Stop motion uniqueness

7.2

Also, I forgot to link this weeks ago when I first saw it so hope that everyone hasn't seen it yet, but check this out:



Stop motion music! Pretty neat idea :D That must have taken a LOT of planning and I admire the skill of execution and the unique idea.

Project progression

7.1/13

Just a minor update, I've made a minor prototype with the new concept, and the results are far more pleasing, illustrating the concept better. Follow this linky:

http://eps.id.au/pandor/v1.swf

The balancing act itself hasn't changed since the last prototype but I'm dedicating a lot more time to that tomorrow, but there is some basic gameplay added to this, such as finishing when you fall and etc, so a lot of the game code has been added (it's now more of a matter of adding cosmetics to the gameplay, such as restarting when you lose). There's also the task of adding all my sound files ahead, and more level designs (or whether things will be randomised, and just get more frequent as the player progresses, much like my last group project Cloud Keeper).

Project 2 Outline

7/13

So here it is: the long awaited rock-solid project outline! Honestly I've had it for a while now but have been busy checking whether the concept would actually work. The project so far as been a series of ups and downs, sometimes the concept seems solid and other times it slips into non-sensical madness.

But anyways, I've decided to go with the balancing act game. The project concept goes as follows:

"Ever close your eyes while walking to find your sense of balance and perspective is completely thrown off? One of your major sensory inputs has suddenly vanished, and you are left with the feel of the ground beneath your feet and the sounds surrounding you to comprehend balance, and incoming obstacles. Frightening concept to say the least. My project attempts to examine how one would cope in a world without vision, in a safe simulator, as a project for blind awareness."

Originally, the concept was to use a simple white line on the screen to abstractly represent one's sense of perspective and balance. The first iteration of prototyping and testing created this monster:

http://eps.id.au/pandor/test1.swf

Now I know what you're thinking. "That's the most awful coding ever!", and I agree, but for now it's given me a sense of what the game needs: embodiment.

So the second design iteration has produced this as a layout:
Now the player has a sense of where he or she is, and also a shallow sense of perspective. The footstep animations are less abstract and make more sense in terms of representing footsteps.


So that's about where I'm up to, playing with this design in flash and modifying some sound files to be used in the game.

Next project

6/13

So apparently I'm still having some issues getting my last project uploaded, my lovely boyfriend failed to tell me that there are some current issues with getting it working, but either way, onto project 2!

So I have a collective two weeks to get this out after starting a little late from the lag from the last project, but I think the ideas I'm going for are more about hashing out a good design rather than heavy coding, which I'll enjoy far more. Here are my current ideas I'm choosing between:

1. Small Flash game based on using the right and left audio channels to balance a person from a first person perspective. The story goes that you're a person walking down the street and suddenly you go blind (who knows why, you just do), and all you get is a "sense" of balance, which is illustrated using a white horizontal line. The user will use the mouse to make sure that line does not tip too far in a certain direction, and also listen for oncoming noises like traffic and other pedestrians to see whether they need to overbalance in another direction to avoid the obstacle. If they do not, they take damage, indicated by a red flash where the damage was taken.

2. ToiletDoor.com. One of the oldest forms of forum is the back of the toilet door. Most people who have had to use a toilet in a public place will know that for some reason, there's this allure to reading other people's stuff *anonymously* and responding around it, kind of like a discussion map almost. Our current internet forums don't allow such freedom with posting, requiring sign ups and an alias, and also a very tightly logical layout. A good example is Group Hug , except there is no replying (but the kind of stuff you see on this site you also see on toilet doors. So I'm going for that kind of anonymous.

So those are one of the projects I want to follow, I really like both ideas so choosing one is going to be really hard (and of course I can always save one for another project). I feel like choice one will be easier to code but require a bit more research and leg work (walking around blindfolded? lol) which could also be fun, but the toiletdoor.com idea is also brilliant because there really isn't much else out there that is like it. The only other remotely close example would be some of the flash multi-user whiteboards out there, though I'm having trouble finding a link to the good one right now (you can see other people drawing and it updates live. There's about 15 different whiteboards going and I think that number increases depending on the number of users, though I could be wrong). The only issue with the multi-user whiteboard is people can draw over your drawings and no text input makes communication near to impossible unless you have a graphics tablet, so I'm planning to expand on the idea by forcing people to "reserve" real estate on the page and typing to that area, and then people replying get to choose a spot around it.

But today's challenge is to choose between the two ideas, and get started with concept research and planning.

Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Melbourne

5/13

So I went on break from work for a little while after the last assignments so my posting lately has been a little light. However, I do have a couple of more posts to make so you should see some more content over the next couple of days.

The last assignment is now complete and has been handed in, but I haven't uploaded it to my webspace yet, will do when I'm on my own computer.

What I do want to talk about today is the Melbourne 2008 Supanova expo. One of my housemates wanted to go because of some awesome Stargate movie pre-screener, and didn't have anyone to go with (you need a partner to go there, unless you want to get glomped by scary Cosplay people). The weekend 'Supafan' pass cost $40, and that got you access to the Friday night prescreener, Saturday and Sunday. Now, to be honest, I was expecting just a lot of cliche` anime screenings, anime fanboys/girls everywhere, and generally a pretty boring outfit if you didn't like anime. However, it turns out that it's a really interesting event for your general internet loving nerd and even professional in the area of film making/artistry. Appearances included actors from the Stargate and Firefly series, voice actors (some of the likes who did some work on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade), and comic artists (not quite from Marvel but those who are always aspiring to be). In the commercial sector (all the stalls selling their geeky apparel and replica BSG dolls), they had the must-have for any geeky convention, the Stormtroopers, who patrolled around getting photos with people. There was even a Doctor Who fan club sign up stall, if that illustrates just how geeky this convention was. Even better were the tables packed full of people playing Magic The Gathering. Yeah, we felt fairly normal after seeing that.

So the first night the three of us went to see the Stargate SG1 film prescreening. We got awesome seats right up front, and watched the event beforehand, which was a Master's session for comic art. I don't remember who they were but one specialised in zombies, and the other in the female figure. So basically they drew and were projected onto the big screen and the crowd got to interview them. One of the most useful pieces of advice was this:

"Never stop being a student. And I don't mean stay at university or whatever, I mean never stop learning, because it's an evolving industry."

Probably in more words than that, but it struck me as being the core of multimedia: you stop learning, and you fall behind. So I really enjoyed the words of wisdom from these guys.

So we got awesome seats, and the Master's session had just ended. The lovely executives from Fox Studios demanded that the audience be vacated, and all recording equipment to be left out of the theatre. We ended up near the back because people were already lining up out front, gg. As many disgruntled people in the line mentioned, "It's been on torrent for days now", "we already saw it on Youtube". Funnier than that is the recording equipment was taken for a 30 second trailer for the new X Files film, not for the Stargate prescreener. Go figure. All in all, the Stargate film was really a glorified extended episode of the usual thing, and I'm not really all that into it anyway (I do like Atlantis though, far better character development).

The second day I sadly missed because I completely overslept, which is sad because Spike Spencer (voice actor, did some work on WoW:TBC) would have been really interesting to see, and Michael Winslow (another voice actor) sounded really entertaining. Oh well, atleast I got to see Winslow try Singstar.

So we all ended up going for the last day, the highlight of the Sunday was the interviews with actors from the likes of Stargate and Firefly (if you haven't seen Firefly, it's most definitely worth a watch). Jewel Staite was one of these interviewees, mainly renown for her role as Kaylee Frye in the Firefly series. It was interesting to hear about their interests before they acted on a sci-fi series, and how it has shaped who they are now. More interesting than that was the look on those poor fanboys' faces when they realised their beloved Kaylee is nothing like her sci-fi counterpart (ie, the most common question was "Do you visit forums", which the flat answer is usually "No, I have a life!"). Fantastic. Teryl Rothery from Stargate SG-1 was really interesting too, she plays such a serious role on Stargate but her flamboyance came out during the interview.

There were also screenings other than anime screenings which was to my liking. I've never seen Pure Pwnage on a large flat screen TV before, it makes the experience much better!

I really wish I'd got to see more while I was there, but even with the few things I did see, it was totally worth going to, even mainly for the interviews. Also, thank god there weren't too many scary Cosplayers.