Blog 15 - Lesson 2 Reflection

(My first answer to my essential question, and the answer I focused on in this presentation, is quality character design.)

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

In terms of my second lesson presentation, I'm much more proud of my composure and research. I think that I had more of a solid belief in my research this time around-- as I had more quality .esearch to support my claims, I felt a lot more comfortable and prepared. I think that showed through in the actual presentation, as well; I was very comfortable speaking up there to the class on my topic.

2a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

I think I did pretty well on this presentation, overall. I had quality research, presented relevant information, and presented well, to be honest. Overall, I think I deserve a P+/AE on my second lesson presentation.

2b. Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

Based off of the expectations from the component contract, I believe I met all of them. There are some areas I believe I performed better on than others, however. Specifically, I think the depth of my research really showed through in this presentation; I had a lot to talk about from my learning experiences over the past few months, and I wanted to channel that into the presentation. I was able to do so, for the most part.

Furthermore, I was pretty happy with how focused many members of the audience were during the activity. Some were very focused on their designs of their own villain, only speaking when they had a question for their table group regarding which direction they should take their designs. I saw that, while some people did like their designs, some were shy to show it off. Others were quite happy to present their designs though. Overall, I think the audience was quite engaged throughout the course of the activity.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

The use of a powerpoint really helped me out in this presentation. I think having something visual like that not only captures the audience's interest more, but it also keeps me grounded as a presenter. While I generally know what order I want to say things in a presentation, there are times where I get so caught up in presenting one thing that what I need to talk about next momentarily slips my mind. Having a powerpoint to indicate the flow of my presentation really helped out.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

I really liked how my presentation turned out, actually. If I could go back in time to change anything, I'd only make minor changes. For example, I'd go back and spend more time making my powerpoint more aesthetically-pleasing, to be honest. While I did like the way it looked (and it did its job well), I always love it when my powerpoints are pleasing to the eye. I find that it gives me a sort of confidence.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

Originally, I was going to focus on storytelling & plotting as my second answer to my essential question ("How can a game be designed to enhance the player's experience?")

With more reflection and research, however, I've found that creative design is only but one important thing to enhancing the player's experience. I think I would like to talk more about gameplay and game mechanics for my second answer-- the more technical side of design.

I suppose my second answer, if I were to follow this route, would be "game mechanics".

Blog 14 - Interview #3 Preparation

Richard Lemarchand is a super nice dude-- incredibly nice.

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

I plan to interview a current professor at USC Games, Richard Lemarchand. Richard Lemarchand has worked on major game developer Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, serving as the Lead Game Designer for the first and third installments, and Co-Lead Game Designer for the second installment. Mr. Lemarchand's area of expertise lies in player experience, as he's invested much time in his career to studying how gameplay, narrative, and mechanics come together to hold a player's attention. 

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 

Currently, the date of our interview is set to be Friday, February 12, at approximately 3:30pm. We are holding our interview in the Game Innovation Lab.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

Could you recommend any resources that you believe delves into aspects of game design that best influence the player's experience?

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

Aside from research, is hands-on experience a viable way to learn more about enhancing the player experience? Are there any specific experiences that best highlight how to construct a positive game experience?

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 

What aspects of game design do you believe are central to enhancing the player's experience and perception of a video game?

What aspects of creative design and technical design do you consider most important to sharpen in order to enhance the overall experience of the video game?

Blog 13 - 10 Hours Mentorship Check-In

I love this place. 

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship at the Game Innovation Lab, located on the campus of the University of Southern California. 

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

Elizabeth Swensen and Sean Bouchard are both game designers and research associates at USC, both of whom are staff in the lab and educators to game design students. Both Elizabeth and Sean attended USC and shared some classes together, both receiving MFAs (Masters of Fine Arts) before going on to work as staff in the lab. Aside from creating incredible work under USC Games, they're also professors within the program. 

Tracy Fullerton is the director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC, as well as a game designer and professor in the Interactive Media Division of USC. Being the director of the lab of this division, she has been involved with numerous projects at USC over the years, working as a game designer or faculty adviser for said projects.These projects include several titles such asThe Night Journey and Walden, among many other impressive works. Before her work at USC, Tracy has been involved with several other game developers and interactive studios, including Spiderdance and R/GA Interactive, both of which she was the founder and founding member of, respectively.


3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

48 hours total, including both Summer hours and School Year hours. 


4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.  

When we go to mentorship, oftentimes Sean and Elizabeth tell us all about a Really Cool Thing that is going on on USC campus, always regarding the games program. Sometimes, that includes viewing current Game Program students recent works, sitting in on classes, participating in activities normally reserved for the Games students, and more. It's all very much a learning experience.

As for how well I work with my mentors: they're awesome. Sean, Elizabeth, and Tracy are amazing people. We see Sean and Elizabeth more often, simply because Tracy is a pretty busy person (when we do see her, we are in awe, mostly 'cause she's that cool). I'm very comfortable with Sean and Elizabeth. I always see them every mentorship session, and they're very easy to work with. Aside from being great sources of knowledge and information, they're really great people, and it's fun to learn from them. 

As for the rest of my hours, I plan to continue going to the Game Innovation Lab regularly and learning from my variety of experiences there. I've had some pretty incredible education experiences so far, so I'm excited to learn more. There is also potential to sit in on a Introductory Design class in the program, so that's definitely possible, as well. 

Blog 12 - Holiday Project Update

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. 

Blog 11 - Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

I'm proud of the content that I introduced in my lesson. Sort of. I think that, for the most part, what I talked about didn't completely bore the audience-- which is always quite relieving. I like seeing nodding heads during my presentation. That always gives me a little bit of confidence. 

Mostly, however, I'm proud of my content because it's something that I'm passionate about-- maybe I'm proud of it for all the wrong reasons, then, but I think I was able to transfer some of that passion into my delivery (hopefully). And in doing so, I think I was able to keep the audience's attention for a longer period of time. 

I'm also sort of proud of the fact that, upon realizing a mistake I made mid-way through my presentation, I didn't trip over my words or give the audience any signs that something was bothering me. Hopefully. I'll go into detail on that in my answer three in this blog entry, to avoid needless repetition. Anyway, I'm always a tiny bit proud of myself when I can recover from my mistakes; while I do find some shame in them, you can't put yourself down for them forever. Better to work past it and learn to accept it. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

I think, based on how I performed and the information I presented, I got a P-- definitely not on the higher end, more towards the middle and lower end. I did nothing special or spectacular, so I really don't think I'm deserving of an any grade above that. I presented my research clearly, cited my sources (including my interview and mentorship), and presented a portion of the information that gathered throughout my research over the span of the last three months.

I think in terms of my presence, and not my content, I struggled a bit with eye contact. While I tried to make meaningful eye contact with members of the audience throughout the presentation, I found myself staring more towards the back of the audience than the front. I'd like to be more inclusive of my entire audience next time. As for volume, I think I hit that well enough-- volume is typically never an issue for me, as I know how to control my voice well, for the most part. It helps that I'm on the louder side, naturally, to begin with. 



3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

I'm aware that I forgot small pieces of my presentation for a moment, so I really wish I could go back and give myself a reminder of some sort (e.g. write it out on a sticky note, my lesson plan, etc.) to ensure that I wouldn't forget to mention a certain piece of information that I really wanted to share.

(Upon realizing that I forgot something, I felt an extreme heat rise up to my face. I don't think anyone noticed. It's a good thing I'm brown.)

Knowing that, for Lesson 2, I would use this knowledge to protect myself against future forgetfulness in the future.  For the future, I'd like to know my subject and presentation content so well, it's practically ingrained in my mind. Woven in so deeply, it'd be a crime to forget about any of my lecture content. That's the plan, at least. If things go my way, all will be well.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

The USC Game Innovation Lab.

The audio of my interview is located here on my blog.

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I am spending my mentorship time at the Game Innovation Lab located on the University of Southern California (USC). This lab functions as a workplace, primarily, with several research associates/game designers working in the lab, but a significant portion of these people are also educators in the Interactive Media Division of the USC Cinematic Arts School, where they educate game design students. 

My mentors are both educators and game designers. I spend my mentorship time with fellow senior Jessica Bui, and we spend our time in the Game Innovation Lab both shadowing and participating in educational activities that are typically  held for students in the game design program. We have the opportunity to sit in on meetings for several different design projects in the lab, as well as participate in these activities that hone our own design skills. For example, throughout our mentorship, we've re-designed a pre-existing board game, essentially creating a physical prototype of game mechanics (the game in question was Up the River). We've also created a Twine interactive story, or a story that is created on the computer that allows readers to choose which of our pre-set directions they want to take to further the story. 

Other experts in the location would include other staff and faculty in the Game Innovation Lab; these people are experts in specific areas of game design, such as animation, programming, creative design, and more. Everyone in the lab specialize in different areas of study, and are all experienced individuals. 

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

While I was searching over the summer for potential mentors at small game companies and small design teams, my friend Jessica Bui stumbled across the USC Game Innovation Lab, and read into the program and its significance among game design programs across the nation.

I had come across a potential (yet unresponsive) mentor at the same time that Jessica contacted Tracy Fullerton, the director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC. She emailed Tracy all of the information regarding the senior project, how our school functions, and her personal skill level with programming and other aspects of game design. 

While I was still contacting my potential mentor (who, by the way, didn't appear very excited at the prospect of taking on an inexperienced mentor), I was in contact with Jessica, and we were both exchanging information on how our mentor searches were going. When Jessica got the confirmation that a mentorship at USC was  fine with our potential mentors, she asked if I would be willing to also mentor with her at USC. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity with her, and we've both been going to USC every other week ever since. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

 Personally, I'm quite comfortable with our mentors, Sean and Elizabeth. It is fairly easy to hold conversation with them, and they've done nothing but make Jessica and I feel welcome. Of course, as students under them who often interact with and shadow them, we dance the line between formality and casualness. While we are very polite to our mentors, we're on a first-name basis and often hold miscellaneous conversation with them. 

The director of the lab, Tracy, who is also one of our mentors, has not been around Jessica and I as often as Sean and Elizabeth, due to her busy schedule. While she is very friendly and welcoming, we have not talked in a casual setting with her as often as we have had with Sean and Elizabeth, so I typically find myself quite formal and polite with Tracy. Nonetheless, she is still a very kind person, and we still learn a lot from her. 

I've found that because I feel welcomed in the Game Innovation Lab by the staff and faculty, I'm quite comfortable in that setting. I'm not nervous or uncomfortable working and shadowing our mentors in that setting, so I feel that that comfort allows Jessica and I to focus more on our learning experiences while we're at the Lab.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

Sean has long-winded answers, and that was amazingly helpful-- to the point where each time I had a follow-up question for him, he managed to answer it before we could even move on to another question. It was both humorous and amazing; essentially, all of my questions for Sean were answered easily because of this ability of his.

As for improvement, I feel that I struggled in the preparation process of the interview, where I would create questions that revolved around Sean's background. I had difficulty distinguishing between questions that asking about Sean's background, and questions that fulfilled my own curiosities. I tried to overlap these two areas as best as I could, but I still felt that some of my questions fell short; thankfully, Sean's long answers provided with me with a good chunk of information, so that definitely helped make up for my mistake.

For future interviews, I will spend more time in the pre-interview process, taking more time creating my questions and reviewing them to ensure that they do what they're intended to do, as well as fill my own curiosities. 

Interview #2: Sean Bouchard