#;stage5

And thus we finish our game and sent it out to peers to play after a few testers and our own testing through and finally getting the codes right. Though overall we got things done, we could’ve stayed on schedule so much better in order to have ample amount of time to test and try things out.

I would have given much more time on the script because after seeing everything there is a lot I would change and add especially more towards  the sex trade within the script and refining it much more.

With the codes, I think we would’ve really liked to try using Unity or Haxe instead to see which may have helped us make the coding smoother. But we would’ve experimented with other programmes if we could. 

Overall I think we’re really proud with what we manage to do in the amount of time we have even though we know that so much more could be better, script, graphic and code wise.

Coding and Issues

Coding was definitely a pain.

Because it was chat bubble by bubble, we had to code in 14 pages worth of script into the application and then link the branched of choices together. I helped do most of the manual labour of putting them all in.

We came across plenty of issues as well as limitations of wanting to do more but may not have the time to figure out.

16k frame limit - That was the biggest set back we had when everything had been into the application and then the whole thing stops working because we hit the frame limit which was not told by Animate that there was even a limit, we did not check that carefully and that set us back a whole day in order to recode everything with Frank’s help as pausing the frame instead of dragging more frames in order to read the lines.

Push notifications, Scrolling, Running in the Background, and Local Data - all of these were things we tried to make work but decided to let it go in order to make things simpler and less complicated, as it may not necessarily add to the story and takes too much time.

Input Text field - we had to figure out the AS3 code with Chris’ help in order to make it work, if there was one fancy thing we wanted, we wanted to be able to put in a passcode the audience has to find on the website or Red will be stuck in the loop of the hostel all over again.

Script (link)

I wrote the script, and with the comments and suggestions made a few changes from the story beats.

During the pitch of our statement of Intent, we got some feedback on the project and taken down some notes of what we could do with the idea

Is it too ambitious? We did acknowledge the scale of this project however we rather let our imagination go wild right now and realise that and then scale back on what we can actually do, at least we will be exploring all our options where we want to bring this project to.

Focus more on giving a rich story, well craft characters. With a project that has story at its heart and spine, we will need to give a lot of thought into the plot and characters we want in it.

Make sure that the installation actually adds value to the story. Many were wondering if the whole project could simply do with just the mobile app and without all the physical space. The fact that we’ll have to build a whole space and make that believable enough and with our resources as a three man team, it was hard. And to add that on to making the mobile application. Can it work with just the application? Simply making the mobile application alone may be a feat for us, and I completely agree. Though Gabriella held onto the installation idea quite tightly.

Final Cut

2nd & 3rd April | Second Cut

After showing our first cut during our last tutorial we made some changes in increasing the B story of the sound effects of the International Space Station, as well as quickening the pacing of the visuals in the middle to give it some rhythm. We’ve also colour graded and corrected the shots. 

While we were editing we also noticed how shaky the 50mm prime lens shot were, and we should’ve really taken out a monopod or steadicam in order to minimise relying on warp stabiliser.

We’re pretty satisfied with this cut however we’ll continue fine tuning any technical issues and colour grading. Such as the timelapse of the sun rise and set still bothers me as it jumps slightly because we could not manage a smooth timelapse, moving parts and shifting them around. 

We also realise we’re pretty messy with our editing tracks:

I met up with Farah to help out with sorting out the production file and getting it ready for submission. We talked through what we needed to put into the file and get ready all the documents from the past few weeks

Callsheets

Script

Script breakdown

storyboard

personal and location releases

Cash Claim

equipment list