Project 3 Development Journal // Reflection

Update 1 (04/12) : Brain Storm Meeting for Theme

To decide on the theme of the final project, our team, Ganjina, Will, and I, met over zoom. We decided to give more time to brainstorm further individually on the the four final themes chosen in class (Apocalypse, Escape Room, Wonderland, Invisible Cities). We met again couple of days later with our respective ideas. The following ideas were shared and the potential for each were discussed collectively:

APOCALYPSE

• User in a normal room, where if they touch anything / try to do anything, it triggers an apocalypse.
  • Plays with the idea of affordances.
  • Focuses on micro-narratives.
• User in a cylindrical room, with many doors. Opening and entering a room → experience different types of apocalypses.
  • Can focus on what apocalypse means.

ESCAPE ROOM

• User is a kid in a bedroom with monsters.
• * Therapist / Escape your mind!
• User is a prisoner in some jail (narrative needed).
• * Detective has been trapped by criminal mastermind (Joker/Riddler + Batman, Moriarty + Holmes, etc.)

WONDERLAND

• User finds themselves on a street / in a room / in a different world where everything seems happy but interaction leads to hallucination that feels disturbing.
  • Could go Matrix route / revealing the true world underneath
  • Could go the mushroom forest route / world becomes psychedelic

INVISIBLE CITIES

• * City built over a lake → have characters in reflection do different things from characters in view (sort of Hawaii/Bali in terms of style)
• * City that colors memory and time travel (Bring back a friend or reversing an apocalypse)
• City which only looks down upon the earth → could be sky city with telescopes and things pointed downward, (like Bioshock Infinite but more angelic/futuristic)
• City filled with earth → dust everywhere, time slowed down, or literal carvings that come to life as you interact with them.

After much discussion for each idea, we came down to two possible ideas:

Idea 1: City, color, time travel 

Initial Idea: A palette, composed of multiple colors, is used as a way to time travel to memories – all of which take place in different cities. Each city has a certain atmosphere, expressed through color in this case, that capture a memory between two individuals. The story is driven by the friendship of two individuals, that which has broken in the present time. The user – one of the two individuals – uses the palette to travel back to these memories and cities, to reverse their past mistakes. The story would have two possible outcomes – one where the user makes the right decisions and wins back the friend and the other where the friendship remains broken. 

Idea developed after meeting: The second approach, developed after the meeting, was to base the story on reversing a global apocalypse instead of reversing a relationship. We were more attracted to the idea due to its clear objective, less focus on dialogue and characters – expanding the interaction with the actual environment and setting, hence less limiting. 

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Idea 2: City built over a lake, reflection [Final Idea]

Inspired by the “Valdrada” (Cavino, 45-56), Will shared his idea on building a city reflected by a lake. Calvino describes it as a city “built. . . on the shores of a lake, with houses all verandas one above the other”. The cities resemble in some aspects but are not equal. Like a mirror, the objects are inverted. Inspiration was drawn from these descriptions. With reflection being the central component, it was essential for the city to be surrounded by water. As such, Will suggested building in a tropical island setting. 

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We decided to go forward with the idea of the reflected city. The idea of reflection had interesting ideas worth expanding on. After deciding on the theme, we decided to brainstorm individually on the story before the next meeting.

Update 2: Story Ideation Part 1 (4/13)

After the meeting, we individually brainstormed the story. Attached are some records:

After individual brainstorming, we met over zoom. We explored deeper into what the reflections would mean in our world. Discussion on the deception of reflections, on the mirror, was discussed. Mirrored images are familiar to the eye, but they are the inverted version of an object. We establish a preference for the familiar. Yet, when we are faced with the ‘true’ images, we feel uncomfortable (ex. un-mirrored images). The idea of discomfort when faced with a truth seemed interesting to expand on. This also relates to how people feel uncomfortable to face the truth, or express themselves in the most honest ways, as it requires vulnerability. Hence, the truth is often masked due to the discomfort that comes with facing such truth.

Another idea that was considered was – what things are reflected and are not? For example, a mirror. When we stare at a mirror, it is only the sight that is reflected – what we see. The four other senses – smell, touch, sound, taste. Also, Colors are the wavelengths reflected by an object. If an object is red, it absorbs every other color but red. So, for something to be reflected, two components – something that is reflected by the object of reflection (mirror, water, etc) and something that is not (which goes through). Leading to the thought – what goes through the reflection and what does not?

With this idea came the thought, what if there was a body of water which refuses to reflect in an entirely honest manner? A reflection which refuses to reflect back the lies and removes any form of deception of the real world? Hence, the reflected city would only show truth.

After the meeting, we had a more clearer sense of what the reflection meant in the world we were trying to construct. But, we were still unclear about the story.

Update 3: Story Ideation Part 2 (4/15)

We looked in to the history of some tropical islands. An example, colonization. The colonizer approaches the town with an intent to take – resources, culture, tradition, etc. However, they conceal their intent through packaging their acts as ‘service’.

Not fully satisfied with the idea, also due to not wanting the story to be too political, we kept on brainstorming the story. While googling images of reflected cities, images of Amsterdam came up. Specifically, Amsterdam’s canal houses.

The setting was capable of encompassing our theme of while introducing new aspects worth exploring and integrating into our story. New topics explored were:

1/ Society

Being a part of society, being truthful is not always an option. One puts on a façade and perform for others. Whether that is stemmed from one’s fear of truth or an act of being considerate other than themselves is highly subjective. Regardless, concealing inner truth to some extent is almost required for a social creature.

2/ Internal vs. External World (The home)

Houses protect people from the external world. Hence, when one is inside a house, their actions become more overt and in sync with their internal thoughts. They become more honest.

3/ Day and Night

From some personal accounts, the time of day seems to change the nature of conversations. Some of the most real talks have taken place during night, when the world has died down and you feel more present with your thoughts.

With these additional aspects came the idea:

Update 4: Paper Prototyping (4/15)

[Will’s notes]

During the first play test we were given the following feedback:

• How will we guide the user to the pier? Dimming the sky to increase visual salience of the cue may help. Using NPC interactions and dialogue would be even better. Starting the user nearer to the pier might also help.
• How are we moving? We could do automatic moving, like in TrailVR, or we could do GoogleMaps style point-and-teleport.
• How much animation are we doing? Trying lots of animation means higher potential for making good use of VR storytelling space. It also means more overhead and more work.

Update 5: Environment, UI, Story

To move the project forward, we decided to each take part in the three main components of the development process. Ganjina took charge of starting to construct the environment using the assets (low-poly style) we have decided on, Will took charge of the user interface, and I took charge of the story development.

STORY DEVELOPMENT

Story Summary: 

• Confined Town
• Way in for merchants, no way out for villagers. 
• Villagers unaware of the outside world. 
• The Queen and King assign villagers to dig for “stones” (gems) under the town pond in exchange for housing.
• Stones used as currency for life-time housing.
• Stones are high worth, and sold externally for personal profit of Queen + King. 
• Main Conflict: Unaware of outside, corruption, topics all of which are not addressed in the main world, only comes out in the reflected world. 

Above Reflection (Dialogue directed towards player, but player doesn’t have to reply) 

• Player: character with no-impact
• Aim: player ‘converse’ with each villager, explore their surface-level character
• How?: when the player approaches npc close enough and clicks, a set of monologues starts playing on the text box. (each monologue aimed to introduce / build the surface character, all of which will be contradicted in the reflected world with action + dialogues)
• Player input: clicking button for next dialogue to appear. After the user walks away, they can come back for another set of dialogues to play for more context. 

Under Reflection (Action / Animation + Dialogue between characters)

• Player: Ghost with no-impact
• Aim: watch npcs interact with each other, watch how their real character shows up through action and words.
• How?: User walks to the houses of npcs and clicks for a set of actions / dialogues to start.
• Player input: click the house. look around to watch the scene. 

The characters pre-existing in the asset is where I drew my main inspiration for the story. The story started with characterizing each npc and through that, I gave a role for each character to construct a larger functioning society.

Record of character development:

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Record of story development:

Attempt 1: Dialogue in World 1 [Failed]

In the first attempt, user was assigned as ghost with no impact in world 1. The user would go around listening to dialogues between NPCs.

This seemed like the wrong approach because it did not give enough room for individual character development. By allowing the interaction to merely eavesdropping on these dialogues, this did not allow the user enough time to get to know the characters. Hence, it seemed essential to clearly set character and they slowly integrate and progress the story. To do so, in the second attempt, I made the user character with no-impact and reshaped the form of interaction into a monologue style – more commonly used in games with NPCs. NPCs would say couple of lines towards the user, but the user does not have choice to respond.

This approach seemed to make more sense. With this set, I started writing the monologues and dialogues which took place in two worlds.

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Read the entire script in google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-318n3Ysps96i4_eqbyc9LK_rBQRA5qb3l46raZSHAQ/edit?usp=sharing

The monologues were organized by character. The order of the interaction did not mater. The dialogues, however, in the reflected scene was organized in a chronological manner and through scenes. The scenes would be highlighted through light and space. A light would turn on where the user has to look. The scenes are organized spatially as seen in image below.

Update 6: Implementation of Story in Scene