Independent Component 1

(Throughout the course of IC#1, I've learned not only a great deal of information, but some valuable lessons. Maybe some that are a bit life-changing.)

Literal

(a) I, Clerisse Cornejo, affirm that I completed independent component which represents 31.5 hours of work.

(b) Works Cited: 

• Burton, Neel. "What Makes You Who You Are?" Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 5 June 2013. Web. 22 Dec. 2015.

• Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008.
• Isbister, Katherine. Better Game Characters By Design: A Psychological Approach. San Francisco: Elsevier Inc., 2006.
• "Tabula rasa." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 1 Jan. 2016.

• Nimbalkar, Namita. "John Locke on Personal Identity." US National Library of Medicine. NCBI, Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Dec. 2015. 

• Piccirillo, Ryan A. "The Lockean Memory Theory of Personal Identity: Definition, Objection, Response." Student Pulse. Student Pulse, 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

• Pierce, Jeremy. "The Brain Account of Personal Identity. Parableman. Parableman, 24 May 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2015.

• Urban, Tim. "What Makes You You?" Wait But Why. Wait But Why, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2015.

(c) I've updated my hours in my Senior Project Hours log. That log can be found here. My IC#1 hours can be found towards the bottom of the spreadsheet.

(d) In the total 31.5 logged hours I spent on my independent component, I've focused mainly on research of the core concept(s) I want my game to focus on, as well as character design and setting design. I wanted to ensure that I understand to the best of my ability what message exactly my game is trying to convey to it's audience; since I'm dealing with human memory and its relationship with personal identity, I had to do more extensive, in-depth research on both topics. Furthermore, my game focuses on memory loss-- there was a significant amount of research done on amnesia and memory disorders, which were all very interesting to read about.

I've also decided that the general setting and "feel" of the game should be closely tied to the core concept. As I'm dealing with memory loss, I feel that the character in the game who would suffer from said memory loss may see the world around them a bit differently, or even the world within them differently. I want to portray a more dream-like, surreal landscape, with just as surreal characters.

Interpretive

Overall, learning more about memory and the relationship it shares with personal identity has been a major part in the formation of my project. It's helped to formulate not only the foundation in which I want my game built upon, but also has created the kind of story and message I want to express to my audience. I think video games are a special kind of media, an art form that best tells stories and conveys ideas through their interactive nature. I think the topic of personal identity in relation to memory will create an experience that can reach out and touch people-- I think it's something that's not only interesting to people, but potentially something that can change they way they see themselves, others, and the world around them.

As for evidence, I have a whole separate document for that, loaded with explanations and pictures. It's called a game design document, which a pretty common way of organizing your design process and decisions among video game developers.

My document containing evidence can be found here.

Applied

Working through the component definitely helped me to understand the process of game design much better. Reading about it is one thing, but actually doing it is another.

Most notably, I've found that the design process is a cycle of creating work, scrapping it, creating more work, scrapping that, and doing such over and over again. The game constantly fluctuates and changes-- it's almost like a living, breathing thing, just like how many art forms feel like.  We can't expect it to stay stagnant, so it's important to often take the time to think about if my current design really paves the path towards reaching my ultimate goal: delivering a story and message that is meaningful to players. 

In my process, I thought I had it all figured out from the beginning. Hours in, I realized I was quite wrong. I was able to adopt some of those aspects into my design, but for the most part, the design changed drastically. The story I realized that I wanted to tell and the story that I needed to tell were two different things. In game design, you can't always settle for something just because you put time and effort into it. Sometimes, you have to give up something that you worked towards in order to create something better.