The Beginning of the Beginning...

Thesis Year - Blog Post 1

And so it begins, thesis year has kicked off and the project my team and I will be working on, is the COVID museum. An explorable, interactive area (ideally in VR, though if that isn’t possible, basic PC monitor gameplay is fine too) wherein players re-experience the good and the bad of the COVID-19 pandemic from start to present. In this, almost ethereal environment, players will have a relaxing, soothing environment to de-stress, take in some symbolic art pieces, acknowledge the best and the worst of the past year plus, and reflect on life now, as we seemingly remain trapped (though in a better place certainly) in a world event that doesn’t want to end (COVID Delta Variant).

The ground work has been laid for me and the team to jump in next week, a Discord Server has been made that, as of this moment, almost all team members have joined. Google Drive and Trello have also been set up.

First meeting itself went well, I worry the Barrett MPR may not be an ideal environment for meetings with the acoustics and the fact another team meets in the same space we do (not a major concern, just a minor gripe I noticed our first meeting).

Everyone introduced themselves and articulated their skills to the group, I don’t think I’ll have enough artists to meet initial scope, plenty of designers though, a few programmers (for small game this should be okay, even in VR), and a few writers to boot. I will be reaching out to individuals outside of Clark to gauge interest in assisting with the project as well (specifically for audio).

The team were given their preliminary first task. Get on Discord, then asked to reflect on significance of COVID-19 Pandemic for themselves and/or for the greater whole (want all of them to put a bit of themselves into the project, as much as they’re comfortable sharing, hopefully further developing interest). No writing required; this is for discussion at our next meeting (used as a spring board to brainstorm museum installation ideas/layout of museum space). Team previously skimmed GDD document, will now review it, noting links to previously made videos and slides (to see how idea started and developed in the past year). I am also hoping some members may come with ideas on additional mechanics we can incorporate into the game (make it just a bit more "game-y").

Before next Wednesday (09/01) I will additionally be looking into team member Ed Greig’s “Gym Class” game he previously helped make – it’s a VR game! I’m excited to be working with people ready to learn/bring what they’ve learned to the table; this will hopefully look great on everyone’s resume.

I have tasks pre-planned to delegate onto everyone (the specific nature to be elaborated on in the moment based on our discussion next meeting)…

• Designers/Writers – Creating Layout of Museum Space, creating narrative summary of game (and brainstorming how to present this “narrative”/context).

• Artists (including me) – Brainstorm (based on discussion), 5 installation ideas each. Will pick a final list of 7 – 10 the following week.

• Programmers – Set up GitHub w/decided engine/version, begin work setting up test environment for VR use.

• Bonus – Come up w/team name (so we aren’t “Team COVID”), and message me if interested in assisting in Thesis research work – i.e. being interviewed regarding gaming/well-being in pandemic.

Speaking of Thesis research, I’ve developed the first version of my Thesis statement…

“As a form of interactive media, video games are recognized as tools, helpful in fostering community and relieving stress, as a result of this, video games are versatile and effective mediums that can stimulate healing in its users, even from global crises.”

I think it’ll need to be reworded, and maybe tie more directly into my project, but as it stands, they are two parts of a whole, the research being on the healing power of games in times of collective stress, and the project being the teams contribution to the healing process with our own game.

A very wordy first post (won’t be doing this when the actual work/production begins, expect less words, more pics/links in the future). I think the team and I are going to have a great semester on this project (that I still need to give a real name to… will think on that more).