Natasha Mangan's Portfolio
Passion. Creativity. Hard Work.
Four Prototypes in 11 Days
As a student of Game Design, we had been experimenting with designing games in the course, Game Design 6: Experimental Game Design. The course taught us to look into some perspectives of semiotics in interactivity and how to develop rapid prototypes. We worked on 4 different prototypes in a short amount of time, approximately 1 to 3 days each time. Each prototype requirement was either given as a theme, a dynamic or a topic. Which was meant to teach us different advanced game design topics relating to semiotics and in order to reach those goals we were divided into teams of 3 at the start of the course. My team consisted of a programmer and 2 graphics students, I being the programmer relied more heavily on the mechanics of the game during design decisions for each prototype.
Below are two prototypes which stood out from the four prototypes we were tasked to create.
Sinder
The primary design ambition was to create a game based on the balance of power by focusing on semiotics, synaesthetic's and method. While avoiding movement, logistics and violence as much as possible. Sinder, is a mobile dating sim, where the player is the devil who has been forced to look for dates by his mother. Each profile has hidden traits, and the dates will either go well, bad, or get you killed based on 2 requirements set at the top of the screen at the start of each week. Your goal is to go on over 50 percent of good dates, and you have 5 weeks in order to accomplish this. At the end of each week you choose your date and during the week you slide either to the left to kill a person, down to ignore a person and right for the person to be added as a choice to date.
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How games feel, are based on the aesthetic sensation of control and are processed as perception, planning, execution and feedback. In our case Sinder was a prime example of how feedback, sensation and sound design influence gameplay, and the player's perception of it.
Mimiqtie
The primary design ambition was to “Play with Trust” and try to avoid using movements, logistics and violence. Mimiqtie is a game designed for mobiles, to simulate a dentist game where trust between the player and the mimiq is paramount as the player brushes the mimiq’s teeth while avoiding taking his treasure and helping keep annoying flies away. Mimiqtie is a combination of 2D and 3D graphics, and the players use their touch inputs to select tools to help the mimiq. There are three forms of feedback to the player, one is the mimiq blending into different animated states, the other is the anger meter situated above the mimiq and ambient music with sound cues based on player interactions.
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In stories, games and politics there are balances and imbalances of power. In video games specifically, to find balance the difficulty, fairness, revenue and symmetry need to be managed. In our case, violence was still portrayed as a trust factor, this was interesting since we felt that in order to gain trust, the player needed violence to control their behaviours.
Interactive Storytelling
As a student, a part of the course Mobile Games and Entertainment, we are tasked with creating a serious game prototype.
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The chosen theme of the project was Game Oppression. Oppression is the condition of treatment under inequitable intent, that can be overt, or covert based on how it has been used (Collins English Dictionary, 2012). The setting of this serious game is in a simulated real-world experience through an interactive story. This setting is based on modern styles of the real-world according to the standards in April 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic which was currently still in effect during this timeline did not be accounted for in the game’s setting and theme.
Life as Gaming
This prototype project used Research and Interactive Storytelling to show the results of games influencing anger management.
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The story written, begins with Jack Michaels. He is a teenager who suffers from loss of control in anger management. The story is then influenced by the player's actions.
Jack's story had the goal of teaching people the benefits of gaming, whether it was by physical or mental health needs.
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Through this prototype it proved that games can help reduce stress and provide opportunities to aid in the control of anger management. Through research it is proven that games can help people mentally, physically and emotionally. Some ways to re-conduct this study would be to get playtesters before the prototype is complete, this way more participants are readily available when the time for playtesting comes. With more participants a higher range of feedback could be possible, this would aid in the future modification of the game. The constant improvements to technology should be utilized should this prototype be taken further or re-tested by another serious game designer. The need for more serious games surrounding the topic of game oppression is needed in order to help the modern populace understand the uses and capabilities possible of games. Whether they exist within the context of board games, card games, puzzles and video games.
If you would like to dive further in the research and process, check out the report below!
Photogrammetry
As students of the course Visualization of 3D Computer Graphics at Uppsala University we were tasked with the creation of a virtual museum using photogrammetry techniques and high-resolution pictures, in a team of 2 people.
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My team who built this museum first had to decide on a theme. As a member who had access to multiple Star Wars figurines; these were highly detailed and asymmetrical thus making them highly suitable for photogrammetry. Thus it was decided to create a museum around this thematic and those figurines - i.e. objects relating to the stars, galaxy and references to the Star Wars universe.
The Museum
The creation of the virtual museum took place in 2 steps; first, the figurines were scanned and imported into the museum. Once the models had been suitably placed, related imagery was looked up and inserted into the picture frames of the museum.
To facilitate the scanning procedure as well as guarantee an even and consistent scanning for all the models, a makeshift rotating platform was built. This allowed for smooth manual rotation of the model while keeping it on axis thus providing a steady point of reference to the camera placed on a tripod. A previous attempt to have a person scan the model by walking around it and taking pictures as they changed position had resulted in usable but lesser quality results.
Once a model had been completely scanned, the resulting ~250 pictures were fed into AutoDesk ReCap Pro. The program translated the pictures into point clouds and stitched them together into a cohesive 3D model. The resulting model was then exported in OBJ format and later imported into the Unity project - the OBJ format was chosen due to its high cross-media compatibility between programs.
The photogrammetry techniques utilized to create the virtual museum presented interesting challenges, both from a procedure point while scanning the real models as well as the understanding of the programs available to create their virtual counterparts. These are highly useful skills for the development of other types of serious games and are largely transferable to industry projects such as high-fidelity architecture / real estate projects.
Designing the museum experience also required the conceptualization of the space in terms of visual clues and incidental information conveyed to the visitors to heightened their overall experience. This is particularly reflected the placement of speakers to justify the presence of music in the environment despite there not being any technical necessity to have a "visual" source for music to be played virtually.
Information Visualisation
As a student taking the course Information Visualisation, we were tasked with choosing a project from a list of viable prototype projects. This project would test our ability to collect user data, research and use visualisation techniques to enhance features that were pointe out by the data collected.
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The chosen project was Complicated Game, where a theoretical boss is allowing you to redesign a game's feedback to the player. Any game could be chosen in this case it was World of Warcraft (2004). The “boss” in the exam specification expects us to create mock-ups of the three main issues in the user interface of the game, provide an explanation for the design and a reflection on the design.
Diegetic vs Non-Diegetic
The pull towards diegetic or non-diegetic is often quite difficult to determine. Diegetic elements within games offer the avatar insight into valuable information such as bullets left in a gun, while Non-Diegetic elements focus on player's getting information needed. For example, a grenade, if the avatar pulls the pin they hear the ticking down of pins within the grenade, if the grenade were to show a digital timer the avatar would also know when to throw the grenade, this is diegetic information. If the grenade were to show a UI timer, the players would know when they need to throw the grenade, this is non-diegetic information, as the avatar has "no clue" about this information. To determine when to use diegetic over non-diegetic or vise versa, one need only look at the user experiences and whether or not non-diegetic information would "clutter" the user's screen.
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For this project, an online survey was conducted to find these issues with the user interface, the survey was aimed at people who have played World of Warcraft at any time or version. The main issues found: 52% agree, 9.5% maybe and 38.1% did not agree that the damage and health during combat become cluttered at any point in the game; The action bar has too many unique buttons and becomes cluttered with information, "...serves more to confuse and obscure the environment"; Tracking and targeting multiple enemies is difficult without forcibly backing away to make them fit in frame; Buffs and debuffs on the player and enemies are needed to be shown in some way; cooldowns and cc timers are needed to be shown in a more clear way; a resource bar with health, mana, ammo information is a possible solution for players to access information; quest board needs to be modified as it becomes too cluttered with information after some time playing; Approximately 50% of the survey responders have problems remembering keys to actions and spells. The Chat dialog used to be in the way and currently has a better solution.
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From the issues found three were chosen to be adjusted into either non-diegetic or diegetic means, these three were damage handling, quest information and statistics for the player.
Damage Handling
In Damage handling, the colour scheme of red is used as a representation of presentation of blood and health. The red patches surrounding the edges of the screen allow the player to be more immersed in the avatar’s game world. The other player alternatively can see particles of blood effects spurting from other players when their damage taken gets too great, thus eliminating the need to see the other players health bars. The same is said for the enemy as they lose blood, it is easier to identify which enemies are being hurt and by how much, according to their health bar. The overlay of text for damage is no longer needed and keeps the game screen clean of messy textual numbers.
Quest Information
In current objectives in Quest information, the colour scheme of the user interface was chosen to fit the colour scheme of the other UI presented on the screen, this means it will not break immersion of the game world. The colour scheme for quest information, quest change menu, is a bit different to the colours presented throughout the user interface because it effectively replaces the position of the current objectives on screen, players who have difficulty reading text and or colours will be able to tell the difference between the two menus. If the Quest change board were placed anywhere else on the screen once opened, then matching colour schemes would be more appropriate. However, it does break the consistency of the User interface colour scheme, Ware (2013) states that in complex type environments there are many factors which will influence how the colours are perceived. This means that the yellow-blue ratio of adjacent colours become harder to distinguish in these environments. From the olive green to black ratio of the quest change menu, even colour blind should see a darker contrast between the two colours on the menu thus allowing a difference to be perceived and understood by the players.
Statistics
In Statistics the shape used for the interface was chosen as circular in order to give the players a clean rounded UI to get their statistical data from. The idea was to break from the rigid rectangular forms of the other parts of the UI and give the players a clean, fresh look. The basis of this idea is in semiotics, specifically the semiotics of graphics. Ware (2013) explains that the study of symbols and what they mean or try to convey in their meaning are defined as semiotics. The graphical representation of this is conveyed through visual language (Ware, 2013, p. 6), in the case of Figures 8 and 9, the circular shape gives meaning to the players as a form of identifying important information. In the case of the position of the statistics on the screen, Ware (2013) states that eye movements cause the visual environment to be processed as sectioned parts of the screen where detail is seen through the focal point of the high-resolution fovea. This means that any visual presentation is first seen at the point of most eye movement i.e., the centre. Therefore, placing important information in a pop of at the centre of the screen is more beneficial for users to access, especially during combat scenes.
Conclusion
In the chance to have completed these tasks within a larger time frame, more research with surveys on different aspects would be preferable, these aspects could include specific areas on the user interface in more detail, mock-ups for possible changes, different colour schemes, priority UI elements, what the game actually requires players to know in terms of data. The outcome from this would greatly outweigh the current implementation and provide better data to the “boss” presented in the exam specification. In Prax’s (2016, pp. 49-50) work the study of add-ons to this game is analysed and although gives more freedom to the players, Blizzard Entertainment (1991), who are the developers and publishers of the game have made strides to implement changes in their user interface in terms of, as Prax (2016, p. 49) states: “...graphic representa-tion, usability, customizability, and the problem they solved for the player.”