Climbing up the wrong mountain

So for the past two weeks I have been focused on the creation of my project. There has not been much to talk about except for the occasional coding error that comes up. I have made the puzzle world, the player hand and the character (but not visually). All of which interact the way I want. I am also half way through the terminal code hacking that is seen at the start, plays during the puzzle solving and revealed at the end. This is not holding me up.

What is holding me up is bringing it back to what it is I want the project to be about. From the very beginning before I even knew what my project and group were to be I had this idea I was interested in. I have developed it throughout my project and tried to keep it as my main focus of my project. This has severely impacted my project and I do not mind that. I have made choices about the project to what I see as best fit both from feedback from others and from what it is I want my project to be. I want my goal of keeping the initial idea that kept me interested in my project to stick so when I talk about it at the end it makes sense to me. Unfortunately what I thought I was doing and what it is I am showing can be considered different in work. It could be difficult for others to recognise the work the way I do. What I thought I show as a game character, player's interest, manipulation may not be what will be looked as the absurd or relevant. Am I making the player feel they are being manipulated or are they being part of this absurd conclusion to a game? It looks to me that I have to make a decision to what it is my work actually is:

1. I keep to what it is I am making and fully resolve the production of my work but understand that what I have created has changed from what I pursued at the start. Accepting it for not being the work that I thought it was.

2. Changing the project to fit in with the conventional absurd requirements. To put the project as absurd in an easier way for the sake of it being understood to others from the outside perspective. (This would change it to what the initial project was explained to be about instead of what my project is.)

3. Underline what my project is, underline all parts of what absurd can be and underline the components for what my work contains from the outside world. Conduct research on all this and find a medium to what my work is and define it. Thoroughly explain how I have seen my project through my process and how I see it now with explanation.

I am most likely to go for 3 as I am determined. I also want to do the work that I enjoy and am interested in. So for now its research and creating my work.

http://203.86.194.7/Images/children/VideoGamefrontwebsml.jpg

Part of the research has been suggested to look at a book called "How to play a video game" by Pippin Barr from Wellington. For the absurdity I have been given a thesis called "The digital absurd" by Steve Hodges.

References

Awa Press Non-Fiction Publishing New Zealand : How to Play a Video Game. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2012, from http://www.awapress.com/products/published/books/TheGingerSeries/howtoplayavideogame

Steve Hodges. (2010, May). The digital absurd. Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Character and the Player

As my project is being fleshed out I am still looking at how I can explain what my work is and the relation it has to outside material. When I set out to do this project I did not think it would be heavily involved in video games, but now not only am I using video games within my work I am also using it as research of my absurdity.

The relation between the game character and the player is important in my project. It is what I have focused on to understand the control between player and character. I do not have a player character though because I want to make sure there is that separation between the player and the character. The character has to be identified as something that does things by itself without the player. Otherwise the player has too much identity with the character.

Uplink. A game based around fictional hacking and getting players to do things in similar style to ARGs.
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/uplink_map.jpg

A post I found to be useful about character/player relationship talks about the definition of the character and how it changes once the player is in control, even doing things opposite to the character's own choices. I try to disconnect this control by allowing the character to be identified as its own, not allowing the player to actually control it but instead influence it.

References

J. Shea. (n.d.). Exploring Believability: The player/character relationship. Exploring Believability. Retrieved from http://exploringbelievability.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/playercharacter-relationship.html

Uplink (video game). (2012, September 29).Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Uplink_(video_game)&oldid=515092449

First draft game

As the weeks begin to become less and less I have made a schedule for the production period of my project to follow so I don't overload myself at the very end. I see that if I keep to this schedule I will understand what needs to be done and how much time I have left.

Prototype version. There is a small man on the top

So far for the first week the production has been going well. Most of my initial goals for the week that I thought could be troublesome have been completed. There is though something I believe may have a large impact to my work and that is the way I code. I have made a lot of it very simple so it does not take up too much of my time and not learning and adapting to the smoother ways of programming. This means I have been making excess amount of code that could make things difficult for finding where my errors are coming from or create more errors for me. I do think that the more practical I am the more I can learn the coding and go back to the old work and clean it up.

I have found the tutorials to have been adequate in providing me quick solutions I can use for reference. I was sceptical at first as I could barely remember exactly the way of writing the code but I have come to learn that that is not the way I learn. I learn by using the code and understanding its purpose when I have to use these methods from scratch.

Also the copyright of using the code from others I know will need to be referenced. That is why I have started creating a list of forums, websites, tutorials etc. of all the useful solutions I found for my project.

References

Controlling Uncertainty: Learning and Decision Making in complex worlds. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://qmul.academia.edu/MagdaOsman/Books/425419/Controlling_Uncertainty_Learning_and_Decision_Making_in_complex_worlds

My Entrepreneur presentation

Here is the link to my presentation video.

I had fun creating this video. I hope it doesn't come across as being arrogant.

Game tutorials

I have been working hard on these tutorials for XNA game development for the past week and have been able to produce 4 games from them, in each one there are some key skills to learn about the language. These games are the result of going through the tutorials as you learn each step to creating them. It has been a lot to take in for a week and I dont think I can easily start my game from scratch. I will look at using a structure of one of the other games and taking aspects of the tutorials to implement into my game. While going through the tutorials I was able to document the different tasks each game went through and I can see these tasks are similar to what I want to do.

One of the games you get to create in the tutorials.
http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/packtlib/protected_files/9781849690669/graphics/0669_02_01.jpg

The next step is to write the structure of the game so I can look at it from a programming perspective. I still have a deadline to have a very simple draft version by next Friday. I want to stick to my goals.

References

Kurt Jaeger. (2011). XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner’s Guide – Visual Basic Edition | Packt Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-xna-4-0-game-development-by-example-beginners-guide/book?tag=as/xna-abr1/1211

Silhouette cards

Karin my main tutor was able to give our project team a better understanding of what it is for something to be absurd. I have already thought that my work can be absurd but wasn't quite sure how to explain it all. Now I have been reassured that I am on the right track and can clarify it with a stronger and assuring answer.

Two faces, one vase.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiH3weZZvoGNGpRqsSCeI_qeoyTEy8yQ86ZEOH_wpRp70dA-O02ZSj4VmiauHbu0A71uu1w8MwQiP26hqwEIdgtaKthF5wHwAzueZLf-Lyz-opt3HPNjyO9JtQn7UxqiKaTOT1jMJ4pW4/s1600/Rubins_Vase_Illusion1.gif

My catalyst for the player's interest in the puzzle world is still in deep construction. The more I begin to think about it the more I think it needs curiosity. I have thought of using the famous heart card faces as there will be familiarity with them and when they do not look right it could bring on the urge to 'fix' them. They also can bring good metaphorical reference as they each have a dark past about them. From talking with the tutors I was able to get some good feedback about it becoming silhouette style to give it some uniqueness to it as well as creating some confusion to what they are when muddled. I still want to stick to a colour code to guide the player of where the images are meant to align. 

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5atw7rESf1rvgxklo1_400.jpg

The other piece of feedback was to use more than one image for the silhouettes. I could use the space inbetween the card faces to have another image like the vase and two faces silhouette. Another (easier) option could be to put the second image inside the first one. This I thought would be a good opportunity to use the card jokers that will fit in well with my concept. The jokers won't be able to be recognised as much when the image is muddled up and could be some fun to play around with.