Trista

SOLO WORK

My solo work is a piano-based musical game controlled by the keyboard, instead of actual piano keys. All you need is to follow the “code” on the right, and better to familiar with it so that you can play the song fluently. Participant can remain a sustained interaction with it because the song “Canon” is last for 5 minutes and it might take a longer time on the game since they probably make some mistakes while first playing. I wanted to make all things as simple as it can at first, was trying to make the typing order just follow the song flow, then participant can simply play the song in sequence. However, I finally changed my mind — why not make some challenges? As a result, I made the letters generally in the order of the order of real piano keys, but some are out of order since the keyboard has different amount and sequence as piano key. That needs to ask participant pay more attention on it and try more times.

 

GROUP WORK

Our final group work is an escape game. We were thinking about how to grab participants’ attention and last for 7 minutes. We guessed a game is the best method to achieve it, easy but funny. When participants playing on it, they need to type the key words in the message box, we only give some tips but sometimes they need to figure out what key words should be added to trigger the next theme. There are at least two options in each theme, different choice makes a different consequence, but it is simply controlled because one of the option is always game over, and you need to start again, which doesn’t spend over time on it, just exactly within 5-7 minutes. We are using first-person angle to shoot it since it would getting more involved when experiencing the game. There’s a interaction with sound and video, you can even make a screen to trigger the horror sequence.

 

REFLECTION

To be more specific, our group work is describing an escaping process in a room. In regards to the plot, the main character (lets call him J) wakes up and there is a ghost in front of him, he needs to make several choices to avoid being killed. We leave the right of choice to audience, once they choose the wrong way, J is gonna be died, and game is over. For make the game more interesting, if you game over, it will automatically restart again, you can rebirth a thousand time until the story end, so don’t worry being killed. There are some little traps within as well, which requires audience think carefully to trigger the next scene. For example, the story stops when the door is opened after waking up, participant should correctly type “open” in the message box as a trigger, the story would continue. The story eventually ends unexpectedly — J doesn’t escape successfully, the story is repeating as a cycle. It is also an immersive game, through the first person perspective. We’ve record the breathing sounds, that creates a deeper nervous environment. Making options by audience themselves gain higher participations from them, instead of just watching an room escape process. I think they are more willing to play with it like this version, by using their intelligence.

Nevertheless, there are still many shortages that we should improve, for instance, the project we have made are not coordinated enough overall, and the post-editing both in individual video and Max are not as fluent as it can be yet. In addition, we create limited options since we need to control the playing time within 5-7 minutes, which reduce the level of enjoyment. The game interface is not beautiful as well; a good-looking interface probably brings a better playing experience to participants. In other words, I think we’ve got a good idea but lack of professional techniques to build a formal game.

This is the most interesting program I have studied throughout all studios, although it is difficult, Max is a good tools have the potential making various productions, I wish I can get a chance to study further on it. To sum up, I am thankful to our studio, Camille and my group mates in each assignment are really kind and patient, they taught me lots of technical skills when I felt confused, which brought me out from trouble. The harvest from this studio is not only improving skills in Max, but also my collaborative skills and creative potential.