The first week of Year 3 (final year!) kicked off with a brainstorming session! Our primary goal this year is to create a fully functional game, not just a demo. On the first day, we had a session to explore different concepts (non-game related) that encouraged us to think of unconventional ways to find research points and eventually an idea you want to expand.
I wanted to break down the tasks we received for this week and the semester in general so I don’t feel confused on what I need to do.
| Semester 1 Brief | Week 1 Tasks |
| – Brainstorm, research (field, Case studies, Photo research, Videos, etc.) by Week 1-2 – By Week 3 Monday, present your 4 ideas focused on specific areas, – Week 4, “explode” on an idea, go crazy with the research!! – Week 5-8, Pair up with a team on an idea you like and expand on it – Week 9-12, prototype and play, gallery visit | – Brainstorm your ideas, find the 4 topics I want – Research ideas – Tidy up my blog |
Good Start Bad Start Workshop
Our first task was to answer 6 questions, to help us come up with topics for our lotus blossom technique. The prompts helped us tap into our emotions, and how our individual thoughts and feelings might impact the way we approach our interests. For example, with “What makes us Cry?”, I get quite sad about the state of the world, so I tend to avoid media that is “doomerist”, “dystorpian” or “hopeless” as it doesn’t help me feel better in that regard. Knowing what we like and don’t like will help us generate good topics to focus on for our presentation. My answers are in black and Riya, my classmate, is in green.
What Makes You Cry?
I chose mainly obvious things like death, sad media, nightmares and the state of the world as I couldn’t think of another spectactular. To be honest, I can cry at a lot of happy things too but I didn’t want to list those here.
What Makes You Angry?
This is also straightforward. People being mean is a big one for me, as everyone is always going through something.
What Makes You Laugh/Stimulates Us Intellectually
Self-explanatory, I love researching random topics + watching video essays.
What Makes Us Excited?
A lot of stuff made us excited, it seems. Art in general was a big one.
Things that Interest You
Diagram of some things I like
Here are some things that I like. I couldn’t fit everything into the image, so I expanded on some other topics in my Lotus Blossom Technique. It was great for me to be able to write down the stuff that I love learning/doing.
Lotus Blossom Technique
The Lotus Blossom technique fuels brainstorming through the use of visual representations, expanding outwards into various themes that are somewhat related to your original theme. You start with a “core word” and write 8 words related to the core word, then make different core starting points depending on the word that expands from them. Soon you will have a flower of ideas sprouting from a few core words.
My original “Lotus Blossom” below wasn’t exactly that, as I didn’t expand on the topics I wrote down. However, it gave me a good starting point to try again.
My second attempt at the Lotus Blossom technique was way better. I incorporated the actual method, and it was an efficient process to expand on the ideas I liked. I chose 8 topics: EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita fashion), Folklore, Nightcore, Ancient Ghana, Desserts, Hair Braiding, BJD, and 1960s Fashion. These are all subjects I’m particularly interested in and regularly research or explore. For the adjectives and nouns, it was mainly things inspired by how they may make someone feel, the reality of them or what is assumed from them. With this, I could get a wider scope of what these subjects even are and break them down into interesting ideas/summaries.
Plus, the London Underground, as I didn’t include that in the original diagram:
My Final Choices
- Hair Braiding/Ancient Ghana
- Ball-Joint Dolls
- The London Underground
- Nightcore (The Genre)
| Topic | Hair Braiding/Ancient Ghana | Ball-Joint Dolls | The London Underground | Nightcore |
| Why I’m Interested | The community, the different styles of dolls there are, and the different features of said dolls | The community, the different styles of dolls there are, and the different features of said dolls | – The grittiness of the underground and how it came to be | – Documentaries of the Underground, Using the underground when I can, noticing the types of people who frequent, the behaviours of the people who use it, etc. |
| My Next Steps | – Research online, documentaries, my family, and personal experiences | – Watch videos on the process of creating BJDs, the history of the dolls and the community surrounding them. | The culture surrounding the genre, high-pitched vocals, and the history of it | Listen to some songs, try to make a track myself? Note down how I feel when I listen to this type of music. Do some online research into the history of Nightcore. |