Final Project Proposal – Interactive Music Experience

Glorious Life – The Life Cycle of Sockeye Salmon

Music:
‘To Build A Home’

One Liner:
Experience the life of sockeye salmon,  who struggle to survive and die after spawning –  making it a moment of death along with birth.

Description:
Salmon go back to the origin of a river every 4 years to lay eggs. They hide their eggs under rocks, but a lot of these eggs get eaten by other fish. The eggs would then turn into small fish, and these fish try to survive amidst predators in the form of birds, bigger fish, bears, and humans. They spend a year in the river and on an average, only 1 out of 4 survive. After a year, they go to the sea, spending 3 years swimming around the pacific ocean. The environment at sea is even more dangerous than the river, so after 4 years, only 1 in 10 survive.

After 4 years, they go back to their birthplace, and have to swim up the river to do so. Some of them lose their beautiful scales in the rapid stream, and they have to keep swimming without eating anything. The huge group of fish that swims back also attracts a lot of predators. Many of the fish die before they get back, and those that do finally get to the destination mate, spawn and exhaust themselves, and then all die.

Born orphans, die childless. But there is always hope and something worth fighting for in their lives. Sometimes human live less than a fish, staying at the same place, doing the same things everyday, locked into a routine, or one way of thinking, living without a goal. The hope is that the audiences could get inspired by the salmon.

Emotions:
Struggle, sacrifice, goal of life, peaceful shock, hope in the despair
Life: experience, feel, and sublimate.

Character:
The player controls a male sockeye salmon with shining red scales.
The female character is a shining yellow salmon that swim following the male character.

Goal: Survive and spawn.

Games:
Control a group of eggs -> a group of small fish -> one mature male fish -> meets a female fish, and she swims surrounding the character -> swim up to the river -> mate and spawn -> die together -> new eggs.

1. At the beginning of the game, a group transparent orange/red eggs float in the water. The player controls the water and move those eggs, protecting them from other fish.

2. Eggs turn into small fish. The player control them to swim around, protecting them from bigger fish, birds, and bears.

 3. Small fish turn into mature fish. A male salmon with shining red scales stands out from the group and becomes the leader of the group. The player controls this male salmon. He meets a female salmon with shining yellow scales. They swim around each other and dance in circle. However, dangers are still out there. He tries to lead the group to safe places.

4. The salmon group gets to the entrance of the river where they grew up. The stream is rapid. The player has to keep pressing the keyboard to swim up to the river, and it gets harder and harder because the character is getting exhausted. Some of his friends die on the way home, caught by predators or getting too exhausted.

5. When they finally get to the river, the character and his girlfriend mate and spawn. Then they both die.

6. Slowly, one, two and more eggs float up. The player can control them. Then the screen fade into black when the music ends.

Time Frame
[00:00 – 00:20] Eggs floating
[00:21 – 01:06] Eggs start turning into small fish
[01:07 – 01:26] Small fish swim to the sea
[01:27 – 02:18] Meet the female fish
[02:19 – 03:15] Mature fish in the sea
[03:16 – 04:00] Start salmon run, slow stream, enemies slow motion
[04:01 – 05:01] Salmon run, rapid stream
[05:02 – 05:27] Spawn and die
[05:28 – 06:10] New eggs

Moodboard: Glorious death and birth.

p.s. My original plan was Unity, but I think it was over-scoped. Don’t think I can finish it like this by myself. So I’m considering changing the platform or changing to 2D. Anyone who want to join is welcomed. Any suggestion of how to make this in a easier way is welcomed as well. Thanks : )

Assignment4 Progress

Haven’t finished…> <…

Got some bugs when I added the dialog boxes. For example, the scarecrow is a portal right now. Also, all the function related to screen refresh was obsolete after I updated my GameMaker . Didn’t know how to solve it. So right now it’s just some environment…

Will updated the assets if necessary..  T ^ T

Assignment 3 Proposal

So, I want to make it a photo based game in which you do something like scavenger hunt and solving the puzzles. The environment would be around the ETC.

 

Character Design Proposals

1. Clown Minister

You are the manager of a big company from Europe who is trying to get into the market of ancient China during Ming Dynasty. The minister of foreign business receives you. He used to be a clown, and he still wears his clown makeup everyday because he wants to hide his emotion when communicating with people. Try to persuade him to allow your company get into the market.

(I’m also thinking about that he could be the minister of diplomacy.. But not sure about the story yet..)

 

2. Pistachio

You are about to eat a pistachio, and it starts to talk to you about human’s crime of killing all kinds of creatures.

3. Mom

You are a kid in an elementary school. Several days ago you got cheated by one of your classmates and your mom was really worried about you. However, you still believe in the good nature of human being. This morning another kid asks for your help, and your mom won’t let you help him. You and your mom would be trying to persuade each other in the conversation.

* By the way, if you have any different stories in your mind when you see the characters, please leave me a note. I’m interested to know. Thanks : )

Reading2

The Face

I’ve never thought about the reason why facial expressions could be recognized across the globe. It’s not that easy to create facial expressions that we can see everyday in games, because humans are complicated. Sometimes one seems to be happy, but you can see that slightly disappointment from his/her expression.

Using the player-character’s face to inspire the player is effective only if the player gets connected to the character. To build the connection, the player-character should let the player feel empathy or inspired first.

Waiting for Godot

Godot is not just a person, it’s everything that we’re waiting for, and it’s waiting itself. We find the meaning of existing when we are waiting,  just like how we live our lives.

Game Ideas

1. The little girl and her pillow
You are a little girl. You find an old but beautiful pillow in your attic. You love it and bring it back. You dream a lot after you start using it.

In your dream, you meet a girl who is about your age. Your pillow is also in your dream. It says that it can record dreams and play them to people who sleep on it later, and what you are dreaming is another girl’s dream. However, you are changing her dreams as well. And she might not be in the same time as you…

Possible choices:
You find the girl crying in her dream.
* Sit next to her and comfort her
* Sit next to her and give her your handkerchief without saying anything

2. The ice cube vampire
You are in the refrigerator. There is a huge ice cream next to you sleeping. You hear some one’s voice and you see brightness… You fall on the ground.

Eventually you find yourself melting. You start to feel the extreme thirst for cold. You come across a snow ball on the street. She says hi to you. But you cannot resist yourself and bite her. You suck the cold out of her and you see her melt in front of you. You sense yourself grow bigger. Finally you don’t feel thirsty anymore… but you are scared of yourself…

Possible choices:
You see a huge snow man across the street.
* Go bite him
* Ask him if he knows anything about your “disease”