Blog

Introduction

A team consisting of Eloisa Dawson, Bernardo Viola, Dean Rands and George Rickard was formed to

produce a game within the themes of loneliness.

Based off of Ella Dawson’s loneliness research, as a team we tried to break down loneliness to

understandable, singular aspects to build a new idea from.

I and George recorded podcast sessions in which we shared and discussed ideas using. We used

Audacity to record and two Snowballs capture audio. George then used his and my audio files to

synchronise and upload them.

Here is a link to George’s blog page where he uploaded our team’s podcast content:

https://www.epticx.com/podcasts

Foundations for Ideation

Idea One

The foundation for the first idea to generate further from was established out of concepts George

was thinking about on continuing after someone. Team discussions attempted to develop this idea

and the content to these iteration are referenced in one of our podcast sessions. *Full conversation

on podcast sessions*

As a team, we were interested on the basis that people didn’t have direct help from each other, but

they would still somehow help each other. The idea that came from this was that ‘people have value

they can give to each other and over time achieve, or hand down something of value that came

from their own previous efforts’. *Full conversation on Episode 2 Part 1 podcast session*

Idea Two

The team discussed the concept of loneliness from Ella’s research further and together came up with

a second constraint to build from. This conversation was reiterated in our podcast sessions. *Full

conversation on podcast sessions* We broke down loneliness into another phrase to pivot from,

the idea that ‘Being understood makes you feel less lonely because someone acknowledges the

way in which you are to make sense, so you can communicate with them and in doing so it feels

like you are able to share something’.

Like the first idea, we all went away again and came back with new ideas to present in order to have

another to develop. The content of these conversations outcomes and reasoning can also be found

by listening to our podcast. *Full conversation on podcast sessions*

Idea Three

Breaking down the topic of loneliness more, we all agreed one thing that caused this was ‘An

expectation of company that goes unfulfilled’. From this phrase we went away and came back to

share various ideas based around it. All the content and outcomes referenced for this task are in our

team podcast sessions. *Full conversation on podcast sessions*

I and Dean went away to think around this idea together and developed ideas based on it.

Idea One (Personal)

I got started on my first idea. This idea was eventually unused.

I thought I would first figure out how to give a person a way of thinking to facilitate an outcome of

loneliness. Obviously, a thought process isn’t the same as an undesired circumstance, but the

outcome produced is the same. Plus, personal stories are more impactful to me than a general

understanding of what the concept of something is as a whole. For example, I care about the idea of

romance, but watching ‘Love Actually’ was to me a bore when I was watching the characters I wasn’t

interested in just to represent many perspectives love could be felt. A personal story feels more like

reality and relatable - It’s hard to care for statistics than it is for a single, personal case of tragedy

that’s trusted the recipient to hear about. I think that’s also why I liked reading The Perk of Being a

Wallflower, because they were all letters directed and entrusted to me. Regardless, this doesn’t

change the fact that the problem I’m trying to create is self-inflicted instead of the more common

case of unwanted social disconnect. I think this could however be used as a way to better

understand loneliness in a logical sense for more people to understand the idea if the character

attempts to live around their specific loneliness and how everything else is affected by it.

The quote I chose to build from was in Ella Dawson’s ‘Loneliness’ section of her Power Point

presentation. The quote being “Everyone who realises at all what human life is must feel at some

time the strange loneliness of every separate soul; and then the discovery in others of the same

loneliness makes a strange new tie, and a growth of pity so warm as to be almost a compensation

for what is lost.” by Bertrand Russel. I wondered what could happen if a person were unable to

resolve this realisation appropriately.

I created this person as a response to the idea that people are alone in existing and finding ways for

this to cause an inability to find company.

Some possible problems for the character to resolve within the context of a narrative can be as follows: What is there we can leave that anyone may find and grasp our meaning of? If exact thoughts are unable to be shared for what they meant to mean – our thoughts only individual, inexact attempts at understanding one another’s, how could we ever understand each other if even just singular thoughts are incapable of being explained, or what the extent of worth each other are offering? Logical and kind people do not share and a kind person does not listen. Those who find connections become lost having deluded themselves into believing their closeness. Giving in to a moment of solace in this fantasy creates an unavoidable and unmanageable

comparison with what is objectively real – attachment becomes subjectively real once relied on and replaces objectivity. An unnatural ‘void’ can develop in which everything revolves around looking to fill a new found emptiness of the experience of the self from having forced a connection onto another. In other words, connection is the replacement term in turn of selfish, care or worse, love. With this understood, anything said cannot be an exchange. It’s at another with malicious intent regardless of reasons by always disregarding the personal affection felt when acted upon for its outcome. And it’s knowing you have lied to yourself with the knowledge that we can never be understood to feel understood. To have listened is indulgent in a fiction where desperate loneliness can be circumstantial. Being capable of choice from multiple options makes us better able to make ones more informed than others, but having the potential to think about more than necessary opens the possibility to pick wrong, so there are somethings we should not learn to maintain both sanity and reasonable thoughts. What others can mean to us - the only thing they can mean to us is nothing. Loneliness is a disease passed on by the darkest us. The best anyone can be is alone and respectfully care inwardly. Problems with Communication To have even thought of the words to coherently say aloud is a misrepresentation of what was the case because it’s constrained to a format as a way to communicate it so that others may also make sense of partial selections from the whole. An honest thought is an unspoken, uncompromising one that does not take other forms to be validated - We know this, but pretend it isn’t the case. That’s why people have the line “there are no words…”, or “words cannot express…” at important times we know not to distort what’s ours and real. Music is the same. The artist wastes their time because it becomes the listener’s understanding of it making it the listener’s music. The most we can do is stay out of it, or risk further abstracting the original understanding with only familiar concepts. Problems with Friends Even if a connection were real, it couldn’t be nurturing because people have preferences, which again is another way to say conditions and with time these conditional standards they knew as of that specific time people to have will no longer be met because people change and so each dependant person will eventually be let down if people are to remain true. Companions are even worse. Sharing with another is a way to kill individuality, stances and ideas with whoever receives this treatment. Nurturing, teamwork, companionship - this introduction of another for help is making deals with compromise agreeing to be lesser expressions of ourselves to find common ground. It’s forfeiting a genuine existence and living through other people’s standards. Problems with Legacy Memories with a purpose which are unable to be understood from the beginning will not produce the intended outcomes of the messenger. Why leave behind some Grande legacy when its outcome is going to be left unseen regardless of interpretation again and again? The message would be a likeness that becomes vaguer and more disconnected from each person passing it on. There is no purpose for investment of care and effort when everything is just based on limited time. What we feel at any moment is all there can be and this does not matter or affect the future in any significant way.

I brought this idea to the podcast idea presentation.

George thought this idea was too extreme to have a person change their minds from. He explained

people who think this way were too stubborn to change and if I wanted to have a game in which

people could believe and understand the person they were playing as they had to be written in a less

intense way. George was right, so I agreed; people generally would probably not be able to connect

with someone whose reaction is so unreasonable compared to the standard way of thinking. I do still

believe the character should be kept this way however - I wanted a personal story for the character,

but also such a clear cut contrast between what was right to do with what wasn’t to better point out

a mistake for the audience. I wanted this black and white to be obvious because even though it’s not

subtle, the audience could easily see, understand and specifically pick out what the matter was with

the behaviours that make loneliness worse if presented in an exaggerated way. I thought this was

necessary for writing a character honestly for a narrative, but would also be a good way to open a

conversation about the topic in relation to the character while also getting people to indirectly start

to think and talk about loneliness and the more subtle problems of ways people may exacerbate

their own loneliness without the game’s themes seeming like they’re telling them off.

Idea One (Used)

George Rickard and Dean Rands had an idea together. It started from a conversation about how

their single player experience of Fallout 4 was made better when having found that another player

had also been through the same experience as them even though it was a single player game, but it

felt like they had done it together. George started then to look at parallel worlds from this. This was

said to the team which then started to discuss about how to pass something on to someone else.

Full conversation on podcast sessions. George came up with the idea that like scientists who

continuously work to based off of each other’s findings in order to further our understanding, the

player could have the same task of passing on their contributions to another for them to accomplish

something using what was given to them.

As a team we shared our ideas and thoughts around this and continued bouncing off of each other

to develop the idea that we wanted for our game. Using *Full conversation on podcast sessions*

the outcomes from these conversations, George Rickard wrote a concise abstract on our team’s

Discord to use as potential reference. It’s as follows:

As a team we decided against the idea of spirits because ghosts don’t relate with the rest of the

theme. Plus, ghosts are dumb. Vampires and Bowsette are where it’s at.

And as a team, overtime an idea developed where in this world you could find other communities.

These communities would serve the purpose of giving the player the impression of their own

individual importance; they would make them feel important as if the main character and give them

tasks that help their community. A pleasant place to be.

These communities would be understood as a sort of siren – they will attempt to lure the player,

recruit them to stay and use up their play time. Over time the player is to know these communities

are those who have given up and refused to venture further towards the landmark, living in fear of

the potential dangers and using the people who wander by to help them live easier together.

This is meant to be a critique on how a person is generally not individually important when doing

things only for themselves in the moment and short term, has no goals, doesn’t think about the

future and puts in effort for the sake of safety. They’re meant to be a stagnation point in which the

player is made to feel good, but eventually just loses time and meaning because these people will do

everything to make the player important by continuously having things to do to make things better

around them. This desperation is meant to be seen as begging because the player holds no

importance to strangers and won’t hold any further importance regardless of their effort with the

principles around being afraid these communities have. We thought this was a good way to bring

out our idea that people are a good influential part of our lives that gives us purpose and it isn’t just

about self-gratification. This time wasting would have made it so the player would have made it

tougher for themselves to complete their main task sooner and been less helpful for the next

person; this could be a way to make the player think critically of how important limited time is and

so to try using it meaningfully.

Idea One Prototype

Dean, our coder came up with the idea of seeds as a means to do this. Out of that came a joint effort

that made the idea of asynchronous play – the idea that the player and every other player is

contributing a value to each other, but taking it in turns to do this one at a time.

Idea Two (Personal) (Used)

My second game idea began from a short conversation I had with Venny [Insert second name here].

We acknowledged language isn’t the only way to communicate and is only one possible option.

There are other perceptions used to understand people like simply observation, body language, tone

etc. Mainly, we spoke about what would happen if we were to remove that was usually used in

combination to communicate anything. Basically, a language barrier of some kind because that was

the main way things got conveyed. I wondered what would happen if people were never heard, but

you could read what they had to say and how that would affect anything, I thought about what

would happen if people could hear each other, but had no facial expressions and how that would

affect things, what would happen if words were heard as gibberish, but you could understand the

intention in them or if a few could be picked up on how that would change interpretation. *Full

conversation on Episode 3 podcast session* Eventually, I thought more carefully about music being

this barrier that can convey ideas and cause feelings without words and without being seen.

Based off my conversation with Venny, I pitched this idea to the team:

Sounds along with their pitch are a universal way to communicate. The same can be said for music. These things change the way people feel without the real world stimulus. Anyway, this means that regardless of person people can be brought together to find common ground, or to feel the same way. It may be an interesting idea to have a multiplayer game in which you and others investigate different communities you are unable to understand, or how to directly communicate with. The purpose is for everyone to find a way around this in order to learn the meaning to and how to use their instruments. This can be done by mimicking the playing of each of their traditional instruments. Or maybe have long dead communities and so you have to piece together [insert strange ancient remnants here] with your group to figure out how they would have used their music along with their stories. The point of finding and piecing together bits of information is to increase communication between the players to share their thinking and wonder together. The ending to the game could be to have a built up an orchestra of many players playing at once because an orchestra cannot be played without the help of many people to make the piece sound complete and encouraging people to know something larger can only be achieved through cooperation. To get people to work together and understand that this is important maybe a mechanism to a door can start to unlock further the more people join in. This can be the same as the nightmares Mae has in Night in the Woods in which instruments continuously get added into the track as you progress. So the player would take away that team work gets you further. Inside you would find enough pencils to represent the effort of everyone and enough to go around for each player. They are pencils as a homage to the economic essay titled, ‘I, Pencil’ By Leonard Read in which the idea is that nobody can alone make a pencil, it requires many different skillsets to make it.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I,_Pencil

https://medium.com/@GrowthIntel/nobody-knows-how-to-make-a-pencil-eddd37bef202

I gave this idea to the group and they seemed to be interested in it. Specifically, they were interested

in the idea that they could interact with and learn about other cultures through their instruments

(real or fictional) and that music would be what communication centred on because it can be

understood by everyone. They also thought the idea that to build something more requires more

people and that layers of instrument was a nice way to show it. What specifically would be the way

players would learn is not yet certain.

Given the time we had, multiplayer was dropped because it was a commitment that needed to be

decided if it was going to add anything after the final idea was in place. The pencil thing was also

dropped because it also didn’t add to the main togetherness music idea the orchestra connection

represented. The group discussion kept the idea focused on the relevant information and made sure

the connection concept would not get confused with other parts that weren’t building or improving

upon this.

Ella Dawson brought up her idea which was thought to be similar enough to mine that both could be

merged together. During our podcast she said that people when they don’t personally care about

each other they are dehumanized, but care and humanize a person that they can begin to know

more about, so over time start to see the other person as an actual person. The idea that this could

be done visually by slowly revealing the character that was initially blank as you interact with them

was dropped later on after a prototype of it was made.

George Rickard also had a an idea that could in some way be translated as another piece to make

this idea bigger. He referred to the story of the Tower of Babel – generally it was the idea that

people were getting close to the same ‘level’ as god themselves and had become versed at acting as

one unit. God punished them for this by changing the languages they all spoke ‘The splintering of

language’ and where they were in the world so that they could no longer communicate. This later

became the idea that people slowly found each other, joined up and made their way to a tower.

Idea Two (Rewrite)

The group spoke about prototypes and went through various ideas that bounced off of each other to

try an express what the game was trying to show. *Full conversation on podcast sessions*

I mentioned how we could have something like in Night in the Woods when Mae played on her

guitar and the more accurately you could play the song the more the backgrounds became animated

and coloured. People seemed to then be interested in this and so adapted it so that the character

and all participating NPCs would become more animated overtime. This end up being dropped.

From Ella’s humanisation idea, I suggested that the environment could maybe also be non-descript

and characterless, along with the NPCs. As you’d play music together with the other NPCs you would

start to see the background pieces come into the scene and give it more life. I thought this could be

a way to build on Ella’s idea that people are only able to be care for each other once you start some

sort of relationship with them. This could be a way an understanding of the person could be shown,

by revealing where they came from and so what influenced them to appreciate what has made parts

of this person and also for the player themselves to finally have something tangible to take an

interest in. No one took interest in this idea.

After a development discussion with the group about this visual prototype idea, George came up

with the idea that you could find a vague figure of an NPC playing music in the environment based

off Ella’s idea that you can change your apathetic perspective on someone by knowing them. You

could then take the opportunity to make the music a more interesting piece by performing a duos

act with them. After having found an understanding of their rhythm to be able to play with them,

the background would disappear, leaving behind only the two characters to represent the

connection they were making and only then their visual features would become defined. No music

would be included in this prototype, or any unison of performances. Just the visual transition.

Ella, the artist was chosen to create the visual prototype.

George’s Babel idea managed to filter through to give the musical game concept a plausible

backstory and context for why the world was this way. George was researching pre Adamic language

and how at some point everyone could communicate with each other using the same language. He

then used his research to create the idea that language had been split and lost, but each community

now uses different traditional instrument families to communicate and tell stories. Music has

become a universally understood language, but communities are scattered and isolated from one

another. You, the main character with your own instrument, are attempting to connect with people

and understand them through playing music together to create a connection. This makes the

characters move away from their lonely solos.

I suggesting an addition to this, that maybe as more musical instruments played together to form

the more complete score the background noise and ambiance would gradually drown out and only

the musical track could be heard to make it seem further like a pocket universe with only what was

being created the unmistakable focus of the interaction. Everyone thought this would be more effort

than was necessary when we already had the visual prototype so this was dropped.

Idea Two Prototyping

Dean Rands, our coder concentrated on the interaction between the player and other NPCs. He

came up with a game mechanic prototype in which the player had to follow another performance’s

pace by using the left analogue stick’s rotation to control how high or low a horizontal line was

within a designated box to follow another independently moving line in another designated box next

to the player’s. In between these boxes there was empty space. If the player were able to sustain

this rhythm the more another box between theirs and the other NPC’s would become opaque,

replacing the empty space and showing it was being done correctly.

This prototype that Dean made was tested by all of the team. Apart from the team, I had 3 issues.

I suggested that using the left stick was weird and felt wrong because I’m bad at generally

coordinating precisely with my left hand. I’m right handed, first of all and so are most people, so

using the right stick made more sense. In games I would also use the right stick to affect most of my

movement than use the left stick to change my orientations trajectory (basically, I play shooters and

this is the dedicated stick for precision) – I wouldn’t ever make the left stick catch up to the right one

unless I was specifically making the camera catch up to my movement in turning around, or made it

work together with the right stick to play aggressively during a sprint, or to make minimal changes to

my position. Point was that the left stick is hardly used for precision, but the right one gets most of

the attention. George agreed it would make more sense that the right stick was used for precision.

Dean later changed this so that either stick could be used. I found it more comfortable this way and

so did George and the game became more comfortable, pleasant and enjoyable to play with. Ella

had gotten used to the stick on the left and so didn’t find it any easier with the change, so maybe it

just takes time. But then, me and George prefer to use controllers to play games unlike Dean. To be

honest, Dean plays more platformers with a controller, so using the left stick for precision likely

made more sense to him. I guess the prototype is more accessible now no matter which stick is

subjectively easiest.

The second thing I pointed out was that the stick worked as if it utilised 360 degrees of movement

from 0 to 360. I had to concentrate so hard on getting it exactly right that I stopped being able to

focus on anything else, or being able to hear to get it right. If this were coupled with in-game music I

wouldn’t be able to appreciate or understand this main theme of the game due to the difficulty. To

amend this I suggested changing the further from 0 you got the further along your own bar would

move until it capped at 360 and if it touched the 0 (which happened very often for everyone) causing

your bar to teleport to the opposite end. I explained that changing it to 0 to 180 and 0 to -180

degrees would make the flicking bar stop and give the player more intuitive control over the line by

making it so that when at the top of the analogue stick the line would be up high too and if you were

pointing down it would be there. When Dean made this change I and George found it more

comfortable and easier. Ella thought it was marginally easier. However, everyone wanted the

original 360 degrees back anyway; they said that they liked the more challenging aspect.

My third piece of criticism was personally that artistically the feedback from the game could make

more sense. I suggested the gradual appearance of another square to show the player was doing

well could change. I explained that the concept of understanding could come through in this

prototype by the player’s and the NPC’s boxes slowly moving closer together the better the player

did. They could then merge to become one in which you could see both your line and the NPCs

sharing the same space at the same time to represent understanding. Plus, in music according to the

team, it’s normal to lose your place when playing together and that the lines over the same box

worked nicely to show this need to read where they were. The team preferred the new game

feedback. This was also easier understand because the boxes were far apart before and so it was a

bit hard to interact when you had to look at your own line, recognize where it was, look at the NPC

line, recognize where it was, observe how it was moving and change yours when you had to focus on

two different areas of the screen to look at the same time.

Adam’s Feedback

We all got a talking to by our lecturer, course leader and master snack thief, Adam. Basically, we had

to stop using the Google Sprint Method because it didn’t work for us and we were doing it wrong.

Apparently we were too ridged with it and made it so that we were all so dependent on each other

that nothing would get done unless everyone could agree to it. It was causing potential work to not

be created and only spoken about because we didn’t want to make something and iterations that

were going to change later when the idea was refined.

We stopped this pretty late on unfortunately, but started working more independently and just

catching each other up on what we were up to.

Idea Three (Personal)

Based off of Adam’s feedback that we were being too unproductive, Dean and myself got put on the

task of coming up with the third idea to maybe lean back on while everyone else got on with

furthering the existing ones to save lost time.

This was concept three:

The idea I presented to Dean that fulfilled this criteria came from the way I experience things. When

I think about a thought or doing something, it always seems wasted and not real like I had explained

in the podcast when it isn’t shared with someone else. But *Full conversation on podcast sessions*

there are also times when this isn’t the case and I see something, think something about it, am able

to share it, but the other person doesn’t see it that way I had and was expecting them to as well. It’s

a bit sad and it doesn’t feel like the situation was acknowledged for the same value I had for it.

I thought this could be translated into a game idea where in a multiplayer environment each player

shares the same space, but perceives it differently across screens to represent the idea that we

interpret the world differently as different people, or each player has a separate task only they are

able to solve with their personal skills, so need each other to progress, even though they are unable

to help each other, which could be understood as co-operative dependence in order to do

something they could not do alone. Not being able to see the same as the other person, but

traversing something only through dependant communication, or solving the same joint puzzle with

tasks only each person can accomplish could be a way of utilising each other’s differing perspectives

to overcome challenges and gain an appreciation for being different and therefore replacing being

misunderstood. This could make the player’s perspective become more positive about differences

they could not change and so have a broader understanding of their own thoughts.

We went with this idea and after a discussion with Dean he pointed out it would be best for both

players to be able to see what each other were able to do. Sharing the same space, but being able to

perceive differently and interacting in a personal, contextualised way was more similar to my

original thought of an expectation of what something was.

The prototype I offered was based on changing water levels. One player with a button is able to

change water levels and the other player with the other button can reset this change. With this

foundation other pieces in the environment can be thrown in to make it more fun and puzzle like.

I made some bad illustrative sketches for Dean of a potential puzzle with this water mechanic to

explain.

Dean didn’t go with this idea. He did think it was a representation of ways we could have the

characters in the same physical space and was a consistent mechanic than can be used to produce

different puzzles, but there wasn’t a clear thematic reason for being this way.

Idea Three (Used)

Dean did much of his own development on idea 3. He explained his concept to me and Ella. The idea

was that you could pass things through a mirror to yourself from the past to present, or from the

present to past. The point of this was to metaphorically think about how things could have been

different if you had known something at a different point. A very narrative orientated prototype.

Dean wrote down Ella’s and my suggestions to this.

My first suggestion was that maybe there could be something you were given that you could not

understand or appreciate at the time, but in the future when you really needed it, it would become

contextualised to be valuable and helpful, or stopped the character from becoming someone they

didn’t want to be.

I had second idea about how you might not have gotten someone’s second name when you were

younger and so after moving away you could never find them again; therefore your life would have

an important person missing. This thought could be brought about maybe during the blow up of

Facebook.

I also mentioned a third idea where you are the only person who is able to do something, but are

completely unprepared. This could cause the person to have to reconsider what they have done with

their life to make it meaningful and worthwhile. From this self-imposed responsibility they would do

what they could to become a person who’s capable and can be relied on.

I had a fourth idea that if a person were to be uncomfortable with taking photographs that after a

person dies this could make them change their view because not having recorded a memory means

they can’t look back as clearly and appreciate what they had. This could show the importance of

taking pictures throughout your life.

And lastly, I gave Dean the song ‘Riding to New York’ by ‘Passenger’ which I though was a useful song

to consider being about a man who’s dying and made a bunch of mistakes that have left him

distanced from the people he cared about, but with the little time he has left is taking his bike and

riding to be with the people he cares about and apologise to them. It relates to the Dean’s idea

because it’s the man apologising for who he’s been – the regret is in not having been better in the

past.

Team Communication Reflection…

Giving feedback takes time. I should have been done helping Dean when I left him with the water

level prototype to have another concept in place; so if he wanted to he could work something else

out himself. Being involved in other people’s work when I don’t have to, seriously gets in my way

and uses up my time. It means I have to remember what I said, why it was relevant and write about

things that delay me on my own side of the project, instead of just getting on after I’m done helping

a team member. I want to help, but because we need to document everything, my time could have

been used where it was needed more. But it also doesn’t feel right to not help the project idea be

better and not help team members.

I feel like I shouldn’t talk to my team out of fear I might be useful to them and have to write about it.

I haven’t done anything for multiple reasons I don’t want to use as an excuse, but because of this

catching up on blog stuff for the helping reason, it doesn’t help progression. But we’ll see how it

goes to just cut myself off a bit from the team.

I’m thankfully getting some research shared with me by George because he saw that I was worried.

And here I am saying I’m going to distance myself from the team when a team member approaches

me to help and I accept like an idiot that can’t follow their own word. I clearly don’t know what I’m

doing.

Idea Two

As a team, we decided idea two would be best.

Idea Two Necessities

I decided to make a list for the team of all the things that needed to get done for idea 2 so it was

possible to be made properly and so we could differentiate which the most important elements for

development were. I then asked the rest of the group what their own concerns about it were and

added them in.

List of Necessities

The game play would be centred on understanding the playing of an NPC’s music (How specifically is

this Done?) and with your own (string) instrument harmonising with them (How specifically is this

done?). How this feature interaction and gameplay mechanic works has not yet entirely been

resolved. (How could it be resolved? Needs experimental interactions.)

In a non-descript environment you would find someone non-descript (What is this visually inspired

by? Why?).

You would understand the NPCs through the gameplay music interaction (How is expressing

understanding done? What are we wanting the player to have an understanding of?) and they,

along with the environment would become more detailed and coloured (Where do these unique

characteristics come from? Why is this what’s important to be shown? How do we show the

importance of this?). This is how the importance and value of the community would become clear

(What makes it valuable?) to the player (How do we get the player to think it too? What do we

want them to see?).

How does finding and meeting communities work? (What is the purpose and context of presenting

things in this way? What’s it meant to generally be for and lead up to?).

What is the experience we want the user to have? (How do we best cause this?). Our skill set isn’t

prepared to have a music heavy game.

What is the art style?

What will the instruments be based on? (How do we figure this out?)

What kind of music are we making? (What’s the solution to determining this?)

How are we producing music? (What software will we need? Ask James how to start going about

this and prepare questions for him.)

How does the narrative get shown? (What is the narrative?) Are there cutscenes?

Do NPCs communicate verbally and try to talk to you, talk to you after you have played music with

them, or is music the only form of communication? (Needs considering.)

Who’s mainly responsible for making the music? (I would have to be sacrificed…) Research into

harmonies and how different tonal ranges and instruments play into that.

How to approach the musical interface and how gameplay happens. (Needs consideration.) - Music

played in response to other pieces? – Dean’s idea.

Pros and Cons

We don’t know how to write music or play it, but we would need a versed number of musical talents

if the instruments were based on real ones.

The game would look and feel gradually better, overtly implying the idea of how moving away from

loneliness has an upward spiral by finding understanding, cooperation and creation.

After discussing the necessities we tried to figure out which were the more immediate questions and

came up with a more focused list.

Prominent Necessity Questions

How does finding and meeting communities work? (What is the purpose and context of presenting

things in this way? What’s it meant to generally be for and lead up to?).

What is the experience we want the user to have? (How do we best cause this?). Our skill set isn’t

prepared to have a music heavy game.

How does the narrative get shown? (What is the narrative?) Are there cutscenes?

Do NPCs communicate verbally and try to talk to you, talk to you after you have played music with

them, or is music the only form of communication? (Needs considering.)

How is the game going to play in terms of controllers?

How are we going to show that a character has connected?

List of Personal Necessities

Research up to two small indie team 3D modelling pipelines. Produce a break down that can be

referred to. Implement them into my own work.

Maybe use Ella Dawson’s illustrations to produce possible 3D concepts to practice pipelines.

3D Pipelines and UsTwo

I tried to find 3D pipelines from indie companies with reasonably sized developers that we could try

base our work ethic around and this is what I found.

Playdead

We are a relatively small team of independent developers with a very flat management

structure. Our design process consists of iteration combined with a sensible approach to

deadlines. We experiment and collaborate with a focus on creating new experiences, and as

such we hire people who can help us achieve them. As a part of the team we expect you to

define your own work and pursue your own personal goals in collaboration with the group.

Giant Squid

I watched a GDC video on YouTube on the making of the art for ABZU by Matt Nava, the

creative director from Giant Squid. During this talk he spoke about an alternate method of

production for animation work they figured out which saved them money, time and need for

animators. They had a problem during their production - they had over 200 different species

of fish in their game. With traditional rigging, their first attempt only allowed for 30 fish on

screen. They then developed a method of animation that didn’t require rigs. They used a

method called ‘Static Mesh Instancing’ which used a shaders to produce all the movement .

This allowed for over 10,000 fish on screen. This isn’t really relevant to us at the moment,

but it’s worth knowing about.

No one really talks about 3D pipelines clearly, so this was a waste. Even though this was a waste, I

did find ‘Static Mesh Instancing’ and shared it with the team. It seems that now it will be used in our

own game.

However, I prepared questions on 3D pipelines to ask the studio, UsTwo which we would be visiting.

Here are the answers given by UsTwo on 3D pipelines. It was basically ‘whatever suits the project

best’.

Here is all of what I wrote that they said on the trip.

Class feedback to presentation.

Absolva – fighting game. Communicate to fighting or not.

Rhyme is doing something similar.

Seems like Journey the way you can communicate through music, but improving upon it.

LONINESSS

there was a game where if you die, your son/daughter continues your legacy/dungeon style I think it was

completing objects on a vertical axis?

# indirect COmms

💥💥💥💥 MINUT GAME

ustwo Games Monument Valley

1 player - players arrive to new puzzles

Complex

Seed based game

I like the idea of being able to pass on a game "save" to another or several people for them to carry on, would there be an

area where you can start from others saves or journey around the game on your own?

As nice as the prototype is, it does not seem as fun as some of your other ideas.

community play

# IDEA 2

💥💥💥💥💥

Music comms

understanding

play music -

Listening music is a effective method to cure the loneliness

Sounds a bit like Journey when you can “communicate” by sounds-ish?

AnAolog stick visuals

May need music Composing and arranging abilities, Also deeper research in this typical field.

May refer to Deemo (mobile game)

Love the little animation, the themes, and motifs

MUSIC !!??? WHAT TYPE

portfolios !- the game !!

obsovlver game

# 3

past items

see it like a mobile game/ phone is the mirror itself?

EMMA game ref? what was that perspectives narrative - Gorogoa’

Ryhym game

George showed interest in this art style and thought the game could look good this way. I supported

the idea after reasoning that based off of Ella’s loneliness research; people who are lonely

perpetuate this state further by interpreting things negatively and having an already defeated

attitude. This is an unrealistic and biased way to view the world, but the art style reflects this by

being a drawing without finer detail. Because the style is a reinterpretation and loneliness leans to

one side of understanding, the image works to express this skewed view that things are imagined.

Gameplay Mechanics

Everyone attempted to designate and fulfil specific roles to complete the project. I was asked to

handle mechanics, but little did anyone know, this was their mistake.

The team had a few initial ideas to be adhered to. The feeling we want to produce at the beginning

of the game is generally an uncertain uplifting one whilst on this journey to find a more fulfilling

feeling of togetherness alone. The more prominent hopeful feeling comes from the journey in this

lone state when trying to find another amongst communities with which to play music and achieve

an understanding of each other. The uncertainty specifically comes from being alone when unsure of

the lone situations future.

As the game progresses by having achieved each outcome of understanding through playing with

another, the original starting track when alone adapts too. The uncertain track would progressively

become more confident and the uplifting, hopeful feeling would become excitement, anticipation

and triumphant.

I began thinking of ways to bring out the qualities of loneliness we were handling and how to change

them to leave this place.

I thought this progressing transition from the starting point of the lone track to another feeling lent

itself well to cinematography. If we could get a consistent way of showing the journey whenever the

character had to transition to another community (for example, a lone boat out at sea can look

secluded and lonely by having a lot of blue from the ocean and making the boat look like a small

thing at long distances, or it can look like a dangerous journey by having the boat travelling and

tracked close to the edge of the screen not knowing what’s ahead of it) then with cutscenes we

could change the meaning of the same scene setting using different compositions, editing and

camera movements to reinforce, or create new feelings (for example, more dynamic shots with a

moving camera makes the journey more natural and comfortable by being aware of your

surroundings and open to safely exploration by being less ridged, or character close ups for it to feel

more personal and about the character’s journey). By using cinematography with the music it could

be another way to show the player the positive effects of having found someone to communicate

with effectively in a clearer way. I guess then the player could maybe arrive at the new community

by the end of the track and continue onto the next stage.

Adam said he didn’t like cutscenes and we should find another way to transition between levels,

both because we haven’t seen cutscenes in games for a long time and you become a passive viewer

instead of interacting. That and our game doesn’t seem to have a place for cutscenes. I agreed to

this critique.

This isn’t relevant to mention, but I thought cutscenes could still have their place because of the way

in which they can tell stories differently from the constraints video games have, when made

thoughtfully. I had a short discussion with Adam about how you can get specific things like facial

movement and compositions included clearly in the game and produce the exact meaning intended.

I had explained how annoying it was for me when in games characters were talking and the camera

was too far away from the characters in third person, behind the character so I couldn’t see my own

character’s reaction, or an intractable camera that made it so that I tried to do other thing like look

for collectibles when I’m talking to an NPC. Physical interactions are important to have a more

meaningful way of showing something and if I’m too far away I can’t feel like I’m supposed to be

part of the interaction. Adam quickly got up some articles, one which had a good point was that

‘people want to be playing video games, not made to sit down and watch a film’. This made me feel

bad for failing the people who had this reasonable opinion when picking up an interactive medium,

but I still think a mixed medium can be used for the reasons I stated. The scene in The Last of Us

where Sarah dies would not have been the same if I was able to move around and look for

collectibles – because that’s what I would have been doing. The scene was amazing because it was

well made – the camera kept panning from Joel’s desperation down to his dying daughter, then to

Tommy as if asking for help and then back to Joel and Sarah all while taking up the entire frame so

none of the emotional moment was missed. The camera just sitting there not doing anything even

showed how hopeless everything was acting like a person having given up on trying to go anywhere.

Adam responded that maybe this needed to be fixed and there could be another way to show story.

I agreed. This project doesn’t have the time, or need to figure out how to best show story if it isn’t

necessary.

I came with the idea that the player could choose play music from a selection of tracks while on

their way to their next location. There was no reason for being able to play music as the player

explored; the purpose of it was having the option to. The player would start off being able to play

a limited number of tracks, but the more the player accomplished through playing music with

different communities and progressing through the game the more the track list options would

increase. This could be used to show what the player has learnt and taken from other communities

by being able to do more by conveying more because they put the effort into understanding

another. The game feedback would already mean the player is progressing properly, but I think a

reward as a memento makes it look like it’s affected the player character.

Ella and George gave feedback on my idea that having different expression of sadness for each

community’s solo track and having the player slowly work their way in with their own music,

changing it to something more hopeful was a lot of work. They instead proposed that we be aware

from the beginning of every instrument that will be involved in the orchestra, create a single track

in which every instrument is already involved and then split them apart. As a then single

instrument track it could play part of the final track in some way so that later the player will

recognize the track and already kind of know how to play it. This way when the orchestra finally

comes together we’ll also know that the instruments will complement each other.

Ella and George came up with the idea that a potential way that the player could communicate with

each community would be through inflectionally familiar non-verbal sounds (such as confusion or

uncertainty) due to the fact they cannot understand each other’s language. The language the player

character could understand would be their own. They would be able to talk to people from their

own community with non-verbal sounds, but there would be text boxes with English, unlike other

communities that wouldn’t include anything.

They also added to this, saying that even animals within this world would communicate this way

and attempt to converse with you through song. They said it could be used as foreshadowing for

how you will communicate before finding anyone and tie the communication theme together. I liked

the idea, reasoning that animals are another thing people try to communicate with, such as dogs and

cats. I also thought that the inability to communicate and understand is better pointed out when the

futility of communicating with animals is touched on and then people also meet this standard. With

this priming and idea being pivoted, the player can be shown how in this new world people cannot

communicate like they would with those they knew and still understand and accept these rules.

When the player finally meets new people because of their run in with wild life they can compare

the interactions they were able to have with and so better understand the utility of partial

communication through playing music.

Gameplay Mechanic Ideas

No. 1

I thought that it would be a nice idea if when the player was finished with the game they would have

a basic understanding of specific musical instruments and have the theory on how to play them if

they were real. I thought this could be a way to guide people who played the game to find people

and maybe join a musical ensemble of sorts to find something they could be a part of.

I mentioned to Dean how maybe we could use the triggers and bumpers to change how far along an

instrument the player could be. One bumper on trigger would be dedicated to being on a part of the

instrument. He suggested a better way to do it could be pressure based where you change how far

along you are on the instrument depending on how far down the trigger is held. This way, the player

had to be more precise and had more control.

I was pretty unenthusiastic about how the gameplay was going to turnout, it seemed like I wouldn’t

really have creative freedom if I had to follow the same idea as real instruments and it would just be

work. I also couldn’t imagine in my head if it was fun or not.

Having said this to Adam he said that it didn’t really reflect the idea of harmonising with people and

to focus on making the gameplay fun if I didn’t think it would be and make it reflective of the

themes. Having also said this idea to the team they pointed out that in real life that the verbal

communication barrier isn’t there and so they could just speak. I agreed that this sent the wrong

message about how to understand people. They also said the player will be on a controller, so

wouldn’t actually be learning anything. I disagree that the player couldn’t have an understanding of

musical instruments if they were replicating a representation of the necessary rules. It wouldn’t ever

be exact, but people can learn partial elements.

No. 2

It could be a potential idea to have four mini games, one dedicated to each

civilisation/community/area. If the game is about attempting to connect through understanding, it

would imply that you had to go out of your way to understand what you didn’t in order to find

another way. I thought this might be a good idea so that the game didn’t feel repetitive, but still had

the understanding/connection theme of the game in mind.

I asked the team what they thought because I couldn’t come up with these mini games without also

coming up with short stories that could be put them into context of the main story that was yet to

fully come together by them. To illustrate, I used the example that maybe if a community had a thing

about sacred trees on top of a snowy mountain peak to craft their instruments, the player also had

to uphold the tradition by personally shaving the instrument out of the sacred wood, or in some way

show a level of respect for something, whatever that might be that they couldn’t connect with, but

would still go through the effort to prove their ‘worthiness’ to connect and understand with

someone which sees respect as done differently. So it doesn’t really matter what the player is doing,

as long as it isn’t a conventionally understood way of showing respect to represent an attempt at

understanding something, something not done without going out of ones way for another’s

acknowledgement out of information on what they care about.

Dean said that that was going to take time. The rest of the team said it didn’t have music orientated

gameplay and so was just going to be extra work.

I had seen it as a build up to earn the right to play music with others by gaining their respect first,

then play together. However, it is true that it isn’t the music bringing them together in the first place

and it’s more being allowed to join from conditions being met.

No. 3

In response to the original gameplay mechanic created by Dean, I though again that maybe it would

get too repetitive over time, so maybe I should start making the same mechanic (considering Adam

seemed to like it) done in different ways depending on which community you played with.

I was thinking of a tracking mechanic in which the player would have to follow and stay on top of an

NPCs curser with their own using the analogue sticks. This could be how the player stays in time. I

was thinking of adding more complexity to this later.

Dean pointed out that it didn’t have a response to music being played, which is what he had

imagined. Not just that, but it didn’t feel like playing the instrument. I got confused at this because

making the instrument feel realistic wasn’t something the team seemed like they were interested in

having before. After asking about this, they then explained that it was the attempt at realism that

was the problem. The game needed to feel comfortable while playing and that the music was

easing the player through - If the gameplay was too complex there would be a disconnect between

what the music was doing and the player struggling alongside it instead of intuitively playing with

it.

No. 1

No. 4

It seems to feel right to people to physically act out how music makes them feel. For example,

swaying or taping in time. If music is already intuitive for people to interacting with even though it’s

a passive medium in any way, then maybe the same can already be done the same way through a

controller instead?

Arbitrary, intuitive interactions with the controller that translate in accordance to how the music is

feeling could be used. For example, it wouldn’t matter what specifically the player chose to use on

the controller, just that they did it like how the music was paced and felt. This would make the

player feel like they were always doing the right thing as they have known how to and have likely

already done this.

Unfortunately though, it is a controller and so it is not used intuitively in the same way as people use

their own bodies, so that translation would have to be figured out. And not just that, but this idea

doesn’t initially have a way to respond, it’s just a way to connect.

No. 5

I have seen people making art by drawing in time with how music makes them feel as they listen to

it. I used this as my source to inspire similar mechanics.

If we created and held an exercise where a group of people listened to music and on a piece of paper

made expressive line work to show how they were feeling when listening to it we could then find

common ways of expressing specific feelings. We could then take these commonly specific

expressions and abstract those by creating lists of inputs on a controller that represent a certain type

of stroke people regularly used.

Images could progressively reveal themselves and change in time with the music. When it comes

to the gameplay sections, the image could adapt further based on the pre-set translations of

specific types of strokes using the analogue sticks. Each type of analogue stick movement would

have been developed in response to how the music was felt and then drawn in the user exercises.

The more the player made the right stroke decision the more the music would continue.

I have problems with this idea because it doesn’t actively or even directly play music. It’s picking a

thing to represent the playing of music together, but then by just listening passively without

interacting. This feels like it would make it so the player isn’t having the experience themselves and

instead watching it happen for their player character. It’s important to make it so the player is

actively involved specifically in the music for their experience to have happened to them.

I said this to James, our coding lecturer and everyone’s year 2 saviour about some mechanics. I had

mentioned the research exercise I was thinking of making, but he advised against it. He explained

that if what the pool produced would just be random then there wouldn’t be much to take from it,

especially because it wouldn’t have much in common when people feel different things listening to

the same music. I agreed that the exercise likely wouldn’t work for our purposes. James also said

that if the drawing idea was what was going to go through then maybe the iPad should be the

platform we use since you can accurately draw on a touch screen.

No. 6

After mentioning the drawing ideas to James it made him think about Schenkerian analysis. This is a

way for determining the most important structurally harmonic elements of a piece. James said that

using this method of analysis shows that the majority of Western music starts with the high notes

and ends on the low ones, and this is all the structure there is to the piece. The middle is used feely

for writing interesting bits, or experimenting. This middle section is not actually important to the

structure of the piece and so anything can go in it. James then used this to suggest that maybe the

only place the player needs to interact in is the middle section of the piece where they have freedom

from rules to play. This would also make it less work than having the player interact throughout the

whole piece.

James offered a potential game mechanic idea that maybe the player could see the high and low

notes on a music sheet and their task was to respond by drawing on the touch screen the same

notes in the same order, but with the challenge of being a specific distance away higher or lower

from the original notes and keeping that distance constant.

-----------------------------------------

This idea that only the middle is interesting, but irrelevant to the overall structure could also be

done similarly in gameplay form. What the player does in the middle of the track could not actually

be so significant that it changes an outcome through their participation. If gameplay were just for

fun then that could be enough for the player. Music is interpreted differently by whoever listens to it

anyway, so judging whether someone is right, wrong, or the extent of success in a subjective

response would be impossible to decide.

Considering this is a video game though and not a sort of statement on music, the player would

likely get bored from a lack of impact towards anything, so I don’t think this idea will work.

The idea that James had for only playing the middle made sense, but it can also be interpreted in an

opposite way. Maybe the player could instead of playing the middle of the track just introduce and

end the piece if the beginning and end are the only rules that must be in place. This interaction

could maybe be enough for people to feel like they’re also playing and then have a brief break from

concentration to appreciate the track they would have gotten going.

I think this could maybe be a good way to structure the gameplay because I tend to get nervous and

stressed if I’m constantly absorbed in making sure I’m doing the exact right thing for long periods of

time. Hit-the-right-thing-at-the-right-time events are nerve racking and I’m relieved after I’m done

doing them. I think we would want to avoid potential anxiety if what the gameplay interaction

produces is meant to be pleasant and easy going. We would definitely want to avoid making players

concentrate so much that they don’t take in part of the game. If we want the player to feel like

they’re comfortably being eased along the music, able to feel and think about it, then maybe long

periods of constant interaction, or frequent quick successions of interaction maybe not be the best

idea. Plus, listening to the track can even be the player’s reward for successfully completing the

interaction; which would also potentially be good to have player be passive if the game does end

up having imagery form as music plays so they can see it without being too occupied

accomplishing other more urgent tasks.

I explained this idea of structure to George and he agreed that it was a good idea. We explored how

this would work in the game together. Together we tried to figure out how the consequences for

playing badly could be done. We decided that NPCs could have a default looping track if they were

idly playing on their own. If the player were to interact with these NPCs it would start the

harmonising sequence in which a new song would start. If the player played the song correctly

they and the NPC started would be able to continue as the new song progressed. If the player

started to fail then over time their instrument would slowly get drowned out of the track, and if

the player could not recover then the NPC would go back to their default idle playing. Success

means you can be heard and failure means you go unheard.

I said it then to Dean and he wasn’t a sure it was a good idea. He explained that the representation

of a real conversation that comes to a proper understanding would be a back and forth until each

part of the conversation can be progressed on from, so that by the end of all the participants having

kept up with all details and understood them in context of the main concept the thoughts

expressed would be unmistakable as anything other than what it was meant to be understood as.

This would mean that the player would have to take part in all of the musical interactions;

otherwise it seems like even if they didn’t understand something they can still move forward

without consequence and without really understanding, which isn’t possible to be done in a

conversational format. He also used the example that if in an orchestra someone gets something

wrong you would start again and keep trying until it was played right in one take, you wouldn’t

just recover.

Dean suggested that maybe the interactions could be presented in 3 stages, beginning, middle and

end for every character able to be played with. Each time the player was able to complete a stage

it would be another part of the NPC’s feelings the player understood and so they could then move

on to the next stage with a newfound bit of information and appreciation. If not done with this

idea of structuring then the player doesn’t need to listen and understand everything, which is an

inaccurate representation of the game, but still they would accomplish something, giving off the idea

that things can be partially understood and it’s still be good enough when it isn’t right.

George had issue with the 3 stage idea. He explained it would break the flow of the music to keep

breaking it into sections and also that it would limit what kind of music could be played as it doesn’t

allow for the musical piece to change. George wanted to be sure the music had the potential to be

more complex than just express one specific thing at a time. George also expressed concerns about

the player playing the same bit of music over and over again until the player got it right, that it might

make it frustrating to play and hear multiple times and over time it may take away its meaning. I

agreed with George, but we both understood that Dean was also right in his interpretation. I guess

we both just think that the game should be more fun and the music more interesting above all else.

We reached an impasse on what was the best gameplay structure to keep all team members happy

with the outcome.

I believe and agree there are things wrong in the message interpreted by allowing a player to get

something wrong, but have little repercussion during the overall track. However, our game is more

abstract in that it expresses feelings through music and isn’t meant to represent the real world.

What our game is, is an exaggeration of the way the vast majority of people can feel the intention in

music regardless of language and this surreal interpretation of communication is what makes the

game’s concept special from the way it singles musical sound out and makes it the focus instead of

traditional verbal communication. Because music already works as it is and beloved for the way it

conveys what it means to by showing music in a way we can all already feel by not straying from its

traditional structure, the audience’s expectations are met, and with this expectation’s understanding

of why music is the way it is what the game is trying to say should also be clear enough.

Understanding brought about through the use of the expected music format, but been encroached

on from the perspective of coherent and logical conversational progression means that’s it’s no

longer just music creating meaning, it’s then also the format of language - what we avoided having.

Music is what we were excited about and what makes sense already as it is. If we are to allow logic

into the format music can be heard in that would mean we don’t believe in our idea to work and in

reality requires further developing by integrating with more means of communications. I don’t think

this is the case. And if it does need development, it shouldn’t be with language in mind.

The track is the most important part of the game in my opinion, even if it’s not the gameplay (which

comes 2nd) because it conveys the meaning and outcome of the gameplay’s representation of

understanding. Our game is heavily reliant on the music expressing understand and understanding is

our main goal. I believe a single, continuous track per NPC to tell their complete stories inspired by

our original thought that music can be understood on its own should be our structure. If our game

cannot do this with traditional ways of conducting music alone then I would consider our game

broken anyway. In all the examples of music shared with each other as a group in our YouTube

playlist not one was broken into different sections to say something else more. And this was the way

we ourselves enjoyed the music. But this is just what I and George think. Unfortunately, another

thing I think is that our game concept can convey everything with music alone, so I don’t see game

mechanics as so important that they should be overly highlighted if it doesn’t add more - just that

they should be there to make the music aspect stronger and fun to do. We should definitely test

these perspectives anyway with prototypes in semester 2 as they both hold merits and cons.

The YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2MKbq3klfeBSXzL1-

UHQRSCzm9YE4rRG&disable_polymer=true

The team playlist was set up by George Rickard.

Uploads by YouTube user name Bernardo Viola were made by Bernardo Viola.

Uploads by YouTube user name Ella Dawson were done by Ella Dawson.

Uploads by YouTube user name George Rickard were done by George Rickard.

Uploads by YouTube user name Crowence were done by Dean Rands.

No. 7

Dean’s first prototype using the analogue sticks was fun to do, felt like it was doing the right thing in

terms of creative the feeling of harmonising with the gameplay feedback being the NPC and player

boxes merging. I think this should be developed on.

I don’t have any in-game music to refer to, so I’ll pick something out of the group playlist and use it

to play with ideas. I’m using ‘First Day of My Life’ by Bright Eyes to start off simple since it only

sounds like an acoustic guitar and piano that are used. (Still to be prototyped)

When I played the rhythm game, Dancing Line for a bit of inspiration a really frustrating mechanic

that was used wrong that was that sometimes you were meant to tap the screen to change the

direction of the moving line and you would know to tap because there was a beat to follow, but not

only did the beat change which out warning, meaning you had to know and memorise the entire

song to know when the beat would change, but the game would also spice up when to tap by having

a random sections of tapping without regard for how the music played in the moment of necessary

tapping. The game was an uninspired waste of time. What I mean by this critique is that specific

rules are important to be set in place and these should indefinitely be to be able to be understood

and followed by the player for the game to be fair and clear.

Dancing Line did have one feature I found interesting, that was you could deviate from the main

path to more difficult ones that eventually led back into the main one. It might be a nice idea to

have what the player is able to do with the least amount of effort to complete each ‘stage’

comfortably, but optionally able to do more with a self-inflicted difficulty increase to hear more of

an emotive track, perhaps as a reward. For example, the player character has an instrument that

doubles as a guitar and violin, so maybe the player can hear one instrument and in doing more the

other instrument can also affect the performance.

Or using more parts of your instruments could just be used to ramp up the difficulty in later stages.

----------------------------------------

No. 8

While thinking about the triangle I wondered whether it was an instrument that could be played on

its own because one of the characters in our game had one, so I looked it up, unsure of weather the

player would be able to join in with the NPC, or if they had to just decide to start playing and hope

instead the NPC would join them as they had done throughout the game. The answer to this wasn’t

important. I ended up finding Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and more specifically the third

movement, Allegretto vivace - Allegro animato which uses a triangle by itself in parts. This is also

unimportant. What I took from the third movement was that many instruments were frequently

given parts to play on their own in quick succession, instead of the usual layers until many

instruments were playing at the same time and it still sounded like the instruments were organized

to play together. It wasn’t entirely one instrument at a time, but the music still sounded nice when

taking turns to play.

This could possibly be translated into structuring for gameplay in the same linear way. There could

be 5 horizontally divided sections by the end – one for every character to show their parts when

composing. The player would do their bits when their column has instructions going through it.

Maybe this can also be used for a difficulty increase by playing in multiple dividers than just your

own. Maybe if you optionally do this other NPC instruments will do the same to make the piece

more intricate?

Being told how to do something so specifically is pretty boring though (in writing it also feels like a

rhythm game…). It would be better to always have the potential to do better. The game won’t score

you and you don’t have the opportunity to play multiple times unless you play very badly, but the

player can try harder if they are able to hold themselves to a higher standard of accuracy if it were

more like Dean’s box gameplay prototype about precision.

With all the instruments taking a part of the screen patterns can be shown visually which creates

another way to understand how and when to play more easily. Maybe there is a way to let the

player know what to do from observing the NPCs, know when to play and take the initiative to play

their own part?

Or\Blog Insert.pdf

This is a video of the mechanic working visually.

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