It's been a LOONNNGGG TIMMEEE!!!
So its been a long time since I last posted about my research. We need a catch up for sure. Last time I posted I was doing some tests looking at ways of using the environment in a game as mechanics as well as looking at ways to guide players using them.
• The last Test I posted on here failed because of the issue of feedback as well as issues with the Kismet and triggers which weren't activating for some reason; I figured it was the LOS triggers I was using which were being temperamental. I have since edited the Kismet to use triggers in the line of sight of the numbers to give allow the player to activate a number if the think its right and that they're in right place to do so. I have also added a sound to the activation of a number correctly and one for wrong sequences to give more feedback to the player as I have noticed that often the player wasn't realising when they had done something right.
From this I re-tested it and the outcome was much better. Confusion only came from the players own shortsightedness and not looking at their surround. All the Kismet ran smoothly as well, and most players (except one) found the process of entering the sequence was easy to understand. I think the "rule of 3" (making a player do a process 3 times to subliminally teach them) method help here with the gradual increase in difficulty.
So after the success of with this test I was having ideas of other things I could do with the environment. One of these I got really drawn into. This came from a compilation of things that I have looked into in my previous research on here; and watching TV. So I have might have been watching Channel 4 a little too much at the time and some of the adverts caught my attention because it used the environment to create something that wasn't there. I mean the Channel 4 'Idents'. If you are unaware of what these are, they are basically a use of objects with perspective to create a '4' in the environment. You can take a look below to get a better idea of what these are:
So they idea was based on using images in a game to use a way to place things in the environment but using perspective so that the player had to stand in a specific spot (similar to the Sequence puzzle) to line up where it should go. For instance my first example of this was this:
• The last Test I posted on here failed because of the issue of feedback as well as issues with the Kismet and triggers which weren't activating for some reason; I figured it was the LOS triggers I was using which were being temperamental. I have since edited the Kismet to use triggers in the line of sight of the numbers to give allow the player to activate a number if the think its right and that they're in right place to do so. I have also added a sound to the activation of a number correctly and one for wrong sequences to give more feedback to the player as I have noticed that often the player wasn't realising when they had done something right.
From this I re-tested it and the outcome was much better. Confusion only came from the players own shortsightedness and not looking at their surround. All the Kismet ran smoothly as well, and most players (except one) found the process of entering the sequence was easy to understand. I think the "rule of 3" (making a player do a process 3 times to subliminally teach them) method help here with the gradual increase in difficulty.So after the success of with this test I was having ideas of other things I could do with the environment. One of these I got really drawn into. This came from a compilation of things that I have looked into in my previous research on here; and watching TV. So I have might have been watching Channel 4 a little too much at the time and some of the adverts caught my attention because it used the environment to create something that wasn't there. I mean the Channel 4 'Idents'. If you are unaware of what these are, they are basically a use of objects with perspective to create a '4' in the environment. You can take a look below to get a better idea of what these are:
So they idea was based on using images in a game to use a way to place things in the environment but using perspective so that the player had to stand in a specific spot (similar to the Sequence puzzle) to line up where it should go. For instance my first example of this was this:
You need to get over a river. A very large one but there is no bridge
as it has been knocked down by someone or something and there is only small
reminisce of where it used to be. In a near by shack there is an image of the area before
the bridge had broken. You take it and see if you can find the stop it was taken from.
You stand there and hold the image up to get the spot just right. You look at the image and then the
spot it used to be and .... the bridge is there again. Just like new.
Even though this seemed like a great idea, after some discussion with Josh and some of the guys on the MA, I figure it was just too big and would become a mundane image gathering quest game thing. So it then became much small to a comparable size to The Room. Moving from area to area adjusting the world to allow the player to reach places that the usually shouldn't be able to. The image mechanic also turned into a camera which the player could take images of the objects in the world and store them to use in the world. This would allow the player to take an image of a door on a wall somewhere and move it to another allowing them access to the room on the other side of the wall they moved it to.
From this I started to do prototypes and plans of Kismet and looking into ways that I would be able to create this mechanic without the need of a programmer. I realised that it could be done in a similar way to that of the Sequence Test using LOS triggers and a much more complicated Kismet sequence.
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| Small section of Kismet for Prototype |
Before I even got round to creating this idea properly myself and a couple of the guys off the MA decided that we where going to enter the Dare to be Digital game competition, and I pitch my idea and they liked it and we have been working on this idea since then and then we entered.