story update

right, am at home, my laptop has broken, so am doing what work I can on the PC available here, archaic though it is. basicly this is just a quick story update, the story is about 1/4 done, and more is in progress, but right now I've produced a much more detailed explanation of the introductory scenes of the level(s)

The scene opens showing soldiers marching in formation past a barracks building, a CO walking behind them shouting orders (left right, ahead straight march etc). The camera will pan, showing a full view of the installation’s buildings, as well as a sign showing the name of the base, and stating that access is restricted. After a full slow 360 degree pan the camera will re-focus on the barracks, in front of which will be stood the PC, after zooming in and through the PC, the player will gain control over their character. The player will be able to roam freely around the grounds for a short time, before the same CO who was commanding the soldiers in formation will shout at the player, asking them what the hell kind of time they think it is, and that as they’ve woken up late they must report to the sergeant for punishment detail. The NPC CO will point the way towards the office before shouting to get moving, double time.
Upon arrival in the sergeant’s office, the player will find another NPC in addition to the sergeant, this NPC will accompany and guide the player for most of the rest of the level, providing objective information and assistance (this NPC is code named Perks for now, for the sake of clarity). The sergeant will explain that both the player and Perks must report to warehouse (whatever number, based on how many buildings end up being implemented in the level, using 16 for now as a placeholder) and start transporting the barrels of compound 7 out of warehouse 16 and onto the truck waiting to ship them out to a more secure location. The sergeant will go on to explain that the player and perks have been chosen to do this because the job is incredibly dangerous, and they have both proved themselves to be expendable, but that completing this task without screwing up would be a good step towards repealing that opinion.
After saying this, the sergeant will dismiss the player and Perks, outside the office Perks will introduce himself, and tell the player to come on, before heading towards warehouse 16.
Upon entering warehouse 16 with Perks, there will be signs of decay and corruption inside, the compound 7 will be right at the back of the warehouse, but all the shelves inside will show wear and damage, some of them will have snapped or collapsed, giving the very clear impression of the poor state of affairs within this building, the player will be free to wander around inside or follow Perks straight to the back, but upon joining Perks next to the first barrel of compound 7 that needs to be transported, the player will hear an explosion and the screen will fade to black.
While still black, the screen will display the text “some time later” in white, to give an indication of a passage of time greater than what has physically passed in reality. The player will re-awaken inside a very bare and dank cell. Through the bars the player will be able to see Perks, sat on his bed with his head in his hands. Perks will, shortly after the player has re-awoken, notice this change in the player’s state of consciousness, and ask the player if they are alright. Not waiting for a response, Perks will say that there was an explosion in warehouse 16, and that is what knocked the player unconscious, but that right now that is the least of their worries. Because of the explosion, Perks will go on, both of you were exposed to compound 7 and even as he speaks, it is altering both of them at a genetic level, changing their biological make-up. Worse still, the effects of compound 7 aren’t fully understood, but that what he can gather from what the COs were saying, it is carried in the blood and potentially infectious, and that it alters the way the human body produces and utilises electrical impulses.

Update

okay, been really busy with portfolio work and having no PC for the last couple of weeks, so this blog has been neglected, am now updating. have been in constant contact with the rest of the group discussing changes to the plan for christmas, and the project as a whole. now have a new theme/story concept, which still needs to be discussed further, but currently stands as follows:

Plot for team project
Theme: military
The scene will be set in an active military installation, the player will control a soldier, a soldier who will react in one of 2 ways to a biohazard outbreak, the chemical which causes these reactions will be due for transporting from the containment facility to the front line, the player is there under the apprehension that they are supposed to be transporting said chemical. Upon arrival the player will be exposed due to an error within the facility. The chemical will have one of 2 possible effects, the first, will cause the player’s body to generate an electric field, this field will cause the player’s suit to constantly regenerate its shield at a moderate speed, the alternative effect is to change all electrical signals sent in the body to a lower, undetectable frequency. After being exposed, the player will be taken to a different facility under heavy guard. They will be informed that due to their exposure that they have gained one or other of these abilities and subsequently cannot be allowed to rejoin the general public, due to issues of confidentiality. They will be forced to fight/sneak their way free from the base, enlisting the aid of a cellmate, which will have whichever effect the chemical bestows that the player does not. If the player has the first effect they will need to fight and cause a distraction so that their cellmate can sneak around and disable the security, if the second, the player will be doing all the sneaking while the NPC cellmate causes a distraction. Either by combat or stealth, the player will make their way from their cell, across the base, back to the storage facility, which they will destroy, followed by either fighting through, or escaping from a pitched battle within the military facility, with the final scenes showing either the player standing triumphant against many dead enemies, or slipping quietly over the fence as the NPC fights many enemies.


This is just a very rough outline, once it has had some discussion and i have received yeses or nos from the rest of the group i will either re-write or develop that story

usability testing article

This article on usability testing is primarily focuses on the usefulness of these tests when performed on others outside of the development teams. While we are not specifically looking at usability testing as part of our study, however for our own usability testing pre-study it does have some bearing. Having read the article it becomes clear that in addition to usability tests performed by the group in-house, we also need to have an outside tester make an evaluation of the level(s) when they are completed and under development, as other persons views on our level(s) will likely be different than our own.

Do usability expert evaluation and test provide
novel and useful data for game development?
Sauli Laitinen, Adage Corporation, Issue 2, Vol. 1, February 2006, pp. 64-75
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.100.1694&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Running head research paper

This particular research paper has some very nice links to both immersion as well as research using both quantitative and qualitative types of data. The paper actually relates to three different sets of experiments that were undertaken, each producing different kinds and amounts of quantitative and qualitative data. When looking at the questionnaire that this particular study used, it becomes fairly clear that our group will need to have both differently formed and additional questions. While surveys can be used to gather both kinds of data, the survey in this paper has been used for quantitative data, using a multiple choice answer, but lacks any discursive questions which could be used for gathering additional quantitative data. While the survey used in this paper is not ideal, the concept of using multiple methods of measurement for multiple sets of results from each tester is defiantly a something that the team will be undertaking at the testing phase.

RUNNING HEAD: IMMERSION IN GAMES
Anna Cox, UCL Interaction Centre, University College London

26/10/10

After the games business lecture today the whole group met up in the library to discuss the state of the literature review and where the current part of the project stands. the outcome of this has been that I personally need to actually post the research summaries that will be used for this piece on my personal blog.

Thus far there are several promising articles, one specifically which I will defiantly be using, which has also been utilised by the rest of the group as the contents of this particular paper cover a fairly broad spectrum, including my own personal assigned research area; quantitative and qualitative research results, and evaluation. in addition to this, I will also need to find a useful paper for usability testing for tomorrow, at which point all the collected summaries will be re-written into one single item for the literature review.

Summaries for papers which I will actually be using for the review will follow shortly.

13/10/10 lecture&group meeting

Initially the plan for today was to get a lot of the literature review, however upon discussion it was decided that we would spend an additional week gaining resources to improve the depth of our research. as such I personally will need to do further research into qualitative/quantitative reasearch methods and evaluation. in addition to this, each team member by next week needs to complete a short evaluation and compression of their best sources ready for evaluation for the litterature review next week. website update taken care of by myself, just adding in all the blog links so that minimum functions are covered.