Writing

8th March, 2009

Something about the sunlight makes me want to take closeup studies of random stuff, even if it’s my pen and dissertation writing:

Finished Critique and Presentation

29th November, 2008

Friday saw possibly the first final deadline for a piece of work this year, the Design for Entertainment Systems game critique. Entitled ‘A Critique of Dungeon Keeper: The Subterranean World’ it explores the techniques behind the immersive world created by Bullfrog’s original Dungeon Keeper.

Introduction

Dungeon Keeper was released in 1997 by Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog Productions and was quickly succeeded by a Deeper Dungeons expansion and more importantly a Gold Edition that featured all of the combined previous efforts and a map editor that with a little bit of work could be installed and used to build your own levels. For me it was one of the most engaging of the early PC games owing to a number of reasons, teaching me quite a few things about how to structure a successfully enthralling Real Time Strategy game, as well as having a few quirky concepts that I have yet to see repeated since. But most of all it showed me what I look for in a game that I truly enjoy and hence influenced my own ideas for designs.

This essay intends to discuss how the game created a unique and immersive game world which translated into many, many hours of play from what was really a rather limited tile set with unassuming objectives.

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Project – Galvanic Skin Response

2nd November, 2008

I downloaded the example Games Module critques and immediately realised that one of them was about a game that has been produced using an interface quite similar to what I want to produce as part of my final Project. The game in question is called Journey to the Wild Divine, and it turns out they use what they call a biofeedback device – which of course opens a new keyword for me to search for.

I’ve already been looking into Galvanic Skin Response and how to produce a PCB that will allow me to take continuous readings from a number of points and feed them into a computer, most likely via USB.

I have already been considering building some form of GSR mouse input device, because it has the advantage of being familiar and one of the most commonly used input devices that people use. On the other hand, the only time people are likely to sit with their hand on a mouse all the time is during a pretty mouse intensive activity, like a 3D first person game and not listening to music.

Links

Journey to the Wild Divine uses a ‘biofeedback device’ to measure how calm the user is:

http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/links-biopsy.html

Project Meeting with Dan

28th October, 2008

Following an initial group meeting with Dan Livingstone up in the Babbage Cafe, I’m a little more reassured that my idea is reasonable. He also outlined a plan of action, involving writing about the following areas:

• Start with a field definition.
• Identify the key players and best examples, while giving evidence as to why they are.
• The innovation or angle behind the project.
• Document the technologies that are to be used within the project.
• The perspective from which the project should be evaluated.

I also need to take a look at GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) and research methods of reading this sort of data into a computer.

Games Module Critique

18th October, 2008

I’ve been doing some writing towards the Game Critique part of the idat310 games module to try and get a good basis for a submit-able essay as soon as possible. My chosen title is of course the 1997 game Dungeon Keeper and its Gold Edition which featured a bunch more maps and a map editor with a little bit of work could be installed and used to build your own levels.

Placement Year Essay

21st August, 2008

My finishing of the 4,000 word writeup essay will essentially be marking the end of my placement year, an experience for which am thankful to Martyn and all the great people I have met during the course of the year for such a brilliant time.

On the Essay

As for writing it, fortunately I kept a document of running commentary on what I was doing throughout the year so compiling this into an essay has been reasonably straightforward. It has been rather pleasing to be able to look back on where I started at and compare it to where I have ended up.