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Studio- Over the break

I have now started doing a bit of initial research into what goes into making a game. 

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Studio- Week 4 (Peer Critique Sessions)

This week we presented our ideas for our game to other groups to get their opinion.

It was here that we realised that we wanted to change the direction our game was going in. Initially we wanted to create a slow paced game based upon doing small tasks and exploring a game narrative. However our problem had now shifted from raising awareness for everyday anxiety to finding a way to help a student increase their motivation for tasks in day to day life by playing video games to gain perseverance. T

Therefore we made our game (after peer feedback) into a challenging puzzle platformer instead. This is because we want the player to feel good about the goal achievement they do in-game, which feels more earned when the goal is challenging. We felt that a slow paced game would not give the full effect of building resilience in the player and address our problem in the best way possible. 

Another decision for this shift was due to our overall motivation for this project. We wanted to work upon something that would keep us interested throughout the entire year. 

From this new project idea, I instead have now done research upon video games as a form of increasing motivation for certain day to day tasks (through the completion of achievements in-game). More research needs to be done over the break before deciding upon what our games hopes to accomplish and what sets it aside from other games out there. 

From here we decided to do work in Blender and Unity over the break to hone in our skills

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Gameplay moodboard

Here is a collation of imagery for what we wanted the gameplay to look like in our game, with heavy dialogue focus

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Narrative Moodboard

Here is a collation of images from games/other media that we all enjoy and hope to get inspiration from for our narrative for our game

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Studio- Week 3

Now we have some form of an idea of what we want from our video game:

-Sitcom like characters, each with their own tropes and character traits

-Narrative focused/dialogue heavy gameplay

-Colorful artstyle (work in progress)

From our ideas we created a couple mood boards to make sure we are all on the same page as to what we want our game to be:

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Here is an initial brainstorm that we did as a group.

We started to look at what sort of problems there are out there, and what sort of ideas we can use to solve them. Initially we wanted to focus upon anxiety and raising awareness through it, through a video game. This video game was supposed to be heavy dialogue based with the player interacting with a deep narrative that can relate back to real life. 

We also started to get an idea of what sort of skills we all wanted to build individually as a group. 

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Studio- Week 2

In our group we decided upon creating some sort of game that involves addressing social anxiety, and hopefully raising awareness for it. We threw around ideas as to what type of gameplay it would involve, what kind of setting/narrative, player interaction, etc. 

From this brainstorming we also all figured out what kind of experience and skills we want to gain from this project. I personally want to work on narrative and artwork within this game, and hopefully increase my knowledge in Blender with 3d modelling. 

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Studio- Week 1

This week was mainly focused upon finding group members who share the same passions and interests in a studio project. I formed a group with Henry, Noah and Xavier.

In this group we are all interested in game design and increasing our knowledge and experience in coding/3d modelling. 

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YEAR 2 START

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ENEL599 Final Project

Submission Photos

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CLOTHED MIND

First Hoodie Prototype.

With the reverse text and sewn-in pocket for heartbeat sensor

‘Heartbeat’ pocket created by Grace Hollamby

Reverse text created by Krishant Kumar

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Layout created by Krishant Kumar

At this stage our idea has progressed into have a creative installation, with the hoodie presented in a physical environment designed to look like a male uni students bedroom, accompanied by a narrative based video.

This is an initial possible layout for what the installation will look like. 

We want there to be a mirror so people can see the reverse text on the hoodie. 

We also want there to be a fully interactable desk, that people can sit at. On this desk will be subtle hints about male anxiety. One of these things being posters on the desk, designed to look like typical video game posters (something that is generally found in a guys bedroom) but still show parts of anxiety in a way that the user will have to decipher. 

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Video Idea

The Clothed Mind An inside look into the way men behave when dealing with mental illness.

What are we making?: Short Video Around 1 minute long

What are we trying to achieve?: When people watch the video, they should somewhat imagine what it’s like to in that scenario, and hopefully, be more considerate and understanding towards those who are internally suffering from mental illness.

We also want people to acknowledge how hard it is for the general population of men to have to deal with mental illness, because of the societal ‘norms’ about the way men should act, that have been shaped over the years. However, we want to take this a step forward and portray that it is okay to break these norms and open up, as this is still considered okay and your friends will no rip you out for it.

The video also needs to ideally be linked to the physical hoodie in some way. Maybe the hoodie can be featured in the video and play a part in the main characters everyday life

Why do we need to make a video?: Because the hoodie itself isn’t enough to achieve our purpose. Simply having a hoodie that makes people ‘uncomfortable’ might not get the right idea across to people generally. However keep in mind that videos about mental health and stuff have been done soooo often before, which is why we still need the physical hoodie, to give the project some substance. The video itself needs to be not the same old generic stuff first of all, and secondly it needs to link to the physical hoodie in a solid way, to justify our making of the physical hoodie.

What are some ideas we have for the video so far?:

No dialogue whatsoever (possibly narration) No music, only sound effects One main character that the camera focuses on Main character is wearing the hoodie throughout the video We cannot have anything sensitive in the video that may upset people Show the main character seeking help near the end Drowning in words

Storyboard stuff: Note: -Main character is referred to as ‘man’ throughout the storyboard (Naming the character isn’t suitable for our video)

Character stuff: Man is 20 years old. He studies an unknown subject. He lives in his own apartment, and cooks and cleans for himself. He typically likes to study on campus, in his own corner by himself. He finds other people a distraction while studying (fair enough), so he likes to wear headphones and listen to music to zone out voices. Despite this, he is a very social person. He has drinks with his mates most weekends, enjoys playing Xbox in his free time, and occasionally goes out clubbing every now and then. Within his course, he has two friends he sits next to. He has only met these people this year through his course but gets along with them well generally, and usually likes to ask them about assignments and schoolwork, and on occasion other things. He usually arrives home at around 6 pm, after his classes and studying, and then continues to cook dinner then watch youtube before going to bed. However he suffers from anxiety

Act Plan: Act 1: Man gets out of bed, and walks to campus. Arrives on campus and sits next to friends Takes out the laptop and does work while chatting

Act 2: Continues with day Studies on campus in the afternoon Goes home to cook a meal

Act 3: Scrolling through his phone endlessly on insta calls his mate for help

Key Elements to remember:

Hoodie must be present throughout the video Incorporate mental health metaphors throughout video When the Man asks for help, it needs to be portrayed as a sign of strength not weakness. So he cannot be in a super vulnerable state when he does ask for help.

Aspects of Hoodie (need to be shown in video):

Heartbeat increase Writing on inside of hoodie

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Video Story Initial Storyboard Shot List

Act One:

I Title Screen ‘Clothed Mind’ title, Opening credits, Short line describing what film is about

II Opening Room Shot With Hoodie Hoodie is strewn on top of desk chair, Man walks into room, picks up hoodie Camera angle is fixed and only shows Man from the lower neck down

III Wears Hoodie And Puts On In Front Of Mirror Right arm in first, then left. Hood is not put on. Zip is left open. Camera is from the mirror POV and pays special attention to the monotony of putting on the item of clothing. Inside lining of the hoodie should be visible in shot.

IV Skips To Shot Of Man Walking To Class Walks at normal pace, zips up hoodie on the way, Panning shot, kept at the same vertical angle throughout, shot needs to look busy, but Man wearing a hoodie must be kept in focus and centre of frame.

V Enters Crowded Elevator To Get To Class Lots of people in elevator, Man scratches at front of neck and swallows Mid Shot, from POV of elevator doors, shows the multiple people, swallowing is emphasised

VI Enters Class & Sits Down Next To Two People Classroom is not full, people already sitting down have laptops open, spare seat Over the shoulder shot of Man walking into class and sitting down at table. Faces of the Two People are not shown.

VII Takes Out Laptop & Starts Typing While Chatting Typing to login laptop, neck can be seen moving to the left to indicate talking/listening. Camera angle is low, set on table, shows keyboard and fingers typing in focus, the Man is now out of focus, emphasis on the sleeve areas of the hoodie

Act Two:

I Man Goes Home To Apartment Um pretty self explanatory Montage of multiple quick shots, don't waste too much time on this scene

II Skips to the shot of the friends Friends are worried about Man Man leaves the hoodie in the classroom

Cut to him in his room and his heartbeat is now normal

Act Three:

I Lies In Bed And Scrolls Through Phone Scrolls through something monotonous like ig or other social media, scrolling fast, without purpose Shot of Man looking at his phone, close up, blue light emitting onto his face, no other light source,

II Opens the door to the boys bringing pizza and returning hoodie Man opens up to his friends

Ending shot: Shot of the hoodie in the final frame, Man in the background blurred.

Storyboard Created by Krishant Kumar (me)

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Photo will eventually go here

CLOTHED MIND

Restricted Wrist Sleeve (De-continued)

Initially in our first prototype hoodie, we experimented with using tight strings within the wrist area of the sleeve to restrict people's movements. When tested on others, it was described as cutting into the wrist. It didn’t necessarily restrict people's wrist movement too much, but it definitely made the hoodie more uncomfortable overall. If we were to continue with this design, we would have probably added more strings to the wrist to have a stronger effect. Or maybe instead used some sort of velcro strap instead, to make the wrist movement more tighter, but still allow people to move their hand without it feeling like they are being cut into by string. 

However we did not have much justification as to why we were to incorporate this idea into our hoodie design. From our surveys and online research, there are little to no mentions of people with anxiety having their wrist movements restricted, or feeling like their wrists are being weighed down. We did know that anxiety makes people less likely to do tasks, which is what we were somewhat trying to achieve through this wrist design, however it didn’t have the effect we intended, and therefore this idea was scrapped.

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CLOTHED MIND

Heartbeat Effect v.1

Our first test with this was by downloading a vibrating app on our mobile phone and placing it into the sewn in pocket on the hoodie. We then had people put on the hoodie and see whether the vibrating (replicating a beating heart) made any difference to how the user felt. Because the vibration from the phone is not strong, it ended up having little to no effect. From here we knew we needed something with a more powerful vibration to test.

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CLOTHED MIND

Heartbeat Effect. v2

This prototype was created by Grace Hollamby

We tested the same concept of placing something into the sewn-in pocket, but this time using a small circular Bluetooth speaker. The Bluetooth speaker was able to have a strong thumping vibration effect than the phone, which made it far more suitable for our purpose of replicating a fast-paced beating heart. When tested out on multiple users these are some of the response we got:

“The sound itself is making me more uneasy/irritated than the beating” “I can feel my normal heart rate going up slightly” “It feels very uneasy and uncomfortable”

Generally responses were in our favor, with people definitely getting this sense of “unease” that we wanted. However we had limitations with the speaker with regards to the fact that the speaker had to play audio to create this thumping effect. Having audio was not necessary in this as we wanted the thumping of the speaker to be the thing that causes the unease. Therefore our next steps were to use an Arduino and wire up a speaker to constantly vibrate. This way we wouldn’t also have a big Bluetooth speaker poking out of the hoodie, and the hoodie itself could look more normal, if we hid the wiring from the Arduino right.