VINE MAP

18/12/09:

Because of the weather I never made it into today's meeting, but sent everyone an email about it. Matthew Fitt couldn't make it in anyway... so I wasn't to disappointed. Working on map ideas for VINE.. thinking about a 3D map that would be available to look at when navigating through VINE.

12/12/09:

Now that I have received feedback notes, I have further ideas to develop and explore. Will continue to do so over the christmas break once I get all the other stuff ready to submit for the 5th of January. We have a meeting with author, Matthew Fitt on friday the 18th.

Photoshop Experiment Concept Ideas

10/12/09:

I've been working yesterday and today working on photoshop experiment stuff. (10 hours)
Experimenting with line, shape, colour, and texture... thinking about perspective. Now that we have feedback on what to be getting on with, I will try and simply/refine the Ideas down.

We have an update meeting tomorrow at 10 till 12, and meeting author Matthew Fitt next Friday(18th)

Rough Concept sketches

More rough Ideas for the Cyberspace, and CityCorp environments within Vine. Considering line, tone, perspective and proportion. I'm going to take these imges into photoshop for further experimentation of ideas. We have a PB Works file share space set up, where all my stuff has also been uploaded to. There is now a lot of character concepts uploaded. THis will also help to come up with more environment ideas.

9/12/09:

There is now sound uploaded on the shared space. I really like it. It helps to visualise what the environments and characters could look like. Going to continue experimenting with basic shape.

8/12/09:

We had a mini update meeting/ talking about the list of things sent by Angela to get on with. We have arranged a meeting on friday at 10am.

6/12/09:

Continuing to sketch out ideas/continuing research. (5 hours)

Rough Map Layout

Rough map layout to help form ideas. The cyberspace area showing advertisements and picking your holiday packages.. and the rural environment projecting the simulated experience. So all holiday locations are contained in this one space... I think doing that will also simplify things a lot more.

Location Sheet: CityCorp

THE BLOOD LAWYERS

Location Sheet

Name: CityCorp

Description: An ‘unknown’ environment that exists within VINE where the conspiracy involving Senga and the experience needle continues...

Home to: A dark government who watches over the senga victims... using them as test subjects... and ‘hacking’ into their thoughts through the virtual internet technology. They are affectively sending out signals through advertisement to get people hooked on the experience needle.

Whereabouts: hidden within the depths of the virtual network, and is also connected to the realtime world. (The Corporate Towers)

Appearance:

· A multi-storey building
· Tinted Glass
· High level security guards who also patrol through the environments within VINE.
· Filled with equipment
· Technology Testing Rooms
· Communication rooms





The environment is hidden from the public who enters VINE... you have to have special clearance to enter. Could Aga Dunblane have known about this shadow government? Or maybe she got to close to the truth?

Location Sheet: VINE

THE BLOOD LAWYERS

Location Sheet:

Name: VINE

Description: A virtual reality world where users control avatar versions of themselves, 2090’s version of the internet.

Home to: Those who can afford the (experience Needle) serum that connects them to the network. Also, those who acquire the serum by other means (black Market).

Whereabouts: VINE is held within a virtual reality social network

Appearance: With VINE being a computer portal, appearances can be loaded in, on the fly. Some examples of the variety of environments are:

The transition environment between the realtime world and VINE
- A rural environment contrasting the barren, industrial real world environment of the Drylands.
- An urban environment where the horizon builds as you venture through it(Tron).
- The Citycorp environment
- A Cyberspace Navigation environment containing advertisment/branding showing how technology has evolved within vine and the realtime world since the flood. Could also be where the microchips are held. (Java 5)

The appearance also changes depending on the user’s experience with a good trip/bad trip meter. The positive end of the spectrum sees colours become brighter and more vibrant whereas if the trip worsens colours start to drain. Appearance in colour can also change if the character is injured within VINE.
The good trip can also run too high; the user must come back from the edge so as not to overdose on the experience.

Quirks: The good trip/bad trip experience. The threat of addiction and getting lost inside VINE. Gameplay switches to first person as the VINE mask lowers over the user’s face.

Object Wishlist:

· Experience needle and serum
· Vine Branding/Advertisement (posters, Logos etc)
· Props(chairs, tables)
· Scenery(especially for the rural environment within VINE)

Concept Development: Research/Brainstorm sketches

Considering the visual style within VINE:

-Transition environment between the real world and VINE
-Urban Environment: The horizon line building whilst exporing it
-Rural Environment: Representation of the real world/ holiday destination sites
-Cyberspace environment: Advertising Projections sing planes/The Data Vaults/Dundonian Microchips.
-CityCorp: The Unseen environment... where the heart of the conspiricy is held.

Diary Continued

12/11/09:

Meeting with Tern tomorrow in the hall of excellence (2525) at 11.30am/ will brainstorm more ideas. Continuing to read the book tonight/continued research; Art Noveau and Rennie Mackintosh as mentioned as part of the visual style of the realtime environment.

- M research Question as part of the subject Review:

can you mix traditional and modern styles together that will work to portray narrative in whilst aiming for a multi platform product?

Research the processes of my role within the team once I find out what that role will be, and look at the arguments and procedures relevant to the role and outcomes.

Look at games past and present relevant to the style and navigation aims for this game.

13/11/09: Tern Meeting: (11.45 - 2pm)

- My role is the environment design of the VINE environment along with Brian
I'm happy with this role, because environment design is something I'm have a growing interest in, especially for games. It's going to be tough because as far as I'm aware, VINE doesn't have much of a description within the book but, this also gives us a chance to be more creative in terms of where we can take VINE in a visual style.

Brainstorming with the team as a whole:

-VINE representing life before the flood?
-Security/MDZ Pills/Cyberjanny's keep the virus under control.
-Reepo
-Drylands/rich people live
-Prison/like a luxury hotel
-Branding/Adverts (VINE) Selling points
-Total Recall
-Terminator

-Process/ 3 paragraph pitch document/ and then a 4 or 5 page document (less is more at first)
-Tern/Based on union street, Glasgow (opposite Central Station)

Next Meeting: Next Friday (12pm - 3pm) (2525)

-Updated Plan: For next week: Explore image style/ Environment ideas for VINE, and some ideas of the realtime world, so they both have a similar feel to them even though they are different worlds or else players could ge confused.
-Transition between realtime and VINE has to be explored.

20/11/09: Tern Meeting: 12pm - 3pm)

-Brainstormed Ideas with the environment Group:

-An environment where th horizon line is building itself/good trip/ bad trip?

-Adverts/branding/ controlable characters in the realtime world/ 1st person view within VINE.

-Transition/ playing with saturation/ colour brightness depending on the emotional responce in VINE.

-The idea of VINE taking over the internet
-Think about things we would want to be in VINE (tourist attractions etc)

-Come up with a review document for VINE for next friday.

-What was the world like in 1995/ movie references/ world references/ structures.

-Thomas E Pringle
-Bookmaster Fuler
-2012 website
-Docter Blood Money
-Frank Miller: Hard Boiled (Graphic Novel)

21/11/09:

Updated Plan for Next Week:

-Work on a descriptive plan of VINE
-The Purpose
-Branding
-What will VINE look like?
-The transition between Realtime and VINE

Brian and myself will have a meeting on monday to discuss all our ideas, and then we will have concrete ideas to start to, think about developing. I think its importan we have the VINE description finished, and start top think about th mini environments within VINE.

23/11/09:

Brian emailed me the elemeants of VINE he could think of, and I added elemeants from my notes on the book, and the things we discussed as a team on fridays meeting. Now we have a starting block that we can start to develop. I added some research/ inspiration images I collected to help us form ideas which we can keep adding to. I have started an object wishlist which can also be added to, and sarah can start to develop those. Now we have to brainstorm visual style for the locations within VINE and discuss the process we will work towards which will be part of my research review document/powerpoint.

26/11/09:

I have added more images onto our VINE description document. We have a meeting with Tern tomorrow at 1pm - 3pm but, the environment team as a whole will meet together at 11am to update what we have with the project manager so he can update Tern on what the character and environment teams have done this week. Now I'm going to continue sketch book work using the inspiration/research images.

27/11/09: Tern Meeting:
We updated tern on the environment and character sheets completed, and had a long discussion on file share spaces, so we can all upload our work for Tern to see. The project manager will set one up for sunday.

Tern want us to continue concept development next week, and have another the meeting the friday after. We will meet the author Matthew Fitt, the week after. (18th december)

2/12/09:
We have a PBWorks File share space set up and Angela sent an email, that they want us to upload what we have so far. I will upload out the location sheet for VINE and the inspiration images on it, and plan to upload sketches tomorow.

3/12/09:
Have uploaded some brainstormed sketches to the file share, and have my learning contract ready to be signed. I think I will send a copy to Gregor to be checked.

But N Ben: My Road Map

-Based in the Year 2090
- Flood: 2039

-Community of floating island cities known as Port/ Eachfloating city is attached by steel cables to the sea bed 700 metres below at what used to be, the town of Greenock.
-27 parishes
-Population split 60/40 between albinos and melanos/ the melanos can take the constant fifty - degree temperatures/ the albinos fear the burning sun and carry cancer kits.

-They live with the deadly virus senga, an highly infectious disease, much the same as HIV. This has created a society where virtual sex has replaced physical contact.
-Senga victims are concealed in a giant hospital warehouse in sealed capsules called kists.

-The only land free of water is the highlands (now refered to as the drylands) which is now seperated from port by a 200km stretch of sea known as the Irish Skagerrak. The Drylands are the summits and slopes of those mountains high enough to be left untouched by the spectacular rise in the worlds sea level. They appear as a series of islands and land bridges. They are inhabited by wild mutant animals (kelpies) and cells of tough american tourists.

-Inverdisney Timeshare Penitentiary is a maximum securiy prison complex located in the northern Drylands on top of Cul Mor in the region of the now submerged Inverpolaidh nature reserve. But N Ben A Go-Go. the scene of the novels climax, is a luxury Villa built on the summit of the mountain Schiehallion, a mere 40km swim from the extinct tourist Mecca Pitlochry.

-At several points in the story, certain characters leave the realtime world, and venture into cyberspace. VINE is the name of this alternative eletric universe.

-Paolo Broon/main character/hero/must traverse VINE, Port and the Drylands to discover the truth about his family's past in order to free his life partner Nadia Maclntyre from the grip of Senga.

- Blood Lawyers wear senga protection suits
- Nadia/omega kist 624/Gallery 1083
-kists have a glass panel
-Rigo Imbeki Medical Centre high up on Montrose Parish.
-It appears you can look through the kist. Her body covered in funeral white and smothered under tubes
-Nadia's skin is as pale as papyrus/Blonde tangled hair lying ona foam pillow.

-Kists have a beveled surface/ faux ivory shell/ marked with radiation tags/ Bolted to the wall.
-ceramic floor/ corridor roof/UV glass filter/ thousands of floors filled with kists.
- info screens embedded in on the kists face/3 of the screens showing Nadias vital signs, and the 4th was the thoctscreen/translates the persons thoughts into pictures.

-Aga Dunblane is Nadia's blood lawyer
-4 elevator bar/ each bar a long corridor of glass and steel
-Wooden flooring
-Rennie Mackintosh

-Poalo has a VINE tatoo on his right arm/ this is used as a communication device through the -virtual environment/born with the tatoo/visuals and sounds can be projected from them.
-MDZ Pills for migranes caused by the underlying Senga virus.

I feel this is enough information to get me started with forming ideas for the game.

Diary Continued

(just in case anyone is wondering why this is december, and im posting old diary entries... this has been the first chance ive had to post the entries from my continuing diary :))

Meeting with Tern: (2pm - 3pm)
Had a long discussion on the aims of the project. Going to go to Glasgow at some point soon, and were getting split up into groups. (character, environments, Game Design & audio) Colette wants us to email her what we want to gain out of the project, with some sample portfolio images of our work, and our main interests to help Simon and Angela split us into groups. We will brainstorm more ideas in the next meeting. (next friday)

5/11/09:
Phoned the local library to see if I could order the book from Fountain Bridge library. I should get it by the middle of next week.

11/11/09:
Now that I have a copy of the book, I'm going to go through the road map section of the book, and try and get to grips with the look and feel of the book. I'm continuing to take notes, as I was doing with the plot notes off wikopedia to help me form ideas for discussion. I will start filling out my learning contract when we further realise our personal roles within the team. I'm willing to help with research, concept development/ modelling, and animation.

Diary Continued

Continuing to gather research, and reading the wikopedia notes on the plot of the book until I can find my own copy... (3 hours) We will have our first group meeting next week at some point.


25/10/09:
Still conducting reference material research, and breaking down the book by taking notes so I can start trying to visialise the story. (5 hours)


30/10/09:
We have a development meeting next friday. Colette wants us to try and arrange a meeting before hand, so decided to send the group an email to try and organise one. At least then we can see each other in the group since more people have joined since the last meeting, and discuss what we think of the project. I just hope people wont think i'm trying to take over.

1/11/09:

We are going to have a meeting this friday at 12pm at the whitespace pods. Then we can go straight to the development meeting with tern afterwards. I think this is a good regular meeting time, as everyone is free on fridays.

5/11/09:

Sticking in research images to discuss tomorow, and gain feedback.

To discuss:

-Roles
-The Brief
-Brainstorm ideas collectivley/ share with Tern (meeting at 2pm)

Personal Project Diary

22/10/09:

Submission for January:

Learning Contract
Subject Review (1500 words)

-Review existing research releavent to your project aims and outcomes.
-Gather info/ask questions
- What are the authors credentials/ are the individual arguments supported by evidence?
- Proffesional roles and responsibilities
-Processes and procedures
Performence and measures of success.
*Outline key areas of research*

Diary - This will be kept on my blog, and will keep a paper form diary.

A Powerpoint showing all work conducted so far, and reference material to support the subject review.

Tern TV: But 'n' Ben A Go-Go

I'm going to be using this blog to track all the work I will doing for this project... Follow my journey of research in the form of videos and images... the time schedule... and concept development.


Working with Tern Tv, the aim of the project is to make a game prototype taken from a book called But 'n' Ben A-GO-GO written by author Matthew Fitt.

The first task is to brainstorm ideas with the group, and research visual styles, and influences that will help form ideas.