This week we presented our deep dive research into our chosen ideas. Here is some of the feedback I received (using alphanodenogg.in)

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I received a lot more comprehensive feedback with this presentation. I was told that it was a little broad and I really needed to focus in on one of my points of interest so I think the feedback has really helped me define which idea I want to look into. I really appreciate how some people have noted games I can look into to see how they present concepts related to my research as well as a variety of different routes I could take my ideas when generating game prototypes. For example, as much as I don't particularly want to work with Augmented Reality (AR), I think its interesting that my ideas lend themselves to advanced technological ideas. 

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The next step for our projects is to make some rapid prototypes of different ideas for our game, ready to present the best 3 in a few weeks. I haven't thought of my idea in terms of gameplay yet so I'm excited to work on the next bit of the project. I don't have any strong ideas, but what I do know is that I would like to include the following:

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 - Compelling characters for the player to interact with

 - A very strong narrative / storytelling game

 - Tattoo-centred - not just about the imagery but really adding in a lot of features that represent the history and practise of the art

 - I want it to be a positive experience 

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I didn't have any ideas going into this week but when thinking of ideas, I tend to see the visuals before I know the concept or mechanics. This week I drew up the piece below to summarise some of the visuals that first came into my mind.

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Artwork by me, made using Procreate

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We also had the pleasure of speaking to Claudia Thomas this week about our game ideas. I didn't really have anything solid to discuss but I mentioned the bullet points above of what I wanted to achieve and she seemed to be interested in the different paths it could go. From our conversation I took away that I really need to focus in on what I love about the tattoo culture topic and find a way of making that into quite a personal experience. Our lecturer suggested that I find a personal story to hook my game idea to so that it had a personal narrative to follow as well as being factually correct as I have no experiences in these tattoo cultures myself. 

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After this talk I noted down some bullet points of potential ideas. It was recommended that we choose one idea to focus on and produce three concepts from this one idea, however I have jotted down ideas for each concept and I would like to keep them all quite different so that there is plenty of material to work from before deciding which idea to take forward. Below are the bullet points:

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Technology: beacons across town, various outposts around the town, tests for the player to engage with, similar to the puzzles in the shrines of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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(Polygon, 2017) 

 

Sailor tattoo culture: Boat sim - purely going to the right of the screen, navigating seas, something to do with messages in bottles?

Inked Ladies - some sort of narrative story? Joining the circus?

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I haven't fully formed any sorts of ideas yet but I feel like the one I am leaning towards is the idea of some sort of town and a rites of passage narrative, in which the player must go and complete tests of personality (e.g. strength, courage, etc.) to then form the tattoo that their character is destined to get. I think the drawing I made above represents the town elder who leads the player on this journey. I also thought that the path the player would take to complete these tasks could occur in any order and so the map would track the players movements and be reflected in the final tattoo, therefore giving the game a personalised, replayable quality. 

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References

D. Tach, Polygon (2017). Zelda Breath of the Wild guide, Everything you need to know about shrines. (Online) Available at: https://www.polygon.com/breath-of-the-wild-guide-walkthrough/2017/3/3/14800778/shrines-locations-spirit-stone-weapon-loot-treasure-chest (Accessed 28th December 2020)