{"id":325,"date":"2026-01-17T03:25:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/?p=325"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:15:28","slug":"concept-development-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/2026\/01\/17\/concept-development-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Concept Development &amp; Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Concept Development &amp; Reflection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Concept development &amp; Reflection:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Early game idea:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Texture focused art game \u2013 the player has a design prompt and they can create it any way they want to by playing around with different textures, brushes, and art mediums. Similar UI to illustrator, krita, and photoshop where they have the freedom to do what they want but they are timed and have a design prompt which gets compared to others in a multiplayer competition where they collectively vote for the \u201cbest\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Early issues I\u2019ve identified:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scope \u2013 with this being a multiplayer game concept which involves implementing numerous different art textures and tools it can get very difficult very quickly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ethical \u2013 this would be a multiplayer game and it involves players creating things without restrictions. This can be exploited by players looking to cause harm such as creating inappropriate things that could be exposed to younger audiences.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reflection on deep dive research:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I now understand &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>My cube experiment has demonstrated how texture is perceived physically and digitally.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Oil pastel and charcoal depicted texture through visual marks and shading, this in turn created the illusion of depth through light and shadow<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whereas, yarn and collage created texture physically through the use of 3D layering and material construction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each medium communicates a different mood &#8211; charcoal felt soft but uncertain, yarn felt warmer and handmade, collage felt fragmented, oil pastel felt rich and bold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>But does any of this translate digitally?\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The materials the depicted texture visually such as the charcoal use of smudging and oil pastel utilising blending translated far better than materials that relied on physical depth such as the yarns 3D qualities and collages layering.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When they were digitised the physical properties immediately flattened, which means these materials within digital games need to simulate texture through a combination of systems, such as, visual, audio, and haptic feedback rather than relying on the specific material to communicate its tactility itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>So how do players feel texture in games?\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Players experience texture through the bundle sensory cues visually, through audio, and controller feedback all working together.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Games like OrI and the Blind Forest and Hollow Knight utilise layering graining \/ smooth visuals with matching sound design and haptic response to create the illusion of tactility on a flat screen.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This got me to reflect my current practice:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>After finding out about this design philosophy I&#8217;m going to change my approach to how I think about designing my core pillars in future projects. Before creating any environmental art I need to ask myself \u201cwhat would this surface feel like to touch?\u201d and make sure I&#8217;m able to replicate this feeling utilising all sensory cues.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When designing a game it&#8217;s not just about making it look realistic, but giving the objects the correct behaviours, so a wooden tile would feel different to an metal tile, or an icy tile. Each has their own unique features which respond differently when interacted with.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why I&#8217;m pivoting away from texture and moving into the theme of natural disasters:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Despiste developing a deep understanding of texture, this research showed me the limitations of this topic especially when it comes to being a core game mechanic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>From my feedback and recommendations I was told to avoid using texture as an art style and should pivot instead towards using it as the core mechanic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Every game idea I came up with tended to focus around being an art competition game, or a game in which you were showcasing something, or even my original idea of the gameworld being on an invented texture collapsed into being more about the visuals of the game and not the interactive gameplay systems.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No matter how I brainstormed texture as a game concept it always remained as an art direction rather than something that would be a player driven mechanic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Environmental Geoscience background and system thinking:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>After some reflection, I thought back to why I&#8217;m even doing this course in the first place. I wanted to create a game based around my environmental science background and interest in exploring the effects human choices have on the environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Immediately I thought the best path was looking at natural disasters as they offer a strong foundation for a system driven game with a clear cause, effect, and response which allows for a game with player agency, resource management, and making meaningful decisions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Not only does this topic seem more logical and leave me with more ideas to work with, it&#8217;s also a lot more feasible. My previous game concept required complex systems and extensive creative tool development which wouldn&#8217;t be feasible over the project timeline<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A natural disaster game that requires a complex simulation system can be completed in the project&#8217;s timeline as the other systems involved are relatively simple such as resource management.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Concept Development &amp; Reflection Concept development &amp; Reflection:&nbsp; Early game idea: Early issues I\u2019ve identified: Reflection on deep dive research: What I now understand &#8211; Why I&#8217;m pivoting away from texture and moving into the theme of natural disasters: Environmental Geoscience background and system thinking:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theme-deep-dive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/jr22g22-yr3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}