Week 10 Day 2: Character Sketches

These are my sketches from Wednesday's brainstorming session.  I included main characters generic fish hero, robo-shark villain, & wise old dolphin (with complementary fu manchu), though it was later decided the dolphin may just provide tips throughout the game.

Also featured are fun little gimmicks we discussed as a group, a starting screen with the angler fish standing in for the flashing light (& countdown) & a "game over" screen with smiling shark teeth & a hint of the mechanical eye.

Week 10 Day 1: Group Brainstorming Activities

Today, as a group, we did three brainstorming activities to help broaden our ideas for our video game concepts.  First was a mind map, stemming off our idea of a strategy-based, academic adventure game.  Second were these fun dice called Rory's Story Cubes; we "played" three rounds to create three different stories.  Lastly, we created a list of all the retro video games we could think of.  

Complete documentation can be found on our group's blog.

Week 9.5 Outside of Class: Video Game Concept

For our video game project, each of the group members are submitting a short proposal on the video game concept, characters, & landscape.

My concept is the journey of an older gentleman seeking his umbrella that he left behind somewhere.  Beyond the treachery of the landscape itself (a winding park trail), he faces obstacles such as trees, frogs, ducks, and maybe even a giant Monty Python-esque hand.  The scenery would include the park path, bushes, benches, stones, & the obstacles as stated above.

Week 9 Day 2: Game Design Groups

Today we broke into our groups for the game design project that we'll be working on for the rest of the semester.  First order of business was a team building exercise in which we were all on a plane that had crashed into the ocean & had to survive with 12 items from the plane on a nearby desert island.

For the rest of the class, we watched a PBS special on the history of video games.

Week 9 Day 1: End Tag Critique

Today we had full class critiques of our end tags/kinetic logos.  The biggest critique for my project was the use of sound, which I knew would be an issue.  One person suggested I cut it down to one or two separate clips, instead of three.  I'm also considering, if I redo the piece, to find or compose (I wish...) a piece of music that would fit the animation & theme.

Week 8.5 Outside of Class: Final Wired Endtag

Over the weekend I finally brought my design into After Effects & completed my endtag.  The only thing that didn't go as well as I hoped for is my audio. For whatever reason Audacity wasn't reading my audio files, so all my audio was edited within After Effects.  I definitely think it could be spliced better, so hopefully sometime I can find out what was wrong, then go back & fix the audio.

My audio contains three files.  The first plays while the circuit board grows & becomes the W.  I wanted this to be a higher pitched, almost omniscient,  yet still conveying computer or digital.  The remaining letters I wanted to come in a typed keystrokes.  Lastly, I wanted "Video" to wipe in on a kind of sparkly yet digital computer sound.  Overall, I was able to find fitting sounds, though I do feel the first one could use some editing, or maybe I just need a different (but still similar) sound.

While working on this project, I was constantly inspired by the opening credits of Inception.  Not the actual title credits, but the credits for the production companies.

There was something particularly in how the light shines through the Legendary logo I found quite fascinating & what to attempt to work with a similar concept.  Thus came my growing circuits within the rotating circuit board. 

Week 8 Day 2: Layering my Design

As I attempted to bring my design into After Effects, I realized I would need to put all the circuits in separate layers if I want to mask them for growth.  I went back to Illustrator & spent a large portion of class moving the individual circuits into their own layers. 

I also began to think about sound I want in the background.  I'm not too sure what I want at the moment, but I've been looking into free sci fi-esque & mechanical sounds.