Exams is lurking...Tommorow....
Haven't have the chance to actually add the latest stuff I am currently doing, thanks to the exam tomorrow (cough cough and of course those dota moments).
Finally completed as a team, our game prototype for one of the assignment, and making the gameplay video accessible via Youtube. It is a tower defense game but rather than player building the tower as in the usual way, player have to collect resources and build their towers up while controlling that particular avatar. Oh and Of course you can shoot and do special attack....
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Getting things done
Been dead busy with all the assignment lately but finally it's over. Time for more Australia chocolate and prepare for the exam! LoL.
I am going to diverted from my "game design" blogging and show the other aspect that I have to do in my studies. The older post previously shows much of designing, the importance of critical thinking and relationship with people in order to get things done. In this assignment its kind of similar but we have to deliver a video prototype for it!
The main objective for this assignment was to think how the future of reading will be and showcase our idea to video. In this project, we are required to work in pairs and I was partnered with a local name Andrew. Combining his idea of Virtual reality and my Haptic technology we came out a solution to the brief by letting user to be engage in any form of reading and be able to feel the atmosphere as exactly to any part of their reading.
We divided our work in such a way that he will be handling the research while I be doing the UI, graphic, video editing, anything that that have to do with design and its methodologies, Still this is done with constant communication as no ideas and ui design was placed in the project without another person agreement. So behold the project we called ATMOS.
UI design and ideation
I mentioned earlier even though I was the one who did the UI design and graphic, I still consulted Andrew for feedback. In fact we work really well such to the extend I feel that our partnership actually covers each other shortcoming and lack of skills perfectly!
This is our initial concept for the project, bear in mind some of the ideation change/scrapped drastically after we did a few interviews and research.
First ideation
After we have our first discussion this is the initial concept look i propose to Andrew. We talked about how user will interact and the gestures users have to do in order to interact in the virtual space.
First ideation - Refining it
Slightly refine the concept after speaking with some of mates in Australia. The majority i talked to tell me the ideas of having a button outside the main circle might cause bad aesthetic design. Really glad I took those advice and change it to what you see in the video.
Iteration..Iteration...Design...and more design...
Here onwards it's all about critical thinking, ideate it and iterate it over and over...
Initial logo concept
User Initial navigation and preferences
Moving from space to space while in the device- sketches done by Andrew
After so many changes and amount of papers that was used we finally decided to nail it down and agreed how it should look and work on. This lead me to the next stages in getting those sketches to mid fidelity look. In this stages that I also have to start designing the UI of the system.
The main goal here is to have the visual look as clear as possible not just for the sake of doing it, it's also act as a communication between me and Andrew to refine any changes that was needed. This also allow me to "play" around the location of the button and visual look if it matched to our virtual aesthetic. Once all of this has been agreed up the final and the most time consuming is getting it all done in such a way that user was actually using this device; by making a video to showcase it.
From Paper to Video
So after we have a full grasp of the ATMOS concept we then planned things it out to get in a video as i mentioned earlier and get the storyboard done ASAP because of the time constrain (also due to Andrew getting a hangover the previous night, LoL).
So yeah there you have it, the full process and methodologies of the project atmos...
Sunday, 28 September 2014
Finalizing the game world
Cleaning the level doesn't get simple than this especially if you are using an Xbox controller. Oh well...
Bare design game look
Adding life to the world
Clearer view
After half a day i managed to finalize the look...
Make it Back
It;s been 3 month since i last update the blog. Well technically it;s been 3 month since I completed INB 180. After some thought I decided to upload most of the other school work I did here to avoid hassle in the future. Ultimately it will also act as a medium for my portfolio..
Finally since this is not going to be in any unit I will just start this blog in an unofficial manner. LoL.
Just completed the groip level design Tower defence prototype. While my mate came up with the type of game and what elements of the game we going to do in the prototype, he didn't specified the level in details. Using what i learn:-
Sketches of the level
I start with a concept from his game story and placed it in to the world. There is some thinking going on in my brain such as making the level not for me but for the player (this is what i have learnt) . Making it in a way that the level make sense and playable.
Once the group approved to the concept I started plotting which area that I should design first in the game world space.
From paper to screen
Took me around 2 hours to get this look right. It is till very bare from my initial concepts and the land was flat as it could be. Since i have promised them i will work on it over the weekends i have to keep my word ( >_<) ...dang,...
In this meeting we were clearing up the loose end for this Design Challenge. The "wizard" mentioned and showed us during lecture of ideas that is so tangled and making it straight in the end. This is how i describe this week first meeting. Over the weekend i have taken from Grant powerpoint the ideas and information of our solution and make it more visually presntable. These are the issue that we will be presenting during this week presentation. The major issues we are looking at are:- A. Issues concerning signing up with CC
Solution: An app that will allowed anyone to signup instantly on the go B. How could we make people more aware of the CC usage
Solution: Posting the new app in city billboards, informing users the latest app is available now etc
C. How could CC benefits the state in terms of profits and loss
Solution: Putting CC as one the city attraction for tourist. Allowing tour guide to bring tourist around the city with the CC route. Allowing multiple booking of bicycle instead of just one at a time
The look of the new app to match our solutions.
21/05
This final meeting was designed to prepare ourself for the role-play and last look and changes on the interactive poster that i created from Grant old powerpoint. Everything seems well. Everyone remember their part and roles:- Joey: Narrator Rahul: Brisbane stakeholder Grant: Tourist Rizal: Tourism agency stakeholder
The interactive poster design
I would have never guess how bad it could be....
22/05 The presentation really goes badly for me. No excuses. I totally choked out and really feel bad about it for my group mate. Even while writing this i feel angry on myself for choking out after all the work the team have put in. I feel as if all those ideas and design i created was worthless when i could not even present my ideas to the crowd. I have never get this choked out before when doing any presentation in my country even when presenting ideas to my boss or future employer. Totally gutted and disappointed with my performance after all the work i have put in.
Reflection of the week:
I really feel bad. So bad that i actually lay on bed the whole day reflecting on the issues. My team members have been supportive but after all we planned for our team dynamics and goals to choke out when it matters really make me feel guilty.
I will always remember "The Wizard" word of encouragement and reasons, telling me to remember Tony Wilson lecture that people will choked when the stress level risen and people will performed badly due to it. It is an experienced that i hope that i never want to go through again and will learn from this mistake.
DC3 was short and brief and initially i do question why do we need to do a roleplay presentation as i never have this kind of presentation in my country. Now i see and realised how important to empathize with user and stakeholder needs before even ideate and prototyping a solution.
Our first meeting was quick and swift as everyone come prepared. We talked about the issues that i found from the net and we realised the issues was posted in 2011! Most of the issues have been fixed, but we realised the implementation for these issues does not really fixed it completely. We quickly re-DEFINED this issues and again re-thought of the solution towards it. The major issues we are looking at are:- A. Issues concerning signing up with CC B. How could we make people more aware of the CC usage C. How could CC benefits the state in terms of profits and loss We stop our meeting once we reach that point and decide to continue in class that week.
15/05
We do a short discussion with Rohan about our solution and how we will ideate our IT innovation to solve the issue.
I draw a layout for the problem that citycycle is facing, dividing it to different issues. The main issues is the lack of awareness among the people regarding it
Before wrapping up for class, as a group we plan what we suppose to do on the weekend and prepared ourselves for the role-play presentation next week. What the team need from me is to design a main page prototype based on on the ideas we pool in at the same time emphasizing on the user needs while doing it.
Reflection of the week: Designing the prototype "look" was easier as the issues and ideas were already penned clearly among us. Compared to Design challenge 2 there isn't much need for prototyping the "page" laytout itself.
08/05
The new group consists of me, Rahul, Grant and Joey. Once we already decided in doing the topics of City Cycle we quickly discuss the current issues that the City Cycle facing now. We also decided quickly on how we will present our solution (using IT Innovation) towards the problem we raised earlier. Before the class end we assigned each of us to do a little thinking and research before the next meeting.
10/05
On the weekend, after doing a few research from the net i shared a few of the findings with the group. Most issues that was layout from the net is that the CityCycle fail to Empathize in the user needs such as helmet, pricing of the bicycle etc.
I also did an interview with some users who have been using the CityCycle for years:-
Question Q: How long have you been using city cycle? A: I have been using the bikes
since 3 years ago when I was living in Brisbane and stop using it when I move
to Sydney. Q: What is the most positive things about the city cycle? A: Easy access for me to school
during those times as the parking on campus was expensive. Good way to exercise
too! Q: What is the negative aspect of the citycle? A: HELMET! Sometimes if you are
unlucky you might get a poor bike handle and there is no way for you to fix it.
The subscription itself is a turn off during my time of usage. There is no way
for instant access to use the bike. The other main issues I had during those
time was to park to my bike when doing groceries and there are times I have to
cycle longer distance as usual as the bike lot was full. Q. Will you use the citycycle service again?
NO. Reflection of the week: A good start. From the interview we know that we have to empathize user need before we could even ideate while ideate our ideas.
