Special Topics Module 1

Research & Activity Documentation

Callan Yates

Project 1

Module 1

In this module, as a grop

Activity 1

Activity 1 saw me considering the direction I wanted to take this course, prior to eventually joining a group. I vaguely considered directions I could take in regards to a previous project involving an interactive lamp, to see if I could take it further and / or explore different ideas. The other more digital direction I felt more keen on exploring involved development in 3D. Developing a simple sort of game stood out to me the most, as I desired to explore the variety of different aspects that goes into this sort of field. When I discovered what one group was planning on perusing, I mentioned my own thoughts and ideas and was brought on to the group.

Now properly involved, going off of what the group had already planned out, I did my share of research and brainstorming. My research went into how education can be applied to sandbox games, looking at an article by Zane Golparirani titled "How Sandbox Games Could Redefine the Way We Learn". This article really opened my eyes about the sorts of practices that can be considered when considering sandbox games due to the unique challenges and opportunities they can present. It brought forth a variety of different ideas.

This article was quite interesting to me, bringing up ideas that I considered, and others that supprised me. Below the title of the article features notes on a study done on sandboxes. Encouraging reserach and discovery is a component I'd like to explore. <a href='https://zane-golpariani.medium.com/how-sandbox-games-could-redefine-the-way-we-learn-f47fbb468dc4https://zane-golpariani.medium.com/how-sandbox-games-could-redefine-the-way-we-learn-f47fbb468dc4' target='_blank'><p>Link to article</p></a>

As I was researching on sandboxes, I was reminded on this Video of a blind playthrough through Minecraft. This screenshot specifically is of when he attempts to figure out redstone, a sort of electricity in Minecraft. Throughout his playthrough, he does not reserach anything, and learns almost entierly through the acheivements tab. This had me realize how important these features can be, and made me wonder what sort of features can be implemented in our own experience. <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljemxyWvg8E' target='_blank'><p>Link to video</p></a>

Rapid ideation board. The highlighted notes are my contributions. I was suprised by how many ideas that came to me after the research on sandboxes.

Activity 2

Narrowing down our focus from activity 2, we selected ideas we were wanted to explore, and individually, we each created our own moodboards to explore them. In my exploration, I looked at how different medias explored different aspects of a game we wanted to consider. With UI, I looked into Moonlighter due to its bookish, tactile feel. For function, I looked at Dorfromantik, an island building puzzle game that uses hexagonal tiles. For visuals, I looked at Smushi Comes Home, Loddlenauts, and Donut County, visually simple games that look pleasant in low poly and pixelated. We also considered character creation, so I looked into the likes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the Mii Maker on Nintendo Wii for inspiration as to what we could do for simple customization. The protagonist for Smushi Comes Home was also looked at for how simple we could make the main model.

Through this visual research, I came to better understand what sort of direction we were getting into, alongside of the exact scope of features we were considering. Comparing mood boards with others also helped fill in any gaps in our exploration, making it a continued learning experience for us all.

Moving forward, we now had to construct a definitive final concept using the core ideas of the project.

On the left are a collection of images and screenshots from a website called interfaceingame.com. These images are used as inspiration for what sort of UI we could target. Another game inlcudes Smushi Comes Home, with a very simple pixel art paper menu.

This collection of screenshots focuses on some initial thoughts and inspiration. When I was first informed of the idea when joining the group, I thought of a game titled Dorfromantik, a puzzle game featuring where you match hexagonal pannels. For aesthetics, I looked at Smushi Comes Home, Loddlenauts, and Donut County for their low poly & pixel art use.

This was interesting to me. When browsing, I thought of Animal Crossing: New Horizons due to its island building functionality on a hidden grid system. When looking this up, I encountured a Unity tool you can use to build your own islands. You can even upload your island from the game to the tool to edit it if you've the tools. This served as an inspiration for Unity and what is possible.

A collection of settings from Smushi Comes Home and A Short Hike showing off how pixel dencity can be handled in games.

Photos of various pieces of media included in my portion of the mood board. I looked at areas like Animal Crossing: New Horizons character creator and the Nintendo WII mii maker for how we could possibly handle the character creator, and low poly models like the protagonist from Smushi comes home for character design.

Workshop 1

In this workshop, our group looked into Action Research, following a blog on questionpro.com/blog/action-research/ "Action Research: What it is, Types, Stages & Examples". When browsing action Research, we each focused on a different area. My focus was on collaborating on the different meaningful insights on action research.

Slide 1 of our action research workshop activity. This is the slide I found this workshop helpful as it got me thinking deeper about action research then I would have otherwise. Breaking it down into simple insights helped with understanding the concept further.

Slide 2 of our action research workshop activity. Here descriptions on what to focus on next are featured. It also can be used influence any active research we want to do lateron.

Slide 3 of our action research workshop activity. 3 different links to different tutorials were found for us group members to follow. One of them, the donut tutorial, I am already aware about.

Reflection on Research

Going through this blog really did help in providing me with additional context and information as to the different ways action research an help with solidifying ideas. I was not aware at the various stages and types this research was divided into, and it makes me realize that almost no matter the situation, action research can be used.

Moving forward, I do believe it's important that we make sure to implement different forms of action research as to make sure we receive rich feedback throughout our process.

Project 1

Project Concept

Our current project concept is one titled "Pixel Plateau", a 3D sandbox game that would utilize Blender, Unity, Aesprite, and Figma to bring it to life. Users would be able to create customizable floating tiles / islands, with customizations including different environmental tiles and objects, a simple character creator, and more. Users could rotate and control a simple customizable character. Creations you are satisfied with can be saved and shared with others.

We plan on a soft, bookish aesthetic for the UI while utilizing low poly 3D models with a pixel art filter much like other games such as A Short Hike, Enter the Gungeon, and Smush Comes Home.

Concept image designed by group member Even. Features the main features we would like to explore.

Research Reflection

Out of these areas of focus, some of the most helpful pieces of feedback we received involves the discussion surrounding Unity. When talking to a peer more familiar to unity then ourselves. they provided useful information on what to keep in mind when tackling the software. One of the biggest pieces of advice they mentioned involved understanding our scope, and stressing the fact that feature creep in game development is extremely easy. Understanding our scope is important, thus to lead us to stack to them for as long as possible before adding the finer details.

Next Steps

For next steps, Following all the advice we received, and by observing the projects of others, I came to realize how important it is to define and limit scope. As we plan on delving into Unity, a software we have yet to really deep dive into ourselves beyond research, it is imperative that we spend a significant portion of our time understanding and figuring out how to tackle many of the technical aspects of the project we desire to implement and that would have the strongest impact on the final product. By first understanding how the software works and what needs to be done to reach these aspects, only then should we start worrying more about the smaller parts of the project and the ins and outs of the finer details. By solidifying a simple yet straight forward scope with these details in mind, I believe we can comfortably make substantial progress that we feel is inline with our goals.