In Studio 1 I want to create a series of game/ simulation prototypes that explore the relationships people have with the spaces they inhabit and with each other. I have a strong interest in games as a medium for expressing serious ideas and “The motivation to form and sustain at least a minimum amount of social connections is one of the most powerful, universal, and influential human drives.” ¹ Since returning to Melbourne I have become more aware of the way that large groups of people move, and would like to play with this idea. I also want to look at how we maintain connections.
Some outstanding examples of games that explore human connections/ movement
Florence
If Found
Night in the Woods
Cities Skylines (the cims ability to move about the environment)
Some potential prototypes would create could be;
A game where a player needs to find its “pair” in a large group. They would move through a game space with other entities following waypoints and/ or flocking behaviour.
A game about conversations where you’re balancing how much of yourself you give. Player has set “value” and each turn places a percentage of this on a set of scales. The game will place a random value each turn. The idea is to keep the scale balanced as long as possible and also not give too much of yourself. There isn’t really any way to “win” this, just to make it last as long as possible
The tools I would like to use are ones that I am familiar with, but would like to expand my knowledge/ proficiency with. Primarily I would be using;
Unity
Krita and/ or Photoshop
Maya
Kanban board to manage tasks
¹ Baumeister, R. F. (2012). Need-to-belong theory. In P. A. M. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (p. 121–140). Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n32