Form + Image

A Kaleidoscope is one of the best examples of interactive form and image that I have enjoyed so far. The whole visual experience is created by simple colours and shapes contained within its scope and they create stunning patterns and forms. They can be quite abstract and their abstraction catches people’s eye and makes them wonder what it is they are actually looking at. The audience just needs to simply rotate the scope and the beautiful patterns will start dancing in front of their eyes.

I really enjoy the continual transition from pattern to pattern, it is just gorgeous. And now technology is more advanced, I am constantly shocked by how amazing the generative animations are getting these days. It is amazing seeing the structures generated by autonomous systems such as 3d fractal patterns creating something so beautiful and complex that it puts one almost in a trance. Just the simple idea of all of the little patterns and details which would take someone forever to reproduce can be created on the spot is amazing. This generative art style has lots of potential in the future of visual interactions.

 

 I know there are a lot of people who have already experimented or based work on these ideas but I still can’t imagine how amazing the results could be if we grew virtual trees which were not only an animated 3d mesh, but by generative fractals and each time you grow the tree, it will look different. I believe this “autonomous systems” will be a golden opportunity for the future sandbox games, because it can give more randomness to the environment. And I believe that this is something that sandbox could really improve on – to make environmental changes in more of a situational sense rather than a spacial sense, e.g. seasons or weather (Like moss growing in the city when it has rained too much).  

Nevertheless, after seeing all this cool autonomous system visuals, I started to feel excited but also a bit scared of its potential. It is like when artist first see the Photoshop. What if autonomous systems can also generate high quality rigged characters and creature blueprints with random gender, skin textures, hairstyle and fashion? Does it mean we won’t have a need for any more 3D artists? Or I am just worrying too much, and autonomous systems can never take the place of an artist and they are merely a tool to save time.   

Time + Perspective

When time + perspective are skilfully thought out, it always gives me goose bumps. Like a flash back of a character revealing what you had always wanted to know in their past. Sci-fi set in the future time perspective shows how earth has changed. If used well, time shifts and perspective shifts can create an amazing dynamic, like watches though different people’s perspective to tell a story in different angle, sometimes turning a villain into a hero or visa versa. But when used poorly, it will lead to confusion, disorientation and it makes the story too long and too clumsy.

In game, time can be play around with even more. E.g. turn base game. Player can take forever to decide what the next action is even while the battle is going on. Everything stops until you make your decision. Lots of new games also have a day night cycle which gives a stronger sense of progression in time which is great. Like some event will only happen during the day and some only at night. Also the aesthetic difference in time can be used to create a new dynamic in setting/environment, e.g. going to take out a boss in a post-apocalyptic future. However, sometime it is frustration to wait for the in-game time changes. Like MMoRPG, - Final Fantasy XI. You need to spend 15 or 30 minutes to wait for a boat and boat will be closed when stormy weather. But on the other hand, it creates an extremely victorious and memorable moment to player due to the rarity of some event.

(Nerd Alert! - Remember the first time i saw the Rainbow in FFXI, i feel as good as  i was a real rainbow in my life.)


Another time + perspective thing is also the classic “slow motion” which is now too popular in lots of movies and games. Yes… some people hate it and think they ruin the film and it is lame. But I think it is amazing to see all the little tiny details occur during a small snippet in time that we cannot usually see in real life, building appreciation of the moment captured in the small time frame in aesthetic and context. Also the music video by Kanye West “Power”… I don’t like Kanye West but I am talking about the music video. It applies such an effective use of the editing of motion to match with the rhythm of the music, also the “power” of each motion seems amplified as the moment each movement comes to its conclusion, the build up just enhances it greatly.



Also it is interesting to see game like the Rainbow six patriots, players will constantly be switching perspective from the police and the patriot.

It is interesting because like what their trailer showed. You start off playing as the civilian living in a normal life, with a wife and kid and all of a sudden you are kidnapped by the patriot and they force you carry a bomb to the city or else they are going to kill your family. Then timeline jumps to a scene when the police find out there is a bomb carrier planning to attack the city. You immediately switch to the police’s perspective and try to stop the attack from happening. The Player already knows what the patriots are planning and also the civilian’s back story. Players will have sympathy towards the civilian and as a result will try harder to finish the mission. It is a more interesting way to set up a situation than the old war games in which you are simply ordered to recruit a target with just text or cut scenes to describe who they are and what had happened. I think it has great potential to play around more interesting perspective in future gaming. There are tones of single player game did used interesting time and perspective to shape their story, like WarCraft, Resident Evil. Player will not only see the story though one point of view yet maybe from different character’s eyes and different time and merge into an amazing story or stories. Transition between different perspective also need have a deeper design like Rainbow Six Patriots. Think about when to switch it, how it switch and why to switch. Not just finish a chapter then cut to other perspective, create some new that flow.

Agent + Behaviour

Players like the sense of controlling something, to change, build and manipulate things. Sometime just giving a little creative control to the audience will make a big difference in their gaming expierience. It does not necessarily have to be a sandbox game like Sims or Black and White to achieve it. Some players simply like to choose the character’s hair colour or pick their class for some aesthetic identity. They will feel more immersed into the character. (Eg. Character customization, skills tree in most of the new role-play games.) Customization will make the character that they create seem more meaningful and have something they can call their own. Games like Fable are a good example. Your character’s outlook will change due your moral decision-making and actions. Watching your character’s outlook and fashion change and how the villagers behave towards you as the story changes. It just fun to watch. I think it would be great to see more behavioural consequences that will affect the virtual characters in the future of gaming, like Fable and Skyrim. What happen is if your character gets bitten by a vampire the consequences will be your skin turning pale, eyes turning red, villagers will be scared to talk to you or try to hunt you down. It is great because not everyone will enter the vampire’s cave and get bitten. This random event did surprise me and gave more meaning and individualistic attributes to my virtual character. There is much potential in this style of gaming and I feel benefit gaming to do more things like this. Eg. Your character will lose one arm if you lose a main boss fight and then you will need to attach an artificial arm which will not function well under rain but has a higher defence. Even limiting their character’s outlooks and let the progression of the game slowly shape their style, like do they shave often, do they drink a lot of potions, do they got attacked a lot, etc. I think it is fascinating to see how your character changes by the actions/decisions you make in game and as such the world and NPC will behave differently to you.   

What’s more, I think creative control helps to bring audience’s attention into a world or object partly because of the responsibility it entails. They feel enveloped amongst the situations they are in and therefore they want to know more about what the outcome will be. It may as well be because of the curiosity of consequences, the unknown and the “path not travelled”. The audience will usually be more concerned about the stories or actions if they know their decisions do matter. Games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Witcher 2 are good examples of playing around with decisions and choices. It’s effective because players will talk more and share more about their “own” stories endings and evolution, much more so than linear story games and. They will also be questioning the other choices and outcomes sometimes causing them to want to replay the game to find out what COULD have been. This proven story can be fun when you can decide what is next. There was an old card game called “Once Upon a Time” produced by Atlas games in 1994. It is a game about making up your own stories according to the random cards withdrew and your friend can have a chance to interrupt you and take charge of the story. It is interesting because the story may not make sense but all players will be engaged in it, encouraging emotional investment. The same few cards can also create different stories each time you play. Furthermore, Simulation gaming like Sims, Harvest Moon and Minecraft gave even more in-game control to the player which is also extremely addictive to some people too. There is no story or main goal of the game, players just keep playing around in the virtual world, living out their own master plan. The cool thing is during their random actions the in-game AI actually starts to slowly shapes their own stories and goals. It is something new that games are doing more often now, and it has great potential to be even better in the future.

However, it may lead to unsatisfied outcomes due to player’s expectation. And constantly needing the audience to make choices will create frustration and annoyance in some players. It is important to know how to balance it because the old fashion sit back and relax storytelling styles are still great. The story structures are easier to control and story flows better. Too much freedom for players creates difficulty in players organization and the games are much harder to construct. Confusion and a sense of feeling lost will always happen if agency is badly designed. Basically, it is great to be in charge of something but not everything, it should not be as hard as real life and the outcomes should be surprising yet acceptable, then agency and behaviour will become fun.

Storyboard of Anne & Beanie

Read from left to right.

Storyboard - 1

Storyboard - 2