#int17

Having had time to take stock of the feedback from the pitching session we had for our concepts a couple of weeks ago, I am now well into composing my proposal document.

Points raised included really highlighting the audio and image scanning technology I proposed to feature within the game. I feel that, in addition to the deep and meaningful narrative, these features set the game apart and would certainly encourage players to immerse themselves within the game. It’s therefore imperative to really stress this as a major selling point for The Writer’s Block. 

In terms of funding, I will need to look further into budgeting as my initial target of £60,000 (without including the additional cost of the API tech) was seen to be far too low. In looking at further funding models, it was also mentioned I should consider investiture from other bodies and tax relief programmes from the government, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme for example. Stay tuned on this!

It’s also great to have a lot more space to expand on the narrative within the piece, as this is the other major pillar the game sits on. I’ve had time to really flesh out the two narrative arcs as well as individual character developments as these will be key to the emotional connection I aim the game to create with its player-base.

What have been my experiences of interactive media to date? Largely speaking, social media would have to be the answer.

I currently have an account on most social media platforms, well, that I know of (conversations with my younger siblings never fail to remind me that my knowledge is increasingly lacking). 

I have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, and a MySpace probably still embarrassingly floating out there somewhere on the internet. 

Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat would be the accounts that I use habitually. I scan through each of them, generally in that order, several (hundred) times a day. I use the word ‘scan’, because I definitely have more of an observational approach to social media. When I say it like that it sounds creepy...but I swear it isn’t... I’m just not one for posting. I did go through a ridiculous phase during my undergrad where every single college night out became an album of 200+ photographs - and there were a lot of nights out - but written posts were few and far between. I think I’ve always just been a bit too lazy.

Twitter is one of my more unloved accounts. When I tweet (which is rarely) it’s generally a pointless, sarcastic tweet or an animal welfare retweet (yes, I am one of those people.......). I’ve just never really gotten into the Twitter thing. I still use it to keep updated on trends and news and just generally to satiate my nosiness, but when it comes to tweeting, I’m way behind the curve. Every time I go to type out a tweet a little voice in the back of my head whispers “but who actually cares?”, especially considering I have next to zero followers...so I backspace and move back to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to be good at Twitter, I just haven’t gotten the knack for it. 

With regards to the broader spectrum of interactive media, I am hugely fascinated on the whole. From standard gaming, to VR and AR, with the huge leaps technology is continually making, the endless possibilities for interactive media in the (not too distant future) are incredibly exciting.

Although I’m self-admittedly terrible at most games (possessing the coordination of a newborn foal), I am still partial to playing them. I enjoy choice-driven games (particularly RPGs) - I absolutely love the idea of playing a game where each decision you make influences the path the storyline takes. I’m probably incredibly frustrating to watch playing these types of games as I’d rather see how far I can push the possibilities for the characters than in completing the actual tasks set out in the game. 

My interest in choice-driven gaming is initially what drew me to this Interactive Media module. As a screenwriter, I’ve grown accustomed to writing a beginning, middle, and ending. But, with these games, there can be multiple middles and endings, all dictated by what has come before and controlled by choices made by an external force, however random. And, with advancements in VR and/or augmented reality, these games could immerse players into their world on a whole new level - perhaps even to the extent that the line between reality and virtuality becomes blurred. I can only imagine how exciting (while challenging, I’m sure) writing for such a game would be. 

My idea for a game is a collaboration, a melding of two worlds that in the past have had an uneasy relationship; the natural world, and the technological world.

Typically, outdoors and indoors. Dare I say old and young? I’m passionate about the natural world and the only way we can hope to protect it is through education, but how do we deliver this education?

My idea centres around a survival game (for console/PC), giving players the opportunity to select, and survive in any location on the globe, from their own back yard to the deepest, darkest rainforest.

To progress through the game, in part, real world information must be obtained. Information that requires independent research and experiencing the natural world first hand. (Synced mobile app)

Maybe it could take 10 years or a lifetime to ‘complete’ - an ongoing process of discovery.

And perhaps the natural world and the technological world aren’t so separate after all.

Wind farms and wave power are just two examples of a perfect unison, still to reach their full potential. Facebook and Instagram burst with people’s photos of exotic plants and wildlife from their travels. Planet Earth II was a hit with children, who could easily have watched it on an iPad, in the back of the car on the way to school.

How do I get the attention of my market?

Do I understand and know my customers?

Should I release small and build over time?

Questions, amongst many to be answered, research to begin. I’m excited by the prospect of the research and development process mirroring what the game experience will ultimately be…

Time spent playing on my computer and interacting with the online world whilst spending time outdoors experiencing the natural world and learning what we can do to protect it.

Yes I know, this black and white debate has been ongoing for a while. Now the hype is dying; the excited mass cries have dwindled down to a few lone voices saying, “guys, this is actually super cool!”

Well you know what, it is actually super cool. 

Now I’m not firing shots at the dismissal of VR; this is no technical review that will illuminate how VR will change our lives forever. I cannot say with any confidence that virtual reality really is the future; the skeptics may all laugh in my face in a few months. This is just my personal experience of the digital playground of virtual reality, the pure childlike joy it brought me and an asking of you to at least give it a shot before you dismiss it as a gimmick.

It’s worth it.

Like the rest of the world, I was reading up on the transportive power of VR, as the digital world was caught up in its storm. And like the rest of the world, I dismissed it. The talk had been around for a while, hell Zuckerberg was enthusing about the potential of its immersive-ness back in 2014 - ancient history in the world of interactive media. But upon its arrival, it never started the life changing revolution that was promised. One by one, out came the voices murmuring, ‘I thought it was overhyped anyway...’ And the world moved on.

Then a few days after christmas, I got an message from a friend, excited rambling on about his new PSVR headset and how I ‘really, really, really, really’ had to try it. So round I went. Intrigued, excited yet still slightly skeptical I put on the clunky, slightly-too-big headset, and waited through all the lengthy set up. 

And then suddenly I was in Gotham. I was standing in Gotham. Woah. Wooooah. 

There are no words that do justice to that feeling. Now I am no stranger to the digital gaming world: I have seen Gotham, swam to the depths of the ocean and walked through corridors of nightmare inducing houses before. And its wonderful. But its nothing like this.

It’s incredible. You’re there. You’re in the world. I hadn't even moved past the Batman title screen in 15 minutes because I was lost in Gotham. I was leaping across boundless trees one minute and plunging into the darkness of the ocean’s hidden depths the next... and I felt it all. Whilst sitting in a chair. (Well I say sitting, at this point I was essentially jumping on top of it and incoherently crying “this is insane!!” over and over.) Sadly if you do suffer motion sickness, it’ll take some getting used to, though I must admit it is pretty funny watching someone get motion sickness whilst stationary in a chair.

I was so immersed, I whacked my head off a shelf that I could no longer see as it was no longer part of my world. I was somewhere I else entirely, I was now in Resident Evil 7′s Beginning Hour demo to be precise. And I was terrified. In fact, I hate to admit it but I noped out pretty quickly. Standing in a room whilst a cannibal nonchalantly passes you by is all fun and games behind the safety of a screen. But actually standing there, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It’s the power of virtual reality.

And it has the potential to become so much more. It’s already getting cheaper and more sophisticated, and more games are being adapted all the time. The day when I can ride through the endless rolling hills of Hyrule is a day I may abandon this reality altogether, and it is a day that is coming. I’m not promising it will go mainstream and change how we consume entertainment forever, hell I’m not promising that this honest wonder and joy wasn’t all a sweet honeymoon phase. It’s still worth it. For that one moment of pure adventure, for that real love I haven’t experienced since buying my first cartridges as a kid, it’s  worth it.

This is well over 200 words and became much more of a love letter than I had initially planned. But oh well, I excitedly ramble, I warned you in the bio. If you’re still with me, thanks, I’ll try to wrap this up now.

Like many of my generation, I have grown up with interactive media. Now a part of everyday life, I can hark back to those early days of playing Snake on my Mum’s old Nokia, getting my first Game Boy and having recurring nightmares over A Bug’s Life on the PS1 when I couldn’t get past that damned bird.

Growing up with rapidly advancing technologies, it was not always videogames that captured my imagination: highly interactive museum exhibits like those at @Bristol and the famed arrival of the electronic whiteboard, clear memories of an exciting childhood. The possibilities were endless to me.

Indeed, interactive media is now key to enhancing one’s learning, knowledge and entertainment experiences. A particularly exciting example that occurs to me is that of Sat-JF14. In 2014, John Frusciante, ex Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, allegedly fired his new album into space. Once it reached orbit, users would download an app to stream the music when the satellite passed over their respective region.

  INT17 se convertirá en un altavoz más de la causa de las miles de personas que, reivindicando los Derechos Humanos de los que en “la vieja Europa” hacemos gala, esperan a ser atendidas bajo el sol, el frío, la lluvia, la nieve. Y también para aquellas que ya no esperan porque fueron engullidas por el mar o muertas durante feroces trashumancias entre fronteras y guerras. Así, INT desea poner un granito de arena para que, en 2017, se abran las puertas a todas aquellas personas que tan injustamente se encuentran atrapadas entre guerras y miedos, entre fronteras y mercados, entre sinrazón e ignorancia.

  INT17  seguirá siendo uno de los festivales de rap referentes del rap nacional e internacional. En el  incomparable  escenario del Baluarte de la Candelaria de la capital gaditana, el 19 de agosto, un cartel de  artistas relevantes de  rap, aportaran  su talento y arte con el objetivo de ampliar el mensaje en favor de las y los refugiados. Desde Cartagena Soge y Kaze&Beto; los gallegos Hard GZ y Ricky Hombre Libre; el barcelonés Ambkor; Ira, Dante y Bsoul desde Madrid; los salmantinos Gran Calibre; Joha&Ricco Lamarca dominicana afincada entre Úbeda y Granada y los jerezanos Abocajarro. Entradas a 5 euros en www.INTthefest.es o en www.entradium.com

  No obstante, INT17 es mucho más que un festival musical. Así, las acciones que en 2017 vertebrarán, de manera interconectada, nuestra causa social serán:

  – Caravana: INT17 arrancará sobre ruedas. Más exactamente, sobre las ruedas de nuestra furgoneta que, a modo de caravana trotamundos, recorrerá España para conocer de primera mano a personas que son o han sido refugiados, protagonistas de procesos migratorios o solicitantes de asilo. La caravana visitará a artistas de diversas disciplinas que compartirán experiencias y espacios creativos in situ con el Mc Artes llevando así por todo el Estado el nombre, la música y el mensaje de INT17. Todo el proceso será recogido audiovisualmente y difundido tanto en redes sociales como proyectado en las Jornadas.

  – Jornadas: los días 17 y 18 de agosto de 2017 se celebrarán en la Casa Iberoamericana del Ayuntamiento de Cádiz, las Jornadas “INT17 Refugees Welcome”, Estas Jornadas acogerán iniciativas sociales vinculadas al fenómeno de las migraciones y las personas refugiadas, siempre desde la perspectiva de la población juvenil. “INT17 Refugees Welcome” será un lugar de intercambio de iniciativas así como de toma de decisiones para la acción directa a favor de las personas refugiadas. Las jornadas tendrán una importante perspectiva juvenil, serán prácticas y dinámicas, poniendo en valor la actitud crítica, participativa y proactiva de la juventud y el arte como medio de expresión natural del ser. El colofón a las Jornadas correrá a cargo de los gaditanos David Palomar, Juan José Jaén “El Junco” y Roberto Carlos Jaén, artistas de flamenco comprometidos con la causa social de INT17.

dossier-int17

– Jóvenes: INT17 pondrá en marcha su propia iniciativa de participación juvenil a favor de las personas refugiadas, organizando durante los meses de mayo y junio de 2017 viajes a Belgrado (Serbia), Tesalónica (Grecia) y Ceuta (España), con grupos de jóvenes, con el fin de que conozcan de primera mano la situación de otros jóvenes solicitantes de asilo (residentes en centros de acogida), y podrán entrevistarles, generando una pieza documental con el material recogido durante el proceso.