Introduction To The Semester
I have 1 year left remaining in this course to make something I’m proud of. In this semester, we will be making a Project Proposal. This year, I know for certain that this year I want to take a concept, character design or creative direction.
Module brief
“The final year will start with a research-focussed approach to create an innovative game project proposal that addresses your own critical and contextual concerns. These will be discussed and located through a series of dynamic tutorials, presentations and debates. This material will form the basis for your project proposal.
Looking at the broadest remit of games as social agents you will interrogate, investigate and create a proposal for a project that will be fully realised in the Major Project GDA module. The format of the proposal will be akin to a rich research project proposal. Working through the proposal, you will be able to translate a passion into a solid proposal for a project to be completed in the Major Project GDA module. Utilising all the skills gained in levels 4 and 5 you will synthesize professional level evidence and process documentation communicating this in the proposal. During the module you will have opportunities to work collaboratively or pursue an individual proposal.
Your process documentation and reflective outputs alongside your portfolio of specific assets will be produced in an online format suitable to best communicate your learning, for example as an illustrated blog and the associated materials.
Your portfolio should consist of all studio work developed over the course of the semester, including evidence of workshop and tutorial activities, all sketchbooks, research, annotation and preparatory material alongside outcomes as directed.”
Objectives to ensure a good grade
Semester Plan
Task 1
It was announced that after phase 1, everyone would be presenting 4 topics that we will be researching. However, it’ll be done in roughly 8 minutes, which is 2 minutes per topic. Adam also mentioned that we should try to not think about games in this stage, just ideas that interest us at the moment.
In the screenshot, I have started to jot down ideas for themes I could possibly research. At first, I wrote down some topics that I don’t mind researching but when I started to think about topics that resonate with me, ideas started to flow quickly. For example, I started to think about themes that stimulate me intellectually- which is feminism and how patriarchal standards can morph the way that modern women see themselves in society and influence their identities. Thinking about this topic, I wanted to still make it interesting for everyone else so I thought about the origins of plastic surgery and how it wasn’t always just used cosmetically.
Another topic I thought about was something more personal to me, and that is funeral rituals; Specifically, Filipino funeral rituals. When I went to my home country for the first time in 7 years, I experienced a lot of culture shock. One of those things were the funeral “rituals” or superstitions that my dad’s side of the family partook in:
1. You cannot wash your hair during the wake
2. Wear a bit of red on the day of the funeral
3. Mirrors must be covered when not used
4. Avoid eating fruits with seeds
After the funeral, there was still one more thing that needed to be done, and that was to throw away my aunt’s clothes before sunrise in a river. But there was one rule; don’t look behind you at any point of the journey to the river. My family believed that if you did, her spirit could never rest peacefully. I didn’t go as I wasn’t accustomed to the beliefs and didn’t want to mess this ritual up.
I also wanted to look into toxins and natural remedies as I watched a show about an apothecary in ancient China and research more about this topic and how natural remedies were able to alleviate illnesses or pain.
Task 2
In this task, we were given sheets of paper and we needed to write things that make us excited, angry, cry, and laugh. This was a group exercise and would help us milk out ideas for things to research.
Lotus Method
The lotus method focuses on brainstorming on areas of interest. It utilises a similar representation to a mind map, but is more structured.
It starts of with a theme and expands outwards with relative words or phrases. By using this technique, it encourages you to expand more on your ideas.
The Layout
My Mind Maps
In this task, I worked with E-jay to make these mind maps, here we started with the words nostalgia, science, and capitalism to branch off into further ideas.
Then, I continued to broaden this task with my personal experiences- using the word “nostalgia”.
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