Writing our Learning Agreements.

To start this project off we have to write our Learning Agreements. This is so we can show what we are planning to do with our work, how we are going to achieve what we intend to create and why we want to do the work.

I had a think about this after the lecture and yesterdays session with our Project Leader Nigel where I mentioned that I would love to explore something to do with Serial Killers and what happens in their past that can affect the future.

I find the subject of Serial Killers absolutely fascinating. The crimes they commit are abhorrent and I cannot stress enough that I think what they do is good, it isn't, but I find the psychology and mentality that these people have and how they justify their actions to be so compelling. I also notice there is a lack of games around this subject so I would love to explore this and think about how I can bring this to games of the future.

here is a small starter version of what I am planning to write, I will run it by Nigel and see how I can get advice and how to start this off.

WHAT?
For BA6 I feel that I would like to specialise in Character design leading into creating low poly 3D prototypes of environments that those characters would go in, much like the content we created for BA4. The subject I will be covering is what affects a Serial Killer during their child to adult life. I aim to create a journey from child to adult stopping at a moment before they consider their first crime. I want to create this journey to create something that would make the audience think about what they have just played or witnessed.

HOW?
I will achieve this through the use of concept art techniques such as silhouettes, value studies, thumbnails and with programs including photoshop, Alchemy and Maya. I will research various articles on brain development, interviews and documents with Serial Killers to understand how I can turn this into game form.

WHY?
To me I find both of these subjects fascinating, and those are both the strongest areas I feel that I am in. I feel that the work I am going to produce is an interesting subject that is often neglected in the industry through worry of offence or glorifying the actions. I want to explore the darker parts and people of our world and bring these stories to a wider public audience.

I'm feeling rather good about what I am going to explore, already I feel a lot more passion with what I am planning than the whole of BA5. Let's hope I can keep the ball rolling.

((EDIT))

Here is the revised one

Course and Unit Number:
Game Art and Design BA6.
Name: Hazel Page.

Proposal:
For BA6 I will explore the possibilities of specialising in Character/Environment Design. I will be creating a main character and producing a basic 3D prototype level for that character to go in. The subject I will be covering is what creates a serial killer and the journey they take up until the point that they commit their first crime.

Why? To me, both of these subjects (Character/3D Environment design) are fascinating and are the areas I feel I work most strongly within.

The work that I am going to produce is to me an interesting subject that is often neglected in the industry through worry of offence or glorifying these people’s actions. The idea behind the level is to make people think about the events that led up to the final point, and not necessarily make players change their opinion on serial killers as sympathetic characters or turn them into martyr characters, but to just be an example of what can happen in someone's life that takes them to the point where all hell breaks loose. To show that behind the crimes and the name, there was a child that grew up to be this criminal and show what could possibly have lead them on the path they chose.

Assessment Work:

To achieve this work I will be following a timetable which will keep me on top of my work. I will be using programs

 Photoshop
 Maya
 Sketchup
 Alchemy

Research wise I will be looking up various articles, interviews and documentaries discussing different types of Serial Killers, also researching articles that discuss brain development, how environments affect children growing up and also how colours affect people’s moods so I can figure out how to turn all this information into game form. Work wise I will be producing mood boards, concept art of the character and the environments which will guide me as I create the level in Maya.

BA6 Specialism brief.

We have been given our project for the last chunk of Year 2, BA 6, where we have to chance to explore what we would like to specialise in. For me this is a tough choice. I love designing characters and I love building things in Maya. Both have their weaknesses. With character design I will have to study photoshop more and do more life drawing to keep myself up with drawing figures and with Maya I still struggle with textures and different map types. I have already addressed my woes with these in my last project so I will try not to keep harping on about them in BA6 as I feel I need to keep pushing myself up away from BA5 as I struggled so much with it. Onwards and Upwards! Here is the project brief.

It was advised that we should use a timetable with colours because we are colourful artists sorts so tutors could see how we managed our time in and outside of uni, I took the main uni timetable and just coloured it in ... already it looks better to see the coloured time slots instead of simply writing what I will do each week. I can't think why I never done this with other projects. As the uni timetables only go up to 4:30 I think the last colour of the day is what I intent to continue each day so each day that has a pink slot for socialising that's what I will be doing most of the afternoon and anything after orange for travelling I will be doing more work once I get back. Obviously we can't predict the future so I will update the timetable if anything changes.

Unfortunately I have picked the unfortunate time to catch the flu, so most of the first week I plan to be in bed, trying to research on the laptop between dying and sneezing. hopefully it won't stretch into next weeks timetable because that would be not nice, I lost time of my last project do to illness and I don't want to repeat it.

 Schedule of Work Over BA6

Directed Study - Live Brief from Gina Jackson.

Today we were officially given our directed study project (Next Gen Equality) to last us from today for the next three weeks, then we are given our brief for BA6 which I am rather looking forward to especially after having felt so disconnected from BA5.

((INSERT WORD DOC HERE))

For this project I partnered up with Maxine ( http://mhuntergad.tumblr.com/ ) I felt it would be beneficial to do some form of team work to understand what could be in the future as far as working in a group, and I love her work so win win!

First off we started by brainstorming, I had an initial idea from when we first had the briefing based around the concept of being in the boardroom and not having your voice heard. You would operate the game by tapping the screen with your finger/stylus/space-bar and you would have to tap more to make yourself louder, the idea behind it was that no matter how hard you try to get your voice heard .... you could never out-speak the men. However I realised that this idea was a bit too obvious, but also didn't give much to the imagination, it was too realistic and would probably not allow the player to sink into that world without feeling straight away excluded.

The next idea was a joint effort of thinking between myself and Maxine. This was around the idea of the 'Glass Ceiling' that you could progress so much but never reach the top. You start at the bottom of a set of stairs similar to Ghost Busters on NES and make your way to the top each time the scenery gets better and more impressive, when you reach the top you hit an invisible wall, above you you see a business suite and the soles of shoes .... the business suite is a man only zone. However once again it didn't seem unreal enough, like my first idea it felt straight up human and to obvious.

We decided to have our work based around anthropomorphism of some sort, based around the theme of Aesop's Fables. Starting with several notes and brainstorming sessions.Looking through the list of Fables one stuck out to us .... 'the jay and the peacock'.

                                           The Jay and the Peacock

"A jay, who felt that he was a very plain bird, came across a pile of peacock feathers on the ground one day. He gathered up a big bunch and then tied them to his tail.

Very pleased with himself and the way he now looked, he left his friends behind and strutted towards a group of peacocks. But as he grew closer they saw what he had done, and were angry with him, and pecked the peacock feathers off his tail, and sent him away with his tail between his legs!
The jay sadly walked back to his friends, but they weren’'t impressed. In fact they were very annoyed with him! Who did he think he was, pretending to be better than them?

And the moral of the story is that it is not only fine feathers that make fine birds! It is what you are inside that counts."

I love the idea of this Fable, it works really well and gives us a lot of ideas to roll with, the idea is you play a Peahen who collects feathers to be as glorious looking as the ever dominant Peacock. The game-play involves collecting feathers to disguise yourself, collecting seeds to get more points. The trick is that there is a Peacock hidden from view who will always be better than you whenever you collect seeds he gets triple the points you do (playing on the men get more money than women do), every-time you collect feathers the Peacock will come out and knock those feathers off you and you lose points ...

We went with the title "All cock and no pea!" playing off a quote from the old Carry On Henry film, it also works rather well with the game idea, that it is all (pea)cock and no pea(hen). It is a little bit close to being not safe for children but the game is about birds so it has to be seen as that term .... not the other meaning.