21/11/21

Jamie’s 3rd year blog and game website:

https://jamieblacknellyear3.wordpress.com/early-brainstorming/

https://portagegame.com/

What happened?

I was fortunate to have the support of Jamie - a previous GDA student - for prototyping and idea generation. It was really useful talking to someone who had already experienced the process, and I was able to look at his final year project, as well as his blog, to get a better idea of how I should structure my work and what I can produce.

We had a discussion about my current game ideas and he gave me some suggestions on how I could improve them, as well as his general thoughts.

Notes:

1. It can just be an experience - Jamie’s game for his project has a focus on mindfulness and it was intended for the player to experience relaxing gameplay where they are free to go at their own pace and explore the environment. He highlighted that I don’t need to force my idea to be a stereotypical game, especially as I had a theme of cognitive behavioural art therapy.
2. Meditation tool - I could create a game that acts as a meditation tool for users to destress
3. New idea? - Draw something and it comes to life - personal to the player, talking in the background that guides the player through what to do, exciting for younger users (suitable for my 8-15 target audience.
4. Research original games for more inspiration

Prototyping ideas:

1. Prompt generator (excel sheet)
2. Drawing on screen
3. Paper prototypes, UI mock-ups

Takeaway:

From this discussion I managed to generate new game ideas and started thinking about how I could prototype them. I also felt reassured as my topic was similar to Jamie’s so I felt more confident in producing a game that focussed on well-being.