Group Meeting 3:

After having a few small group discussions, we have come to a conclusion that the game idea was too extent with too many game elements, and would be a non realistic goal to achieve in a small time frame. Rather we have decided to come back to the original game idea but lay out a refined back story to define and build upon the game mechanics we have already achieved. 

Idle animation: 1

The idle animation for the character. He seems all most too happy but I think that I will change that later on if need be but Jordan has said that he is planning on changing the main character so potentially this style of animation will fit the new character. 

Walk cycle attempt 1

For the animations I used flash and there is an IK handle tool which would of been perfect but that wouldnt work at all so then there was the bone tool but that doesnt work on PNGs so after figuring out how to convert it to use bone tool on it it seemed to just chop it up..

So for now until I find a better way I have done these rough animations with just using pivit points and classic tweens.

First level concept

Just a first level concept showing that it will be very basic to let the person playing the game get use to the controls quickly and understand that you are avoiding enemy's not destroying them. The only enemy that has been made yet is the one I made so I quickly coloured that in and put it in as a filler as well as the background because we are waiting on that a swell.

Enemy creation: Venus fly trap.

Just a quick concept of a character enemy that could be in the game since we are looking at "evil" nature things for enemy's. If we decide to use this unfortunately it will still have to be re-done again to fit Jordan's art style.

The Written Rational CCDN231

After researching how people put their shoes on, it was found that some people can put on their shoes quite rough and aggressively. To contrast this, I am going to create an environment of comfort.  Having an environment is very important when trying to create a comfortable mood. John E. Crowly in “The sensibility of Comfort” explains how the word “comfort” was frequently used in order to express the satisfaction and enjoyment with immediate physical circumstances. To incorporate this idea into my experiment, I am going to be having my environment being in the participant’s bedroom.

“To make up an environment of comfort, what after all could be more human than desires to be warm, and to have a cozy home?” Crowly, J. E. (1999, pg 750) – this idea was applied to the experiment for my activity. The initial testing involved the participants lying down on their bed. The purpose of this is to introduce the participant to a familiar environment and a place where they will experience an instant feeling/mood of comfort. As Goldberger (2009) states “we are most comfortable with what we know”. The next step involved altering the hearing sense. I put on relaxing music, had the blinds down to have a quieter environment and also put the blinds down to block out distractions from outside which completed my environment.

“Comfort alone, or ‘contentment’, if that term feels more natural to you, is enough some of the time, but not all of the time. What we need, more than anything, is to understand the importance of synthesis” (Goldberger, B. 2009). With this in mind I made sure to explain the reasons behind the environment and music to the participants before starting and then got the participants to lie down until they felt very comfortable but not to the point where they go to sleep. Once this was done I got the participants to put their shoes on without getting off the bed making them stay in a comfortable state.

The results of this experiment were interesting in the sense that the simple everyday activity of putting on shoes had changed due to the feeling of comfort being implemented with sound and enviroment.  Not so much how they put their shoes on but something to be noticed evidently was the approach to putting their shoes on which was in a very slow, lazy manner compared to normally putting on shoes in a very fast second nature way which is normally expected.

From this experiment I have come to find that by making a room which expresses comfort with familitary and a sense of comfort using feel and hearing as. As Farell (2009) states “Comfort is a low-key, steady-state condition. And people are animals designed for sensory stimuation”. It is very easy for someone to slip into a very comfortable state of mind and then this been shown in a physical way as a resualt with putting on shoes in a more slow manner, heightning the importance enviroments have on people aswel.

Bibliography:

Goldberger, B. (2009). Challange And Comfort. The Kenyon Review , 21-31.

Crowley, J. E. (1999). The Sensibility of Comfort. The American Historical Review , 165.

Farrell, James. J. (2009). The Clergy Journal.

CCDN271: Photos and Sound (for final and chosen exercise)

                                     

Showing the bed they were sleeping on and then points where they where putting on their shoes. I only had a picture of the bed they were sleeping on to avoid taking pictures of people resting on their beds. This person putting on their shoes relatively slower than in the last experiment. 

This person putting their shoes on with using their hands more for aiding their foot than just slipping it on.

With this interaction it was interesting that they went from sitting down to getting off the bed by the end of it but still showing signs of slowness like the other participants.

                                                                                                                     

                                   
 The music that was played as the participants where resting for comfort.

Experiment 2

Smell is a very strong sense to induce comfort so from this I got the idea to get incense candles and have the participants have the aroma of the candle fill the room before putting on their shoes. 

experiment 1

With my first experiment, looking at comfort I was thinking about other everyday things we do that are comforting and one thing that came to mind was having a shower. It is a very comforting relaxing experiencing atmosphere with mostly feel but also involving hearing and sound. The obvious problem was that it would be very weird to take photos of people having a shower. I wanted to keep this PG rated so I got the participants to be wearing togs and jump in the shower for 2 mins just standing there focusing on the comforting part of taking a shower and then after they dried themselves getting them to put their shoes on. Cant see this as something I will choosing as my main research but it was interesting. The participants explained how they did feel very comfortable and how it made them to put their shoes on in an "care fee manner"

Group Meeting 2:

Discussing game mechanics, aesthetics, individual roles.

Game Mechanics: 

- Player Lives:

deciding on whether or not to have player lives. As some levels may be very difficult to complete and require many tries before succeeding. But still have not decided on whether if you die ‘x’ amount of times you will have to restart the zone, rather than the whole game. Or rather you have an unlimited amount of lives and you just restart the level when you die.

-Point system:

seems irrelevant for a game like this and will most likely not be included. instead of this we will just use a count for how many resources the seed has collected.

- End level

Still a tricky thing to decide, overall the character will be a full size tree at the end of each zone, rather than the end of the game, so it seems as if the seed has reached its maximum potential and has successfully saved that particular zone. But whether or not to choose if the seed plants itself and progressively becomes a larger tree at the completion of each level, or just to continue each level until it will plant itself at the end of the zone.

Current Individual roles :

- Jordan Shand - Character, art design

- Zac Bird - game mechanics, coding

- Chris Hughes - animation, level design

Group meeting :1

Discussing game goal, environment, movement, enemies. 

We discussed on several new and different ideas to help improve the base of our game idea by changing different game characteristics.

Game Goal:

- Changing the original linear game into a game that has 6 zones and has 5 levels per zone each with ways different ways to interact with objects in game

-changing the character to collect resources by completing the jump puzzle and getting to the ideal planting spot. 

- the layer of polluted smog will be placed only on certain levels where the level design will be a horizontal layout rather than horizontal + vertical as it would have been far too difficult.

Enemies:

additional enemies that can be added to game.

- Polluted air bubble

-snails and slugs

-birds

-venus fly trap

-thorns

-quick sand

Environment:

-We have decided to change how each level will be, as the game is now going to be in zones, we though each zone should have an independent theme when say zone 1 is underground and zone 2 is in the morning and frosted over. 

- current consumables that we have come up with for the seed to collect and oxygen/carbon dioxid bbles, water droplets and sunlight. These are resources required for the seed to continue to the next level before planting itself. 

- on certain levels the seed will need some power ups to advance through the level, some of these are oxygen bubble shield that will deflect 1 hit from a monster, arms that can be lashed out like vines to swing over pits.

Movement:

Movement is a huge part of a game and really depicts how a user thinks of a game, if the character is hard to control then it can be very frustrating, especially in a game similar to ours. We have come up with a variation of movements for the seed to do to enhance the interaction of user to character.