For our first 2 weeks, we were tasked with researching 4 topics that we were interested in so that we could present them on Monday during week 3.
However, before we began individual research we got into groups and were given prompts that could help us with the ideation phase of finding out what to research.
After this task I decided to further research the following 4 topics:
- Stars
- Gambling
- Alchemy
- Religious Psychosis
I felt that these topics were relatively vague, having enough to thoroughly research for my presentation. Without being too specific that I would be unable to conduct even deeper research once I had chosen one final topic.
1.Stars and Stuff
With a game in mind, I wanted to research and aspect of stars that I could turn into a game mechanic quite easily. So I stumbled upon astronavigation as a topic:
Also, with my interest in physics, having taken A-Level physics in sixth form, I also wanted to look deeper into the physics behind a stars formation and life cycle:
2.Gambling
Gambling itself is already extremely “game-ified”, therefore I wanted to look into an aspect of gambling that existing video games haven’t really touched on so far, its history:
Another aspect of gambling which is key to its success as a business module (at the expense of its victims) is the psychology behind why gambling is so addictive and lucrative:
3.Alchemy
Another interesting topic with a deep history is alchemy. A historic psuedo-science that, I believe, has many game ideas that stem from it:
4.Religious Psychosis
An interesting case study, and probably the most infamous form of religious psychosis in history is Joan of Arc:
References:
“A practical guide to navigating by the stars”
Hunt, C. (2023). A Practical Guide to Navigating By The Stars – BASE Magazine. [online] BASE Magazine. Available at: https://www.base-mag.com/a-practical-guide-to-navigating-by-the-stars/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2026].
Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Gambler’s fallacy. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy
Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Alchemy. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
Schildkrout, B. (2017). Joan of Arc–Hearing Voices. American Journal of Psychiatry, 174(12), pp.1153–1154. doi:https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17080948.
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