Playing Stories – Fall 2012 – 6424
The player is a “non-stereotypical female protagonist” trying to uncover her life’s past. She wanders through a static, timeless space with a limited worldview finding items from her past which reveal cut scenes to her past. After seeing her past, she has the opportunity to go back and retake her actions…With each vision her worldview increases until the entire screen is revealed.
I’m still not done yet / am figuring out how to make the cutscenes work properly.
The Atopia reading seemed sort of inaccessible to me when it talks about “gamer theory” as a subject of study and “gamer theorists,” but it brings up an interesting point about the text in books creating utopias through description. These utopias aren’t really possible in the real world or in a visual, virtual space. But in the game world, the better description of the space is an atopia where the possibilities seem endless and you as a character can play your own story. This differs from the textbook utopia or heterotopia which confines the user to a particular storyline and particular setting.
You can check out the work in progress here: http://helloarielliu.com/landSlider
I had decided to switch to using HTML5 canvas and Javascript so that I could manipulate the paths better since I didn’t know how I would do that in Flash. Let it be known that it is indeed very time-consuming to make things in HTML5/Javascript. By the way, it only works in webkit browsers (Safari and Chrome).
The setting for the game is just flat land that the user can push and pull to see what happens creating valleys having the setting change and seeing what types of people come and play.
Idea 1: you’re talking to a face in the wall, it doesn’t know anything, but the more you talk to it, the more it grows and develops eyes, nose, mouth, limbs, etc until comes out of the wall.
Idea 2: you’ve recently graduated and are interviewing to get a job at a hot new company called #FORK. Everything you say seems to be the wrong thing to say…
What’s interesting about game characters and the minimal detail is that there aren’t as many subtle facial expressions they way real people have. Thinking about the exaggerated expressions, users of American Sign Language (ASL) are often much more expressive because they have to convey tone of voice through their facial expressions and movements. In the first part about facial recognition and responses from monkeys, I wonder what the reaction would be to faces that are in the “uncanny valley.”
I found this chapter to be really intriguing in the implementation of Eliza. I think it would be interesting to implement the AI-ness of Eliza in a game so that the conversation was much more dynamic and not limited to a set series of actions that we, as developers, decide. The difference would be that games can also include visuals, so maybe in the same way that Eliza has memory of key actions, the game would search the internet for that key action and deliver images or video.
1. Floating about you see some nice blobby things to settle on. Because you have no appendages, you have no choice but to keep floating. Choices: [ Keep Floating ]
2. [ Keep Floating ] Ah, you’re still floating, those blobs are getting closer. Choices: [ Keep Floating ]
3. [ Keep Floating ] Well, this is getting a bit boring, isn’t it. Choices: [ Keep Floating ]
4. [ Keep Floating ] You land! On one of those blobs. Choices: [ Give blob instructions ] OR [ Float away ]
5. [ Give blob instructions ] You give it some instructions mostly on how to create more of you. Well, it’s less giving instructions and more of injecting yourself into the blob. You do enjoy reproduction and propagation, just like everyone else. Choices: [ Reproduction and propagation! ]
5. [ Float away ] You float for a very long time, but you don’t particularly notice, it’s just the day-to-day flow of things. You manage to land on a blocky thing. Choices: [ Give blob instructions ] OR [ Float away ]
6. [ Reproduction and propagation! ] In that little factory of a blob, many more of you are produced. Such a good little blob. Now from one, you are many. Choices: [ Keep at that reproduction ] OR [ Float away ]
General concept is that you’re a virus; the end game is finding out what kind of virus you are / infecting an entire species to extinction.
General concept is parallel with Float from the opposite side. You’re trying to retain (sink) as many alleles as possible in the gene pool. End game is either defeating all other species, extinction, finding out what species you are, or discovering the virus(es) plaguing the your species and stopping it if possible.
1. Who the %#*& rides a tricycle anymore? Your owner and master does. Yes, he is a 11-year-old fat ass about to start his first day of middle school and get the @!*# kicked out of him for riding a trikie. Well, it keeps the wheels oiled, so you’re not going to complain too much. Choices: [ Give Mr. Fatty 6th grader a ride to school ] OR [ Do nothing ] OR [ Play dead ].
2. [ Give Mr. Fatty 6th grader a ride to school ] You struggle under the weight of this seriously obese kid. You’re glad he’s getting some exercise to work off the weight, but this is a pretty sucky job. He parks you at the bike rack and heads to classes. Choices: [ Ditch the kid ] OR [ Do nothing (1) ] OR [ Play dead ]
2. [ Do nothing ] You did nothing. Happy? Choices: [ Give Mr. Fatty 6th grader a ride to school ] OR [ Do nothing (2) ] OR [ Play dead ]
2. [ Play dead ] You loosen a chain so that it looks like the bike doesn’t work. The kid complains to mom and dad that his trikie is broken. They offer
3. [ Do nothing (2) ] Your kid is confused because his tricycle looks fine, but it just won’t budge. It occurs to him that he might be too fat and the amount of force he’s applying just can’t power through the weight of his own body. Giving up, he walks to school instead.
General concept is that you are the awkward “maybe” in conversation, the middle ground, the wishy-washy gray area. Just like a community tricycle, everyone gets a ride on “Maybe” and general apathetic do nothing. End game is becoming a bicycle or unicycle or motorbike.
In the description of Ts’ui Pen’s ‘Garden’ I found it to be a beautiful thought in the same way that solving a really elegant proof is beautiful or piecing together a puzzle is beautiful. The nice thing about it is that while there are forking paths in the micro end of the ‘Garden’ there’s also the macro end that is a puzzle to uncover the word “time.” Equally great about the story is the fact that Yu Tsun’s being there is a puzzle to uncover the word “Albert.”
Applying thoughts on the reading to our first assignment in class, it seems like a good idea to include one or several ‘meta’ puzzles in the story I create.
