Meeting With Lecturer 02

I never blogged my first meeting with a lecturer as technically I met up with her before the semester began, but all it entailed was me sharing my ideas for the year in order to make sure I had the right idea of 4th year.

So today I met with another lecturer in order to help narrow my ideas down and guide me forward as I felt I was coming to a stand still or block in my research path. Up till now I have been focusing on research, online and in books. I have been concentrating on mental illness in games and education in games. After the meeting today I have found myself taking a slightly different and more appropriate approach towards my project.

Just to remind you, my idea up to this point was along the lines:

To create an interactive experience through a 3D environment showcasing the historic transformation of mental institutes. This will be portrayed through the eyes of someone with a mental health issue to help raise awareness for mental health.

With this aim I wanted to create an accurate and realistic atmosphere to help immerse the user in the environment. I also wanted the user to experience it to the full and not only learn from it, but want to learn from it.

The issue with this idea - which was made apparent in this meeting - was that it is a fairly wide scope and I will end up focusing on topics such as; psychology, criminology and history. The problem with this is that it may just be too distant too art that it is not an effective use of my 4th year honours project in Computer Arts. So with this in mind and writing things down on paper I have found a new area to home in on whilst still have touches of my old idea.

I am now looking into focusing on storytelling through a 3D environment with the environment being a mental institute. I still want to show the historic change that has occurred through the years and with this in mind, I can focus heavily on creating atmosphere, and perhaps some sort of fictional or factual story that entices the user to proceed through the environment.

This is much more suited to me as over the years studying I have always had an extremely keen interest in; 3D environments, horror genre, narrative/storytelling and atmosphere. I am excited to proceed with my project with these changes in mind. Again, in a few weeks, this all may change again. That is what is expected in this field whilst carrying out research however I will proceed as normal and gather more research and see where that takes me. What I also want to begin looking into is a more visual approach to my project such as moodboards, blackouts and some 3D pieces that I can practice and develop with.

So things I need to consider and look into now:

• My Audience
• A Story
• Horror-sub Genres
• Atmospheric mood

Books/Reading to look into:

• First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game by Noah Wardrip-fruin, Pat Harrigan
• Game Design as Narrative Architecture by Henry Jenkins
• Chris Crawford

This meeting has proved very helpful and I will be looking to arrange more with the same and different lecturer in order for different perspectives.