

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Harold Halibut is a handmade adventure game about life on an spaceship stuck under the sea. Unfortunately their Kickstarter project didn't get fully funded, however the work they have produced and condensed into the trailer is incredibly creative. It's another example of using physically sculpted models to scan in and re-create in a 3D environment to give the games visuals a distinctive charm and unforgettable style. If I'm able to fully sculpt the project and create a handmade game myself I will be looking to return to this video to further understand some of the processes and materials the developers use. 

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David O'Reilly -

https://davidoreilly.itch.io/external-world-characters

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https://davidoreilly.itch.io/everything-library-animals

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https://davidoreilly.itch.io/everything-library-buildings

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David O'Reilly produced a short film called 'The External World' and has listed hundreds of assets on itch.io from this film for free. The simple style of the assets means they can be manipulated for a variety of uses in game. Depending on the scope and assets needed for the project I will certainly be looking into using assets and rigs wherever possible to cut down on work time and focus on the core gameplay elements.

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Chadwick Model Railway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwFXDVA0n6A&ab_channel=ChadwickModelRailway

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It was also recommended that I start to look at videos like the one above to refine my modelling skills. As much as I love a creative challenge I have never sculpted before, so I'm keen to get as much experience as I can before completing the assets in my game, to give the visuals the most polished finish. 

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