Category: Spring 2021

Reading Response 3: Agency

It was interesting to me how the author approached the notion of agency in games or immersive environments; stating that the more realized these environments are, the “more active we want to be within [them]”. This made me think of the games I’ve played in my childhood vs. the games that I’ve played recently, and the ways in which they are different and similar. I remember that growing up, playing quest-oriented games such as Crash Bandicoot and fighting games such as Tekken, the purpose and orientation of these games were very clear – and although very enticing the games didn’t offer much agency beyond beating your opponent or moving on to the next level. However, as time passed and games became more active and immersive, the player could find themself situated in worlds where they are free to ignore the main quest for a while. This concept reminded me of the anime Sword Art Online; where players (after being trapped in a video game) decide to live exploring and settling in the territories within the environment. It’s fascinating to imagine that this (on some level) could be possible, and players can have completely different and lives and personas within these immersive environments.

The potential of the labyrinth as a participatory narrative form would seem to lie somewhere between the two, in stories that are goal driven enough to guide navigation but open-ended enough to allow free exploration and that display a satisfying dramatic structure no matter how the interactor chooses to traverse the space.

Janet Murray

Although most of immersive environments and games nowadays follow a linear trajectory, some give the player the impression that they have more agency in shaping their experience. Speaking to this, I found interesting points in Giving Shape to Anxiety, where Murray states that “The multithreaded web story achieves coherent dramatic form by shaping our terror into a pattern of exploration and discovery”. I feel like this is what attracts users to most modern RPGs and immersive environments – because beyond the main purpose of the narrative and what the player is meant to achieve, they are given the ability/agency to explore the terrain and immerse themselves further into the experience. This is seen in games like Legend of Zelda, Fallout and even Grand Theft Auto (GTA), where the player can walk around for as long as they want to just explore the environment. Notions of agency and ‘orienteering’ were definitely not on my mind when I would drive my car into the ocean in GTA, just to see if I would die.

Hamlet on the Holodeck chapter 5

I related a lot to some parts of Chapter 5, such as the agency associated with navigation in games. I play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the nintendo switch and one of my favourite parts is the sheer amount of walking around and exploring you can do in the game. There’s always something to climb, or collect or look at, even if you’re not doing one of the main quests. In fact, the distribution of the shrines in the game ensures that you have to move around as much as possible and explore the landscape. It’s sort of like “orienteering” as mentioned in the chapter.

I also really liked the paragraph Giving Shape to Anxiety- Zelda does this partly through sound. There’s different sound tracks for peaceful walking, sneaking around and being near or under attack from monsters. As you play, you tend to recognise the sounds and you know from the tones what is happening around you.

In general, I really liked the ideas of agency brought up by the text- the sense of control felt by the participator is key. What I think is important to note, is the fact that agency might be real or imagined, but as long as it is felt by the person playing the game, it matters. What I particularly liked about this chapter was the fact that it says that agency is more than simply participation and action. It is the experience of feeling autonomous, and taking pleasure in just experiencing the circumstances of the game. It also mentions the challenges of moving narrative to computers; we have to find a balance between narrative and game structure, when they both complement each other rather than one being overshadowed by the other.

Project 2 Progress / Sree


Navigation

This is a screen recording of the first build I had. In this the user is going around there space and spawning cubes which are representation of ghosts, or places in their corridor where they know ghosts exist.

It’s rudimentary here, but the idea is for them to experience the sounds as they walk through.

In the current version, the feelings of the space hopefully willl be affected as they think about the AR experience post the app usage.

Interaction

The main interaction I’m thinking about is using triggers, colors, and hopefully fades. There’s a basic interaction, like I said thinking of UI and just walking around listening to the stories. The audio in itself has story arcs/ or ideas.

I’m still figuring out the cue, as of now it might just be text in UI and i find a more organic way for project 3.

This is a storyboard of how I envision the interactions to flow as of now.

    Reading Respond 3: Interaction & Navigation & Agency

    As I am formulating a response for this post, I could not help but wonder what is the current, most popular game genre. I googled and was not surprised that RPG games are ranked among the top three popular game genres. RPG games are becoming more and more popular because players are able to form their own narrative instead of blindly following set instructions to win or lose. Interestingly, winning or losing seems to becomes less important to users. For example, players choose the losing in the game Myst because “the winning ‘losing’ endings of the game are much more satisfying than the winning ending.”(175) Another example of how winning is not as important as it used to be: “instead of playing to increase their score, MUDders now indulged in more intense role-playing. And with the increase in immersive involvement came a desire to construct their own virtual worlds.”( 182-183)

    Being immersive is an important part of RPG games because they allow players to feel their presence in the games. And because they feel their presence in the games, they have the desire to navigate and interact with the game’s environment. RPG games do not have very strict rules or instructions for players follow, so they are free to explore and interact. This freedom of navigation and interaction could a great sense of agency because players actually see the result of their free-will-decision-making actions.

    Still, giving players too much freedom could also take a way a sense of agency away from a game. I remember playing a game where my character was stuck in a very large room and I had to figure a way out. There were so many objects in the room and the room itself was so large that just walked around, picked up random objects, and threw them away. It was fun at first but eventually I got a headache because I had no idea how to solve the puzzle to unlock the door. With this, I just want to remind that there’s always a slippery slope to look out for.

    Project 2 Progress: Exploring My World of Despair

    Navigation:

    Walking will be the mean for users to navigate in my world. I gave up the ideas of flying or teleportations because, although they seem really cool, these abilities will take away the identity as a human explorer setting foot on this destructed place. In another world, flying and teleporting by hotspots could distract the users and prevent them from exploring every inch of the space in my world.

    On the other hand, walking fits my world quite well. First, there are so many buildings with stairs, rooms, and floors that users can explore. As they walk, they can feel the up and down motion as they walk on the stairs or feel the smoothness of the floor of a room. Second, this world is full of mysteries and opened to users to explore by themselves. They are not directed by hotspots to teleport or fly to a different because this will defeat the purpose of exploration. Instead, the users will have the freedoms to go to different rooms and figure out what had happened there.

    Still, I might incorporate one or two pairs of teleportation hotspots to surprise users when they enter a very dark room. Users might not be able to find those hotspots by the end of the exploration.

    Interactions:

    As users enter mysterious rooms, they will find various objects, ranging from books to chairs to toys. There are a few possible interactions that could happen between the users and those items:

    • when users touch an item, the item animates and tells a story of how it comes to be this way
    • some items can be picked up so users can use them later to unlock a door or provide light in the darkness for example

    I think this usage of various household items might be good narrative of the forgotten. No living soul is there to tell the story so let the animated do the telling. In addition to storytelling, exploring and putting pieces of those items together are like solving puzzles. This would hopefully further engage users.

    P2 :Sky Base (Progress)

    Overview of the level
    The entire Scene with all the particle effects and scripted events running. Most of the level has animations in it.
    The Hotspot Model is a animated drone

    A lot of progress has been made on the project. I have to make a few more additions in terms interactivity that we covered in the lab to complete the project.

    Navigation:

    There are two ways to navigate the space. one way is to physically move around in order to explore the environment. the second way is to use hotspots to move around the environment. There is a also a third way to move for one segment and that it by climbing the ladder.

    I choose these for a couple of reasons. first, since it is a AR game it would be appropriate to have a mechanic of movement the ties the virtual world with the real world by physically moving. Second the movement mechanic is still a quirk and you would need a big space to comfortably explore the area so in order to facilitate exploration without the movement mechanic getting in the way of that so Hotspots were made and put at idea locations as a form of teleportation. the Hotspots also allow the player to look at the environment through idea positions that make the environment more special. the third is that the level should not feel flat it should have a form of 3d transversal in it. so for that the ladder mechanic was implemented. moreover the hotspots have also been put at different heights and the level is also made at 3 different heights to facilitates verticality of the level.

    Interactions:

    For interaction I wanted to do something that tied in with the concept of exploration. for that I have made these interactions.

    1. The player can pick up and throw canisters around the level. there will be a location where the player can place the canisters that they have collected from the environment.
    2. The player can fire the big three turrets from the control tower by touching the respective panel
    3. The player can rotate a small antenna on a device put on the landing platform. (WIP)
    4. The player can push one of three buttons on the landing pad to change the color of the signal flare(WIP).
    5. The player can click on random object to get a dialogue response out of the player.(WIP)

    These Interactions will be made obvious through placement and maybe lighting hints. other than that it is the players job to explore and find these random interactions.

    Project 2 Progress (Navigation)

    • Navigation

    In the screen recording, you can see I have updated the layout by adding walls around the pinball “table” to create a feeling of being entrapped. In this iteration, the user can navigate the environment by walking and flying to the hotspots that provide different perspectives on the scene. However, I think my layout is too large for walking, you can’t really go far, unfortunately.

    I actually wanted to give the user the ability to climb the wall at certain spots, however, it is not working as of now. I will make sure to figure it out as I continue working on the project/.

    • Interaction

    Based on the feedback from our last class, I would like to give the user an ability to interact with the ball in the scene by playing with the flappers at the end of the board, like in the classic pinball game. For that I will have to figure out how to make the ball move around the board on its own and bounce from the obstacles. The interaction will be executed by tapping with your finger on the flappers.

    P2 Idea

    How my space will evolve:

    For Project 2, I’m thinking of tweaking the concept and orientation of the world a little bit. The aesthetics will largely remain the same, I’m just thinking of focusing on one layer on the world, rather than trying to incorporate all three levels that were in my original concept for the project. This will help in making the project more focused, and will facilitate an easier interaction for the audience.

    I am also considering making the environment a little darker, shed more focus on the castle in the middle and give the world more of a quest vibe. I mainly want to achieve this atmosphere through adding relevant sounds/music, as well as changing the lighting and ambience of the environment.

    Navigations:

    The user can move and interact with the environment through walking around, in addition to looking up to see the sky and clouds. If there is time, I would love to figure out movement through flying on a dragon, although I’m not entirely sure how to achieve that.

    Interactions:

    • Interaction 1 – Lowering the lever of the castle gate, in order to open it. This interaction will be accompanied by creaking and groaning sounds as the lever is pulled and the castle gate opens; which will add the to the atmosphere of the environment. After lowering the gate, the player can enter the castle and explore the treasure, as well as collect the rarest teas/jewels there.
    • Interaction 2 – Collecting and brewing the different types of tea, and this simply acts as increasing the inventory and health points of the player.
    • Interaction 3 – Fighting the ogres stationed outisde the castle gates. Not sure how I can do this (maybe set a timer), but it would be interesting if the ogres and player can engage in a small swordfight before the palyer advances into the castle. This would be accompanied by the sounds of swords clanking and ogres groaning.

    P2 Progress

    Navigation

    In the video, you can observe the three ways of navigation; walking, hotspot movement (implemented similar to the first project), as well as climbable pine trees.

    I included tree climbing as a way for the player to elevate themselves and take a wider look and a new perspective on their surroundings. The hotspots serve as a way for people to move around if they aren’t in a large space.

    Interaction

    Based on the feedback of my idea presentation I chose to implement the creature interaction where the player would be petting and feeding these creatures around. I have two ideas for this:

    • 1. Petting foxes and feeding them while going around and attacking enemies. The enemy mechanic would be similar to the project one mechanic where you just need to tap and they die but I was thinking of adding sound effects or something like that.
    • 2. The player would essentially be purifying foxes by feeding their angry slime blob form; when the player feeds the red blob it would turn into a fox and you can pet it and go on purifying the rest.

    I’m attempting to go for the second idea of purifying the creatures because it seems like a more thought out mechanic all linked to each other that makes sense to me.

    I will first attempt to implement the petting mechanic then the creature to fox when feeding, I’m unsure how I’ll go about animating the transition though.

    This interaction goes hand in hand with the story behind the forest, the human is the protector and they have to help the creatures of the forest that transformed into blob monsters trying to attack and consume all the mushroom magic.

    I’m thinking about the berry button being a sort of cue that they can use on something. I thought of also adding a voice or text, in the beginning, telling the player to feed the monsters and purify them back to their original forms.