Research & Experimentation

??/02/2023 - Marc LeBlanc's Taxonomy of Game Pleasures

(© Usable Learning 2013)

When describing "Fun", Leblanc states that people should steer away from vague words that describe "fun" and instead suggests we move towards more directed words. 

Here is the brief list of the "Eight Kinds of Fun" that Leblanc has put forward, with games I think fit into them:

• Sensation: Game as sense-pleasure. 
  E.g. Games that can stimulate the senses, potentially through sound, visuals, and controller rumble. Examples include the Horror Genre, the Shooter Genre, or practically any game that can effectively manipulate your emotions--either positively or negatively.

• Fantasy: Game as make-believe. 
  E.g. Games that take place outside of reality--in a fantasy world. Examples include Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls, and Dragon Quest.

• Narrative: Game as drama. 
  E.g. Games that have a focus on narrative/story-telling. Examples include SMT / Persona, Undertale and Sam & Max.

• Challenge: Game as an obstacle course.
  E.g. Games that have an element of competitiveness or are notably difficult. Examples include (Literally Any Competitive FPS Game), Cuphead, Doom and The Touhou Project.

• Fellowship: Game as a social framework. 
  E.g. Games that have social interaction as a major component to them. Examples include party games like Mario Party or Mario Kart, MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV, and board games.

• Discovery: Game as uncharted territory. 
  E.g. Games that involve world-exploring. Examples include The Elder Scrolls (again), Breath of the Wild, and No Man's Sky.

• Expression: Game as self-discovery.
  E.g. Games that allow players to express themselves and their own thoughts and feelings--most notably sandbox games. Examples include Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Garry's Mod, The Sims, and debatably even GTA.

• Submission: Game as a pastime.
  E.g. Games that can be played regularly, comparatively to other pastime activities. Examples include the Casual Genre, the MMORPG Genre, the Incremental Game Genre, the Sandbox Genre, and basically any game that has some form of replayability to it.

A game isn't limited to only one of these categories. An example given is Final Fantasy, which is stated to have multiple: Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge, and Submission.

The pleasures I think are most relevant to me are Fantasy and Challenge. I play a lot of games that fit into both these categories.

28/02/2023 - Photogrammetry Experimentation (Reimu Fumo)

In this session, we did a PG workshop with Inhalation. We were told to bring an object of our choice to PG. I chose to bring in a Fumo Plush of Reimu Hakurei as it can sit on its own, it's not reflective like a teacup or can, and a PG model of it already exists. (and it gives me an excuse to bring in anime cringe).

The object itself has no connection to my ideas and I considered it to be a test run in case I decide to PG in the future.

I took quite a number of photos--120 to be exact.
The program allows up to 500, so it's not a lot in that context.

However, my first attempt used only 50, as we could not open the Lite version of 3DF Zephyr.

To my absolute bewilderment, the PG came out really well despite only using 50 pictures (consisting of only a single side of the object no less).

Later, I rebuilt the model using all 120 photos and it looks even better now. It is still quite bad, however, as the face sinks into itself and there are imprints across the object's texture too.

If I did this again, I would take significantly more images to improve the PG overall. 500 is the program's limit, so that's the amount I would take.

02/03/2023 - Practical Experimentation

From the list of software I'll need, Unity is easily the most important one. As such, I have chosen to locate and complete a Unity Tutorial. Specifically, one on making terrain. I have Harvard referenced it in my Bibliography page.

The guide consists of these sections:

• Introduction
  Simply just an introduction to the tutorial.

• Downloading Free Terrain and Skybox Assets
  The tutorial uses three different asset packs for convenience.
  This section tells you what they are and how to get them.

• Create a 3D Terrain Game Object
  This section guides you on how to spawn in the Terrain object and how to edit it for later use.
  For example, moving the height up so the terrain can be raised and lowered.

• Using the Terrain Brush to Raise and Lower the terrain
  This section teaches you how to change the terrain brush settings using hotkeys.

• Painting texture on the terrain
  This section shows how to add layers to the terrain so you can paint textures on it, like grass, sand and rocks. You can also change the size of the texture in relation to the terrain, so it looks right.

• Indenting the path with the Raise and Lower Terrain Brush
  This section is for indenting the path so it resembles more like one. I personally skipped this step.

• Adding grass to the terrain
  This section goes into the Paint Details tab, where actual grass can be added--either texture or mesh. You can then paint grass onto the terrain like you would with the texture brush.

• Editing the grass
  This section is for editing the grass parameters if needed.
  For example, changing Min/Max Width and Height, Noise Spread and Seed, and Grass Colour.
  

• Painting trees into the terrain and mass-placing trees
  This section goes over the Paint Trees tab, where one can add prefab trees and can paint them on the terrain. You can also use the "Mass Place Trees" button and add or remove some afterwards to speed up the process. You can also use this tab to add bushes, flowers, or anything really.

• Changing the skybox
  This section explains how to replace the skybox with an existing one that came with one of the asset packs.

• Adding Fog to the scene
  This section goes over enabling fog and the settings for it.

• Adding Global volume Post Processing to make the scene beautiful
  This section adds post-processing, like bloom and vignette to the whole scene. I skipped this, as my project was erroneously not URP.

• The Finished Terrain
  Simply just testing the terrain in play mode.

After following the tutorial, this is my end result.
The scene is quite laggy, but it looks pretty good for someone like me who sucks at this kind of thing.

17/04/2023 - Audience Consideration & Research

An important part of our project that we must consider is the Audience.

Ergo, we must put into consideration and research who the audience for our project concept actually is.

To fully establish my chosen age group, I will be looking at the PEGI classifications and identifying the various restrictions and content guidelines in place for each age rating, so I can fully understand the type of content that'll fit them. 

The PEGI Ratings are split up into two categories: Age Ratings and Content Descriptors.

Age Ratings provides guidance for adults to help them decide whether or not a particular product is suitable for their child. Obviously, buying a PEGI 18 game for your 13-year-old might not be the smartest idea.

The purpose of Content Descriptors is to help identify any individual aspects that gave a game a certain age rating in the first place. Some children are more easily frightened or more uncomfortable with violence compared to others, so parents may want to avoid games with those specific descriptors.

It should be noted that while these are self-explanatory, the severity of the content itself is based on the age rating.

Here is a descriptive list of the PEGI Age Ratings and Content Descriptors, and some examples to go with them:

Age Ratings

• PEGI 3: Suitable for all ages. The game must not have anything that is likely to frighten any young children and must have no bad language.
  
  As an example, PowerWash Simulator has you literally just using a power washer to clean dirt off of stuff. Obviously, a job simulator like this isn't going to have any content-specific issues like violence or fear.

• PEGI 7: If a game has content that could possibly frighten younger children or have incredibly mild violence (non-realistic and simplistic), it goes here.
  
  An example is Kirby and the Forgotten Land, as it has Kirby brutally destroying his enemies and eldritch gods that dare interrupt his nap time (in a non-realistic fashion). Pretty much every single Mario game falls into this age range.

• PEGI 12: Violence is getting more graphic now, but still mostly fantasy-based and/or non-realistic. Sexual innuendos and mild bad language are also present here. At this stage, the "Horror" descriptor replaces the "Fear" one and is the lowest rating a game with mild gambling can receive.
  
  An example is SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy, as it features mild violence, sexual innuendos/posturing, and offensive language. I'm honestly surprised this game is only PEGI 12.
  

• PEGI 16: Depictions of violence and sexual acts are more realistic now, mirroring that of real life. Practically all forms of bad language and the use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs are allowed here.
  
  Some examples are the original DOOM and DOOM 2. Interestingly, despite Doom 1/2 being insanely violent and gory as heck, its pixelated and dated graphics save it from being PEGI 18 as it's nowhere near close to being as realistic as modern games.

• PEGI 18: The levels of violence have now reached heinous levels, including arbitrary killing and violence towards vulnerable or innocent characters. Explicit sex is allowed to happen here too.

Content Descriptors

All the content descriptors are self-explanatory, so I'll only specify how it changes with the age rating.

• Violence: The depiction and severity of Violence increase with the age rating.
  PEGI 7: Violence is cartoonish, non-detailed, and unrealistic.
  PEGI 12: Violence in a fantasy setting is included.
  PEGI 16/18: Violence is noticeably more realistic, increasing with the age rating.

• Fear/Horror: The descriptor used is based on age rating.
  Fear is unique to PEGI 7, and is used for games that may include scenes or sounds that may scare a young child. Higher age ratings use Horror instead, and the severity (moderate, intense, outright disturbing) increases with the age rating.

• Bad Language: The depiction and severity of Bad Language increase with the age rating.
  PEGI 12 has mild swearing, while PEGI 16/18 is more blasphemous in its use of it.

• Sex: The depiction and severity of Sex increase with the age rating.
  It can be in a PEGI 12 game if it includes innuendos and posturing, a PEGI 16 game if there is nudity or un-seen intercourse, and a PEGI 18 game if it is outright explicit.

• Drugs: Games with this descriptor are always PEGI 16 and 18. Nothing special here.

• Gambling: All games created after 2020 that include some form of gambling will instantly be PEGI-18 by default. Older titles like Super Mario 64 DS are different, which are PEGI 12 or 16 instead.

• Discrimination: Games with this descriptor are always limited to PEGI 18-rated games.

• In-Game Purchases: Uniquely, this descriptor can come with an additional notice if the in-game purchases include an element of randomness (e.g. loot boxes). Interestingly, this descriptor has no effect on the age rating, unlike Gambling.

I've come to the conclusion that my project will be PEGI 7, based on past existing games of the same genre and style and how my game concept is fundamentally similar in the same vein. It will include cartoon-ish unrealistic violence and potential fear.

Unit 12 - Specialist Study Research Report

15/05/2023 - Art Stuff

Over the course of the FMP, we had art lessons (with questionable relevance by the end of it) that helped us develop and experiment with different concepts or ideas that we could then potentially use in the final product.

First, we did a mini stop-motion project. We went around the college and took pictures of hallways or long footpaths, as this gives us the biggest sense of depth. After choosing our best one, we then created a line drawing (by drawing lines over it). From there, we can clean it up and convert it for laser-cutting use. 

After retrieving our pieces of cardboard, our next step was to stand them upright using a combination of more cardboard and hot glue. In the meantime, I took a render of the ghost-me I lazily created for Unit 10 and printed three of them in different sizes. Finally, we made a plasticine character--because why not, its more options. Now it's stop-motion time.