Week 3 - Devlog

This week we went straight into ideation having everyone compiled their research on the Miro Board with a great mixture of suggestions and ideas it was clear that the previous discussion into what the general idea is for the game is consistent and this help move the process on as it was felt we were all pretty much on the same page.

This felt pretty good and being in week 3 with the game idea starting to formulate I was eager to get the production started. This week would see a lot of meetings and long ones too, James made a point that this many meetings and at length could not be sustainable and so we all decided that Thursdays would be our focus for our main meeting and that individual short meetings could take place at our discretion.

Nick suggested that we take the ideation process further and go through a process called VNA “game-based ideation method using Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives (VNA) ” (Kultima and Alha 2011). At this point I really didn't feel like this had any worth and that we should be starting to break down the concept into tasks so we could get started on making an early prototype. It was late, and the fear was that we could end up changing what seemed like a strong Idea. I waited to see if any of the team would object to the VNA suggestion which they didn't and so I held back and we moved forward with the VNA process. This was possibly avoidance of conflict or likely that the team is still new and we agreed on Nick taking a particular role, something he was already showing to be very proficient at.

Needless to say, the results for the VNA were highly beneficial, and I'm glad that I had said nothing, we ended up completing several rounds each bringing up relevant ideas and discussion points. The team whole heartily agreed that this was successful and worthwhile. I later admitted to Nick and the Team that I originally felt that it would just be another tick box however I was glad that it had taken place and that I valued Nicks's decision to push forward with it. The Team also agreed. This may be a sign that the team is sitting on a tendency to agree rather than question, time will tell as the project gets further into production no doubt.

We had the goal of creating a one-sheet game design document” (Rogers, 2014) to present to our Supervisor on Tuesday however the week was fast-moving forward so we set a target for us all to contribute a One Sheet. This would help to refine some of the finer details that we had discussed, contrast and compare each and hopefully come up with a Final Draft that would later be used to formulate the Game Design Document (Rogers, 2014) We aimed to present this to Matty (Supervisor) on the Thursday.

We used “Dr. Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats” (The De Bono Group 2021) to review each of the One Sheets. I had not used this before, and we completed this on the Miro Board using coloured Post-it Notes to represent the different hats. This was a great method to give feedback to the whole group and was a great deal of fun. The team showed to be honest which was encouraging to see.

Key feedback on my One sheet

Black post-it (where things might not work)

• Lack of a Goal or Relatable Fantasy

• The narrative would have to be strong for the player to be engaged

Yellow post-it (positive and optimistic)

• Love the idea of character back story that is uncovered as you progress and as a reward

• I really like the passing of years instead of just days, makes the progression logical

• The theme is not limited to Alzheimer's = more marketable

• scoping down to a single home is a good idea

We later spoke with Matty and went through our process and ideas, the feedback was positive and where I may have had concerns that we should be moving on faster, Matty believed that we were doing the right thing in securing a solid idea and that it was clear this was taking place.

I went away from the meeting thinking about what is actually being asked of us, the time frame, and what we as a team want to create. I think that we may need to discuss our expectations of the idea and scope in a later meeting. Our idea is such that we could create a large experience that realistically won't fit into our time frame.

I offered to pull together the One sheets into a medium-sized document, this will form our idea, and planning will begin from this structure once the team is in agreement.

KULTIMA, Annakaisa and Kati ALHA. 2011. Using the VNA Ideation Game at Global Game Jam. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249335377_Using_the_VNA_Ideation_Game_at_Global_Game_Jam [accessed 21 Jun 2021].

ROGERS, Scott. 2014. Level up : The Guide to Great Video Game Design. Chichester: Wiley. [accessed 21 Jun 2021].

THE DE BONO GROUP. 2021. “Six Thinking Hats – de Bono Group.” The de Bono Group [online]. Available at: https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/ [accessed 21 Jun 2021].