Gudni Lindal Benediktsson

Blog for Interactive Media at Screen Academy Scotland 2016

[gudnilindal-blog]

Twine

So I did some experiments with Twine, the story-mapping choose-your-own-adventure program, since I’m having thoughts about inmplementing some sort of very primative choice system into my final project. 

It is an interesting program. It’s clear that you’re dealing with a free program right from the start, as an actual purchased one would probably look a lot better. It is a bit strange how your story is limited to being viewed on only a handful of slides, most of which are about as pretty as the gnarly looking ones from Powerpoint. 

Visuals aside, the program is pretty comfortable and easy to use. Just write, write, write and the pages start adding up. 

I made short story called The rise of Linn and I’m going to attempt to post it here below: 

http://philome.la/GudniL/the-rise-of-linn

So please, go have yourself a very merry text adventure. 

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Project prices

I’ve been looking at prices of comparable products to mine and I am surprised, and slightly relieved, that most of them are insanely high. They are not focusing on the core of my philosophy in this: Making a compact experience in a price range available to most cyclist enthusiast. 

If you create a SPECIAL BICYCLE with BUTTONS and SPECIAL SCREENS and you sell the thing for over 3500 pounds, you are obviously not going to appeal to a large market. The only ones who are willing to spend that amount of money on this thing are absolute bicycle fanatics - most of which probably own their own super-expensive bikes anyway and would much rather us them than some decent-feeling computer bike. Sure, you might sell a few of these things to a wealthy elite, but at the end of the day, isn’t it smarter to focus on a larger market? 

Ideally, for my project, Astro Wheels, you would only have to buy three things. 

1. A VR headset of your choice. Their prices are all over the place, but the Oculus Rift for example costs around 420 pounds so let’s use that. 

2. A foot sensor. Forget abot a special bike - by using a foot sensor to measure your speed, you can use whatever bike you want. Let’s say we’d manage to keep the price of this at around 50 pounds. 

3. The game itself. Downloaded into your Oculus Rift, the game would hopefully cost around 60 pounds. 

So what's the total amount then? 530 pounds. 

Still sounds like a lot? 

Well, keep in mind that you will own the Oculus Rift for as long as you like, and you can use it for a variety of things - including any further gaming experiences. It’s a console, after all. 

But isn’t my price considerably more appealing to the working class families who can’t afford to invest in some super-bicycle that almost needs a special room around it to function properly? I think so anyway. 

[gudnilindal-blog]

The journey

So I’ve been working on the project proposal for the final project, I’m well past the 50% completion mark, just figuring out what to put in there and what not to. 

Ever since I got the idea of the VR cycling, I’ve been very certain that it could work in the real world. Gathering feedback from a selected number of my friends who play a lot of video games has made me even more adamant about this. I’ve researched a lot of companies who do similar things, checked out a variety of tecnologichal methods they use to measure your progress and found out ways to create a fully immersive, 360° recording in HD. It’s possible. I’ve seen it. 

Sticking to the rule of having my equipment being as small and handy and cheap as possible, I’ve arrived at a pretty good place with which I’m content. Using a wearable to measure your cycling speed is leaps ahead of the immediately outdated concept of creating a special bicycle for the product, so that’s what I’ll be using. An absolute key element for this to work, is that people can use whatever bicycle they have access too. 

Currently I’m using the name Astro Wheels. I’m not sure if it reminds people too much of the lubricant Astro Glide, but that remains to be seen. For now it gives you a broad sense of what this is - a cycling software that allows you to go anywhere in the galaxy. 

So that’s where I am right now. First there was an idea. Then that idea took form. Then I realized some others had had a similar idea. Then I ignored that and kept on developing my idea. Then I got a name for it, a sense of how I would do it and then I collected feedback. 

So far, so good. 

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Increased connectivity

One interesting thing caught my eye a couple of years ago and I recently remembered it again. 

Solar-freaking-roadways. 

No, seriously, that’s the name of the thing. So basically what this is, is a revolution in roads. Instead of using the regular asphalt that is all cost and no gain, these people invented these interactive hexagons that stack together to make roads and sidewalks. Each of the hexagons is equipped with LED lights and some kind of micro processing capabilities, and are easily replaced if they malfunction. The coolest thing about them is that because they are all connected to a grid, the road basically becomes a computer screen. This way, you can put up signs, markings, parking space lines, handicapped logos, all with the touch of a button. And to change any markings, you don’t need a special person to show up with a paint brush. You simply do it online. 

The best part? They’re solar-freaking-roadways, which means that they get their energy from the sun - meaning they are self-sufficient! And they keep a certain temperature going, meaning that snow doesn’t stick to them - it just melts! And they’re made entirely from recycled stuff like broken glass! And if a country turns all its roads into solar roads, they don’t need any other means of producing energy! And if a moose or something wanders onto the road ahead, the road warns you! What! That sounds way too good to be true!

Well, according to some people, it is. 

This Negative Nancy throws math at the situation, citing this whole thing is impossible and a complete sham. I’ve never seen eye to eye with math so I’m not going to pick sides, but if he’s right, then that’s bad news. A self sustaining, digital, energy-creating road is an amazing idea! 

[gudnilindal-blog]

VR

So I’ve been trying to find some solid data that can tell you the proper details of creating a VR game but it’s easier said than done. The whole thing is a fairly new concept and there are no solid guidelines yet, not official ones anyway. 

I read this article here, detailing some tips and tricks about creating a proper VR world. 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/192810/creating_virtual_reality_games_.php?print=1

They mention all kinds of interesting things to keep in mind, like being aware of the scale of the VR world you’re creating, and little things like the height of the protagonist that you will be playing. They also encourage you to keep the hardware limitations in mind and be very aware of everything your machine can do - resolution, head-tracking, etc. They also have some good advice based on experience - keep the player active at all times, don’t use cut-scenes in the 3rd person if it’s a 1st person game, and work hard on creating a presence. 

This is all good to keep in mind as your game is only as strong as the world you build around it, because the player is absolutely immersed in it. 

This website focuses on the differences between the upcoming VR headsets and their prices. 

http://www.wareable.com/headgear/the-best-ar-and-vr-headsets

It seems that their prices go from 30$ up to around 3000$, with low cost headgears designed to hold your phone (like Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR and Freefly VR Headset) at the bottom, seemingly high quality recognized brands in the middle (Razer OSVR, Oculus Rift, Fove VR, Avegant Glyph) and a hyper prized Microsoft HoloLens at the top. 

It seems that most of the headsets that don’t require your phone, tend to rely on Android or Windows as an operating system, or some kind of software that we don’t know about yet. I’m no expert in this stuff so it’s hard to say. 

But the medium prized ones, around 500$, cost pretty much the same as an actual gaming console - and you’ll probably only buy one of these headsets, not many. So I would argue that it is in the favour of VR game companies to try and keep their games not stuck on only one of these headsets. For a game like mine, the bicycle one, having multi-platform capabilities would be crucial to it’s success, making it not dependent on any one of these devices. 

The end result of this research is that finding out the exact cost of making a game like this is very difficult. I also didn’t find any solid info on how long making a game would take, but assuming that we would have to invent technology to track the speed and movement of your foot, and record a lot of real live driving and / or create virtual 3D missions with a lot of landscapes and some characters - we could be talking about 3 years. 

But that’s just my wild guess. 

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Cycling to infinity and beyond

So I’m gonna be completely honest here. I’m scared that someone will find this Tumblr page and steal my cycling VR idea. So I’m not that keen on putting down any details about my thought process or the development of the whole thing. 

So I’m going to be all kinds of careful here. 

My research has revealed that even more people are thinking about the same idea. For example, here are guys that have fully 3D rendered biking tracks, with a customised bycicle. 

And this guy made a bike / VR package for 40 dollars at home. It’s pretty impressive, although very primative. 

And this guy recorded a fully 360° HD video from a camera on top of his helmet. This opens up a whole lot of possibilities - I thought the cameras you would need for something like that would be too massive for a person to lunk around. If you were to shoot the videos on top on an actual cyclist, the whole experience would be enhanced. 

Then you have these guys, who are very clever in the way they solved the issue of “how does the program know that you are pedaling?” They do it in a much simpler way than creating a special bicycle that you have to purchase with the game (which I think is a terrible idea). They simply attach a tiny sensor to your foot, that detects if it’s moving or not. That way, it can even know if you are pedaling fast or slow. It’s brilliant. 

Lastly, you have the VirZoom dudes, one of which worked on Rockband and Guitar Hero in the past, who created their own bike that has all kinds of buttons. They can be used as gun-triggers and various other functions. It’s a cool set-up, but you have to buy the Oculus Rift or some other VR headset first, and THEN you have to buy the bike. It’s a huge investment. 

So that’s all for today. I have a lot of research to do, there seems to be a lot of competition going on. 

But thankfully nobody seems to have figured out to implement story missions into their programs. Fingers crossed that it’ll stay that way. 

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App review - Duolingo

Due to the fact that I have an Italian girlfriend, it was clear from the start that I would have to learn some Italian. I tried books and classes, but nothing really stuck. 

So now I’m trying Duolingo, a language-teaching app that’s capable of giving you lessons from a number of languages. The way it works is that it asks you how much studying you want to do each day - ranging from almost nothing to a few exercises every day. If you don’t meet this quota, the program sends you a passive-aggressive e-mail reminding you that you have to get to work. 

The interface of the app is super simple and easy to understand. It uses colours, pictures and symbols to help you through the process, and does so in a successful way. The exercises get exceedingly more difficult as you venture further down into the grammatic jungle of the language you chose, with different categories focusing on different aspects of the linguistic structure. 

Currently I just finished very basic grammar, and am now working on common phrases. 

This program is very cool and absolutely free. It remains to be seen if it actually does me any good, but so far I would say I’m pretty positive. Maybe one day I’ll fire up some Japanese lessons and see what happens.

Until then, it’s virtual pizza and pasta for me in the digital world of Italy. 

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Eureka! Sort of...

So I have an idea. A pretty damn good idea that could not only work as a project proposal, but as a viable business venture that could make me a lot of money and make a bunch of people happy and fit. But there’s a catch. We’ll get to that though. 

So let me explain the idea: 

There is going to be a giant boom in VR headsets in 2016, this is the year it’s all going down. Weither or not it will last is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure: there are a lot of possibilities for interactive first-person experiences opening up. So I got a brainwave and followed it through. 

The result was this: Spinning is the most boring thing in the world. Trust me, I’ve tried it. Sitting on an exercise bike, cycling at full speed towards absolutely nothing, having no idea if you’re making any proper progress - that is some hardcore, next-level terribleness. I cannot stress this enough: Spinning is terrible. 

But what if you were not cycling in your living room or at your gym? What if you were cycling on the MOON! Or the Sahara desert! Or on an icy lake? Sounds pretty cool, right? So bear with me. My thought was to create a fully immersive 3D environment that you could cycle through and listen too, like you were actually there. I would put that digital world into a VR program / app / game / thing so that you could put a VR eyegear on your face, sit on your bike and cycle through whatever area you want, gaining reward points for doing certain distances in certain times. This would all be connected in some way to the bike itself so it knows exact numbers. 

Sounds brilliant, right? Well, here’s the catch. Somebody is already doing this. And not just one person, but many. 

Here is the Norwegians at Activetainment (man, what a name) with their attempt: http://kotaku.com/virtual-reality-exercise-bike-is-almost-like-going-outs-1678205251 

VirZoom are also doing a similar product, where an actual bike with all kinds of triggers and buttons comes with the package: http://www.gizmag.com/virzoom-review-exercise-bike-vr-hands-on/41259/

Expresso Bike, Exerbike, CyberCycle and TacX are all similar ideas but in different packages - although none of them uses VR, the concept is roughly the same: http://exercise.lovetoknow.com/Virtual_Bike_Ride_Exercise_Bike

Finding out that I wasn’t the only one considering this was disappointing, although not that surprising. So what’s the next step? Give up?

Not a chance. 

Here’s my thinking: I have two things in mind that none of these programs have. 

1. Cityscape / Worldscape - This feature has extreme potential for drawing non-gamers into my product. Here’s how it would work: A car, somewhat like those Google Maps cars, would be equipped with a fully 360° camera. That car would drive through famous cities and countrysides for hours on end, all the while recording everything in full HD. We would then take these recordings, put them into the VR experience, and voila! You have a REAL recording surrounding you at all times, and you cycle through REAL PLACES! 

Have you ever wanted to cycle in Iceland? Not a problem, we would have the whole 18 hour ring road available at the click of a button. Want to see how Japan looks like at a leasurly stroll? We’ve got their entire countryside in stock. Our cameras would record hours of material in every country we could access and create a groundbreaking experience for cyclists everywhere. 

2. Storytelling - All of the aformentioned programs are focused on immersion into the realm of exercising, with no focus on the possibilities to tell stories to encourage the cyclist. But can you imagine using a similar system as Zombies, run! does, telling a story in a mission based system where you get rewards for finishing chapters? And unlike the zombies, in this game you could actually see what’s following you around. Think about it, we could create a post-apocalyptic setting where cyclist delivery folk where some of the most important humans left - transporting products from one are to another, while being pursued by other cyclists, cars, monsters and god knows what. 

This opens up a whole new level of possibilities, one that I really want to explore. But it truly is now or never - the evolution of these games is traveling at such speed that if you don’t jump on the band wagon right now, somebody else will have stolen your idea from the cosmos before you know it. 

Let’s see what happens, I’m very excited about this. 

[gudnilindal-blog]

Project ideas

So for the big project proposal, I currently have two ideas. Well, ideas of ideas. 

The game one: 

Firstly, I am a huge fan of the Telltale games company and what they’ve managed to do with their choice-based, dialogue-heavy, dramatic-storytelling way of making what is essentially an interactive film. The Walking Dead games and the more recent Game of Thrones (and also Minecraft, but who cares about that) are all very interesting extensions of an already established IP being re-invigorated by littering them with complicated moral choices, interesting characters and gruesome story. 

So I really want to try and do something like that. I’m not entirely sure what the premise would be, but the gameplay would be very similar. The couple of concepts I had in mind are not fully structured at all, but I would want it to be a story-setting that is very dangerous, where any character could die at any point. This way you would keep the player on his toes, not knowing what to expect. The first concept would be some kind of visual, dimension-hopping travel of the main character through different eras of the video game history, being sucked into famous games like Pong and Sonic, all the while trying to get out of this alive. So at the end of the game, the player hopefully knows more about the history of video games, while also having played through an epic story. The problem with this concept of course, is the endless licencing issues you could run into regarding the characters of the games. 

The other concept would be a similar dimension-hopping travel, but it would be through various mythologies of countries around the world. You’d have the Greek one, the Nordic, the Chinese, Native American and so on. You’d encounter various horrifying and dangerous situations, effectively emerging from the experience with extended knowledge of the different mythologies. Maybe it would be better to just stick with one, maybe not. We’ll see. 

The app one: 

I really like Zombies, Run!, as it is the only thing that has ever made me want to go out and run. Its genius concept lies in its simplicity and accessibility. 

So I want to do something similar. I’m obsessed with monsters and mythology and fiction. I must be able to find some boring thing that most people don’t particularly like to do, and create a story-focused app out of it that uses a reward-progression system that makes the whole thing bearable. I just have to figure out what that is. 

Swimming? Lifting? Driving? Flying? Yoga? Walking? 

How about connecting it to a wrist band that measures your pulse? And the adventure activates when your pulse reaches a certain number, and stops if it dips down below it? That way, you would have to keep on going with your exercise to get the full rewards. A sort of Boot Camp or Crossfit app. 

I might be onto something. I’ll report back later. 

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Games, games, games...

So this week I did some research on games, pretty much like any other week I suppose. But instead of watching random Youtube nerds rant on about the flaws of the Virtual Boy, I actually went to the library. Picking out four books at random, I ended up with this lot:

Trigger Happy - The inner life of videogames by Steven Poole

Game Writing - Narrative skills for videogames by Chris Bateman

Creating emotion in games by David Freeman

Writing for video game genres - From FPS to RPG by Wendy Despain

Now I’m not going to lie and say I read them all, but they certainly are on my reading list for the trimester - even despite the atrocious cover of the last one on the list. Amy Beatty, you should not get any further illustration work. Shame on you. 

For me, games have never been just games. And I used to think everybody had to share this opinion if they just played the right kind of game, one that spoke to them. But sadly, I do believe I’m wrong. Just like some people don’t like bananas, some folk don’t like games. I think I realized fully that I didn’t view games as just a past-time activity, back in 2003, when I dragged two jocks from my class to my dorm room to show them the opening FMV of Final Fantasy VIII. It didn’t even occurr to me that they might not be as blown away as I was. Seeing that crazy gunblade fight come to life in smooth super graphics, with an epic score by a professional orchestra, it just blew my mind. But to the jocks, bless their hearts, playing a game was about as meaningful and life-changing as playing a round of ping-pong - meaning, not at all. 

To me, it was never just about the gameplay. Sure, you could make the arguement that a game that has sub-par gameplay and a ridiculously good story could amount to being a very mediocre experience. You have exceptions of course, like the Telltale Walking Dead games, where the gameplay is usually either very straightforward (just picking options) or pretty bad (shooting zombies, running around to solve puzzles, etc). But for me, usually if the game has no story at all, I won’t enjoy it properly. Even if it’s a tiny story, like in Shovel Knight, Megaman or Super Meat Boy, I have to know what I’m fighting for. It just makes it all better, it’s all connected. 

On that note, I would love to work in the video game industry as a screen writer. So if any of you stumble upon an open job proposition, please let me know. I’ve already done screenwriting work on one game, Box Island, so I’ve dipped a toe in the vast waters of the industry. Some might even say this tiny mobile game has made me the perfect guy to write the next GTA. How about it? No? Yes? Anyone?

I’ll try and quote the books at the library in the next few blogs, but for now I’m going to watch some educational videos on proper story building in games. Like in this brilliant video.  

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Testing one two

Tumblr, you are one horrible website. You remind me of Word 97, a program that did exactly what it wanted, when it wanted it, no matter who it hurt in the process. If this blog ends up on my page, it will be nothing short of a miracle. Because who needs an obvious “Create new blog” button when you can hide your system within a layer of slow-loading, incomprehensible mumbo jumbo? 

In other news the module looks super interesting and I hope to emerge from it with the next Telltale game under my arm. Fingers crossed. 

I’ll be using Buddist ways to keep myself calm, like Aang here on the picture.