Project Proposal

Now that I've been doing a bunch of research on emotion, emotion and video games and online relationships I'm about to dive in and start writing my project proposal. The idea is that I want to create heuristics so that I can help other game designers in coming up with game design which is driven by emotion. I've been checking out Jenova Chen interviews on YouTube to rake in any information I can about his design process.

I probably won't post again till January sometime. Wish me luck!

Cheers, 

Gavin

Emotion through game mechanics?

One of the things I've came across while researching games is conveying emotion through game mechanics. It seems the traditional way of conveying emotion through video games is with the use of cut-scenes which is basically film. For exmaple, I loved Final Fantasy X, I thought it was an amazing game and there's a lot of emotion portrayed through the characters, however it's all done through cut-scenes... now there's nothing wrong with that but conveying emotion through game mechanics is very interesting because the emotion comes from the players themselves, not what they see on screen. The emotion is simulated rather than elicited by the individual. Imagine a video game where you're constantly playing but it's very emotional. It may seem a bit strange I know... but video games are a young medium; they are maturing and expanding away from what we know them as. Films are great at what they achieve but imagine interactive content which delivers the experience but it differs enough to not be classed as a film. I'm looking at Heavy Rain here. It's a great game which does well what it sets out to do but there is next to no gameplay. 

Okay enough rambling. I would like to give an example of emotion through game mechanics and I'm using an old popular game here with a lot of respect to try and reach out to a big audience. 

Shadow of the Colossus - Team Ico (2005)

That's right, Shadow of the Colossus. If you don't know what Shadow of the Colossus is then I'd advise either checking it out or getting a copy for yourself. I'll dive straight into the emotion through mechanics stuff now.

Example

In Shadow of the Colossus you travel across vast landscapes in order to reach the colossal giants with your horse. This is basically your 'move faster' mechanic in order to get around quicker. However, players can't help but feel some form of companionship with the horse... an emotional bond where they actually care for their horse. This is exactly what I mean when talking about emotion through mechanics. It's just a game mechanic but the context in which it has been put in (the horse) has made the player appreciate the creature a heck of a lot. 

There's a bunch of other examples but I'd be here all day. Can you think of any game mechanics from games which elicit emotions from the player or even your own personal experiences? 

Cheers, 

Gavin

Journey

Journey - thatgamecompany(2013)

It's funny... I talk about this game a lot, people must get fed up with me talking about it all the time! The most unfortunate thing is I haven't actually had a chance to play this game because my PS3 broke a few years ago. I've watched enough videos and interviews from Jenova Chen, Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago to know enough about the game to understand it and know what it's about... I just haven't yet had the chance to experience it which sucks!

Despite not having played the game it still manages to amaze me. The narrative is told through wonderful artwork and audio with no dialogue whatsoever leaving the story up to interpretation which is a powerful way of telling a story in my opinion. Sometimes having your own idea of what's going on in the story is a lot more enjoyable than finding it out in black and white. 

I love what Journey did with the multiplayer too. They used subtractive game design and ended up with no way too communicate between players, nope, not even players PSN name; they were a complete stranger which draws back to my last post about instantly thinking of Journey when seeing the topic 'Strangers in game'. 

thatgamecompany have inspired me as a game designer to think about games differently. Games which are driven by emotion, grip the player and give me a rememberable experience. This is why I'm loving the experimental games which are coming out just now like Gone Home and The Stanley Parable. 

I'll end it there, cheers!

Gavin 

Strangers in Games

"How do relationships and bonds develop in multiplayer settings between people who have no contact outside of the game environment, and can we develop concepts, prototypes or technologies to capitalise on this phenomena and present players with a meaningful experience?"

Suzy Prior has proposed this interesting topic which I've chosen to partake in. From the title, description and picture the first thing I thought of was Journey and I love Jenova Chen's work. I have a big interest in experimental games which have been coming out over the past year. In particular, Flower by thatgamecompany is one of my most favourite games. I had a wonderful experience with that game where I was completely immersed. The coolest thing about Flower was collecting enough petals to make yourself longer (sort of like a dragon) and then being able to see your tail if you spin around and do some crazy loops like a roller-coaster. It was an awesome feeling able to fly through the air and brush the grass as I flew a few inches from the ground. 

Flower - thatgamecompany

I'm excited to be working on the project and I've already got an idea of what I'm going to do but I'll wait till it's fully fleshed out before posting. 

Cheers, 

Gavin 

Previous Research

During my honours year at Glasgow Caledonian University I chose to research into the 'role and function of music in video games' which was supervised by Dr. Gianna Cassidy. My project was an investigation into the effects of music on player performance and experience of Tetris. I  had seven music conditions: no music, high tempo, original tempo, low tempo, high arousal, low arousal and self-selected. There were 3 hypotheses drawn: 

1. It is hypothesised that player performance and experience will be optimal when accompanied with the fast tempo version of the original Tetris track (165bpm) than the original (150bpm) and slower version (135bpm).

2. It is hypothesised that player performance and experience will be optimal when accompanied with low arousal music, as opposed to high arousal music. 

3. It is hypothesised that player performance and experience will be optimal when accompanied with self-selected music compared to experimenter-selected music (high and low arousal).

The experiment consisted of participants sitting down in front of a computer to play Tetris while listening to one of the music conditions for each play-through. 

The results:

1. Low arousal was found to be optimal in player performance over high arousal but not in experience. 

2. Self-selected music was optimal with experience over experimenter-selected music but not in performance. 

3. Lastly, fast tempo was optimal in player performance but not in experience when compared with the original music and slow tempo.

In conclusion, the results did not fully meet the expected hypotheses but the research did help to support that music has an effect on player performance and experience during a concurrent task. 

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Gavin Stewart and I'm currently studying the MProf Games Development course at the University of Abertay Dundee. I graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with a BSc(Hons) Computer Game Design degree in July 13'. My reason for furthering my studies past Honour Degree level is because I need to prepare myself for the game industry. This MProf course will help to shape me into a professional games designer but only if I put in the work, give it my all and go that one step further. 

This blog has been created for the Innovation and Professional Development module which I will be updating regularly to show my progression in work for the module. Stay tuned!

- Gav