Creative Studios

-Bedroom (living quarters)

-Lounge

-Dining room

-Greenhouse

-Kitchen

-Basement

-Stairs

-Bathroom

-Closet

-Secret Pathway

-Hallway

-Laundry Room

-Theater

-Storage Room

-Attic

This is the base Layout. The scaling is 1unit = 1m. This is a 50 by 50 area. This is not final. Ill slowly take out and add extra places later.

To get walls in place I put the floor in center position. (0,0,0). Get the wall and do the following to the location.

So the size of the map is divided into 4 sections ideally the same (X by Y). Each section you play in and are transported in between. Looking at house sizes I think im looking more at mansion sizes now. Something big enough for you to explore and get “lost” in, making it harder to recognize your surroundings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWMMspGe8cw

This is a nice size to “lose” yourself in.

Looking at Youtube videos of current horror games. **spoilers for some of the games

Outlast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrGa54rpvF4

What I took from Outlast is that the game is very sequenced. There is a pathway to completing the game. While it feels like it gives you freedom of control there are actually cut scenes which indicate “progression”. (not always the case). What I do like which I had thought to adapt was the use of features. e.g. using the camera for night vision. I also dont like the in your face monster that chases you. I want something that is more subtle and psychologically unnerving.

Human:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQYTcPa3dLU

This is one of the best horror games I have seen in a while. It doesnt use monsters or the idea of being chased. It uses suspense and sound to scare the player. Everything is pretty well planned out. I really like the ambient sound of movement around you but not actually seeing anything. I found the sound is key in this game. Something I want to take note of.

Anatomy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQml17VP38

This is another game which relies on sound. But this is the first game I have come across which has a significantly reduced field of vision. Something I am going to note. This game in particular I found is very effective in terms of psychological horror. With the limited field of vision things disappear and move around when triggered which you have no way of seeing. The speaking of the cassette player sent chills down my body which I thought was perfect. I also like the idea of tricking the player. e.g the game “crashes” so you drop your guard reopening it then realizing that everything is different from before.

Haunted Cities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAG2QX-Fn4g

With this Horror game I want to treat this like I would my past university projects. Maybe not as full on but id like to do all the background stuff before getting straight into the creation side of things. In my head I already have an idea of what kind of aesthetic im going for but I need to find visualizations of that as well as look into level design.

ideally my plan for this game is to do the following:

-Research into level design and aesthetic

-Gray box my map

-Go back to the research phase and adjust the gray boxing according to any new inspirations

-Continue to add character features

Using the Sphinx plugin for unreal engine I have utilized voice command into my project. This will get users more involved and immersed into the project. Using voice command also gives the user a new way of interacting with the virtual world. Voice command has been done before and Im finding it very interesting how it gives the player more “control” over their character.

New updated website is live, still adding content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHCfcSON7h8 - head rot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srS3_Su77K4 - body rot

Shaydn Estreich – Conceptual - 1323729

Ecila is a project created through the collaboration of game designers and the story of Alice in Wonderland. ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016)Through Alice in Wonderland we grew many inspirations that affected our outcome. These come in the form of ideas/themes, characters and events that transpired throughout Alice. Our goal in the object performance paper was to create a game which was fun and engaging while still fitting the object performance brief of objects performing.

Ideas:

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,”-Alice “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” … “You must be,” “or you wouldn’t have come here”- Cheshire Cat ("Alice in Wonderland quotes - Alice-in-Wonderland.net", 2016)

The main idea which we tried to portray was the idea of “isolation and loneliness”, something Alice initially faces when she first appears in Wonderland. In our game you are “lost” in a strange place where you don’t know what is going on. With the idea of a, somewhat modern take on Alice in Wonderland we thought it would be good to reference the children of our generation. This lead to discovery of excessive use of technology within the younger generation and the addictive tendencies it brings.  (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008). The relationship between our young generation and technology is a common motif in our game. Each action relates back to technology which we can argue is the representation of the information age. ("What is Information Era | IGI Global", 2016).

Isolation came from the trapped feeling Alice begins to feel as she struggles to escape wonderland. Enclosed in walls users try to break out and become “free”. This is also a metaphor representing our generation. The first section is your safe haven, inside the walls you put up between yourself and others. As you play the game and slowly proceed through the sections you also fight to change and break out of your shell to reveal your true self as someone strong and willful.

Characters:

“you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad” – Chesire Cat (Carroll, 2016)

Cheshire Cat: The Cheshire Cat aside from Alice had the most influence in our game out of the characters in Alice in Wonderland. We really liked the way the Cheshire Cat viewed the world, and gave new perspectives of things we would think is common sense. We took in this different perception and implemented this into our riddles and clues. Cheshire cat also talks in riddle, a fitting representation of one of our main mechanics which is based around riddles.

“'So here's a question for you. How old did you say you were?'

Alice made a short calculation, and said 'Seven years and six months.'”

'Wrong!' Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. 'You never said a word like it!'” – Humpty Dumpty to Alice (Carroll, 2016)

 Humpty Dumpty: Is the character which represents our second section and parts of our third section. He is the character which is based off the old nursery rhyme where he falls off a wall and splits into pieces. Our idea was that players would go and collect pieces (not of Humpty) and that would be a mechanic which would engage players and expose them to challenges.

“Mad Hatter, why is a raven like a writing-desk?” “Have you guessed the riddle yet?” “No, I give it up, what's the answer?” “ I haven't the slightest idea.” – Mad Hatter to Alice (Carroll, 2016)

 Mad Hatter: He is the representation of the third section and also the source of the “craziness” in our game. Everything seems random but links together to add to the bigger picture which is what we are going for.

 Events:

A key event which we referenced and drew inspiration from was when Alice ate a piece of mushroom and switched between growing and shrinking. This was a simple mechanic to implement into our game and gave a nice change in pace in how the game was played. The idea was to reference the quote the Caterpillar told Alice. By bringing the mechanic to the player’s controller, it brings a whole new dynamic to our game.

“'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.” – Caterpillar  (Carroll, 2016)

 The goal of the game is a representation of the first Alice in Wonderland book in a whole. Basically it is to get “home”, while going through a journey. We start you off in a “safe zone” and then expose you to the modern setting which is a city. This is the same as how Alice falls down the rabbit hole (which we have metaphorically (elevator)) and is exposed to Alice in Wonderland making her wonder how to get home.

 Performing Objects:

 To get objects performing in our game was quite difficult. The reason being was that we were over thinking a lot about how objects should perform looking more in a theatrical direction. Once we started to interpret the brief in an advantageous way our true creativity came was shown. In the format of performing objects we have; door explosion, dynamic model sizes, sequences and more. We really wanted to incorporate our interpretation of objects performing while keeping to our theme of Ecila. This required reasoning on my end due to my nature of logical thinking. Although one embraced I managed to make the moving objects look even better with particle effects and blueprint scripting. What I found helped a lot was when our lecturer showed off animated performances of the 1933 Betty Boop in Blunderland ("Betty Boop-1933-Betty in Blunderland", 2016). It displayed a nice mix of story with performance, all the characters moved in a “funky” type of way and grew inspiration from this when detailing some of the objects in our project.

 Conclusion:

 Our project Ecila is the embodiment of how we interpreted Alice in a modern like setting. User’s problem solving ability and just pure hand co-ordination is tested. This is our answer to the brief of Object Performance while still achieving what we initially wished to do. Conceptually Ecila is rich in inspiration from not just Alice but also the younger generation of our real world.

 References:

-          Alice | Sabian Assembly. (2016). Sabian.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://sabian.org/sabian_alice.php

-          Alice in Wonderland quotes - Alice-in-Wonderland.net. (2016). Alice-in-Wonderland.net. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/resources/chapters-script/alice-in-wonderland-quotes/

-          Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K., & Walsh, S. (2008). Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739-741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030

-          What is Information Era | IGI Global. (2016). Igi-global.com. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/information-era/36120

-          Carroll, L. (2016). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper. Cs.indiana.edu. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from https://www.cs.indiana.edu/metastuff/wonder/ch6.html

-          Carroll, L. (2016). Humpty Dumpty | Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll. Sabian.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://sabian.org/looking_glass6.php

-          Carroll, L. (2016). Advice from a Caterpillar | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Sabian.org. Retrieved 1 November 2016, from http://sabian.org/alice_in_wonderland5.php

-          Carroll, L. (2016). A Mad Tea-Party | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Sabian.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://sabian.org/alice_in_wonderland7.php

-          Betty Boop-1933-Betty in Blunderland. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 1 November 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf6RohRVKBY

                    Contextual Statement – Ecila – Shaydn Estreich - 1323729

The original context of choice governing what our project would be was game development. We wanted to create a game based off play mechanics without restriction. We had quite the shake up when we were moved from our original choice to be placed into one of a theatrical backing. Because of the switch, restrictions were placed on us, on what we could do and what we wanted to achieve. Initially we were lost, we didn’t know what to do nor where our place of contextual belonging was. Three aspiring game developers suddenly having our project options narrowed with restriction affected our mentality greatly. Before settling on our current project we questioned ourselves multiple times, “should we be game developers?”. It was disheartening being moved from your paper of choice which you have strived for since day one. I came to the conclusion that this “opportunity” is one which will enable me to grow as not only a developer but also as a person. You do not always get the jobs that you want, sometimes you have to grind through it and accept the decisions for what they are. This is a good opportunity for me to show case that I have this ability to take on tasks and projects which don’t “appeal” to me as a developer.

Our discovery of the idea “Ecila” and our contextual background of indie gaming development came from the influence of Alice in Wonderland along with our urge to hone our skills as developers. Our game revolves around subtle metaphors and references which represent our generation. An example of this is the metaphorical representation of technology and our current generation and the addictive tendency it has created. (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008). I wouldn’t call what we created a serious game because it does not bring awareness of any sort to the table. Using real world problems as inspiration for in game mechanics and aesthetics show cases our resourcefulness as creators and our creativity when “showing” the metaphor.

Proving to be one of the best games of its console by becoming Playstation’s player voted icon in 2008 ("Crash Bandicoot voted PlayStation Icon by OfficialPlayStation Magazine readers", 2016), Crash Bandicoot became my main source of inspiration outside of Alice. Through research into Crash game play ("Top 10 Crash Bandicoot Levels", 2016) we developed our own game mechanics which honed and emphasized our conceptual thinking. One website in particular helped myself a great deal. It was a biography / portfolio of Andy Gavin. On it was a very descriptive reflection on how he helped create Crash Bandicoot and process it took. (Gavin, 2011). What I discovered the most which helped me keep a level head through-out this project was how he described each event. The multiple emotions he described throughout the entries that I too have come across became very relatable. The more I read the more I felt like I started to feel influenced by his entries. My thought process was not as linear as it was before, I started questioning every action I did in relation to the game. The most asked question directed to not only myself but also my team mates was “why?”. Why should we add this? What benefit does this bring? What can we do with it? How does this relate to our concept? These questions were pushed constantly throughout the project to further our understanding of our own content.

Game design documents contributed greatly to my thought process. I found it essential to continue reading and learning throughout the project, regardless of what stage the project was at. By learning more about game design, the more I felt confident in voicing my ideas and disagreements. My mentality was not an “I know it all” one, it was more along the lines “I am learning so I can share my knowledge with you”. One article about game design stood out the most. It was written by James Marden (Marsden, 2016) and talked about the “checklist’ for indie game creation.

“Concept is Context’ – James Marden (Marsden, 2013)

What made our game fit the context of indie development was our decision to make games, but what decided Ecila’s belonging in this massive contextual space were the game mechanics and the idea behind the game, the concept.

It was not only Ecila which grew as the game progressed through development, but I felt I also grew with it. Blueprint scripting skills gained through repetitive use as well as the logic to implement and trouble shoot problems. I found that I was the go to guy if something in the code wasn’t working which was fine with me, as I gained more experience. The future of Ecila doesn’t look bright, but regardless it was the process in which I found the most satisfaction.

 References:

- Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K., & Walsh, S. (2008). Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739-741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030 

- Top 10 Crash Bandicoot Levels. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imGP1RYXJlo&feature=youtu.be&t=170

- Marsden, J. (2016). IndieGames.com The essential checklist for making an awesome video game, according to Futurlab. Indiegames.com. Retrieved 27 October 2016, from http://indiegames.com/2013/07/the_essential_checklist_for_ma_1.html

- Crash Bandicoot voted PlayStation Icon by OfficialPlayStation Magazine readers. (2016). Develop-online.net. Retrieved 27 October 2016, from http://www.develop-online.net/press-releases/crash-bandicoot-voted-playstation-icon-by-official-playstation-magazine-readers/0202143

- Perry, A. (2016). 5 ways 'Crash Bandicoot' made a huge impact in the world of video games. Business Insider Australia. Retrieved 28 October 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com.au/crash-bandicoot-impact-on-gaming-2016-6?r=US&IR=T#/#4-its-use-of-3d-was-mindblowing-4

- Gavin, A. (2011). Making Crash Bandicoot – part 1. All Things Andy Gavin. Retrieved 28 October 2016, from http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/02/making-crash-bandicoot-part-1/

- Marsden, J. (2013). IndieGames.com The essential checklist for making an awesome video game, according to Futurlab. Indiegames.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016, from http://indiegames.com/2013/07/the_essential_checklist_for_ma_1.html