Some More Good Links

We have been told to put everything into our blog and even though I have seen a lot of sites and shared my opinion on the matters there is still a few sites I have yet too share. I feel  I will be repeating myself so I am just gonna leave the links here for you too visit and for myself to visit for more information and valid arguments on Mental Illness in Games.

Video Games Can Change The Way We Think About Mental Illness

http://killscreendaily.com/articles/videogames-can-change-way-we-think-about-mental-illness/

They're Mad, I Tell You: Portrayal Of Mental Illness In Video Games

http://www.samanthablackmon.net/notyourmamasgamer/?p=3557

Gaming's Favourite Villain Is Mental Illness, And This Needs To Stop

http://www.samanthablackmon.net/notyourmamasgamer/?p=3557

Again I do not wish to repeat myself but these sights have some interesting responses on the subject matter and with all this in mind I hope to create something that is welcomed by people and encourages positive feedback.

Last Friday I bumped into my friend who introduced me to his mum (after I told him my project idea) due to the fact she works in the School of Nursing & Midwifery, more specifically Mental Health Nursing, at Robert Gordon University. I had a long conversation with her and she said she would happily help me in my research in order for an accurate final piece.

Something for a few weeks away

Ether One (2014)

The Cat Lady (2012)

Among The Sleep (2014)

Sadly at the moment my bank balance is not too healthy however in a few weeks I will get paid and I look to purchase each of these games to enhance my research!

I have played the demo of 'Among The Sleep' and thought it was fantastic. The art style was amazing and the whole concept of the game was original and interesting. The techniques it uses to create that horror vibe is done exceptionally. You think to yourself that as you grow up, the things you fear as a child all disappear however after playing this game, you realize that you still fear these things deep inside and in a way, playing this game gives the feeling of you being that scared child once more.

'The Cat Lady' is a game about a lady who lives in a neighborhood and is on the brink of suicide. Sh has no friends, family or anything else to live for. The reason for me wanting to buy and play this game is because it touches on mental health issues such as depression. Suicide being a very real thing is something that happens to someone who is at rock bottom and feels there is no one or nothing to help them. i would like to see how they show this in their game as well as seeing the style of the overall game which can hopefully inspire my ideas further.

'Ether One' is a game that actually showcases the illness, dementia. I have viewed the trailer and already I can see how they are carrying out the feeling of dementia and as this is also a mental health illness, I would like to see how they apply this to a walkthrough/exploration game.

As I said, I need to wait for my money to come in but this is something for me too look forward too and by the time I actually have these games to try out, I will be even further into my project!
Having already downloaded and played some games, I can see how they really help towards researching and developing your own ideas. Playing them gives you a feeling that you hope and want your audience to feel when they play your game. It also helps to see an array of different games in order to help figure out your style in art and gameplay when it comes to designing your game.

3D Environment Artists

I have decided to take a look at other 3D artist's portfolios, in order for a better understanding of how to perhaps make my portfolio and assets look more professional. This has proved very useful. Seeing such examples that showcase the steps they used as well as the various maps (texture/normal etc) really opens my eyes into how I can showcase my creations.

This is Clinton Crumpler who is a 3D artist that has also got various tutorials on digital tutors that I will take a look at as they look like they will be a great help.

http://clintoncrumpler.com/74261/portfolio

It is really helpful seeing the layout that he uses to showcase his work. Especially the progress images that showcase how the polys look on his 3D objects etc.

This is John Valenti. What is remarkable about him is that he is near enough self-taught which by the look from his work informs us of his self discipline as his pieces are fantastic. Again he has a very nice laid out portfolio showing you the polys and maps used for his environments.

http://johnvalentiart.com/


However I have found a portfolio site which is incredible and looks to be extremely useful for my learning.

http://www.artbywiktor.com/index.html

Wiktor Ohman's portfolio goes into incredible detail and he seems very knowledgeable in his work. On one of his bigger pieces he even gives a pdf breakdown which looks like could help me with my project and my general improvement overall.

http://artbywiktor.com/apartmentbreakdown/breakdown_sd.pdf

The reason for looking at these portfolio's is to help inspire me into creating something of high quality as well as teaching me how too. Seeing these artists breakdown there environments into pieces really helps me picture how to do mine.

Week 3 - My Idea So far

For my project I am looking to create a historical exploration of a Mental Asylum, showcasing the historical changes that occurred from the beginning of Asylums, to the modern day asylum. I wish to showcase this to the player through the eyes of someone with a mental health issue in order to create empathy and raise awareness for those affected. Example mental health issues i will look into portraying are:
Schizophrenia
Depression
Psychosis
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Multiple Personality Disorder

These illness' are ones i find interesting and wish to portray. Some of them i thought up and decided on myself and a few others were recommended by friends who have a close link to the understanding of the topic. One of them, has just graduated from a course on Mental Health Nursing and is currently working as a mental health nurse, the other one is currently studying psychology. I am hoping that they can help give me insight as well as articles/journals to read up on in order for me to have a better understanding of what I am attempting to portray.

What I am also hoping to achieve in this project is to show my expertise in 3D environment and atmosphere as well as touching on narrative/storytelling. This is all stuff I am highly interested in and wish to pursue. The reason for picking a topic such as Mental Asylums and Mental Illness' is because I too have a deep interest in these subject and am fascinated by the history of it all. Due to my keen interest I really hope to achieve something unique and special by the end of my degree.

My Project Thoughts

My initial idea so far

So at the moment I have been researching online about the use of Mental Health in games. I have been focusing on the horror theme as this is the theme I wish to pursue. I have discovered that there are a lot of people who do not like how games depict mental illness. Many feel that when mental illness is used in a game, it is blown out of proportion and used as a scare tactic. Clearly this has been the basis of many horror games and has in fact worked. Such examples as 'Outlast' which is were you play a reporter who ends up exploring a Mental Asylum. This is a terrifying game however for many people; its scary for he wrong reasons. They believe that exploiting individuals with mental illness and portraying them as 'crazy' and 'insane' with some sort of drive to kill is unethical. In my opinion, I can see where they are coming from. They make valid points which I will use to help to mold my final project however being a fan of horror games and games in general, I can see, and agree with parts of, the other side of the argument.
Sometimes critiques and the general public over analyse various things, especially in films and games. It's unfair to say certain games/films portray the realism of various life events and lifestyles as after all, they are only films/games mainly used for entertainment. Hit TV show '24' has received numerous complaints for its use of torture (conveying that the government use it as an interrogation technique). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/arts/television/22gree.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I find this very annoying. It is merely a tv show and they have there reasons for using it within the show which, in all honesty, seem understandable (in the circumstances).
So for games, of course there will be complaints of violence, gore etc but also there is the act of exploiting those who are different which relates to this mental health issue. I empathize towards that but i also agree that Asylums can make a scary atmosphere all due to the unknown factor of what they were truly like, hence why i am looking to combine the two issues in my project for a truly unique outcome.

So for my project I am looking to help the user/player emphasis with those who have a mental illness. Obviously i am at the early planning and development stage but i want to create a 3D environment that the player explores. I want to set it in an Asylum but show the historical transformation of Asylums through exploration. I would also like to incorporate the idea that the player has some sort of mental illness and this illness is represent whilst exploring the map. I am hoping to achieve empaty for the character/player and to help create a better understanding and raise awareness for mental health.

Getting Back Into Maya

So I decided to find myself a useful tutorial on Digital Tutors for Maya as I have not used the program all Summer. I decided to find something that would be effective in getting me back in my comfort zone of Maya as well as proving somewhat useful towards my project and aims. I foudn this tutorial:

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1014-Environment-Modeling-Concepts-in-Maya#overview

This was entitled, 'Environment Modelling Concepts In Maya'. So far it has been very helpful. It is reminding my how to carry out the simplistic things as well as teaching me a few new traits. I picked this as I am wanting to excel in environments and this is showing me how to create different types and shapes of objects which is exactly what I need to get me back in the swing of things.

So far I have created a few different assets to a very basic level - this is the level they show however as you progress you notice that they in fact add in more details out with the tutorials but for now, I am just wanting to warm myself up. Once I complete the whole tutorial I may or may not go back and make my assets look better. That will depend on how much time I have.

Tomorrow I will continue with it and shall hopefully have it completed before work. The final piece is going to be some sort of music stage with plenty of assets to fill it out. Being a musician myself, I am enjoy this exercise as it closely relates to my hobbies.

Asylum Jam - Oct 2013

As mentioned in my last blog, Asylum Jam was intended to get game creators and fanatics to create some sort of horror game that divulged outside the usual spectrum of mental health stereotypes. The initial article that I found which discussed this can be found here:

http://indiestatik.com/2013/08/11/asylum-jam-towards-horror-games-without-negative-depictions-of-mental-illness/

It was the image (top of the page_ that caught my eye then rreadingthe subtitle beneath it really caught my attention. The reason for this is that i am well aware of how overused mental illness horror themed games are. What is annoying for me is that I really wish to create something like that - set in a Mental Asylum. It is for this reason I will explore options and have ideas that will truly make my creation unique in its own way.

I was interested to discover more on this game jam and this site directed me (and everyone who visited and wished to take part in) to a site containing examples of horror games that did not involve mental health.

http://asylumjam.tumblr.com/examples

One Late Night
I downloaded this and gave it a play. For being in an office setting it was very creepy and very well done. A little difficult to know what to do and sadly I do not have the time to play it extensively to complete it. It has however shown me insight into how you can make a generally friendly environment rather creepy and disturbing.

Among The Sleep
Just played the demo - WOW! This game looks fantastic. You play a two year old child who is wondering the house looking for the mother which leads you into some sort of new maybe dream world? As I said I have only played the demo but I was really tense and scared whilst playing this game and the originality of it is superb. I may look into buying this and playing it as it looks like it might be very helpful towards my project!

Slenderman
I have already downloaded and played this game before. It is terrifying. Horrible in a fun way! I really like this game as it truly uses atmosphere to create the ultimate scary game. In relation to this blog, in has nothing to do with mental illness; it is set in a forest and the villain is a mysterious spooky looking person and no details are given to who he is at all. This unknown factor helps let the players imagination take over.

SCP Containment Breach
This game sounded very interesting and is very bizarre - I am typing this as I am playing it! It is very difficult - I have died multiple times without getting very far. I am going to keep trying so I can get a little further in order for a better understanding.
Ok, I kept going but did not get much further that before. Contradictory to the annoyance of the difficulty of this game, I did like its approach and the story that went with it. It was an effective way of creating a different horror atmosphere and story compared to the usual we are given.

As for the Asylum Jam, it is apparent that there were loads of applicants and plenty of new games that were created within the 48 hour limit. Here is a link to the submissions (You may haev to sign up to view). I will take a look at some of these and see what comes up. There might be inspiration somewhere for something similar to what I want to achieve!

http://www.asylumjam.com/submissions

Stigmatizing Mental Illness in Horror Games

The Ethics Behind Mental Illness in Games

I have been reading up on example games using Mental Asylums and was lead onto a few articles relating to the stigma behind mental illness and games. I found this very interesting as I am wanting to somehow portray mental illness to the user through gameplay and this requires me to have a vast understanding of some mental health illnesses so  I can portray them within my game/walkthrough. I am still not sure if I am actually going to be creating an actual game as I have had an idea in my head for this 'project' to be an educational piece and hence, you explore a level/map and learn as you progress through.

I will create a blog post explaining what I am thinking of doing in a little while but for now, I want to concentrate on the ethical side of mental illness in games as it proves to be a interesting a valid point on both sides and one which will be useful for me to explore.

I first stumbled across this site:

http://indiestatik.com/2013/08/11/asylum-jam-towards-horror-games-without-negative-depictions-of-mental-illness/

This is explaining a game jam that happened in October last year (2013) which looked bring game enthusiasts and creators to create horror games that did not involve depictions of Mental Illness. I can see why they wish to do this for a number of reasons. One, which has concerned me for my project, is that Asylums/hospitals and mental illness in games is considered overused and not original anymore. This is why for my project - due to my high interest in the subject, I am looking to somehow make it more interesting and unique.

This game jam was created in response to this article:

http://kotaku.com/nobody-wins-when-horror-games-stigmatize-mental-illness-912462538 

Ian Mahar raises some valid and interesting points in this article. Most importantly that game creators are portraying fictional mental states for characters and results in showing inaccurate information about how mental health illnesses actually affect people. In all fairness, most of the time in these types of games they exaggerate in order to enhance the fear onto the player. What does make these kind of games effective for a horror theme is that people fear the unknown and mental illnesses are always a mystery to those who do not suffer or have direct contact with it (it's also a mystery to those who have it at times.). This unknown factor is what game creators thrive on and use it to their advantage to create a truly scary horror game.

I am a huge fan of horror games and I can relate to fearing the unknown. However I am interested in mental illnesses and would love to create something that portrays the true feeling of such mental states.



'The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) publicly denounced the game Manhunt 2, in which the protagonist initially escapes an insane asylum while fighting off murderous fellow patients, for "its irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of mental illness," and requested that the game be edited or recalled due to content that "unfortunately perpetuates and reinforces cruel, inaccurate perceptions that people who live with mental illness are violent."'


As you can see, not just the individuals find these games offensive and inaccurate but large organizations also feel this way. This is what is helping me drive my own idea into an ethical experience that helps show the true and factual representations of mental illness as well as hopefully creating empathy towards those who suffer from it.

I highly recommend reading this article. It has proved very interesting and has given plenty of example games which I intend to look up and most likely play myself.

Week 2 - Questions

So this week we did a similar task to last week; except this time we wrote down numerous questions we had about our project on a piece of paper. As well as doing this I also began to write down the certain facts and bits of information that I felt was important to my development. These are with the headers outside of the big bubble. These were ways of helping me narrow down exactly what I had in mind and would help into forming my research question.

My research question is yet to be defined but as you can see under the header 'What I am looking to accomplish', you can see roughly what I wish and intend to do this year. Again, writing these out nice and clear should hopefully guide me to a more final question but for now I am going to begin to research my chosen area and see what I come up with.

At the end of the lesson I began discussing my ideas with fellow students and listened to what they were doign and their advice. They have given me a few things to carry out and research so I will be starting there this week and will hopefully find some useful and helpful information. I also discovered a fellow class mate who is carrying out a similar project to me; similar through his interest in 3D environments and showcasing mental states through immersion. Already he and I have exchanged useful sites and information so hopefully we will both come up with an interesting and unique project.

Week 1 - The Beginning

Hello and welcome to my Honours Blog! My name is Christy McLaughlin and I'm studying to become a 3D Environment Artist at The University Of Abertay, Dundee. This year is going to be a tough and exciting year and I hope to share my progress and ideas with you as I carry out various research and developments throughout the year. Please feel free to comment and offer advice when necessary because I'd greatly appreciate it!

So here is the first week of my 4th year at The University of Abertay. This year I will be carrying out a Honours Project on a area of my choice. This is a chance to home in and develop my skills on an area I wish to pursue further in my career.

We began by writing as much words as we could think of on a large piece of paper. This was too help create an initial visualization of what our main ideas for our projects good be - especially for those who were not sure in which direction they were heading.

I however had been thinking about this over the Summer - not in too much depth but enough so that I knew and had a starting point. As you can see I am wanting to venture into 3D environments. I also have a real keen interest in storytelling and narrative. I am hoping to combine the two in a really interesting and unique way as well as incorporating a personal touch through my interests.


This is also my first time using blogger/blogspot so bare with me!