Author: Tala

Reading Response 1: Hamlet on the Holodeck

This reading offered a simple deconstruction of all the elements necessary to create digital environments. The fact that digital environments are participatory, particularly stood out to me due to variety of factors that we designers and programmers must consider in order to create more sustained engagement. With earlier programs like ELIZA and Zork, it was interesting to observe how users were often inspired to test the limits of how responsive these programs can be. The reading states that the first step to creating “enticing narrative world is to script the interactor”; thus making it easier for the programmers to anticipate the interactor’s actions and behaviors.

Due to the fact that digital environments are participatory, this means that every detail has to be designed with the user in mind: their reactions, questions, spatial awareness, etc. The most traditional approach in digital environments that is still utilized today, is having a simple branching structure “which limits the interactor’s choices to a set of alternatives from a fixed menus of some kind.” This narrative is still widely used in modern day RPG’s, chat bots, and a variety of other interactive services. Having participatory digital environments also implies that these environments have their limitations, which are dictated by a specific set of rules. Perhaps with more developments in virtual reality and machine learning, we can anticipate digital environments that are flexible enough to capture a wider range of human behavior and counter it.

P1: World Idea

Although I am still not entirely sure about my idea for the first project, I was inspired by different media that helped me narrow down my choices to a world that includes elements of adventure, apocalypse and an alternate planet.

The main pieces of media that inspired me in terms of concept and aesthetic, are The 100 (season 6), and the animation movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Both the series and the movie follow fictional and adventurous plotlines, that take place either on a different planet or lost societies.

In The 100 (season 6), the characters wake up after 125 years of cryosleep in a post-apocalyptic world, and land on the alternate planet Alpha. Although the new planet is habitable, there is a mysterious anomaly that happens at certain points during the day; which drives people mad and affects the environment. I really loved all the fictional and aesthetic elements in this series, and wanted to create a similar world. The world I want to build will also be set on a completely different planet, with a diverse terrain. I want the color palette to also be similar; with warm tones, fog, as well as forest greens and browns.

Image courtesy: The CW

Atlantis: The Lost Empire, is one of my favorite movies from my childhood and has a completely different color palette than The 100.

Image courtesy: Disney

Although this movie has a completely different narrative and aesthetic, I was inspired by the character and elements design. It would be easier to build something more simple in terms of characters and environment more similar to this movie, rather than the series above. I also wanted to the appearance, in characters to be similar to the ones in Atlantis!

Despite not being a 100% set on the idea for project 1, I’m leaning towards making it a post-apocalyptic world.