Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Final Post

We did. We made a game in the end.

I'm really pleased with where we ended up. We worked through a lot of different ideas this term: what was New Dad, collage aesthetics, Scarecrow Corn clicker game. But I think the place we settled in was a good place.

Playing through the game during the critique was the first time I had seen it all played out sequentially (during play testing I would switch out the audio clips because it took too long to fix bugs or make changes with 3 minute long clips playing).The randomization of the audio clips worked out much better than I though it would, and I hope that our viewers experienced the little moments of revelation putting together the different stories to the different scenes out of order. Moving forward I'm excited about the prospect of creating even more scenes that will allow for more exploration of the non-linear storying.

If there is one critique I would level to our final product it's that our audio recordings could use some more editing. The 2-3 minute clips were already heavily edited down from longer almost 10 minute clips. But even still, I think we need to consider how long we can reasonably play an audio clip in a scene that might only support 1-2 minutes of interaction. It's something we'll definitely consider moving forward.

The game will definitely be published online eventually, but we have more work+polish into the game before that happens.

It's been a blast!

That's all for the term.

- Eli

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Reverse Performance

(This blogpost serves as a companion post to a presentation I gave on Increpare. Though Increpare was a crucial stepping stone to reach the ideas talked about here, this blog post is more about the concept of Reverse Performance than it is about Increpare.)

Reverse Performance.

Reverse Performance: The phenomena which occurs in playing a video game where the player is asked by the game to act out a series of actions in a narrative. (as coined by me)

In a way most games are reverse performative, in that even in the most basic sets of interactions a game is asking the player to perform some sort of interaction. However, the phenomena I'm talking about it more specific. I am thinking more precisely of theatre/filmic performance; characters taking concrete actions furthering a narrative (most of the time). A similar thing happens in written stories, however the performance is played out through the dance of the words.

In games that practice reverse performance the stage has been set, but the play will not continue without the player's input - the player's performance. There are games where the stage is set, but the action plays out in front of them. I'm thinking about game's like Telltale's  The Walking Dead where the player watches the action unfold, and is only occasionally asked to make a decision that will effect the next cut-scene.

Episode 1 of Telltale's The Walking Dead (Warning: violence and blood)

 This is not a reverse performance, this is a straight up performance that the player watches, and occasionally decides how the next stage of the performance plays out. I am interested in games where the player is really forced through the motions of the performance in order to progress in the game.

Where, instead of sitting back and watching in-game character perform for them, the player must put on their own performance.

I would argue that most modern games are some mixture of player performance and game performance, whereby the player watches characters in a cut-scene, and then they are asked to go out and complete a task - perform. This the standard structure of most First Person Shooter single player campaigns - as well as like, every other game.

This is well and dandy.

However, what I think makes Cooking for Lovers by Increpare so effective (for me) is that it is entirely performative. It is like a tiny one act play. However, you are never given stage directions, instead you must stumble through the actions of cooking dinner alone, and once you slump to the floor at the end you're given time to contemplate - contemplate the name of the game for instance.

I'm still trying to tease apart whether this distinction I've drawn is helpful on a broader level of analyzing games. However, I do think it helps me wrap my head around many of Increpare's games.

https://www.increpare.com/2014/11/cooking-for-lovers/

https://www.increpare.com/2015/06/blackness-and-stars/

https://www.increpare.com/2017/07/a-story-about-a-cat/

https://www.increpare.com/2012/12/slave-of-god/

https://www.increpare.com/2014/10/having-said-goodbye/

https://www.increpare.com/2017/09/worst-guest/

https://www.increpare.com/2009/10/home/




Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Progress Update #3

Progress oh progress.

My favorite thing.

But actually, we've made some pretty nice progress.

I think that we've finally found more stable footing on the narrative side, thinking about and representing Leo's memories. The memories will be presented in a non-linear fashion, though perhaps lightly structured fashion. According to Leo the inspiration initially came from the way that rouge-likes spawn items from item pools. So, for example, in Binding of Isaac items spawn semi-randomly when you explore the dungeons. The reason it's semi randomly is because the item that randomly spawns isn't selected form every item possible, but from a specific pool of items depending on if you're in a basic dungeon room, or an area, or the shop, or in a boss room, etc...

Here's a little image to illustrate.
 

Leo's idea was to translate the random yet structured nature games like this dole out items, and use it to structure a narrative. The game moves through scenes - memories - chosen randomly from the current pool of memories. As of now there are going to be three pools: very early abstract childhood memories, more grounded+specific memories from later in childhood, and memories/reflections from current Leo. As we're talking about it now each memory will be paired with an audio clip, but one that doesn't necessarily relate to the current memory. - but maybe relates to a different memory. Leo is interested in how this narrative structure relates to how he actually remembers things - very specifically, but in non-linear ways. And how abuse has shaped the way he does and can remember things.

Leo compiled a bunch of memories and we started sketching out how a couple of them go. We've pretty much finished one scene, and have story boarded and starting working on four others. We don't know exactly how many there will end up being, but we're aiming to have at least a couple (3, 4, 5??) for each memory pool, so the randomization element works. However, the scenes are going to vary in scale, so some might be more involved, and others very short.

We haven't started doing any voice over for the scenes yet, but we've booked a recording booth for this weekend and plan on starting then.

Here's a very rough sketch of a scene that Leo made on a post it.

 

Here's what the scene ended up looking like three days later in Unity.










I think we're finally in a place where development can happen more quickly, and I'm excited to see how these next scenes start taking shape.

That's all for now!




Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Progress Update #2

As work continues, it continues in a non linearly wibbly wobbly way.

Recently, I've begun asking Leo questions about our game; tell me about this video game, how does this video game end, how does this video game begin? Each time I take out my phone and record the question and answer. It started out kind of as a joke, I would ask him to tell me about it, and he would respond with something ridiculous: this video game is the Dark Souls of Finnegans Wake. (which this game both will be, and also I don't know entirely what that would mean).

I ultimately found the process of making of the recordings worthwhile, the ridiculous answers slowly petered out into more tempered, if still not entirely serious, answers. 'The game ends when you want to stop playing it'.'The game will only be FMV from now on'. While I'm not sure if these voice recordings will make their way into the final product, I think they struck on a couple of different thematic chords that Leo and I have been reaching for. First of all, I like the shifting view of the game they provide. Each time I ask the same question - how does it end? how does it end? - I would get a different, though often equally valid response (we still don't know how it's going to end). This constant moving under the players feet, and shifting of expectations is something we've talked a lot about exploring.

I think these voice recordings also achieve something that we've been talking about since our early sketching out phase: direct communication with the player. I know it sounds like a 'duh' kind of thing - if you want to talk to the player directly, talk to them! In lots of our early ideas Leo kept coming back to the sticking point that no matter how interesting a world or narrative we'd built up around the player, they were still a couple levels abstracted/removed from the game. That they were not directly being talked to, instead it was an avatar. So now, with these recordings, it was kind of a revelatory moment for me when I realized that, ya know, we could just talk to them.

It reminded me of a game I'd played a while ago, The Beginners Guide. Here's a trailer for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBK5Jheu0To. The game unfolds as a narrator/game developer talks you through a series of short games/experiences made by a friend of theirs. Though the thematics of the game are different, I realized that the delivery mechanism for the story was by far the most direct of any game I'd played in a while. The narrator is the developer (more or less, it ends up getting a little complicated) and I am myself playing through these games as the developer talks to me about these games. Anywho, Leo and I recently played through the first couple levels in the game to get a sense of the narration style and delivery, and I think it might end up being a helpful touch stone for us as we move forward.

So yeah. We've spent a fair amount of time with conceptual work recently, but here are some of the tech and development progress we've made.

I've been learning two different tools inside Unity; Timeline and ProBuilder. The first is a tool that allows one to align events that happen inside the game on a timeline, it's particularly helpful for aligning events to an audio track - which is something we're thinking about doing if we go down the voice recording track. The other tool I've been learning - ProBuilder - is a Unity asset that allows for the creation of flexible in engine meshes (ie, creating the 3D level geometry inside of Unity instead of having to use an outside modeling program). Below is a screen grab from a mockup of an abstract scene I created to test out using Timeline to score a song with geometry made with ProBuilder.




I think I would also be remiss if I didn't mention S C A R E   F A C T O R Y before ending this blogpost. So Leo and I were prototyping the skeleton of a clicker style game to maybe be used as a vignette in a part of the game. (Clicker style referring to games like : Cookie Clicker, Space Plan, or A Dark Room). Our prototype for this project accidentally spun out into it's own monstrous monster based clicker game. While it's very likely some of the tech driving SCARE FACTORY might end up in our game, it's probably safe to say it's now another project (something we'll finish maybe after this class). Anywho, if you have more questions about SCARE FACTORY, just ask, in the comments maybe? I'd be happy to elaborate, but as it's not directly related to this project anymore I think that's all for now.

I think that's all for now!




Pulped Under Pressure Talk Response

Last week there was a talk given by two of the artists who collaborated to put on the current paper exhibition in Wriston - Pulped Under Pressure. While parts of this talk were perhaps a little less than stimulating, there was actually one part that really stood out to me - the process of collaborative paper making.

The two speakers commented that because the process of making paper is labor intensive, often requiring many hands and various steps along the way, it naturally lends itself as a community activity. Thus, many different groups and organizations have either centered themselves around paper making, or utilize paper making as a form of brining together members of the community and empowering them through the process of making art. As someone who's interested in both art and intentional communities (as seen in my involvement with SLUG, CORE, community gardens in the Manhattan, and collaborative video game development communities), this piqued my interest. It made me think about what parts of the process of making video games naturally lends itself to large scale community practices. While I don't have any answers right now, I found it a worth while question to pursue. 

This wasn't the only question this talk led me to. I was also curious about the relationship between authorship and community art builder. Much of the art world is driven my the idea of authorship, of a singular creator producing something. Or even in the case of collaborations, the work is still understood as something firmly 'owned' 'created' by the distinct (other small set of) collaborators. But I find the idea that group of 30, 40, people, most of whom aren't necessarily artists, collaborating together to create a bunch of artistic paper as a challenge to this clear cut notion of authorship. I dig this challenge. I think it's awesome. 

I think that's about all for this lecture. 

Until the next one. 

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

PATRON SAINT

The patron saint.

Who is my patron saint. 

This project, my work in video games. 

My patron saint is increpare

Make video games. Make video games about everything. Make video games about unorthodox and intimate things. Make many types of video games. Make video games quickly. Make video games slowly. Make dumb games. Make smart games

Dont stop making games. Make hundreds of games. 

Be thoughtful.  Be impulsive. Be deliberate.

~ ~ ~ 

Most of the games I make nowadays are dedicated, in some part, to the influence of increpare. His games feel simultaneously accessible from a technical point of view but wildly inventive and experimental from a creative point of view. 

When I first began thinking about games, I remember there was a shift moment when I was playing increpare's games where I went from thinking: how does he do this?? to Oh, okay, I think I could make something close to this. I don't mean this in a bad way. Nor do I mean to say that I ever thought I would have ideas as inventive as increpare's. However, being able to look at a creator's work who inspires me, and think, if I set myself to it, I could imitate that, is a really powerful thing. Furthermore, he has such a range of games, from tiny to huge, from hastily drawn pixel graphics to complex 3D environments that not only could I see how to built a simple game, but I began to see the path from simple to complex. And yet, that never devalued the simple games. Some of my favorite games of his are the simplest. That was also revolutionary for me. 

~ ~ ~ 

So yeah. Increpare is my video game patron saint. His creative output constantly inspires me to create more. To create better. To create odder. To create more honestly. 



Friday, January 26, 2018

Progress Report #1

Progress.

Progress update #1.

Well, my computer broke-partially broke- recently. The mouse and keyboard are caput. Which sucks, considering video games are normally created using computers. So, I'm figuring that out. Thankfully I got my hands on a mouse and a bluetooth keyboard, and should have a more permanent fix sometime next week, but it has definitely slowed my progress. That said. There has been some.

Inspired by both Getting over it with Bennet Foddy and the quieter moment in Frog Fractions where you ride on the back of a water dragon as a sillouette and a narrator recounts a fake history of boxing, Leo wanted to experiment with using very direct voice overs during gameplay.

Here's a brief trailer of Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy that gives a good sense of the kind of direct narration that is present throughout all the gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjuQ3K72u4

This is the referenced scene from Frog Fractions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkfKAHbS6oU

So, Leo recorded a series of three of them off the cuff on a nice mic, recounting small stories from his childhood. The last of the recordings turned out pretty well and I decided to use it as a spring board to experiment with a new scene.


But wait, before getting to the scene, I want to describe some other things that have happened.

So we decided that we wanted to go for a collage aesthetic for the game. Cutting out images from magazines and scanning them in, or just finding them online and cropping them. Leo has a fair amount of practice with this style given his experiences in animation, however I'm a novice. While this isn't some of his animations that deals more overtly in collage (I don't think those are online), this quick rotoscope he did shows a couple elements of using found images to create a cohesive style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6P2XP5R55c

So early last week Leo gave me a crash course in Photoshop, how to easily crop objects out of images, and stuff like that. I ended up practicing and using those skills all week long on a book I was making for my other class this term Artists Books. As a side note, I think the book came out well and it was also about video games, but more relevantly it was really good practice actually using Photoshop in preparation for this project.

Here's a picture of the work in progress of the book, the background image has been altered/tweaked/created using Photoshop.



Earlier this week we met with Anne Haydock, the film professor teaching Leo's senior seminar, about both the progress we've made as well as setting up some initial deadlines. We agreed on February 6th to have a substantial initial working prototype. We also talked about copy right and fair use in the context of collage art and our project. She said she thought that what we said we wanted to do was protected, but that she'd look into more specifics about games.

So returning now, to the voice recordings that leo made. After listening to them he thought that he needed to work on writing them out in a slightly more planned way moving forward. However, since we both thought the 3rd one he'd already recorded was promising I decided to use it as a jumping off point for workshopping a scene in Unity.

I wanted to figure out how to capture gifs in order to include them here - because motion is really important in seeing a game scene - but unfortunately I couldn't figure it out in a timely manner, especially with the state of my computer, so that will have to be for the next blog post. However, here are some screenshots from the scene.










The recording is about a memory in gym class. The scene is slight currently, with the gameplay involving dragging a ball around the screen and knocking these action figurine-y looking guys off the stage. Various things/people spawn in at timed moments in the recording. Moving forward my next goal is to being creating lots of small scenes like this, in response to recordings or written text from Leo or myself. My goal for this upcoming week is to try to make two or three more very quick and diverse prototypes, just to begin testing out a bunch of different gameplay mechanics as well as aesthetic choices.

Thats all for now.