Intro

For the first phase of the GameJam we experienced the different art rooms of AROS under the theme Human Nature (Which was also our overall theme). While here, one picture in particular caught our eye: Parti ved Vejle Fjord.

We have been thinking from the point of view of that painting, with it imagined as an abstract start with a different painting as the abstract end which is opposite in that it shows an industrialised harbour as a contrast to our chosen naturalist painting. Our choice of painting also reflects our choice of “room”, being Landscape. 

Roles

For roles we divided the 5 premade roles based on our skills as so:

Crafter: Mikkel

• Mikkel is responsible for our repository (Github), asset import into Unity, and core functionalities in the game. Also Unity structure and 2D lightning.

Storyteller & Designer: Emilie

• Emilie is responsible for sound design and music, as well as implementing this through Wwise and Unity. She’s also responsible for storytelling, world-building and playtesting.

Artist: Patrizia

• Patrizia is responsible for concept art, sketches, environmental design and research. She also produces sprites/textures for the game.

Game Master: Leonard

• Leonard has a supervising role and is responsible for the scope of the game, as well as managing tasks and interdependencies. He is also responsible for non-core functionalities in the game. 

Values

From the value wheel, we decided to focus on:

• Freedom
• Digital
• Landscape

We all felt that the exhibition Landscapes was relevant because of environmental issues. As a young perceiver, the room seems incredibly romanticised, which doesn’t really harmonise with our current (mis)-use of nature. We found the value Freedom interesting, because as humans, we have the right to pursue material wealth and express ourselves - for better or for worse. We wish to reflect on how that affects our surroundings.

Methods

Cultural Love Letter

We discussed how different elements of culture affect us, and how those feelings can be incorporated into a game. First, we talked about the aesthetics of ‘cottage core’, and the urge to choose a simpler life. Then we talked about ‘glitch-aesthetics’, and the act of appreciating things that might not be beautiful.

Some of us experience beauty as the feeling of something unique, like the special moment will disappear if you look away, or look at the same painting tomorrow. Perhaps this could be incorporated into a game, by making some experiences happen only once, so those moments feel special.

Value Change

We also used the Value Change method to discuss our implementation of the assigned Values, and out of the values we were introduced to we chose to focus primarily on the idea of Freedom which we interpreted in a few different ways but other than freedom we also choose Human Dignity as a sub-value.

For the values we defined 3 statements using both values they were as follows:

Frihed til at stræbe efter værdighed // Freedom to seek dignity

Frihed til at udvikle dig selv og dine omgivelser // Freedom to develop yourself and your environment

Uforstyrret ret til Ytringsfriheden, udtrykke en selv // Undisturbed right to freedom of speech & the expression of oneself

Then we changed it to questions instead which were worded as follows:

Hvordan udnytter man sin frihed til at forbedre ens levevilkår og værdighed //How can you use your freedom to improve your quality of life and dignity

Hvordan kan man bruge sin frihed til at udvikle sig selv og ens omgivelser //How can you utilise your freedom to evolve yourself and your environments

Hvordan beskytter man sin ytringsfrihed og udnytter den til at udtrykke sig selv //How do you protect your freedom of speech and use it to express yourself

The result of that method was that we decided we want a very reactive environment both auditory and visually, letting the player experience the consequences of their actions gradually and subtly.