Extended Practice Proposal

Based on ideas and research I gathered in the last module, specifically that of character design and development and world-building, I have quite a vivid idea of the project I want to tackle for the Extended Practice. To explain my idea, I'm going to regurgitate the majority of what I wrote in my Statement of Intent for this module with a few additional changes based on the feedback I was given.

Inspired by some world-building ideas for my last project, I want to create and develop a set of characters based on the four seasons. These characters are representative of Gods/Goddesses who possess the four basic elements befitting of their season. Depending which time of the year the people of this world are born, they would be gifted with the element for that season. However, exclusive of the seasonal theme, this is all subject to change in order to realise the story and aim of the game I am creating.

As well as designing and developing a set characters, I want to take it a step further and develop environments for these characters.

To assist the transition between seasons in my Unity walk through, I want to design and build the homes of the four characters. Starting Spring (because it's the season of new beginnings), the player would walk through a section of woodland before finding the home of the first character. After exiting the house via the back door, it will move on to the next stretch of woodland for the next season and will continue following this pattern until the player reaches winter.

The houses will be explorable and I want to allow the player to interact with their surroundings similar to that of the game Gone Home, which allows you to not only pick up items but to spin them around and examine them. This allows me to further explore the idea of visual narrative through environments and how I can make these homes representative of the characters without their presence. Following on from the use of visual narrative, I also want to somehow use it in order to shape a storyline and goal for the game. My initial thoughts was a detective-like scenario in which the player is looking for clues in order to help them progress the game, hence the rooting around homes. It works nicely with the interactive props and would be worth considering but at this moment in time it is just a starting point.

Sound design is going to be a another big part of this project as adding sound can completely transform the environment and bring it to life. Based on the feedback I've been given, I am now collaborating with someone for this area of the project. Joshua Scott will now be doing my sound design as he's kindly agreed to give me a helping hand. Most of our conversations regarding, ideas, brainstorming and progress will be done over the phone but I will do my best to condense our conversations and type them up, as it is of course, valuable research and development as well as proof of our roles within the project.

The end product for this project should take form of a Unity Walk through and a Game Design, Document which will showcase everything from Characters to environmental designs.