Below are 2 Mind Maps for Folio2 (a game design and an animation design). It is not yet decided which idea to be used for submission. Therefore, I have tried to expand the idea for each of them.

1. 2D Game design / VR game design – a cooking game (week 7)

Setup:

It’s a first-person game: the player is working in a kitchen as a chef. The player finds himself standing in front of a bench and his hand is on the table. There are many tools for cooking shown on the screen.

The noise of the customers can be heard. Also, the Head Chef starts to shout once the game is loaded.

Rules:

The player chooses the dish he wants to cook.

Instructions are given which the player has to follow.

The Player has to finish the dish within the time limit.

When the player success, he can unlock and cook dishes in the next level.

If the player fails, he will be FIRED!

Game restriction:

Instructions:

When the game begins, instructions for the chosen dishes are shouted out in Gordon style. The player has to remember the instructions and do everything in his fastest speed as no visual script for are given.

Time limit:

Each dish has a different time limit. No visual form of the time limit is used in the game, instead, the noise of the crowd is used. The noise level increase while time goes by.

When the time is up, the noise level reaches the maximum level, and the screen is faded out.

“You are Fire!” is shown when it is game over.

Content:

When the player makes a mistake, the food on the table will suddenly scream at him. The eyes and mouth just suddenly appear on its face. The player will then realize he has done wrong and has to try a different way of cooking.

Each food has different behavior. There are many possibilities in matching personalities into food, for examples:

An onion is crying when he is being cut wrongly.

Pork is giving suggestions on how to cook “it” better.

An egg is begging for mercy.

Lots of sounds have been used in the design. The player can find himself surrounded by lots of things happening in the kitchen. This is designed to create a situation similar to the actual chaos happening inside a restaurant. Using no visual form to present instructions and time limit is in fact a way to build up the tension and excitement in the game.

For further development, the dishes in the game can be updated monthly or yearly. Players can unlock to more level of dishes when they keep on playing it. When they can successfully finish dishes, points are gained. When player cooks more dishes, they can promote to a higher position with a certain number of points.

2. Animation design (week 2)

Idea:

In week 2, we are examining concept development. We take the concept in the premise of a “What-if” question and start expanding it. We think about the character/ the world/ challenge/ actions/ resolution.

Therefore, I start to develop further with “What if human beings laid eggs?”

What if we could eat our own eggs?

Conflicts and challenges could result ethically and biologically.

If humans laid unfertilized eggs, will we consider those eggs as human offspring?

Is it unethical to eat those eggs? How long will it take to hatch out the eggs?

On the other hand, as popularity keeps growing, could food shortage be resolved when we eat our own eggs? Is there a factory for breeding the eggs?

Then, what if everything happens inside a factory for humans to lay eggs?

Some eggs will be transmitted to homes for raising, while others are going to be the dinner. A human rights issue could result in to-be-eaten eggs.

Some ideas have created and trying to explore them:

Story 1:

Setup:

Humans are laying eggs in a factory. Some eggs are fertilized, some are not. Those fertilized eggs will then be sent to different homes for hatching. Human babies are born inside the eggs. On the other hand, those unfertilized eggs will then be sent to other food factories as ingredients of dishes. The nature balance on earth has been reached and no more animals are killed by humans.

Some kids discover the truth and feel pity for those unfertilized eggs. They believe those eggs are their siblings and start to rescue them.

Climax:

The kids break into the factory and try to rescue those eggs. A series of clumsy actions are done by them. Security saw them and trying to catch them.

Resolution:

They find out many eggshells and hide inside.

They escape the factory without saving any eggs. They are very upset. Suddenly, one of them discovered that an egg is inside his pocket. they have saved one egg!

Ending:

The security thinks they are those unfertilized eggs and send them to the food factory. Eventually, they are on the dishes.

They are having a panic on a sunny day. They are playing around, and they always carry the egg with them. They are hoping one day the egg is hatched and their brother/sister will be born.

Story 2:

Idea:

It is series of animated vignettes including how humans living when they are hatched from an egg.

What if a human living inside an egg? Sleeping inside the eggshell?

What if the eggshell is broken?

What if the eggshell is as hard as a bone? Can human travel around inside an egg?

-Setup

Our character will be the Sun who is tired of his job as no one on Earth be thankful to him. Therefore, he quits his job and leaves the Milky Galaxy.

Our sun wants a vacation.

However, there are things in the way of his desire. The living balance of the Milky Galaxy has broken as the sun runs away. The sun also finds the Galaxy boring as he travels further.

-Climax 

After exploring the galaxy for a while, the sun begins to feel alone, without the sounds of the people of earth. 

Sun is bored and depressed. Suddenly he finds himself is about to get sucked into a black hole. 
 

Earth is lost and starts gravitating toward asteroids that threaten the lives of earth. The sun can see it from a far distance but there's nothing it can do as it gets pulled deeper and deeper into the dark pit.

-Resolution 

The sun thinks of the people on the Earth. Everyone is yelling and screaming, they are hoping the sun will come back.  

The sun becomes delighted as he sees how much they need him, even if they don’t always appreciate him. He then regains his power and gets back to his original place. 

Sun finds the strength to stay for the people who love and need it and it’s not always a one-way relationship, while the sun has always been the source of energy for earth, in a way earth could also be the one to support the sun. 

To express the feeling inside the Sun, we personalize it as an office boy. Its changing emotion could be shown through the change of its colors. (Happier = red and brighter, depressed = yellow and dimmer).

The black hole is a metaphor to express the gradient of depression it has. When people are in depression, the support from others is the source to pull them back to reality and regain hope.