#movingobject

Contextual Statement

For my Moving Object paper this semester, I have teamed up with Martin and Shaydn to make a project. In the past we had more “freedom” in terms of what we wanted to create, since the start of this paper we have felt restricted and narrowed because of the context within the paper, moving object has been one of the more challenging studio papers in terms of what we are used to compared to the past. We are forced to follow a theme and because of this we had to cut down many of our original ideas, in saying this though there are some good sides to it because we have come to learn new skills and an entirely new way of thinking. Overall this experience has been a positive and negative journey due to having our perspective’s changing and adapting to new ways to approach our ideas.

Coming off from our last project (http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html), our team has always wanted to make a game which we could be proud of, so for our last project of our degree we decided to do just that. Our original idea was to make a fun and interact able game with many mechanics implemented into it, so sticking to the theme of “Alice in Wonderland” we decided to make a puzzle game as the world of Alice is quite abstract and unique. With this project we took an approach where we stick to the theme, but we are also adding our own ideas to it, so that people can find the game more interesting and unique, what we are making will be purely for people’s enjoyment, they will be able to solve puzzles forcing them to think differently and to be entertained while at it. (http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/online/alice-wonderland-puzzle-a-free-online-game.html)

Alice in Wonderland is a classic tale known worldwide by not only children, but also teenagers and adults ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). We thought about how we can use this theme and to adapt to it, along with our own ideas into the mix of it, but we also did not want to stray too far away from the original setting. We firstly looked at the plot of Alice in Wonderland, how she falls down a rabbit hole, meets friends, goes on a long journey and then comes back to reality which is also known as home. We used this storyline to try and replicate it within our game, how she is forced into an unknown world without any knowledge looking for a way to get back home. By using the plot of Alice in Wonderland, we were able to have a more structured setting for our game from start to finish, we took key elements from the original story line and changed them into a modern setting intake.

By using the abstract theme and setting of Alice in Wonderland, we thought about how we can create a unique world and environment based on a modern phenomenon and we figured because Alice is a teenager, we thought about what most teenagers would have and one of them would be the cell phone. With the rise of technology nowadays, one of the more notable rises is the cell phone era, nowadays a cell phone is essential to everyday life (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008)., it has many benefits that would help you and without a cell phone, it would be very hard to navigate or communicate with people while outside, so we wanted to use this concept and make a game out of it. Everything within the map relates to Alice in Wonderland or technology in one way or another, meaning we are sticking the theme and not striving away from it, what we didn’t want was to show by telling, but instead through the use of puzzles within our game. The end product should have our ideas along with an Alice in Wonderland Theme as the backbone of the whole game.

With the help of Unreal Engine 4, we hoped to make a game where people feel immersed, fun and enjoyable in a modern world with an Alice in Wonderland theme. We had puzzles, cinematics and heaps of fun mechanics implemented in hopes to have players feel excited, just like watching the movie, always making them wonder what is next and is there to explore. By being in our game players will be solving puzzles to open doors, they will wonder what’s beyond the doors to the next stage and so long as they are wondering what’s next into the world then our job as a team is done.

References:

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

-          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

-          Sanctuaree l Andy Leung (2016). Retrieved 1 October 2016 from

http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html

-          Alice Wonderland Puzzle a. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2016, from http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/online/alice-wonderland-puzzle-a-free-online-game.html

 Conceptual Statement

For my Moving Objects paper, this semester I have teamed up with Martin and Shaydn to create an enjoyable and fun game called “Elica” which is a modern intake on the classic tale “Alice in Wonderland” ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). The original idea of “Elica” was to let people have fun by solving puzzles and riddles to move on in within the game, what we wanted to create since the beginning was a game with heavy mechanics and game development, so by using the aspects from the world of “Alice in Wonderland” we came up with many ideas and from those ideas we produced a lot of content all relating the theme of “Alice in Wonderland”, Overall the idea is to take Alice in Wonderland and twist it into a modern day theme, where it is relatable to a larger target audience who don’t necessarily have to understand or have read the novel or watched movies.

We wanted to base Alice’s story in our own world and project that through the lens of playing through a familiar yet mysterious environment and having to overcome obstacles along the way which is an underlying theme from the novel ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). Alice goes through many hardships and one of the main hardships is being alone and isolated from others. In our game you are placed in a world where you are lost and you have no clue what is happening unless you move forward, we thought that this would be a good idea as we are trying to relate to how Alice is feeling within the movie.

We also took upon a more modern approach on Alice in Wonderland, because we figured out how Alice is also just a teenager, we figured that it would be a good idea to reference her to the teenagers of our generation. There is something in common the teenagers of our world would have compared to Alice and that would be the always feeling lost and wanting somewhere where they feel that they belong to ("Alice | Sabian Assembly", 2016). The feeling of being alone came from Alice as she felt it at many parts throughout her journey in Wonderland. At certain times she would helpless, weak and discouraged.

Our level design is quite abstract and unique as we have walls within walls, giving off an idea where you need to break free from the place, just like in Alice in wonderland, where she is needed to break free of her fears and to move on. The level was designed in a way where the first section is your safe place and as you play the game and slowly proceed throughout the sections you will feel challenged and needing to solve riddles along with puzzles to move onto the next area and to get out.

The point of most game is to get from start to finish and in this case it is to try and get home from the elevator (rabbit hole). Within the story, Alice faced with many problems and is forced to adapt too many situations, so we referenced this within our game by putting obstacles and puzzles for you to solve in order to get home. Elica will be a game about trying to get home from a foreign unknown place. The game explores the idea of loneliness and the ability to adapt to the situation. We want to engage users in something new and unique all while expressing our creativity while using Alice in Wonderland as a reference.

What we also implemented were many platforms where players will have to jump upon in order to collect a piece of a puzzle, after collecting all the pieces they are then able to move onto the next stage, I thought this was a pretty good idea, because it brings in the puzzle aspect along with trying to solve problems before moving onto the next stage by being one of the mechanics that makes our game.

The relationship nowadays with teenagers and technology is something not be ignored, technology helps teenagers and people in many different ways to the point where it is needed to just live. Each action within the game relates to how technology is being used and one main factor of technology that we are using is the cell phone ("What is Information Era | IGI Global", 2016). The cell phone has many functions and one of its main function would be navigation, so we made the cell phone very essential to the player as it can help you with information and tell you where to go, what we also did was put battery packs throughout the map so that you have to collect them or else your phone would die essentially meaning game over. (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008).,

All in all “Alice in Wonderland” has been around for 150 years with many different takes on the story by many different people, “Elica” is our take on the story of “Alice in Wonderland” and we relate to it nowadays.

References:

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

-          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

-          Sanctuaree l Andy Leung (2016). Retrieved 1 October 2016 from

http://leungandy.weebly.com/virtual-environments.html