It's safe to say that Week 4 was a fairly challenging one. Melbourne was thrust back into a lockdown that showed no signs of ending anytime soon and everyone I spoke to was in a fairly bleak place.
I also had my studio relocated to my house (*sarcastic yay*....) which I found quite difficult and unrewarding. All of a sudden I went from being able to work 40+ hours per week at my desk, to really only being able to muster 6-8 hours for the whole week! I asked for an extension for my folio 1.
I had achieved a few things though that I was quite proud of and had developed from code framework for an app which had a visual novel element to it. Using Yarnspinner, I had figured a way to use their dialogue trees to skip between scenes. Video here: https://vimeo.com/587699808/e12218b84a, password is: kaichenlim
But then I realised that in order to progress I had to have my lightbulb idea that would succinctly explain the whole project. I felt I was about halfway there. But with all the stress of last week, it took me quite a while to figure out what to do (or even to feel motivated to work on my uni).
Finally I am happening upon an idea which I am enjoying. The idea is to make the app a sort of "fictional app" which - in an alternate history - was developed by a group called the Australian Pro-Conscription League (APCL) in order to gather data on people. The app features a visual novel element which I think can still include the story of two people discussing the outbreak of a war. I think I should perhaps switch the focus slightly so that you now “play” as just one of the characters and have a discussion/interview with the other character. Based on your answers to the other character’s questions, you will end up with a “reading” at the end. In the fictional world, the APCL will store this data about you.
At the moment I’m really interested in government and corporate surveillance, and the malevolent online practices of governments and corporations and the aesthetics of that. I think by making a sort of parody project in this style, I can create thought-provoking material for the audience. I don’t, however, want this project to be too dark. I think the games I made in Studio 1 were so creepy and depressing, and I am really interested to not make this one the same, but it is a challenge when dealing with such depressing subject matter.
It’s weird looking back through my weekly posts already and noticing how much I talk about being burnt out and tired, and then last week I just completely couldn’t do anything! I suppose the extra lockdowns added a whole new curveball of emotions through everyone that we had to spend a lot of energy processing, but I am also learning that I can’t just grind-grind-grind my way to a great idea and great project. Sometimes I need to step back, slow down and just breathe. I am still tired! But I feel much more positive about this project now that I have my creepy idea.