Month: September 2018

Summary:

Verborgen is an educational game intended for all ages. It is set in a fantasy world with different maps where the user is given a list of objects to find. The objective is to help toddlers match objects with their correct terms and essentially build their vocabulary and recognition abilities in real life. Verborgen has many different fields such as the forest, desert, and an urban city. They hope to expand the mind of the individual through a fun game.

Inspiration:

The inspiration for this project was the I SPY series books of my childhood. My teacher in elementary school would bring the class to the library and everyone would gather around the I SPY books to find the objectives together. It was fun and never boring because there were many different books all in different settings. Thinking back on it now, Walter Wick’s works were amazing. While it is a children’s book, it even appears as a photo book as I look back at it now. He built layouts, cityscapes, landscapes, but they were never too literal and had a whimsical charm to them. He also often handmade his props. My objective for this project is the same as Jean Marzollo, the children’s book writer who first approached Wick with the I SPY idea. I want my game to be educational and accessible to all ages. In addition to the visuals, Marzollo made the books fun with her touch of riddles.

Research:

For reference, I used Ray Wenderlich to introduce me to Unity’s interface. I also read the notes and manuals that came with the assets I downloaded.

Process:

Unity reminded me of Android Studio in that you can simply drag-and-drop some elements.

I had experienced some problems trying to set up the terrain. When I created a new object using Create > 3D Object > Terrain, I wasn’t able to apply the dirt material to it. I decided to just use the premade environment and I could add or delete elements of it that I didn’t want. After that, I went to the asset store and found random objects to place into the playing field. I had difficulties using some assets that came with animations.

I also had problems trying to push changes to Github. I set up a new repository through Unity, but not all of the files went through and when I did make changes, it could not detect it and thus I could not push anything.

Visual Documentation:

The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin by William S. Burroughs

Immediately, I was drawn into the passage by the first line. As silly as it sounds, I have never thought of creating a poem by pulling words out of a hat. In school, we were always taught to draft things beforehand which meant that careful planning and thought had to be involved to create a great piece. On the other hand, simply pulling random words goes against this process, but is a very refreshing, experimental idea. While I have seen many poems like this, I have never done it myself because I’m scared of being restricted. What if there is no word in the hat that will be able to describe what I’m feeling or trying to describe? Nonetheless, I think this is a great idea and is a good way to get people engaged in a new activity. As mentioned in the passage, the cut-up method can be applied to other subjects such as games and economic behavior. I think this proves that anyone can get their hands on something new. You don’t have to be good at writing to write a poem or good at gaming to game. I also feel like Burroughs is telling us that the cut-up method is just another way of getting inspiration from other artists and even reworking those pieces. For example, for my final project for the class, I was inspired by the I SPY books of Walter Wick. Perhaps I will take different elements from each book of the series to incorporate into my game.

In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on Vertical Perspective by Hito Steyerl

Steyerl brings up an interesting perspective, or perhaps attention to a lack of one. How do we see things, in free fall in particular? The horizon line has been used as the point of reference for the longest, but Steyerl argues that it is not stable and things are changing with technology and time. In art, the perspective has never been consistent, especially in contemporary abstract works today. In the first place, I think having one perspective only is silly. Even with resources such as Google maps, I don’t think there is a clear line of where the viewer has to be. The viewer, in fact, is given options. They can choose to view the map in 2D or 3D, and in street view, they can drag their mouse for a whole 360-degree experience. A linear perspective can be restricting. The ideas Steyerl brings will be useful in incorporating into my game to make the setting and layout more attractive for the player experience.

For the final project, I would like to create a game where the user can go into different rooms and settings to find hidden objects. I was inspired by the I SPY book series of my childhood. In each book, there is a list of objects you are supposed to find. Walter Wick is the author and artist responsible for these books. He creates toy models of different settings and photographs them for the book. Sometimes he creates town or cities more inspired by real-life, other times he creates cluttered layouts that make it hard to find the objectives.

This tutorial really helped to introduce me to Unity.