Discussion - Easter Work

Since Easter is a three-week break with no chance for formal meetings and probably quite infrequent team communication, we should all focus our research towards things to add to the level, NPC and testing*, as well as uploading any outstanding work. Following are the guidlines to refer to:

i. All notes & research work must contain appropriate citations (or inferences as a last resort).
For example: If adding zombies will make our level scarier, why? Who has proven this previously?
ii. All notes & research work is to be delivered in a team meeting once the break is over.
iii. Any pieces completed during the break (ie. Source Analyses, Character Studies) can be uploaded to the blog as they are finished as usual.
iv. Tag all Easter work with the 'Easter' tag in place of a week number.
v. Outstanding pieces such as the Zevran Character Study and the Half-Life Models report are also to be posted during this break, so that everyone is up to date upon our return.
vi. Have fun and be productive! Big brother is watching you!

*things such as 'Why are military uniforms intimidating?', 'Why are office clothes conformist?' and 'What is the effect of teleporting an alien squid into New York City?'


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Team Overview - Week 6

Week 6, Meeting 1:
Date: 16/03/2010

Time: 12:00pm until 12:45pm
Staff present: Claire Brierley, Amanda Dewhurst
Location: C2 – 04a

This weeks meeting with Claire and Amanda had the group performing a 'dry run' presentation, along with engaging in discussion in regards to feedback on the Design Document and the upcoming Pitch Presentation at the end of the week. The feedback we received was on the most part, positive. Claire and Amanda brought up some interesting points, all of which the team plan to address before the Milestone 1 presentation on the 30th of April.

Items addressed:
i. Design Document, Pitch and Plan.
ii. Feedback.
iii. 'Dry Run' Presentation.

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Source Analysis - The Silent Language (E. Hall)

Players in Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning demonstrate distances in MMORPGs.

During Week 7 I borrowed E. Hall's 'The Silent Language' from the University library.I completed reading the book over the course of the week, and the source analysis report I wrote as a result can be found here.

"E. Hall's 'The Silent Language’ is an interesting source describing the myriad aspects of culture. While the book is probably required reading for anthropologists, I at first struggled to find meaning within it as relating to games design. Nonetheless riveting, it was only as I approached chapter ten, ‘Space Speaks’, which discusses from a Western point of view how distance affects communication. Within a three-dimensional space such as our level, this is integral."


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Team Overview - Week 5

Week 5, Meeting 1:
Date: 09/03/2010

Time: 12:00pm until 12:40pm
Staff present: Claire Brierley
Location: C2 – 04a

This weeks meeting with Claire saw group members discussing the design document, pitch and plan along with the going over of Presentation details ready for the following week.

Items addressed:
i. Design Document, Pitch and Plan.
ii. Feedback.
iii. Presentation Details.

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Assessment - Design Document, Pitch and Plan

As part of our project research and initial planning, the team was asked to complete a 3000 word design document ready for hand-in on the 9th of March. We split the document up into three 'phases', the Design, Pitch and Plan. Each member of the team made a contribution to at least one of the three sections.

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Who are we?

Team Fable is a group of five students working on their 'Level 3 Team Project' at the University of Bolton.

All posts and work uploaded to this blog will be monitored by assessors and all content will count towards the teams final mark.

What is our aim?

Our project aim is to research the usage of non-playable characters in games and investigate what drives player reactions to them.

By researching into this, we hope to evolve storytelling in games by defining the characteristics players find most compelling in NPCs, ultimately leaving with more engaging characters.

What are our roles?

The team roles are as follows:

Kyle Cherry - Research & Documentation.
Lee Sparkes - Human Resources.
Lewis Morgan - Level Design Lead.
Adam Parker - Art Design Lead.
Stephen Austin - Testing Lead.

Despite having specific lead roles, all members in the group will contribute to all areas of the project.

Contact

  • Kyle Cherry - kc1gcc@bolton.ac.uk
  • Lee Sparkes - las1gcc@bolton.ac.uk
  • Lewis Morgan - lrm1gcc@bolton.ac.uk
  • Adam Parker - ajp1gcc@bolton.ac.uk
  • Stephen Austin - swa1gcc@bolton.ac.uk