Category: Methods of Iterating

Draft 01

The project I remade is a platformer game with simple commands, underscoring the critical role of the designer’s skill in crafting an engaging player experience. The Unity Game Engine, similar to Simultaneous Interpretation, operates as a dynamic tool where the real-time feedback loop facilitates iterative design, requiring adaptability and experimentation.

A notable technical challenge involved learning a new programming language, C#, with a subsequent focus on trial and error within the Unity Game Engine. Overcoming this hurdle involved acclimating to language terms and refining communication with the engine. Unity’s Real-Time Camera feature stands out, enabling the creation of high-quality output  in diverse digital spaces, including 2D, 3D, AR/VR, and Mixed Reality.

The link between Unity iterations and Graphic Communication Design (GCD) was illuminated by the shared principle of reconfiguring meaning. Unity’s iterative process mirrors GCD methods, both involving the manipulation of elements to convey a specific message or experience. I would like to explore the tool further by using the methods of translating exploring the experience of the user. I will be looking at the tool and the process of using the tool as an iteration i.e. engaging in a process, where the process is the output.

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Draft 02

I was fascinated by how changing variables like speed and time of the GameObjects affect the experience of the players. The interaction of the GameObjects with other GameObjects can make the game engaging for the player and elicit emotions like boredom, excitement or frustration which led me to wonder how can I put this in GCD context?

What if we add similar variables to graphic design elements to influence the user’s experience?

What if we give physics or audio variables to graphic design (visual) components- shape, size, colour, position, orientation, texture? How would these variables interact with each other in a 2D space?

While working on the iterations, various questions came up which were mostly about the form than the content. The iterations pretty soon came to be an experimentation of how we can reimagine the visual components of a page or even how can we reimagine and form a page itself. Unity game engine is intended to create an immersive experience with the user’s input. I tried to hack it by creating an experience where the user has no control over the input.

In his article “Fuck Content”, Michael Rock challenges the idea that content is the primary concern of graphic design, and argues that form is the essence of the discipline. He writes: “There is no such thing as bad content, only bad form,” quoting Paul Rand, and explains that the designer’s role is to shape, not to write, the content. He also claims that form is not a neutral or transparent medium, but a profoundly affecting one, that can convey meaning, emotion, and narrative. He states: “Designers also trade in storytelling. The elements we must master are not the content narratives but the devices of the telling: typography, line, form, colour, contrast, scale, weight. We speak through our assignment, literally between the lines.”

After applying Rock’s perspective to my project, I can analyse how the variables that I introduce to the graphic design elements affect the form and the meaning of the project. I can also evaluate how the form of my project reshapes the relationship between the content and the graphic elements of the page, as Rock suggests, and how it negotiates a new mode of communication and exchange.

By using Unity game engine, I am able to introduce variables that are not typically associated with graphic design, such as physics and audio, and see how they affect the form and the user’s perception of it. I am also able to create a dynamic and interactive environment, where the form is constantly changing.

In conclusion, Rock’s article provides a theoretical framework to understand the importance and impact of form in graphic design, and how it can be manipulated and experimented with to create new possibilities and experiences. It also helps me to situate my project within the broader context of systems that govern graphic design and language.

References

Rock, M. (2009). Fuck Content — 2×4. [online] 2×4. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/2009/fuck-content/.

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Draft 03

References

Barthes, R. (1967). The Death of the Author.

Brief: Develop an iterative experiment that ‘hacks’ it to do something that it is not intended to do. Consider how you can subvert its primary function, use, or context.

Function– What is does?

A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs.

Use- How it does it?

Like most game engines, Unity has five components. The primary component is a program that contains the game logic, a rendering engine that generates 3D animated graphics. An audio engine component provides algorithms to create and manipulate sounds. For physical laws, a physics engine handles movement and collisions. For non-player actions and decisions, there is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) component.

Designing a game on Unity: Your game is composed by Scenes (Levels). Each scene contains GameObjects, which are the “things” that populate your level. – such as your player, your enemy, your terrain. Each GameObject contains Objects, also called components. These components are scripts that were programmed in order to do something specific, and then attached to a GameObject.

Context- What it does for?

Unity lets artists, designers, and developers collaborate to create immersive and interactive experiences that can work on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The software does a great job in creating game experiences that the players/ audience can interact with for an engaging outcome.

Unity game engine is intended to create an immersive experience with the user’s input. I tried to hack it by creating an experience where the user has no control over the input.

Draft 02

I was fascinated by how changing variables like speed and time of the GameObjects affect the experience of the players. The interaction of the GameObjects with other GameObjects can make the game engaging for the player and elicit emotions like boredom, excitement or frustration which led me to wonder how can I put this in GCD context?

What if we add similar variables to graphic design elements to influence the user’s experience?

What if we give physics or audio variables to graphic design (visual) components- shape, size, colour, position, orientation, texture? How would these variables interact with each other in a 2D space?

While working on the iterations, various questions came up which were mostly about the form than the content. The iterations pretty soon came to be an experimentation of how we can reimagine the visual components of a page or even how can we reimagine and form a page itself. Unity game engine is intended to create an immersive experience with the user’s input. I tried to hack it by creating an experience where the user has no control over the input.

In his article “Fuck Content”, Michael Rock challenges the idea that content is the primary concern of graphic design, and argues that form is the essence of the discipline. He writes: “There is no such thing as bad content, only bad form,” quoting Paul Rand, and explains that the designer’s role is to shape, not to write, the content. He also claims that form is not a neutral or transparent medium, but a profoundly affecting one, that can convey meaning, emotion, and narrative. He states: “Designers also trade in storytelling. The elements we must master are not the content narratives but the devices of the telling: typography, line, form, colour, contrast, scale, weight. We speak through our assignment, literally between the lines.”

After applying Rock’s perspective to my project, I can analyse how the variables that I introduce to the graphic design elements affect the form and the meaning of the project. I can also evaluate how the form of my project reshapes the relationship between the content and the graphic elements of the page, as Rock suggests, and how it negotiates a new mode of communication and exchange.

By using Unity game engine, I am able to introduce variables that are not typically associated with graphic design, such as physics and audio, and see how they affect the form and the user’s perception of it. I am also able to create a dynamic and interactive environment, where the form is constantly changing.

In conclusion, Rock’s article provides a theoretical framework to understand the importance and impact of form in graphic design, and how it can be manipulated and experimented with to create new possibilities and experiences. It also helps me to situate my project within the broader context of systems that govern graphic design and language.

References

Rock, M. (2009). Fuck Content — 2×4. [online] 2×4. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/2009/fuck-content/.

Explore how a critical enquiry can be drawn out from an iterative experimentation with tools and media.

Brief: Identify a tool or medium that interests you but that you’re not experienced with. Find a project made by someone else that makes effective use of this tool or medium. 

I chose the software Unity Game Engine for the project with the intent of recreating a platformer game like Gris or Hollow Knight. But since I’m a beginner I chose to recreate a game in the same genre Flappy Bird. 

Since I’m neither a gamer or a game designer, this software is a new territory for me. I recently started playing games and was very fascinated by narrative based games like Edith finch and the animations incorporated in the games like Gris.

While looking for a project that makes effective use of this tool, it made me think about what are the uses of this tool or what is this tool’s original intent of use. So I looked it up.

• Game Development
• Cross-Platform Development
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
• Simulation and Training
• Architectural Visualisation
• Educational and Serious Games
• Indie Game Development
• Film and Animation Production
• AR and VR Experiences for Marketing and Advertising
• Multiplayer Games and Networking

In summary, Unity’s effectiveness lies in its flexibility, ease of use, and broad range of applications, making it a go-to choice for developers in various industries.

After the initial desk research about the tool and some more games, I found out that it incorporates similar tools that are in video and 3D rendering softwares like Cinema4D and Premier Pro. Tools like cameras, lighting, and rigging for animations. It involves coding and can be used to create generative art. For the game art and animations within the game, a separate software is involved like pixelLab (asprite) and photoshop. 

I also came across projects like “Lightbender” by Carl Emil Carlsen, an audio-visual synthesizer instrument which was developed on Unity that makes effective use of this tool but also hacks it.

Iteration_1

refining to get a singular desired output.

To get acclimated with the software, I followed a beginner’s tutorial video. The video had step by step instructions for a simple platformer game similar to flappy bird. What the video included –

• How to make a character appear and move it around the screen. 
• How to make a character spawn in and delete it.
• How to have collisions, gamer over, animations and sound effects etc.

Unity uses dev software Visual Studio that is used to write programming codes (C#).

(1) Following the Tutorial

Step 1 : Setting up Unity

Step 2: Physics and Programming

Step 3: Spawning Objects

Step 4: Logic and UI

Step 5: Fail State

(2) Making the game look like original game- Flappy Bird

After building a basic working structure of the game, I wanted it to look like the original flappy bird game. So I found a sprite sheet of the game online and added the background and the foreground.

Challenges faced: I used the code that was used to move and spawn the pipes for moving and spawning the foreground tile but the code didn’t work on the foreground. I used another set of code for the same later.

Insight: You can use different logic or write a different set of code to get the same outcome, just like translating. Everyone has a different way of thinking and this accommodates for that.

(3) Fixing the bugs and making the interactions feel like the original game

Insights

By recreating the game step by step, each step has a different experience. To make the gameplay more engaging for the players, stages like fail state and Highest score are added to the game. ( Game Mechanics)

Level of difficulty of the game can also be used to manipluate the engagement of the player within the game.

Designers have to decide how the components will interact with each other and how the player interacts with the components to meet create a particular game experience.

When I change the numbers in my game, the smaller the number the more easy and boring it got but a bigger number made it frustrating and hard to score. This influenced the gamers interaction with the game. ( Game Dynamics )

The process of using Unity Game Engine is very similar to Simultaneous Interpretation( when an interpreter translates the message from the source language to the target language in real-time). 

Key Critical Questions that emerged through this exploration

I was fascinated by how changing variables like speed and time of the GameObjects affect the experience of the Players. The interaction of the GameObjects with other GameObjects can make the game engaging for the player and elicit emotions like boredom, excitement or frustration. 

What if we add similar variables to graphic design elements to influence the audience’s experience?

What if we give physics or audio variables to graphic design (visual) variables- shape, size, colour, position, orientation, texture? How would these variables interact with each other?

Giving free reign to the users to manipulate the variability or taking it away from them.