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@martingeesas
Map update testing the panning textures being applied to the streetlamps which are used throughout the entire map.
Since last time i have added some more props to make the second section more complete having added road blocks, fountains, cones, a food stall, sitting areas etc.
ecilA testing a moving object looping using Matinee. I feel like our map is too dull and so this is one aspect that may add more flare and intrigue the user. I am also currently making the word ecilA in Maya as seperate objects so we can have the name floating.
Object Performance: “Asset collection and creation”
When going into a project that requires a certain aesthetic and particular setting or environment there is a lot that goes into fulfilling that and having it up to a certain standard that meets your demographic.
For us, ecilA’s setting is very specific in design but basic for the overall ‘City’ concept. Making it obvious that its a city and giving off that certain ambiance of what an actual city would be like is essential in executing our base environment correctly. When adding our own touch to things we needed the foundation to be set and this would be done through the base structures and props. Time wise and considering non of us are prominent 3D modelers, we have become accustomed to utilizing Royalty Free 3D models for our own use and only 3D modelling our own models when they are basic enough to get done quickly.
http://www.turbosquid.com/ - “Our Royalty Free License allows extended freedom to use content in a huge variety of creations.”
https://www.cgtrader.com/
Sites like “TurboSquid” and “CGTrader” are the go-to for when we want 3D models without much hassle. In the first screenshot you can see the downloads that i have in my library as well as seeing that they most of them have materials on them that come with it. Sometimes these materials and objects are corrupted and need to be edited in Maya but most of the time its all about importing it correctly. CGTrader is more or less the same but doesnt have a library filled with your previous downloads. All you have to do is choose you model and make sure it is free and not too high poly.
This process ends up saving us a lot of time and allows us to focus on level design (Placing the objects in the game) and the core mechanics. When it comes to it as previously mentioned, we will go on maya and make ourselves a basic object (Showcased in the screenshot below)
Basically this post is to clarify or even justify why we use downloaded models and that it is perfectly okay to use in our project as it is royalty free and we are not using it for commercial use.
This is our to do list for last 2 weeks. The green marking is the essentials, while the pink and yellow arent need to run the game and present our artifact, although they help a lot. We are all looking into riddles for Alice in Wonderland, hopefully tomorrow we should have one each. Martin is focusing on level design in the second and third areas, this is coming along nicely, and I give him praise for that. Andy is working on the Matinee for the 3rd door cinematic. The cinematic isnt necessary but it is a nice add on to our project, and being the last door, the cinematic makes it feel like a grand opening, something nice to look at. It also adds to the object performance side of things as well. From what I have seen he seems to be well on track to making it look very nice. I myself am going to focus on the first riddle, and create an object that players use to open the first door. This object will be hidden when “Alice” is big, and shown when she is small. I also want to look at the health bar, but to do this we need photoshop on the main pc.
All and all, I think we are progressing nicely, we are on track, communicating well, and pulling our own weight. I am still working on my organisation skills, but I am definitely not falling behind at this point.
Because its crunch time we really need to organize ourselves and so we came up with a to do list so that we have a better idea of what is needed to be done. We already know who needs to do what and now its just a matter of finding the time to complete it. The main problem we are having at the moment is that only one person can be on the main computer at a time and working on the actual project. Other then that we are finding alternative tasks to complete in the mean time.
Emerging Practices: “Evaluation thoughts and Synthesis”
Over the past few weeks we have been in the ‘Evaluation’ phase of our research where i have undoubtedly lacked and had come to some very weak information collected. I honestly feel like i would have to re do this report and actually conduct one of my ideas for a social experiment.
For example..
“At the end of the day I really wanted to evaluate how people would interact with a robot that not only can act autonomously and is able to interact on an intellectual level but could also offer some sort of sexual feature (just like how Pepper who is already intelligent was hacked to have boobs displayed on its interface). This would make it clear that the human could in fact have a sexual interaction with the robot if they wanted to and all that really needed to be done was the act of reciprocal liking and the robot essentially seducing or enticing the user to use its sexual features for their own desire. This would have then let me know about how this interaction would go down and what could be changed in order to make it more natural or effective for the humanoid to achieve reciprocal liking.”
Not only will this experiment give me information on how we currently interact with a potential sex robot but what features of a robot would be an advantage or disadvantage to achieving recipricol liking. Unless i can get access to Ricardos robot and sucesfully tamper with it to give it a sexual offering / feature then this wouldn't be possible and i have to synthesize with what ive got.
For now we are tasked with the final phase which is Synthesis. Basically we are to pitch out Robot 2.0 based off the Analysis and evaluations. At this point i have an idea of what my Pepper 2.0 would be like specially in terms of its capability with being a sex robot but i still want to give this more thought and obviously would ideally conduct another evaluation.
Studio Project Ecila : Big Update
In this video i am showcasing the map so far and all of the level design that i have been doing which involves a lot of objects ( Various Buildings, Busstops, benches, signs, traffic lights, trees, roads, fire hydrants, streetlights and more) being copied and resized around the map.
When first starting to plan out how the map was going to be done i started by laying out the roads and so where the buildings would be started to shape up. In the spaces left i had to decide what buildings would go where whilst not creating too linear of a path and instead having some twists and turns in order to navigate the map.
Early Stages of the map with only Safe zone / Spawn point part of the map complete and the basic road and building placements for the first sections done. From here i proceeded to start adding the street objects and replacing and angling buildings to create more space for interaction.
From this angle you can see the varying sizes of each building and how they are positioned to look like city districts and very similar to how an actual city would be layed out ( With the exception that the foundation of our map is circular ) hehe. Without too many buildings to choose from i had to drastically change the size and look of some of them so that they dont look too identical and confuse the user as they would think they are in the same place as they were before.
Here is a shot of the map layout as it is at the moment. The implementation of monuments give the map landmarks that allow the user to be aware of where they are in the map and not to get lost. These landmarks will also be points of interest for further interaction and gameplay to take place. This will most probably come in the form of riddles and puzzles both requiring mechanical skills and problem solving thinking.
Interaction and Play: “New Map Level Design and Change of plans”
So the new map ended up turning into an apartment rather than a house as all we needed to focus on was quality and great execution other than having a big map with plenty of quantity. We agreed with Ben that what we needed wasn’t anything spectacular but was just getting the basics right and executing the tension and setting right.
In this screenshot it is kind of hard to see but on the top left i have integrated an air vent that will be a major point of interest for the plot development. Since the air vent is theoretically coming from the outside this leaves speculation as something from the outside may have access to get in. This gave me the idea to have stranger noises coming from the vent in order to spook the user.
Upstairs i did the level design and tried to make it as narrow and long as an apartment building would logically be in order to make it more eerie. This then lead me to making a room with another air vent to continue that initial idea. Here things will really pick up and the mood will change to be more of a panic type state because of the shift in sound and atmosphere. Sounds from the air vent will increase and then start to come from other parts of the house.
This simple idea will really drive our game and allow us to not have to worry about jump scare animations and characters. I will address my original notion of the character design in my next post.
Interaction and Play: “Level gray boxing”
This is quite overdue but only now was i able to access the old map and take some screenshots for evidence of the gray boxing that had taken place. When we were at this point in our development we found ourselves with very slow progression because we were making one section at a time and fully furbishing it before moving on. The solution to this was gray boxing which was also suggested by Ben during that weeks critique. I decided to take on this role and started expanding the house and figuring out what areas would lead to further plot progression.
Upstairs i started to map out more rooms and figure out which room would draw the most interest and possibly have a scenario play out. I also did this for the basement where we planned to really kick things off with the gameplay and have the user feel very uneasy and afraid.
The circle object represented a possible jumpscare or cinematic to be implemented. No further progress was made with this map as we had to move on to a new one when Unreal Engine bugged out.
Emerging Practices: “Evaluation Stage Part One”
As Ricardo has put it, it is time to to actively engage in prototyping for our social robots and actually walk the walk rather than talk the talk. Although this is what we were all looking forward to, i still feel quite lost and unsure about my next steps and how to take things further. In my last post i said..
“I think the main thing will be figuring out ways to simulate a natural social interaction with Pepper or a similar humanoid and gather information to use towards evaluating and summing up main points to press towards the developers of the robot”
Ricardo even agreed in his feedback and said “yes please”. Although this may be a good sign that i am going in the right direction i still feel like i need some guidance and some ideas thrown at me that are feasible and will be reliable when making the evaluation.
One idea that i had involved using Ricardo's Robot which he showed to us on the first day and adapting it into a similar humanoid to Pepper where not only does the robot socialize through entertaining but also poses questions and interacts on a more emotional level. This can help me figure out how someone would react ( in the best case in a natural scenario ) with a humanoid robot and if we can achieve recipricol liking and even an interest in a more interment of sexual relation. Not to say that i am going to try seduce someone with the Robot but more i want to see what the reactions are like and then afterwards pose questions that could help make evaluations. Question like ‘Would you be more interested in purchasing a robot if it had the capability of sex and functions towards recipricol liking”, “Do you feel any emotional attachment to the robot after that interaction” Etc. Questions like these may help me prove a point about humanoids and although it may not be as credible because i am not using Pepper, the overall results would be more or less the same.
So that is my ramble on about that idea.. if anyone any ideas on what else i could possibly do then please tell me.
Cheers
Object Performance #13
Crash bandicoot for me was my inspiration for the battery mechanic. Mixing modern equipment (phones and batteries) with this game mechanic I found the perfect representation of the current and next generation’s addiction to modern technology. (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008). It was found in a study that those with lower self esteems were the ones more “addicted” to instant messaging.
Looking deeper into this, the game mechanic is an ongoing metaphor of growing up and learning that there is more to the world than your phone. The more your phone’s battery decreases the more batteries you need to collect, the more you collect the more you interact with the world, the more you interact with the world the closer you get to reaching your goal. Keeping with the metaphor, this can teach independence to the user which is a key idea in the novel “Alice in Wonderland”.
On another note, it can also be interpreted as ones constant need for their phone and going out of their way to keep their phone charged. I believe the mechanic is a balanced mechanic in this sense. This can be represented as the Queen of Hearts obsession for power and most likely her own security, which is what people experience when absorbed into their phones, hence the term “Key board warriors” etc.
References:
- Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K., & Walsh, S. (2008). Personality and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Young People’s Technology Use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 739-741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0030
Shaydn has definitely hit the nail on the head with what kind of underlying themes and metaphors we are going for with ecilA. Not only is it a game that requires a certain amount of motor skills and basic player know-how, but it also has a very Alice In Wonderland-esq feel with the meaning behind everything ( themes ) and why exactly we are portraying things and what the user to perceive certain mechanics, objects and the overall setting in a certain way. This is only the tip of the iceberg with what we are wanting to do and the amount of themes and overall learning we can implement due to certain features like the riddles and object collection etc.
There is still a lot to do and a lot of room for growth which i am definitely excited for
Object Performance Video Update
In this video i am showing what a district in the ecilA City may look like, as not only will it have its distinct colour and pattern but may also contain specific objects and a certain look to it. (posh themed or retro theme maybe) When mixing and matching colours as well changing the panning speed, i found that it was too weird and disorienting and a lot harder to focus as the player which would take away from the overall experience of the game.
Emerging Practices: “Evaluation / Prototyping stage”
After the semester break and getting our feedback for our reports back we are now in the evaluation stage and need to find effective ways to prototype our social robot in order to gain valuable and credible information to use for the final report. What Ricardo really stressed was the point that we should find ways of simulating our robot in non cliche and more unique and diverse ways. This approach will allow us to gain more perspectives and thus more data to use in our research.
When thinking about Pepper and how i will be taking it to the evaluation/prototyping stage i feel like having something tangible would be great but a real stretch in terms of budget and access to such technology. I think the main thing will be figuring out ways to simulate a natural social interaction with Pepper or a similar humanoid and gather information to use towards evaluating and summing up main points to press towards the developers of the robot.
Object Performance Ecila Level testing 3
So in this video i have added proper buildings in one section instead of the blocks and also tested a different colour with a different panning speed. I think that mixing the colours around which each building is a bit weird but it can probably look good if they are separated into districts and particular objects rather than just buidings. I think colour scheme is going to be really important here as well because of how much it effects the overall feel / vibe and how everything comes together.
Object Performance ‘ecilA level design testing 2′
After grabbing the code for the panning material off of Shaydn i immediately started applying it to the map and this is the result. What i want to do and will be doing is experimenting with different colours, shapes, panning speeds and ways to make it look more consistent and flowing. It definetely looks unique and i really like that. It needs a lot of work though..
ecilA further level design testing
In this video clip i am show casing how i used the same objects from the initial level design and practically re positioned and resized them on to an expanded part of the map. This sets the scene and allows me to easily generate a large portion of an area while also being able to adapt objects to create various districts.
Object Performance:
Moving Objects: ‘ecilA level design / street layout’
When thinking about the Dynamic of ecilA simplicity yet consistency is what i am looking for in terms of level design. I want this because the focal point of this project is finding mechanics and subtle object animations that best suit our game play and the overall theme of our project.
By laying the foundation which in this case is the simple street design i am allowing more room for development and growth within what we can do with this basic space and turn it into something more spectacular. This is the reason i kept it blank in terms of colour so that we can imagine what would work best in terms of texture/colour scheme as well as test out some of our ideas including Shaydns one on using animated gifs for building materials.
In total i am using about 8 different objects for this one scene which can be altered and used repeatedly from street to street and re positioned to give a natural feel to it. When thinking about what props would go on to a typical street, i referred back to the pictures we took in the city as well as going off what i would consider a typical city street. Asides from the typical cars and people (which is still up for debate whether or not we are implementing either of them in the game) i feel like i have covered what a city street would look like and still left space for adding important interactables. From here i want to start testing various materials and textures we could use as well as using proper building structures rather than just blocks which is what Andy is currently working on.
