Monday, 26 January 2015

Unit 05 Contextual Influences in Art and Design

Mind maps
For this week I had to make mind maps based on different types of -ISM's. For me to be able to do this I will need to first do research into several different types of -isms and choose 3 main one's that I can compare against each other and talk about how those -isms affect today's media styles.

Surrealism
For my first mind map I have decided to do surrealism, as it was the first-ism I had saw that I know a lot about. Surrealism is an '-ism' that stretches the of the laws and physics of this world and allows us to create art that explores the boundless imagination of human kind.

Artwork based on surrealism
This piece of work I had done was based off an pre-existing series of Warhammer 40,000. This design is based off of fantasy objects and lore from that series. The armour this character is wearing is made out of a mysterious 'Wraithbone' and soul gems, which do not exist in the real world, the armour does not match currently existing armour.


Films/Games influenced by Surrealism
https://mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_08_2014/blogentry-23942-0-64080800-1407683227.jpg
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2

For my first example, I have chosen 'Dawn of War 2', as I know that it is a surreal game, due to it's races of Elves/Eldar, Orks, Chaos, Necron, Tau Empire and the Tyranids, which do not exist in the real world. The areas set within these stories are on non-existent planets. This game is influenced by surrealism, as it has a huge plot line based upon non existent or surreal events for example, the Eldar who are a race of elves who are far superior than any other race, due to their advanced technology, fast metabolism for greater agility and vision of time, which allow them to see things at a much faster pace. It is known for when humans fight the Eldar, they move a such a blinding speed that they are almost unstoppable. Humans are also seen as slow like creatures to the Eldar, This huge story has a massive interest to people who enjoy surrealism.
(Example)

(http://www.filmedge.net/Tron/downloads/TRON%20LEGACY%20One%20Sheet_10.19.10.jpg)
Tron: Legacy

'Tron: Legacy' is based upon the original Tron film, which came out 1982. The story itself is purely fictional and will probably not be possible in the real world, which makes it surreal. The story is based upon a man named Sam, who receives a message from his long lost father who suddenly disappeared with no trace of where he went what so ever. As the story progresses, it turns out that Sam's father had found a way into the virtual world, where programs are living entities with set personalities. Tron is also part of the futurism design movement, due to computers becoming the new age during 1980-2000 which had inspired for fictional futuristic ideas.
(example)

Futurism
For my second research topic, I chose futurism, as it is something that I am interested in. Futurism is an '-ism' that is based upon creating art that explores the concept of the future.

Artwork Based on futurism

This is my attempt at futurism art, based on what I believe the future will look like. Media I viewed during childhood may have had an effect on my view on the future, influences such as Akira, Timesplitters, dystopia(The idea and the half life 2 mod), REZ, Celldweller and AI film have what has driven my view of the future.

Films/Games influenced by Futurism
http://www.thegryphon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Blade_Runner_6.jpg
Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner was a Sci-Fi action film depicted in the future, set in the year 2019 within a dystopian Los Angeles. During the 80's futuristic art was heavily inspired by flying cars and space travel, which expanded the Sci-fi genre in media. Blade Runner in itself became an icon and inspiration for futuristic Sci-Fi games and films, such as 'Deus Ex' and 'Ghost in a Shell'. Blade Runner story is a bout a special type of cop called a 'Blade Runner' who's task is to hunt down "replicants" who attempt to return to earth and break the law, as they are prohibited from returning to earth.




http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/REZ-HD.jpg
REZ (2001)

REZ is a video game created on the dreamcast and then later added to the 'Playstation 1' in 2002. REZ's story is based in a futuristic supercomputer that is monitored by a AI whose name is Eden. The player plays as a hacker who fights viruses and bugs within the computer system in order to find the location of this AI's Core in an attempt to repair it, as objects are destroyed, they produce sound chymes, which goes alongside the games music. It is said in REZ's end game credits that the game was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, whom was a expressionist and also created abstract art.


https://prezi.com/kikbtw4cmr1d/futurism/#

Pointillism
For my third research topic, I chose to look at pointillism, as it's an art style that looks very interesting. Pointillism is a art movement that is based on a unique technique, which the painter uses small dots painted closely together in order to create the illusion of an image.

My own artwork based on Pointillism

In my attempt to do pointillism art, I had created a tree made out of small dots and a apple with a leaf, in an attempt to follow in the style of pointillism.

Films/game inspired by Pointillism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKMhcS4FxNY
A light in Chorus
A light in Chorus is a game that's based up of small dots of light that are put together to give us the illusion of an image, just like the art style, but this takes a new turn to the style as the artist to this game wanted each point to display a source of light to make objects look more vibrant and colourful to view. There is not much information about the game other than it is still in development at: http://www.alightinchorus.com/


Cubism
I chose this art movement as my fourth research task, as I would like to learn more about it. Cubism is a form that looks at real life objects, breaks them down and then recreate the in a abstract way. Cubism is said to be the most influenced movement within the 20th century.

Films/Games inspired by Cubism
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Fez_%28video_game%29_cover_art.png)
Fez is an cubism indie game that came out for the xbox 360 and then later for other consoles. Fez's plot line dipicts a character who lives in a 2D world who one day realizes that the world is actually 3D. The game was created to allow for the player to shift between two sides of the 3D world allowing for the user to complete challenges which would seem impossible if this was not implemented.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpKTclOnfI)

Expressionism
I chose expressionism as my fifth piece of research. Expressionism is a style, which is create in order to express the creators mood on his feelings, this is done to allow for more ideas to generate from other people in order to create their expressions.

Films/Games inspired by Expressionism
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/f/fb/Batman_Arkham_Asylum_-_Trailer.png
Batman Arkham asylum

The Batman series has been considered expressionist, as the use of dark colours, villain plots, dramatic turn of events that give the viewer certain emotions towards characters, especially in Tim Burton's batman films. Two face, who was originally a good character, came under a unfortunate turn of events, which led to his demise into an evil character, whom based peoples lives on chance of flipping a coin. His name 'Two Face' is based upon the accident to where half of his face has been burned off. His name also has relation to the two sides of a coin.

https://monochromagame.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/edward-scissorhands.jpg
Edward Scissorhands

Edward scissorhand is considered to be part of the expressionist art style, due to it's dark use of colours, it's evil looking character and urban setting. Edward's design is meant for the viewer to have a disliking to him at first before watching the film and then after watching his emotions and expressions to others, the viewer then begins to understand him and start to feel different emotions for him.



Minimalism
This is the sixth piece of research into the movement art. Minimalism is an art style that requires the creator to create art into its basic form.


Films/Games inspired by minimalism
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/59/Pac-man.png
Pac-Man

Pac-Man follows the simple minimalistic design for a video game, as it doesn't use that many colours or amount of detail to show itself to the viewer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9adZ0HRuo4
Dexter intro inspired by Saul Bass

Saul Bass is well know for it's minimalistic design, as so that it is replicated even today. Saul bass design features 1 or 2 colours to display entities and characters against a minimal background in order to display something in a simplistic design.


My attempt of saul bass design
Minimalism is a movement where simplicity is favoured over detail. This art style is most famous from artists such as, Saul Bass, who recreated film posters and openings to, which revolutionised the film world during 1949 - 1989. In my designs above, I had attempted to follow closely to the saul bass design style, which can be found in Unit 3 - Ideas and Concepts. This piece of work is an example of saul bass because of the shown research that I had put in to finding out what Saul Bass style is during Unit 3, there are similarities to the style. To design a new Saul Bass design I would have to review all of my research currently done and then create a new design using that research.


Task 5

Interactive design research

Caveman paintings (15,000BC)
(http://matadornetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/informationtech-cavepainting.jpg)
Ever since the dawn of man, humans have had the aspirations to create art in many different forms. Art has been a part of history since pre-historic times, with visual evidence being left in caves around the world. With the rise of civilisation and the advances in art brings us a new form, interactive art.

Norbert Weiner - Cybernetics (1948)
(http://www.norbertwiener.umd.edu/NW/photos/wiredNW.jpg)
Norbert Wiener was that man who defined the term "Cybernetics". The term means information that is passed from man to machine and vice versa. These terms have been seen in many sci-fi films such as Blade Runner, AI and I robot. This was the breakthrough that lead the way for future expansion into technological advances. Norbert believed that his research and his theory would lead to the improvement of our society and humans in general.

Roy Ascott - Cybernetic Vision (1966)
(http://athensartresidency.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/roy-ascott-web.jpg)
"If the cybernetic spirit constitutes the predominant attitude of the modern era, the computer is the supreme tool that its technology has produced. Used in conjunction with synthetic materials it can be expected to open up paths of radical change and invention in art." - Roy Ascott

Roy Ascott believed in the usage of computer technology, which could change the way art is formed altogether. This formed certain characteristics in many art forms, such as, Surrealism, pop art and Dada. Ascott was so inspired by what Computer technology could bring, he created a framework for approaching interactive artworks. In a thesis Ascott participated in in 1966, he said that this art style will need to break away from modern ideals of "Perfect objects", he proposed responses from viewer rather than the traditional static image.

Nam June Paik - Cybernated Art (1967)
(http://assets2.thecreatorsproject.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/eca4c03f5d6af0acf517d38275c62a3c.jpg)
Nam June Paik was a man who like to combine art with technology to create a cyber like art form, he is often thought of, as the founding father of video art. Paik is well know for his Electronic 
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia
/en/3/30/Portrait_of_Nam_June_Paik-by_Lim_Young-kyun-
1981.jpg)
superhighway piece in 1995. Paik's idea behind this was what he thought was America's obsession of television, moving images and shiny things. He believed that humans as a whole should embrace technology and art together.









Douglus Engelbart - Augmentation (1968)
(http://www.sri.com/sites/default/files/uploads/douglas-engelbart-at-sri-8-oct-68-demo-rehearsal.jpg)
"Our goal of augmenting the human intellect... will exhibit more of what can be called intelligence than an unaided human could... by organizing his intellectual capabilities into higher levels of synergistic structuring." - Douglus Engelbart

Douglus Engelbart is said to be one of the most most influential people in the history of personal computers. Engelbart led project funded by ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency), which went on create the Mouse, windows, E-mails and the word processor. Engelbart lead projects which went onto influencing the first personal computer in the early 1970's.

Ivan Sutherland - Ultimate Display(1970)
(http://amturing.acm.org/images/sutherland-3.jpg)
In 1965 Sutherland wrote 'The Ultimate Display', whilst doing initial research into technology with immersive properties. Sutherland began making advances towards virtual worlds by finalizing designs, construction and navigation. He made predictions towards when he believed that these things could be possible, due to advances in technology. Although his ideal were designed and theroised before the release of the personal computer, he sought out to make sure that his idea of virtual worlds could be possible through a helmet product that visually stimulates the 3D environment.  This research becomes very important for the inspiration towards the Oculus rift in 2012.

Myron Krueger - Responsive (1970)
(http://www.inventinginteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/videoplace_02.jpg)
Myron Krueger became the pioneer towards human to computer interactivity within the real world's enviorment. Although originally a computer scientist, in 1966 Myron Krueger collaborated with artists and engineer in order to create art work that responded to human movement. This was possible through a series of sensors, such as, video cameras and graphics tables. Krueger's contribution to the interactive art movement allowed for "Composed" environments. This allowed for computers to respond to human movements and manipulate them.

William Gibson - Cyberspace (1984)
(http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/gibsonpattern-360.jpg)
William gibson was very well known for his science fiction novels, such as, Burning Chrome and Nueromancer, which lead the way to the discovery of a new word that William describes, as "Cyberspace". His work always had stories that always connected man and machine together into a virtual highway of endless possibilities. Because of this, his writings had unspeakable influence on Scientists, researchers, theorists and artists. Gibson ideals of computer networks where people can live without a name had ironically come somewhat real in modern life today.

Jenny Holzer - Virtual Worlds (1993)
(http://www.w2vr.com/timeline/31_Bosnia.jpg)
On 1993 Jenny Holzer held an exhibition on 'Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium', on which featured two worlds created by Holzer. The first world featured souls that would flee the user and then return to engage them. if you could catch them it is said that they would say Holzer's trademark truism phrases. The second world on the other hand, featured a dark story of the history of violence against women during the Bosnian war. The story was built on a desert like area with cinderblock huts and each hut had a different voice and a different story to tell.

Pierre Lévy - Collective Intelligence (1994)
(http://nepo.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_5808.jpg)
Very much like William Gibson and yet inspired by him, Pierre Lévy had ideals for what cyberspace could be, as written in 'Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World of Cyberspace'. Lévy work aims towards a Utopian universe, where everything is virtual; information, telematic interaction, mutable identity where there is and endless stream towards content and evolving forms towards art and communication. Lévy believes that virtual worlds has a constant and continuous expansion of art that's always changing and always being worked on. Lévy believes and envision a collective society that is bound and brought together and linked through a electronic networks. Lévy also believes that multimedia will be the catalyst for future social evolution.

Jodi - Beyond interface (1995)
(http://www.w2vr.com/timeline/35_Jodi.jpg)
Jodi Believed that internet art has become the next step for experimental forms of art for artists. They have a website called www.Jodi.org, which changes every time you click on the link. The link feature very surreal like fragments of code and other things upon them. When I went upon these pages I felt a sense of abandonment or some sort of dystopian feeling towards what I could see. I had tried the link several times to receive a different page every time that had ways of being different. This collection of interactive art pieces really capture peoples ideal during the 1990's. By looking at the Jodi website we can think to ourselves about how we use code and interface in order to allow people to understand. Unlike Jodi where the interface has been stripped bare and has left nothing but lost questions and hallucinogenic art in code.

Palmer Lucky - Occulus Rift (2012)
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/29/1396098221819/The-Oculus-Rift-headset-i-010.jpg)
With the improvement of technology, so improves the advances toward interactive art and how we perceive it as humans. The Occulus Rift, which was proposed in 2012 has made some pretty astounding feats to where people believe this will be the future of virtual reality and video games. Although still unreleased, many big companies want to back the Occulus, such as, Microsoft and Facebook. This is due to it's inspiring potential for the future, many people believes it hold the key to the next step.

Becoming Virtual (Future)
(http://www.w2vr.com/timeline/36_Cave.jpg)
As humans, we will not understand what it will be like to be inside virtual space until we experience it ourselves. We no longer view objects as we ourselves are the object and have to take on new landscapes and existence within virtuality. Topics like this can become controversial towards certain religious group, as they could see it as "Playing as god" or "Tempering with forbidden knowledge", which would unlock the next step into human history.

Below are some road maps I had found of future advances on the human species that could effect our progress within the art form.








Source:
(http://imgur.com/gallery/HjF2P)



This video below is something similar to what I want to create, but from my aspect, I would like to have images on a webpage that requires user interaction in order to make the image change.

Haunted painting comes to life from AtmosFEARfx. #yikes
Posted by The Replica Prop Forum on Sunday, 3 May 2015


For my idea I had came up with the idea of collecting old famous paintings like 'The Mona Lisa' and creating a supernatural/horror type edit to them. The interactivity will feature users clicking on the original image and it will slowly transition into the horror version, I may add intense horror noises in the background to make the portrait even more powerful.

I had expressed my idea to another person and they had suggested that to make this work that I create the edits within Photoshop and put them through scratch game maker in order to make this possible.


Unfortunately after trial and error I have found that scratch would not work as the quality of the images put onto scratch would downgrade by a huge amount, destroying the feel within the image. I considered options for what I could've done and after my personal experience with HTML and CSS in Unit 70 - Computer story development, I decided to create my idea within a HTML file. Using code from the previous project I was able to create a template HTML file that would hold the images. I had put together the idea of two by two images that would fit the page for the end user.
Coding for my website, which included HTML and CSS.

After finishing the website and revisiting the research I became heavily inspired by it, so I had created a second project connected to the first. This time I wanted the subject of the images to be based around cybernetic/futuristic art form and I know that a certain popular one is 'Glitch Art'. Using  http://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/ I was able to create these glitch images and compile them together to create GIF animations. For my first image I had thought of using an image of myself as a test to see how this would come out and I believe it came out just the way I wanted it.


Below is a frame by frame image showing the transitions. By using the website I mentioned before I was able to distort the image and then I saved six of them, which I imported into Photoshop for animating.















Photoshop has a 'Timeline' tool, which is helpful for animating as it allows me to edit each individual frame, whilst still being able to edit the image to my choosing. I had done this for four images all with their own 'hover over' images.


Supernatural Website
For my four images I had chosen: Mona Lisa, Bloody Mary, Henry VII and Napoleon. I had chosen these people, as they are some important people of past history.


Futuristic / Cyberpunk Glitch Art
I had chosen pictures near random, but have some relevance towards Cyberpunk, as the first gif is myself, as I enjoy Cyberpunk art, for the second image it shows a run down building, which is common in most cyberpunk stories, for the third image I had chosen a underground sewer tunnel, as a place for escape from the real world, as setting like this take place in cyberpunk stories, for my last image I had chosen to get a image of an woman, who almost looks immortal, but changed by technology.


First review of my interactive art projects.


I had got Mario and Rui to also review my interactive art in order to get three different opinions on my interactive work. I have found that improvements can be made towards my interactive art in terms of user compatiblity as the gifs on the seconde page had struggled to load on the college Mac computers.


Interactive art website ZIP:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2HrTGt9DLh4OGlVYWlQTzJ6WlE/view?usp=sharing

Design report

For the brief, I was tasked with doing various research on art movements and media relating to that movement, research into the history of interactive art and then finally creating my own interactive art inspired from that research. In order for me to show my understanding, I chose to create several different mind maps detailing things about that movement and then providing created media related to it. I also provided my own work that were based around the movements that I had done before. This allowed me to understand how to take on the next steps of the unit.

When tasking to do the research I had put my pre-existing knowledge into each mind map and then do additional research in order to show a broader understanding. Before doing this unit I had very little knowledge on each individual "-Ism" and this had allowed me to learn new things about art and help me progress further within the unit.

My initial idea for the interactive art came from pre-existing films and video games that had incorporated moving paintings, such as, Luigi's Mansion and shutter. I had attempted to create these ideas in scratch programming application, but have found it to down scale my images to a lower resolution, so that they became near to unrecognisable, which made me move away from scratch and onto HTML + CSS, as I had knowledge on how to code from previous units. I had felt really inspired by how well I managed to present my images with working interaction that I ended up making four images for two projects. I had got the idea for the second project from my initial research of futuristic technology concerning interactive art. After presenting my final design towards other people I have found that improvements can be made in several parts across my idea. I have found that people who had looked at my art, do agree that my second project is a lot stronger, due to the amount of research I have done towards art of that particular style.

If I were to do this assignment again, I believe I would invest more time into the research and development stages, as those parts I consider to be weaker than my final design. I would make sure to have a range of ideas that had reasonable way to be created and realistically be achieved throughout the time in get given. I believe that my work, both research and development up to the final design, is achievable of a merit of higher grade, due to the amount of consideration and detail I put into the design process.

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Unit 70 Computer Game Story Development

Interactive Story Development

In this unit I am required by a small independent game company to produce my own interactive story concept. The company want the story to be based around a oncoming catastrophe cause by increasing global warming. For me to start building ideas it would be useful to me to create a mind map of the effects of global warming, so that I would have a basic idea of what I could base my story around. The company have also asked for the characters to come from a different background than most western areas, this could allow me to explore ares such as, Russia, Asia, the middle east. Doing this will allow me to become more aware of those locations after a research period.


Existing Game & Interactive Story Research
before creating my own story I must first understand existing products that are currently out on the market or possibly stories that exist before time of civilisation. there are different forms of story telling that have different ways of explaining, such as caveman paintings show a story that you can understand by viewing the portraits that they had created. Looking at this image below you can see what appears to be 5 people and 2 deer, you can see that the humans are trying to hunt the deer, possibly for food or other purposes.

http://apistrat-presentation.herokuapp.com/images/cave.jpg

Other ways of telling a story is through the traditional way of oral conversation where people would tell myths, legends and fable in taverns or local areas where people would meet and talk. such a story as, king Arthur fighting a dragon, could have originated from taverns, as these places were the go to for all the latest news and stories, which led to some historical inaccuracies.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Tavern_Scene-1658-David_Teniers_II.jpg

Theatres were also great ways for people to tell stories through acting out plays as characters. This set out to be a commercial success during Shakespeare popularity peak, as people came to see the stories that this man had created and had paved the way for theatre. As time went on, so did technology, which had allowed for new ways for stories to be watched from anywhere with a new device at the time called a television.
http://www.coolplaces.co.uk/system/images/3163/winchester-theatre-royal-winchester-rainy-day-3163-large.jpg

Story through video games genres
There are many different game genres today that people can pick from in order to enjoy different styles of storytelling. These genres include First Person Shooter (FPS), Third Person Shooter (TPS), fighting, adventure, roleplay, Real time Strategy (RTS), Turn Based Strategy (TBS) and Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

First Person Shooter games generally consist of the player having to go through a series of obstacles and opponents in order to get a objective. An example of game that is part of the FPS genre is Halo, as the player is tasked out to protect a 'AI' chip named cortana, but the character is put through a series of enemies to attempt to escape, but lands on this ring called halo, as the story develops, the player finds out more about the story.
(http://mruploader23.webs.com/photos/Halo-anniversarry/halo%201%20graphics.jpg)

Command and conquer is a real time strategy game that attempts to tell its story through the use of live action and CGI cutscenes that usually sets up your next course of action against the enemy faction. With command and conquer you have the choice of playing either faction in order to see how the story would play out if that faction had won the war against the other, giving you details you would miss if you only played one side of the story.
(http://onlyfullgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Command-Conquer-download-full-version.jpg)

Video games like Gears of War are considered Third-Person games due to where the camera is placed on the characters, generally it is behind the shoulder of the main character to give off more immersion that you are that important character. Most Third person games consist of shooter type objectives. 'Gears of War's story is based on Marcus Fenix's side of the war against the locust horde. At the start of the game not much is explained about what is going on around the world, there are only hints that are given to show things are not right. These hints then intrigue the player into playing more to find out what it going on into the story. During this game Marcus is seen as the heroic character through his thoughts and actions against the locust. This is aided further through the use of cut-scenes to show action packed events which could change the viewers look on a certain character or characters.

(http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/gears-of-war-2-explosive-canisters.jpg)

Approaches to a game story
There are many ways to set up a video game story, such as three arc story, episodic and Hero's journey. Episodic stories are very popular at the moment, with such releases like, the walking dead video game, Bioshock infinite DLC and Half life 2 episode 1 & 2. Games like these allow for artist to create quick and fun stories that require smaller effort to release to the public, than it would from a full game, and will keep them wanting more from them.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/TWD-game-cover.jpg)

Three arc stories are featured in most game that have a Progressive story behind it. These type of stories generally consist of a start, middle and end setting. This type of structure would start of with slow information that would tell you the underline basis of what is going on in the universe of the story and as you progress through it, things become more intense and dramatic to hook the viewer into continuing the story. This usually happens between the middle and the end of the story, usually in the middle, where something drastic would happen and cause for a sudden change of events. Usually the main character would be able to solve and correct the drastic events, which would come to a resolution and ease the tension that the player feels. A story that uses this arc type would be Halo 1 as the game starts off with master chief, the main character, sleeping inside of a cryo-tube when he has to be awakened due to the ship he is on, being tailed by an alien race, as master chief gets to the pilot area he is told about this 'Halo' world that has appeared in front of them. He lands on this 'halo' only to find out what it is used for, expanding the story to a whole new level. The story gets to a mid point when 'the flood' get released and start killing both humans and covenant and the master chief finds a index which he is almost tricked into using on which he thinks will get rid of the flood, but it would rather destroy all life in the universe.Nearing the closure of the game, master chief has turned the 'Pillar of Autumn' into a bomb that would blow up 'Halo' and save the galaxy from the flood threat. Master chief has a certain amount of time to get off 'Halo' before it explodes putting the game at it's highest tension point before the ending. during the ending of the game, it uses soft and slow music to lower the tension level.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Halo_-_Combat_Evolved_(XBox_version_-_box_art).jpg)

Hero's journey, or 12 point structure, I have noticed to be used a lot of Japanese anime, such as, Dragon Ball Z, Sword art Online, 'Shigenki no kyojin' and it appears to be a very common structure to be used, as well as, most Level based Role playing games, such as Fable, 'Kingdoms of Amalur' and 'Two worlds'. Hero's journeys 12 points are; The ordinary world, the call for adventure, refusal of the call, meeting with a mentor, crossing the threshold, tests allies and enemies, Approach, The ordeal, The reward, The road back, The resurrection and return to normal life, or to continue on the adventure. These types of games have long story lines with in depth information that might be useful to the games setting, which can be fun to read and learn about.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Kingdoms_of_Amalur_Reckoning_cover.png

Mind Map containing story ideas and character design


8 points of story timeline
1.Stasis
The story is set in 'Kami-Koshiki' island where the character is stuck in the city 'Sononaka' underneath a broken building.
2.Trigger
The protagonist Yukimura is stuck due to a recent tsunami that destroyed the entire island, knocking him out cold, which had lasted several days. In a miracle Yukimura survives, but is heavily injured.
3.The quest
Yukimura must find his way out of the broken building and see what remains of his once loved city, driven by sadness, Yukimura is focused on finding out what happened to his loved one whilst trying to survive the new dangers that await him.
4.Surprise
Yukimura must build a boat out of salvage in order to get across the sea to the mainland in order to get some information, as the mainland was hopefully not affected by the tsunami, Yukimura hopes for news on his wife when he gets there, but as he begins to sail out towards inland Kagoshima, Toshi appears chasing after Yukimura and begins swimming towards the shaft. Yukimura must decide where to abandon the shaft and face Toshi or sail towards land and face him on land, which if chosen to face on land then Yukimura and Toshi will settle their differences and work together in order to get inland.
5.Critical choice
After arriving in Kagoshima, Yukimura learns of an even bigger threat that dooms his chances of finding his wife and must decide whether or not he will take to the lawful right of way and ask the government on the location of his wife, which may lead to him not getting answers, or accepting Toshi's unlawful offer from the Yakuza to allow them to do some investigation in order to find Saori.
6.Climax
Following the Yakuza's one time deal allows for Yukimura to find Saori still alive in time for the incoming catastrophe is about to set course and change history forever. After the tsunami happened scientists had found that is was now regular earthquake and that this one had opened a whole in the sea, which will boil the water in the area effectively melt the ice caps at a substantial rate. This will cause increase in flooded areas and will resort in people having to flea to higher altitudes.

Following the governments help on the other hand will have the character at a dead end with no results, but the protagonist will only come across Saori purely by accident as she was moving to higher altitude in order to survive the incoming catastrophe. This option will have the story told in a faster speed than if they picked the other due to the amount of time spent by the protagonist.
7.Reversal
Saori will be angry towards the character for not being with them when the tsunami did happen, leaving her to get away from it alone. The protagonist will then get the choice of two options to explain himself, or not, effecting the relationship between these two characters.
8.Resolution
Saori will learn to forgive the character as time goes on, but will take time in order to do so. Whilst this is happening, the duo will be heading toward the best place to go, which is picked by the character, whilst they wait for the catastrophe to happen.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVCLXZ99rps For use of later)

Storyboard






Computer Game story

Twilight sunrise

Intro
Today marks a day that the world would never forget. An oncoming tsunami had hit the local island of Kami-koshiki causing mass destruction for all those who live there. The story follows a young man, Yukimura, who had been well known within the society, had met an unfortunate series of events that brings him here, underneath rubble. Alone with only memories of a siren and his wife.

Beginning
Yukimura wakes up, bleeding from the leg, in the debris of a broken building, the floor is flooded and the walls have deteriorated.
“Where am I?” Yukimura mumbles to himself, as he tries to come to grips with what happened.
He attempts to get up, but groans in pain as he realizes the damage to his body, falling back down into a puddle. After looking around the room for some time, he spots a first aid kit in which he will be able to use to wrap his wound.

Yukimura surveys the room he currently is in and attempts to break out the only door in the room. Upon doing so Yukimura comes across “Toshi” who is in an aggravated state.

“Stay away from me you little sh*t” Toshi shouts with disbelief in his face. Toshi stumbles across the floor pushing at Yukimura with the little strength he had left.

Toshi and Yukimura fight, with Yukimura only managing to get away.
Toshi shouts “I’ll find you, the yakuza will not forget!” as Yukimura runs off.

The surrounding area no longer looks familiar to Yukimura. Washed up houses, destroyed crops, over turned vehicles and death, mostly inaccessible from continued flooding that has not been drained yet.

These are scenes that no man should have to endure. After searching for several hours, Yukimura comes across a small part of the island that was unaffected by the flooding, which had a gorgeous beach that would make you forget that the disaster has ever happened. Yukimura builds a water shaft in order to swim inland towards Kagoshima. As Yukimura begins to push the shaft out to sea, Toshi appears, recovered from the clash earlier.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Demanded Toshi as he ran faster towards Yukimura.
Conflict breaks out between the two characters, which results with dialogue between them.
“Why are you doing this? Even in this time of despair?” Asked Yukimura
“Because there’s not much I have left, my friends, my family, all I had is gone because of this. I need that shaft to get out of here and I will take any means necessary to get it” Toshi says frantically.
“Then why are you being aggressive in this time of need, you are not the only one with problems and concerns as well” Yukimura replies.
“My needs are more important than anyone else” Toshi said
“Why, because you are concerned that someone may be alive that you care for, or do you just wish to rejoin with your ‘Yakuza’ buddies” Yukimura replied

“You know nothing about my life, you don’t even know me” Toshi says in an angry fury.

An awkward silence leaves these two characters pausing for a moment.
"Look, I know you're going through a hard time, but it would benefit us both to work together to get inland" Yukimura replies
"Okay" Toshi nods in confirmation
Adjustments are made to the shaft in order to allow the weight of both of them.
Both characters push the shaft out into the sea and climb on, during the way to Sonaka. dialogue is exchanged between both characters.

"So, what brought you to kami-koshiki?" Yukimura asks
"Some of my friends and I were going on vacation here for a good few weeks when we had had a few drinks at a bar and got into a fight to where I woke up stuck in a broken building, I had no idea what was going on." Toshi replies.
"That sounds unfortunate for you, I had family and friends here who evacuated early, but I had been pressed by my boss to continue working as he assured that I would be safe, that was not the case unfortunately, I am unsure whether my family got out alive or not, even so I do not know where they have gone to. They're probably worrying about me more now" Yukimura responds
"I see, I might be able to help you with finding your family, I can put in a word to my friends inland to look for them. Do not fret, I will not ask for favours back for helping you, in a sense you saved my life allowing me to board this shaft with you." Toshi says.

*AT THIS POINT THE PLAYER GETS TO CHOOSE TWO OPTIONS IN WHICH EFFECTS THE COURSE OF THE STORY TO A DEGREE, OPTION A, HAS THE CHARACTER ACCEPTING HELP FROM TOSHI WHICH IS ALONG THE TRUE STORYLINE OR THEN CAN PICK OPTION B, WHICH THE CHARACTER DECIDES TO ASK GOVERNMENT FOR HELP TO FIND SAORI, IN WHICH, COMES BACK WITH NO RESULTS AND ALTERS THE STORY.*

Option A
"So you have decided to take my help then. It should not be that hard to find her using the matching description you gave us." Toshi Responds

Option B
"I understand, good luck finding her. it's a tough time out there." Toshi responds

Main story
"We are almost inland." Yukimura notes
"I know, I'm glad that I've gotten through this, but they say more trouble is on the way." Toshi says
"What do you mean?" Yukimura questions
"Didn't you hear? Due to that last earthquake water levels have been rising at an extremely fast rate. They say the caps have melted to an irreversible point. It caused something to shift and change the world faster than I've ever seen." Toshi responds
"This is troubling news." Yukimura says
"You bet." Toshi pauses
"They're telling everyone to head inland towards the mountains in order to stay clear from the oncoming disaster. My best bet would be to listen to that advice"
"Ah, we're here." Toshi adds on.

Both characters disembark the shaft and step onto land.
"So what now?" Yukimura asks
"I'll see if I can get us a ride" Toshi responds
Toshi pulls out his phone.
"Lucky this thing still works... Ah a signal!"
Toshi then calls friends of his that is in the area.
"They should be here soon." 
The van arrives and both characters get into it. If the player had chosen option A then the next scene would take them to Toshi's workplace. If the player had chosen option B then Yukimura is dropped off outside of a government building.

Option A
Toshi and Yukimura are dropped off outside Toshi's work place and head inside. Toshi sits down in his luxury office chair and puts his feet up on the table on front of him. Yukimura. on the other hand, nervously looks out the window into the distance, worried of what might have happened to his loved one.

"Look, since you helped me I'm going to help you"
Toshi pushes a bag of items across the desk
"This should help you for the next few days, it's the least I can do." Toshi says
A huge man opens the door violently whilst he is out of breath. The man is panting as he is bent around the door.
"Sir, we found her" He says
Yukimura turns round immediately with open eyes with interest in the news.
"Where to?!" Yukimura demanded.
The man looks at Yukimura and then back at Toshi for confirmation.
"Go on." Toshi says
"Our men report that she is currently at the Sonaka aid camp and that they're all preparing to move inland." The man says
"I need to go" Yukimura responds
"Come with me I'll give you a lift" Toshi replies

Toshi and Yukimura get into the car and drive to the destination.
Once arrived, Yukimura gets out the car.
"Hey" Toshi shouts
Yukimura turns to looks at Toshi
"Good luck out there" Toshi says
"You too" Yukimura responds
Toshi pulls away and drives off

Option B
Toshi is dropped off outside of the local government building, he waves off and begins to walk inside.
"Hello I am here to find a missing person" Yukimura asks
"I'm sorry but we're not able to help you, due to the recent news of the increased water level we've had to evacuate most of the staff, we apologise for the inconvenience. You could check at the aid camp just a few blocks from here though." The receptionist responds
"Thanks." Yukimura responds, disappointed as he looks around and then leaves.
Yukimura heads towards the aid camp.

Main story
 Yukimura walks throughout the aid camp only just managing to find Saori
"Saori!" Yukimura shouts
Soari turns around with a face of shock turning into happiness. The two character have a tight hug.
"I thought you were dead!" Saori cries
"I was so worried about you too" Yukimura replies
"Where have you been?" Saori questions
"I was forced to do over-time by my boss, I was lucky that the building did not collapse fully" Yukimura replies
"Typical."
"It's always like you to never say no to anything, you need to grow up, it's going to kill you like it almost did." Saori responds in anger
"But.. I am so glad to se-" Saori gets interrupted
"ATTENTION! CAN ALL CITIZENS MAKE THEIR WAY INLAND IMMEDIATELY! 20 MINUTES IS ALL THAT REMAINS" The speaker blurts out
"We should move" Yukimura says concerning
"Yeah.." Saori replies


At this point the user has a choice of 3 altitudes to pick from low, medium and high. each one result in a different events which link together.

Low altitude
Yukimura and saori arrive at a location at low altitude but immediately it is not safe to stay.
"We should move to higher ground." Saori says
"Yeah." Yukimura agree
The two characters move towards higher ground.
Medium altitude
The two characters arrive at higher altitude and are given some time to rest before the water level starts to almost catch up to them.
"It is not safe here either." Saori says worryingly
"Let's hope the water level stops soon. Come on let's get to higher ground." Yukimura replies
The two characters move towards higher ground.
High altitude
It is seemingly crowded at higher elevation, Yukimura and Saori have little space to maintain.
As the two characters rest a figure is immersing from the distance. To Yukimura's eyes, he sees Toshi who is happy to see him. Smiles are on both characters faces as they know that they both made it alive.

The story is left at this point for users to question what could happen next, as things do not seem to get any better, but infact worse.

Creating the story via HTML + CSS
For me to be able create my story I first had to learn a way to bring it to life, so I had chosen to learn HTML and CSS coding on code academy. This would take me several weeks to learn as the process was very long, but in the end I had learned some very useful skills. which would help me in the future if I needed to use HTML and CSS again.

When I began creating the story I had come up with a name for what the story could be. I created a logo for it so that people could recognise and easily remember it. People suggested to me that the title was too simple and had no effect to it, so I had found a new font on www.Dafont.com called 'Orchidee' and edited the background with a powder texture to give it more feeling towards it.


This is my CSS file that I used for my entire website design. I had made several changes to this file which had allowed me to change the entire outlook of the website. "#text" for example went through many changes in order to use a correct font-size and font style.

This is what the main look for the page would look like with every page featuring this similar code.
As you can see in this image, small parts of the code feature small lines of code that say "id="text"" for example. This is what links it to the CSS file and changes it for all HTML pages if I went to change the CSS file.

Here is another look from a different page I worked on to show how the button links work. each button is a <Div> box with it's own id which would allow me to create how they look right now. to make them buttons that link to other pages I had to put <A> hyperlinks around each <Div> box stating where to take the user.

This image is a screencap of me working on a page image within photoshop. This image would be put into the folder of the website and then linked up with code inside of the HTML file that it was made for.


Alpha test play of my game accompanied by Rui and Marios.


Find my game at:
www.twilightsunrise.co.uk

Backup download the game at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2HrTGt9DLh4bW11VjhJdGc2WVk/view?usp=sharing