Writing is not only an exercise of the mind, it's an exercise of patience.
In other words, writing is really hard sometimes.
1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?
Over the course of Winter Break, I've been working on further expanding the current world, characters, and story I have set as some of the main creative design features of my Independent Component. I've spent some time drafting my story, designing characters and their roles to be seen in the game, and crafting the overall setting of the world. It's very much like the creative writing process-- planning, planning, and more planning. There's been research done, of course-- I've looked into how stories, characters, and setting all play significant roles in crafting a positive game experience for players, and I'm adopting what I've learned into my planning processes.
I've also tinkered a bit with programming, specifically C++ and HTML, though I'm not sure if I want to directly use either of these programming languages to create my game, or create the game through other means. It's still something I'm putting some thought into-- I don't want to get too carried away from pre-production of my game and end up focusing on programming. Either way, programming is a helpful skill to have under my belt for the future.
2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?
From my time working on my Independent Component and sifting through research, I've learned more of the heightened importance of portraying not only a likeable player character, but one that is deep, complex, and three-dimensional; it's vital that characters have and maintain characteristics that make them meaningful to players.
I've learned quite a bit about this topic from research from a book I've been looking into recently, Better Game Characters By Design: A Psychological Approach. Aside from being an incredibly interesting read, it provides a comprehensive and detailed look into why we as humans enjoy, dislike, or hold importance of a variety of character archetypes and character traits. The way we treat others, and by extension the way we view characters, is explained through psychology; the book conveys that through appealing to this psychology, it is possible to create significant and memorable game characters.
Though the book also covers story, setting, and other creative design aspects, I've also learned from my research that I personally find characterization to be one of the most (if not the most) important design decisions in a video game. Characterization is something I'm looking forward to learning more about as I continue working on my project.
3. Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?
For my third interview, I am planning to talk to Richard Lemarchand, current professor in the USC Games program. Formerly a lead designer at game developer Naughty Dog, I've been told that Mr. Lemarchand's area of expertise lies in player experience-- an area of development I am most interested in.
I believe that the player experience is majorly enhanced through creative design, but I know other design aspects (technical, creative, or otherwise) also play a role in shaping players' experience in a video game. I would like to learn more from him about what are the most important factors in enhancing player experience. I believe in doing so, I can further improve my senior project.
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