Moving Forward, Looking Backward

Thesis Year - Blog Post 3

It’s been a sorta half-in-half week, for lack of better terms. On the project side things continue to go well. The team have meatier tasks to work with (the next blog post will include early model images of installations and the museum environment itself, exciting!) and, essentially, the last of the “prep.” work is finished (I posted tentative milestones on Discord, a general asset list has been made, and I got Harrison (a talented programmer/lead from the game studio I worked in last year) to agree to assist my one programmer in the game should things get too difficult. Additionally…

• The installations have been planned out with room to expand (link here).

• The Rough Museum Environment has been sketched (see images above)

• The Unity project/GitHub has been set up

• A basic/short features list (with room for stretch goals) will be made for next week so we don’t overextend ourselves.

The project is going well… but I have doubts regarding my research. Worst-Case Scenario I may need to scrap all of my support points for my thesis (along with a lot of my sources). But that… is just a worst-case scenario I built up in my head based on perfectly logical, well-written, and helpful comments that helped me realize as an MFA student, I no longer have to argue the point that video games are a form of art. So I reworked the point to the following…

Video games are a form of art, art is proven to be an important source of healing and comfort during, and post, times of crisis.

But it may be possible this isn’t enough, that I may need to just scrap this completely. This is a stress filled trap hole I am trying very hard not to fall into, as scrapping this would mean taking time away from finishing my initial research into my 4 points (of which I only have one more point to find sources on). Based on my schedule/commute I only get to truly work 2 - 3 days per week, and with that limited time it’s possible, yet difficult, to both rework older stuff and make advancements overall.

However, I made an important vow to myself last semester (the start of the year 2021) to not allow myself to burn out like I did my first semester in the MFA program. An important part in doing this is not to make mountains out of molehills. Therefore, I am removing the burden of these doubts and insecurities off my shoulders and sharing that weight, in this case my advisor has agreed to review my Thesis statement work thus far and to discuss if any next steps are necessary at all (as I tend to internally overreact to and make a problem out of nothing).

Apart from that… not terribly excited about the constant reminders to keep our teams for the full allotted studio time. In this case I am following Harrison’s lead (and what I used to do) on the subject, studio is a time for stand-ups, if students want to make use of that lab time they are encouraged to do so, otherwise they are under no obligations to stay as long as the work gets done (the game subject matter may be serious, but studio atmosphere won’t be).

Due to commute, I’ll also need to contact Ulm on Monday… need to find out how long the Thesis library meeting at 2:30PM on Wednesday lasts for (hopefully it’s very short… or I may need to leave early – pandemic-era professors are very understanding on the subject of attendance, but I don’t feel great constantly bailing on this stuff). Fingers crossed my drivers exam is soon, the commute really does put a damper on everything.