I'm not shallow

Thought I should mention what I intend this thing to look like. It being my main concern.
So Victorian. Maybe a bit of Edward Gorey thrown in, in that I mean maybe keep traditional dress or some aspects of tradictional dress so I could have a skateboarder drawn in a victorian style with a cap on but still keep aspects of Victorian-ness.

I want to look into Victorian typography and also there graphics. Due to my interest of books this is where I started.



The black and white line drawing that cunjures Victorian in mind was mainly down to the cost of producing in colour. "As printing developed from a hand craft to a technology during the Victorian era, so book illustration also changed to satisfy the demands of a growing readership eager for 'thousands of copies to be multiplied without any deterioration'." Images in books became a central feature of Victorian culture, and today we still learn from there typography and design. They were at once prestigious and popular, a kind of entertainment, but also a place for pondering fundamental questions about history, geography, language, time, commerce, design, and vision itself.



By the late nineteenth century the process relief line block could achieve a deeper black and purer white than any obtainable previously in the hand press era. Its often easy to forget the different styles that they used. The problem is, is that I want people to instantly recognise that it is Victorian. It will play a large part in setting the scene for the game - Victorian England, Fog, Haze, Smoke, Industry, Slavery, The Rich vs the Poor etc.

"Start at the beginning"

Right need to start doing something first off we need to decide what needs to be done and then in what order, will be making a Gant chart as instructed, but this is different if you don't know where to begin.
Things to be done}
GAME:-
Narrative
Interactivity
Interface
Design
Gaming
Codes/puzzles
Location
IPAQS
Sensors, GPS, RFID, Infa Red
Speech

WEBSITE:-

Design
Structure
Content
Separate puzzles?
Links to games
Databases/HML
Flash?
Interactivity
Video?
Speech?

After talking through things today we've got to start on the structure. Once we have this we can move onto the other parts. Obviously my concern is the narrative. Breaking it up so that it works. One thing were thinking of is IF statements. However I kind of feel that this cheating. This isn't working out the interactivity, its simply programming to make it all work. The structure works in triangles. Each point of the triangle is a part of the narrative or a clue. You have to make up the triangles in order to make the final shape. The viewer will be shown there path as they walk around. This will become clearer once I post the map with the triangles on it. The problem were having is that depending on your path you might complete three or four triangles at the same time. This will mean that your bombarded with narrative and clues. We don't want this.

Notes to start things off

Right things are going to be differ rent this year. No point thinking that this blog can be used to show my research mainly, and politely because people don't have time to read it..... So it will be used for me to write on and get my ideas across to myself. This way I can cut and paste when I need something for my sketch book, or essays or reports. Also to keep websites that have been and will be again useful. Will also keep notes to myself on it, rather then sticky notes which fall off things and get stuck to the bottom of my shoe, and generally get ignored, or my diary which again gets ignored..... Or my various "Things to do" notebooks.... Or my Calender......

Conversation between Me and I

So what have you been thinking about?
I've been thinking about the problems that a joint project might create

In what way?
The problem of basically creating 2 separate projects essentially from one. I'm worried that were both be doing the same things.... It will get messy and will be hard for us to prove or differentiate which parts or sections that we personally have done.

Any ideas on how to get around this?
Well, I need to talk this through with some people, but I'm thinking that Tom gives me a brief. I'm basically being Sub-contracted. The project is Tom's idea - I will be visualizing the idea.

So you won't come up with any ideas?
No, this is the problem. I've got ideas to help with the narrative. I've studied interactive narrative/modular narrative/non linear narrative/ hypertext narrative. It is in fact my primary interest and reasons for doing this MA

So why aren't you doing an interactive narrative then!?!
Well there's a reason for that! I did an interactive narrative for my first year project which I thoroughly enjoyed. However I'm no writer... I used fairytales last time which really worked.. What I'd like to do is use the work of Madeleine De Scubery but what with it being about 72 volumes, in French and only available at the Bodleian Library this can't happen not at the moment anyways. But going back to this project I want to feel like I've accomplished more then a website essentially. Combining narrative and a new technology is exciting and will stretch me more then a website could.

So why this project?
I can combine narrative, illustration, design, web-design yet stretch myself on a technical level using databases, GPS and IPAQS.

So why not do the project yourself, in that I mean on your own?
I consider myself a designer I'm interested in aesthetics. When I started this course this was my aim - to work on a joint project, let someone else worry about the nitty gritty and I can draw and illustrate things! This way I get to use an interesting technology, learn how to design for a new medium but not let my slight lack of technical skills hold me back. I always find with new technology's that there made purely to use a new technology, they have great ideas but to put it simply look crap.... As I mentioned on a review on the bath abbey exerpition the idea was great you walked in front of screens and videos would play - the characters would turn and look at you etc. This was all very well but the design was awful, The idea behind these videos was awful, in sort the whole concept of the project was.. Awful. We want to make something which yes is playing around with a relatively new process and medium but how it looks will be just as important.

Starting things off - 2nd year final project.

Neptune’s Trident: The project title
Brief Overview: 120 years ago inventor Moses Nebo (anagram) invented a time machine which went wrong. Splitting reality into three. A group in the other reality is trying to bind ours. This would lead to our reality slowing down, stopping, and then running backwards. There are spies in our reality, but also a group of us in the other. There are 1 hour windows to communicate/ help. Clues, puzzles, anagrams feature heavily.
Group Project: Myself and Tom Bennet
What it is and Aims: To create a fully functioning interactive game to last for one hour/or series of one hour games to be played in the centre of Bristol on IPAQS. Also to create a website/interactive novel linked to the game.

Websites

Never- ending story