Animated Narratives - Week 4 (KJD)

Week 4 Reflection

For this week’s work, I created a game prototype with Plot and Story Shapes theme in mind. I took the ending of the story and shaped up a story with the ending. The ending was “Ending: A dog can’t stop running and starts to float into the sky” and the story goes like this:

- A dog stuck in the lab and being experimented on by doctors.

- The docs are experimenting on the dog and finding ways to make "energy drinks for dogs"

- The experiment works and the dog keeps running forever and can’t seem to stop.

- Hours go by, days go by, and the dog is still running.

- Eventually, the dog runs so fast that he floats to the sky. But in reality, the experiment goes wrong and the dog passed away.

I created a game prototype for this week’s premise using Unity and C# as my programming language. I uploaded the game on itch.io where you can download and play the game (Dar, 2022). I wanted to make a game for this week’s premise as my coding is my strong point and I can 3D model simple low-poly objects. As stated in the previous week’s reflection, I stated that I could improve and work on implementing the story in a 3D space instead of 2D. I was able to add simple animations for the doctor and dog. I added rough camera work and sound (using royalty-free SFX) to give more meaning to the work.

Animal testing is still an ongoing problem, especially for beauty products. While looking at the famous dog study done by Pavlov (McLeod, 2018), this isn’t as bad as this was just psychological conditioning for dogs and I believe that study didn’t cause any harm to dogs. Whereas, more severe ones, as shown in an analysis report by Erin White (White, 2021). I found that not only that animal testing is still being carried out by companies, but they kill off the animals through decapitation or neck-breaking when they aren’t useful anymore. The small game I made was mostly inspired by this short animation film (Waititi, 2021) where they make a stop motion animation of a rabbit portrayed as a human who can talk and talks about the daily life of how his work goes. Which is getting tested with beauty products.

The game prototype could be a bit better, I had some time management issues so I was unable to complete the desirables for this prototype. Such as creating a doctor character model with a lab coat and a lab environment. But at least the main game idea is finalised for a prototype. Also, with the research I did, I gained even more knowledge about inhumane animal testing as I have seen other people discussing this on social media but I never looked into it properly.

Week 4 References

- Dar, K., 2022. Animated Narratives Week 4 - Flying Doggo. [online] itch.io. Available at: <https://grenadeable.itch.io/an-week-4> [Accessed 3 April 2022].

- Dar, K., 2022. Animated Narratives Week 4 - Flying Doggo. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/mZ5OZuGBY1I> [Accessed 6 April 2022].

- n.d. Daschund BP Image. [image] Available at: <https://bit.ly/35C37tY> [Accessed 1 April 2022].

- Seamless-pixels.blogspot.com. n.d. Free Animal Blueprints Model Sheets. [online] Available at: <https://bit.ly/38dGWeo> [Accessed 1 April 2022].

- McLeod, S., 2018. Pavlov’s Dogs Study and Pavlovian Conditioning Explained. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html> [Accessed 3 April 2022].

- Freesound.org. 2008. Steady Heart Monitor To Flatline.wav by Benboncan. [online] Available at: <https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/61792/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].

- Waititi, T., 2021. Save Ralph - A short film with Taika Waititi. [online] Youtube. Available at: <https://youtu.be/G393z8s8nFY> [Accessed 3 April 2022].

- White, E., 2021. An Analysis of Animal Testing in Beauty Products and Its Ethicality. [online] Sacred Heart University. Available at: <https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/acadfest/2021/all/99/> [Accessed 3 April 2022].