The players sense of self in games

Sense of the self 

   For project 2, I'm going to be looking in to the players sense of the self and how this can effect the emotional impact in games and how I can apply this to transition areas. 

The players connection in the 'Beginners guide' is as an observer. The player plays themselves and plays though Cody's work while being spoken to by the narrator. Giving the player immediate connection with these characters, we are an explorer in the perspective of others, and this to the player is interesting. Knowing were they fit in in the world and what there place is. I have categorized a few of these players perspectives. 

- playing as an already defined character - As a player you want to play as this character and lean more about their story and to continue creating one as this defined character. 

-its not about the player- This type is were the player will not be the main character but by being involved in someone else story you stay connected to the world from a different perspective. 

-its all about the player- This world just doesn't function without the player, this gives the most exaggerated perspective and the one easiest to identify with. 

Project 2 

Description

Continuing with this I am wanting to explore ways that these perspectives are made and conclude how best I feel their emotional impact was on the player. As a means of creating an interesting corridor that throws the players perceptive of to gauge a personal emotional response. 

Walking simulators

 - walking simulators have, what I believe to be, a rather negative reputation in the majority of the gaming world. This term generally tends to be used in a negative way to describe a game, and although can be used positive this seams to be a rarer occurrence.

Stanley Parable 

   In the game 'The Stanley Parable' walking simulator was given a much better representation of the benefits. With low levels of game-play, interesting world and narrative this form of genre worked really well for this title. 

Stanley Parable Image from Steam 

   It shows that low level puzzle mechanics and an interesting narrative and world can be enough to intrigue the player. Interactivity is an important element in games design, as it is what classes the medium as a game. These days Games have become a popular platform for a variety of things. Such as a more engaging and interesting way to tell a story, that the player can connect to rather then just observe.

But what about those games were observation is a larger element? 

   In some games, deemed 'walking simulators' have became a somewhat more artistic platform for story telling, with the increase capability of technology they have become far more visually interesting while still maintain that essential base game-play for the player to explore and connect with. 

Beginners guide 

Image from : Pinterest image saved from youtube.

  Beginners guide is a game in were you explore the game design projects from the character Cody and are described and narrated over. As an aspiring games designer I was very intrigued by the game and so took a further look into it and played it. This story was incredibly impact-fully in my opinion and was to other people as seen in video play throughs. The narration similar to 'The Stanley Parable'gives the flow of game-play a relaxed yet interesting feel. Unlike most games were you play as a RPG or ready built up character, this felt more organic then that. You played as yourself observing someone else work and story. I felt that this game summed up the emotions behind games design well and i found myself wanting to explore the meaning behind the levels in the same way as the narrator. 

 The game unfolded to have a deeper meaning and relationship between creator and narrator were revealed. The story had deception and twists and the reveals had a strong emotional impact. showing the strength of this genre of games as a medium for story telling. Taking full advantage of the players emotional connection to games and using this in the design. 

   The transition areas in this game are filled with plenty of story reveals and light innovative puzzles to navigate through. A typical play to progress. 

   The most sticking thing to me about this game was that I became so invested and yet, this game wasn't about me. Despite playing this game as the role and character of myself as a player. It was two characters that I hadn't even seen, and never do. The character I was playing was, me, just a player playing a game. That's when I began to become intrigued at why I felt this way. The importance of  'the sense of self' in games and started to look into the possibilities of this within my projects. 

Lilly Project Final piece

Lilly Final Piece 

Texture file 

   The final piece for the Lilly project was a showcase of my new design for a Lilly with the color application learned from the first part of the project. The results did not come out in the way that I would have liked as It worked a lot better up close, but looked messy when looking at it normally. I feel this may be due to either the use of the black shading on the flower or the way that i have drawn out the textures style as a whole. 

   The projects final product as a result suffered and although I will be later re- visiting this and producing a new final product for the section that reflects what I have learned better and the results of the projects questions better. This project I did not set a large amount of time for the final product as I didn't imagine I would have these issues with the design and texture style themselves. Spending to much on this product would have taken planned time away from other areas and future projects, so is something that I can go back to to change the way I went about the final result. 

   For the re visit of this final piece I am going to try and replicate this peace as a more realistic, rather then stylized model and texture. 

Project 1 part 2- Shape

Exaggeration of Shape 

   Another aspect I looked into was the exaggeration of shapes with the Lilly's. When the shape is exaggerated I don't feel that this couldn't necessarily go into realistic games. In games some plants and environment features are incorrect, Such as a plant being in the wrong location or time period. These features rarely bother the player and are despite incorrect to reality can have a positive impact on the environment. Fully fleshing it out and adding more interesting props in it. 

  This section of the project I wanted to exaggerate the shape of a Lilly and find the most interesting shaped one that I could and combine the interesting really one with my unrealistic design and create something that could exist, yet having the intrigue and design of something that couldn't. 

Gloriosa carsonii (Flame Lilly) - Image found on Gardenia 

   This Lilly had an incredible appearance and bizarre structure. The petals resemble a fire and so do the striking colors. This Lilly looks as though it couldn't exists and the image of this flower does not come to mind when you think of the word Lilly. 

   I decided to make a design that would be the opposite to this flower and combine them. So I designed a Lilly with inspirations of crystals and ice. This flower I designed purposely so it could not exist. 

Fire Lilly and Ice/Crystal Lilly designs and drawings by Yasmine Brough

Further development by Yasmine Brough

   I combined the two designs to create a flower that technically could exist and took inspirations from both designs. Creating an exaggerated shape for the fire Lilly. While keeping some aspects the same.





Further design look into prospects of color

Color Design by Yasmine Brough

Further design work on testing the improvement of colors in an environment.
The light spectrum doesn't just work in shades of the same colors but rather acts more like a filter allowing certain light rays through. In a scene every item displays every color just that our eyes pick up the most predominant ones. So although these colors aren't  necessarily what we see, they can exists and I feel that this can be applied to realistic environments development of the environment.

Poject 1 Designs and Developmeant

                                            Lilly Project

 
   The Stereotypical Lilly that we think of when we hear the name Lilly is the traditional white Lilly. This is the same Lilly used in Breath of the wild, with some extra flourish in the design, such as the blue.

Image from Fandom Zeldapedia

   In Breath of the wild the white simple Lilly does give of a impression of  purity and has small exaggerations in the design to show that this Lilly is special in this world. I do feel that this could have been pushed further as it is a fantasy game, however this project is to highlight tactics to emphasis more color and interest into the environment. I chosen this Lilly not because it should have been bright or anything more then it was really, other then to show examples that could be applied to other plants.


Lilly examples:

Standard white Lilly: image on Pinterest by Barry Seidman 

Tiger Lilly: Image from Breck's

Purple and white Lilly : Image by Garden Designs By Tovah Martin

Beginning the Lilly project

Color 

The Project Beginning
   For the first section of the project I decided to focus on simply trying to find ways to exaggerate a color that already exists to make it more interesting, adding more of a visual palate to the environment while also being identifiable the player as the same color. This is to prevent the environment going the other way and becoming to colorful and bright, becoming messy or the player unable to identify the object or flower correctly.

  The aim to emphasis the colors to a reasonable degree without being to intense.

Image by Yasmine Brough

   This design piece is to illustrate the ways in which I think color can be subtly emphasized and bring more colors to foliage rather then many different shades of greens and browns, that can be applied to all genres. 

   The application (as shown above) was to keep the primary color the largest and most distinctive. While adding highlights of a variety of colors. The actually palates used didn't seam to have much effect, as i could use greens, purples and a variety of any color (not having to stick to the same shades etc) while preserving the natural impression of the flower itself. 

   Such as in the images on the left, I used just the colors shown in the photo in the middle section. Then on the left added a variety of colors that don't exists in the actual flower, the result being the same with arguably a bit more impact against a solid green environment. 

  A problem I encountered with these small experiments, is that due to the amount of color in the final images its took longer to produce. To keep the images main color the predominant feature, seeing the image from a distance doesn't offer the same color impact. So similar to 'Breath of the Wild' may still encounter problems when looking above the world as a whole. It may still go missed by the player.


A balance between the sheer exaggeration of color and the predominant color is to be considered highly.

Lilly Project

Colors in games

   For the first project I wanted to take a look into ways that can keep a realistic tone while improving the color palate used in materials such as plants. To avoid a complete green environment.
A simplistic way of achieving this is to use flowers and interesting plants with large varieties of colors. The problems with this though that I am wanting to test within this project is that lots of colors integrated into the environment are not necessarily the best way to tackle these issues. Although it is one solution towards it, it can itself be an issue and create a different tone to the environment and the game. Such as in the majority of cases flowers and brights trees in a horror games might change the atmosphere in a negative way.

   However this does not mean that color can not be utilized in a similar way. For this project I am going to test how to exaggerate the colors that already exist in plants.

Design drawing by Yasmine Brough

  I began drawings of which plant I would focus on to keep the project consistent. I considered a small tree, such as a bonsai and some flowers like daisy's. However I felt after looking at a lot of flowers that the Lilly was a good choice, as it has a wide natural variety of shapes and colors. This is a flower that is also used in 'Breath of the wild' and so would make for a better comparison throughout the project.

  For this project I am going to explore the concept of a Lilly, one of the flowers that were included in breath of the wild. In an attempt to see if improving aspects of the Lilly's features and conclude weather this would have worked in practice in breath of the wild.

Design image by Yasmine Brough