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The Last Blog

I realise I haven’t posted on here in quite some time, but I figured better late than never. In the last 3 or so weeks, my project has morphed and evolved from a hazy and abstract concept into a beautiful(?) butterfly of a concept. Kind of.  Flashback to my slideshow in front of the panel, where I presented Hexplore (Brian’s shirt 2/10. Like the iron bars of a Stalinist gulag. My perception was possibly affected by my dire outlook before my presentation though...). I felt that the presentation itself went quite well, as I didn’t soil myself. The discussion afterwards was incredibly useful though. Instead of a game app where the player advacnes using fitness, why not design an app to coincide with an existing, successful game? Bingo.  Since then, I’ve decided to pursue that idea and claim at as my own mwahaha. I have been looking at creating an app for the game League of Legends in which gamers can earn in-game loot via exercising and I’ve hammed out  my proposal. Overall, I think the idea has legs, but we’ll see if my presentation of it does...

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Project Rethunk

Brain’s Shirt Review: 10/10. Flowery and unafraid. Like a hippie at a protest.

So last week, I decided on a completely different direction on my project. That is to say, I actually decided on a direction.

The issue I had before was the prison of freedom: there was so much that I could do, I couldn’t decide on what to choose to do. In the end, I had a chat with my dad and he suggested giving myself a constraint, to help give myself a diving point. Taking this advice, I decided to choose a fitness app, as it’s something that I have taken an interest in this last year. 

Following that decision, I did some research by trying out Zombie’s Run which is the area of market that I would intend to target. Namely the gamer who wants to be fit. Since then, I’ve been brainstorming on the specifics and I think I’m getting somewhere.

Overall positive thoughts for a change.

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Review of Project Example 1

There are many components to this submission which are clearly very good and thorough. The writer went into excellent detail concerning the business side of things, detailing competitors and going through marketing plans for example. The actual game play of the project was also explained well. 

As for what i took away from reading through it, I guess I realised that although IM covers a wide array of platforms of methods of interactivity, I don’t HAVE to incorporate everything I’ve learned. Hopefully I can take that message and try to help me decide on my project.  

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AltRG Adventures

THis week, partly out of curiosity, partly out of *cough* research *cough*, I went to an escape room. I went with 3 other escape virigns to a place near Haymarket. The one we decided on was called Contagion and was based around solving riddles/puzzles in order to get access to the next obstacle and eventually escape the room we were trapped in. 

It was fantastic.

At first, I was a bit lost in exactly what I was supposed to be doing but, by following the lead of my sharper teammates, I started getting into the swing of things. In the end, we escaped in 30 mmins; a record for the day and half the maximum time. I massively enjoyed the experience and it made me reconsider my view on how wide the spectrum of Interactive Media really is. 

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Ongoing, Ongoing Project Thoughts

Who knew I would find it this hard to settle on a damn project idea? I have been thinking about the game idea project and have tried to map out how it would work and how it could incorporate ARG elements but am still struggling with it a bit. 

I have thought about moving away from games altogether. I had an idea for a charity based app, involving advertising and Augmented Reality but it’s kind of falling apart on the drawing board. 

In short, I am a confused man.

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Ongoing Thoughts on my Interactive Proposal.

Brain’s Shirt Review: N/A. Unfortunately due to illness, we were without a shirt this week. Because Brain wasn’t there. Not because the shirt was ill and Brian was topless or anything.

At the moment, I have to admit that I’m still not quite sure what I want to do for my pitch. When I first came on this course, my initial thought was immediately to go for a game of some description; after all, I’ve been playing them for most of my life, it’s a comfortable area for me. And to be fair, I’ve not yet dismissed the idea. I’ve been thinking of a social sleuth/rpg based game along the lines of the currently available Subterfuge, the mobile game (thanks Jaime for that one!).

However, over the last few weeks, my mind has begun to wander into the realms of ARG’s. There’s something about the adventure of the alternate reality that appeals to me, so I may try to think of a way to combine my game idea with the ARG....

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My ongoing imprisonment in the League of Legends

Brian’s shirt review: 8/10. A lovely purple floral piece which upped the fashion in the room markedly. 

This week we were asked to write about our favorite game. For me this was slightly tricky to choose. I love the ever living crap out of Final Fantasy Tactics:Advanced, Skyrim/Oblivion, Journey, DnD and many others. 

But my final answer will most proably always be League of legends by Riot Games. At the time of writing I have played this game for close to 7 years now and I don’t see myself stopping at any point in the near future. 4 years ago, I checked how much time I had wasted playing this stupidly addictive game and it was somewhere at 50+ days. 

But why is it so addicvitive? What is it about League that keeps me (and close to a billion other people) keep coming back? Well there is a bunch of reasons. Firstly, the gameplay is brilliant. It feels crisp, rewards intelligent play and also due to the 120+ characters you cna play as, is different every game. Secondly, Riot Games themselves. I have played games from a number f different companies, such as Blizzard, bethesda, EA (ugh), and not one other company comes as close in caring about their player base. Riot regularly releases vidoes and blogs on their thoughts on the game state and responses to community criticisms. 

There are many more reasons to play league (including it’s absolutely FREE) but I won’t go into it here, there’s simply not enough room. But in summary League is my favorite game because it’s awesome (eloquent, I know). 

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In Limbo: A Reflection

So I just watched (interacted with?) the digital experience: In Limbo (link below). In this piece, you are invited to link your Facebook, Twitter, Webcam, Geoloacation, Youtube, Emails etc with the app before it begins (don’t worry, it crosses it’s fingers that it won’t spread your info), and then uses your own info against you during the piece itself. 

For example, I was initially quite startled to see my youtube history appear down the side of my screen at one point, only to then be disappointed at how boring I am. 

As for the message of the piece, it argues that in the modern age of instant and constant data sharing that we live in, the internet as a whole has become something of a deity to us. Our morals are founded upon the values of it, our lives are captured by it, it is easy to see the point that the director was trying to make. 

However as an interactive piece itself, I found it a little tiresome. It was interesting to see how it incorporated our information into the piece but having to constantly sit there and wiggle the mouse for half an hour to experience everything felt a little un-needed. 

Overall I enjoyed In Limbo but found myself checking the time remaining more than once.

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First Blog.

Brian’s Shirt: A light blue paisley number. Jazzed up proceedings nicely. 7/10.

The first IM lecture was on Thursday. It was to introduce the course and the lecturers themselves etc. To be honest, I wasn’t 100% sure of the course and it’s contents before but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic for the semester ahead.