Soft Reset

Thinking about interaction between players so much made my brain hurt a little. Was this really the thing I was looking for? If I want to answer all those questions I asked in my previous posts, I'll probably have to go back to the basics first. What do I love to do most? How would I want people to recognize me after my graduation.

I love to create images. And I want to make feel like they're there. Creating worlds for people to wander in. That's what I like to do most. So back to basic's with the question,

How can I make people feel like they're part of my worlds.

If I'm looking at it with my painter's hat on, I'd probably have to search for books about color and light, and books about composition and storytelling. How can I make believable worlds and paintings. This also has a lot to do with design, shapes, color, light and mood.

Most of my paintings are based on weird looking shapes. Interesting to look at (subjective), but lacking of a good story most of the time. So my paintings need story, something exciting happening. Something believable. I'm going to read some books about dynamic composition (Framed Ink) and a book about color and light (color and light, james gurney) To see if I can get some interesting insight about storytelling with images.



Because that's the thing. The first question I had to answer after my presentation was: Well do you actually need visuals to achieve your goals? My answer would have to be no. You don't need visuals to force people to make tough choices. But that's the thing. Creating worlds with visuals is what I like to do most. So soft reset. Not saying that my previous findings were useless. I still want to create a game that forces people to make tough choices. But visuals need to be a part of it somehow.

Because not using what you've learned for the past few years is like learning how to play the violin for years and years, and then play an instrument you've never played before on your final exam. It may be a bad comparison but I hope that makes sense!

The first thing I need to do right now is, gather information. There are lots of articles regarding storytelling out there. Lots and lots. And I have some books to read, and some movies to watch.
It doesn't really feel like starting over. I just need to take a few steps back and start with pure fascination.

There are some movies that make you feel like there is something evil, something monstrous out there, without showing it, creating so much suspense!! That's a sidenote though. There are some movies that did a great job doing that. Cloverfield for example! I'm going to watch that movie right now.

Signing off.

Tomorrow some more games that deal with storytelling, choices, concequences and visuals.