One of the major problems I've had with all my past story treatments for the game was that the protagonist was very difficult to connect to. I mean, usually the writer can at least connect with the protagonist because they project themselves in the character to some degree or another. But here even I couldn't really connect to the protagonist.
Self-discipline is an extraordinarily empowering trait, moreso than any other trait. It more than anything is an indicator of how successful a person is likely to be, regardless of how smart, strong or lucky they are. Make a character that is the epitome of self-discipline, and you pretty much have this crazy-perfect role-model bordering on a robot. The interesting thing is that, when I did try and give this extraordinarily conscientious character flaws, they would usually pull the focus away from her extraordinary degree of self-discipline. It would draw focus on her issues with pride, or issues with hypercontrol or an inability to empathize and be more merciful to others. They all also happened to be issues born from a gap in self-restraint between the protagonist and her surrounding characters. She, due to her lack of issues with self-discipline, could not relate to those who've struggled with it all their life. And, aside from the extremely rare individual, your average person does struggle with self control and living responsibly.
I also felt that, because this character was so perfect, that she was in a class of her own. And not in a good way. She was just some superwoman that I could just gaze at in detached admiration and then go about my way, just living life the way I always have. She didn't inspire me to be more responsible myself, because the degree of responsibility she exercised just seemed impossible for me to reach. I mean, superman is strong, but his level of strength is so hyperbolic the average viewer doesn't become filled with the desire to train their own strength towards his inhuman level.
I've also noted recently that in the legend of Zelda Link, in a way, gains the right to the Triforce of Courage. True, lore will dictate that he always held the potential within himself, but he never explicitly starts off with some special arrow pointing to him going 'this guy equals courage!' It's by playing as him and conquering the trials and tribulations in the game that the player proves Link worthy to wield the title. I believe that like with Link, the character should demonstrate and prove herself worthy of being called a model of self-discipline, rather than holding that title from the very beginning. In fact, I think that making the character initially be known for her negligent and irresponsible nature would be better. I've found that self-discipline really is like a muscle that needs to be exercised and maintained regularly, and by making her start at level 0 and having the player train up her sense of self-discipline this aspect of this virtue can shine through. I also really want the player to feel like, regardless of how hopelessly out of control they feel right now, they hold the potential to also train up and become disciplined, to be the best them they can be.
This brings me to my current story issue. The main conflict that I believe lies at the heart of self discipline rests in the constant clash between the more primitive areas of the brain and higher thought. Higher thought implores us to treat our own bodies better, to control ourselves, to do that thing that we keep putting off or finally get in contact with that one person you've been putting on hold for a while. It's the angel on our shoulder. But there also lies the more primitive areas of our brain, and it holds great control over us because it holds direct access to our pleasure center. And our pleasure center is pretty much the brain's way of saying, oh, this thing is good, it makes you not thirsty, oh, this thing is bad, it could burn your finger off. The problem is that it is highly limited, completely dependent on the now and oblivious to future consequence. It is also extraordinarily primal and at its worst can lead to immoral actions for the pure sake of pleasure. And unless we learn to ignore it we are kind of slaves to it. We are kind of stupid robots.
My thought is that, by using a robot as the protagonist, I could more clearly express this aspect of self-discipline: the conflict that ultimately decides how human or primal we can be. The protagonist could, like other robots, be a slave to her most base programming, or with her rudimentary AI learn to ignore the binary signals that compel her to do things she would rather not. To be honest, though, I am kind of bad at designing robots. Another idea I've had is using a sloth. That or a koala (which is arguably the laziest animal, due to its love of sleep). They are very obviously biologically hardwired to be lazy, sedentary animals. What if one went against their innate nature to try and do more with themselves and their lives?
Then there is my original idea of using your standard human being. This has to do more with my programming goals than story. I've been wanting to try and create a character generator and use it in the game; the NPCs' appearances would not just be random, but dependent on the backstory and traits the engine randomly generates for each NPC. As a former animation enthusiast I've always been fascinated by the facial expressions, body language and resultant physical features (like sloped shoulders for the meek) of different people and I've been wanting to try and break that down, analyze it and spin a program commemorating this aspect. It would also fit in the context of this game, since it will also heavily feature diplomacy. Er... I could use it for my prior two ideas (using robots or animals), but it would require quite a bit more planning and designing from me on the art side.
In the end, I think I'll try seeing how far I can go with my second idea (that of a koala), and if that doesn't work out, explore where the robot idea can go. I get the feeling using my robot idea might be too... obvious in a hit-you-over-the-head with my life-philosophy kind of way. I think I'll also play around with sketches for a bit: I might chance across some robot-sketch that just really clicks with me or something, who knows!? I have a lot of story notes and I have a clearer idea of what I want the main themes of the story to be. Now it's a matter of stringing together a cohesive narrative that can allow a good representative protagonist to learn and grow.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Yo! I'm alive!
Why, hello there, long-neglected blog of mine! (^_^)/)
Hmm, where to start... It has been almost a year since I started up this challenge-idea of mine. I haven't given up on making my current game, but I've pretty much put it back on the drawing board. I know it's not wise to try and do too much with a game, particularly a first game, but I want these games to ultimately reflect what I believe and how I interpret life, the universe and everything. My last idea was fairly shallow, and I felt that it did not reflect how I saw the trait of discipline anymore. I have reflected on the nature and role of self-discipline in life a lot, and my interpretation of it has changed quite a bit since I started the project last year.
I originally saw it as a very cold, stiff and selfish trait, a tool for the ruthlessly ambitious. I saw it as a necessary antithesis to wild, free passion and its excess to be limiting. I felt irritated trying to apply it to my life, and I felt that it went against who I was as a person, a free-spirited boho-artist-type person or whatever. But now I see that it is far from selfish, and not necessarily cold. I see now that it is deeply linked to a person's dependability. It is easy to be inconsistent. It is not easy to always be there, to be someone that people can count on. I have also found that rather than being limiting, that self-discipline is freeing. When you are on top of your duties to others as well as yourself, you have more time. More time to think freely about whatever you want, more time to reflect, dawdle and daydream, without the weight of pressing deadlines.
I'd like to rework my current story to reflect these ideas, to demonstrate to the player how liberating a sense of self-control can be. For the moment, I am thinking about doing 3-week blocks of either coding, writing, art or music. I've, to my amazement, made it into Georgia Tech's Digital Media Masters program, so I've made it my goal to try and finish a rough version of the game by August 17, before Fall semester starts.
I'll also start doing weekly updates to this blog (I promise!) starting today! The next 3 weeks are going to be focused on story-writing, so I won't have anything particularly interesting to show. I've been busy working as an artist on a friend's personal game project, an iOS interactive fiction app that places you in the shoes of a poor single mother. I've also been working at lab under the constantly-inspiring Pearce. Did I mention that I'm also working full-time at an internship as both animator and developer? I feel that picking this project up again around now is a good idea, because in about 3 weeks, lab will end and the CS GRE (which I am being unrealistic and preparing for) will have finally passed, and a huge chunk of free time will finally open up for me! Anyways, here is my timeline as of now:
Red Ice game benchmarks (21 weeks)
August 17 - Temp deadline
3 weeks story 03/24 - 04/13
3 weeks engine 04/14 - 05/04
3 weeks art 05/05 - 05/25
3 weeks story 05/26 - 06/15
3 weeks engine 06/16 - 07/06
3 weeks art 07/07 - 07/27
3 weeks music 07/28 - 08/17
Haha... I expect to flounder and just suck really bad when I actually attempt to tackle music. But I want to at least be able to say I've tried doing it on my own. I think I'll have a much better appreciation for the craft of making it then. I've also always been curious about the process, so we'll see. At the moment I am contemplating if I should recode everything in scratch using something like C++ or just stick to actionscript. I feel like doing it in AS3 will be limiting, but we'll see. I'll make my decision based on the final story! I have a lot of ideas and vague random scenarios which I'll need to boil down and distill into something coherent! By the end of the next three weeks I'll post a summary of the story I'll have concocted by then.
Hmm, where to start... It has been almost a year since I started up this challenge-idea of mine. I haven't given up on making my current game, but I've pretty much put it back on the drawing board. I know it's not wise to try and do too much with a game, particularly a first game, but I want these games to ultimately reflect what I believe and how I interpret life, the universe and everything. My last idea was fairly shallow, and I felt that it did not reflect how I saw the trait of discipline anymore. I have reflected on the nature and role of self-discipline in life a lot, and my interpretation of it has changed quite a bit since I started the project last year.
I originally saw it as a very cold, stiff and selfish trait, a tool for the ruthlessly ambitious. I saw it as a necessary antithesis to wild, free passion and its excess to be limiting. I felt irritated trying to apply it to my life, and I felt that it went against who I was as a person, a free-spirited boho-artist-type person or whatever. But now I see that it is far from selfish, and not necessarily cold. I see now that it is deeply linked to a person's dependability. It is easy to be inconsistent. It is not easy to always be there, to be someone that people can count on. I have also found that rather than being limiting, that self-discipline is freeing. When you are on top of your duties to others as well as yourself, you have more time. More time to think freely about whatever you want, more time to reflect, dawdle and daydream, without the weight of pressing deadlines.
I'd like to rework my current story to reflect these ideas, to demonstrate to the player how liberating a sense of self-control can be. For the moment, I am thinking about doing 3-week blocks of either coding, writing, art or music. I've, to my amazement, made it into Georgia Tech's Digital Media Masters program, so I've made it my goal to try and finish a rough version of the game by August 17, before Fall semester starts.
I'll also start doing weekly updates to this blog (I promise!) starting today! The next 3 weeks are going to be focused on story-writing, so I won't have anything particularly interesting to show. I've been busy working as an artist on a friend's personal game project, an iOS interactive fiction app that places you in the shoes of a poor single mother. I've also been working at lab under the constantly-inspiring Pearce. Did I mention that I'm also working full-time at an internship as both animator and developer? I feel that picking this project up again around now is a good idea, because in about 3 weeks, lab will end and the CS GRE (which I am being unrealistic and preparing for) will have finally passed, and a huge chunk of free time will finally open up for me! Anyways, here is my timeline as of now:
Red Ice game benchmarks (21 weeks)
August 17 - Temp deadline
3 weeks story 03/24 - 04/13
3 weeks engine 04/14 - 05/04
3 weeks art 05/05 - 05/25
3 weeks story 05/26 - 06/15
3 weeks engine 06/16 - 07/06
3 weeks art 07/07 - 07/27
3 weeks music 07/28 - 08/17
Haha... I expect to flounder and just suck really bad when I actually attempt to tackle music. But I want to at least be able to say I've tried doing it on my own. I think I'll have a much better appreciation for the craft of making it then. I've also always been curious about the process, so we'll see. At the moment I am contemplating if I should recode everything in scratch using something like C++ or just stick to actionscript. I feel like doing it in AS3 will be limiting, but we'll see. I'll make my decision based on the final story! I have a lot of ideas and vague random scenarios which I'll need to boil down and distill into something coherent! By the end of the next three weeks I'll post a summary of the story I'll have concocted by then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)