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Design Journal
12-10-2020
I started doing the sockets.io and node.js official tutorials. I started coding for a modular, exportable cyclical system that other people would be able to use easily in their own projects. This exportability assumes a generality of concerns and features that would be a set of common problems in explorables/digital art work. These common problems have got to be defined soon.
15-10-2020
Sabine shared her Node.js workshop tutorial with me. I added things from there to learn more about node + sockets.
17-10-2020
Started research-reading about trading and game mechanics related to economy management. The goal is to create mini-sketches embedded in a nicky-case-style explorable site. Those mini-sketches illustrate the concept of trading, and some of them incorporate a form of interactivity using Javascript. There will be one "bigger" sketch that will incorporate the online explorable requirement. That sketch is where the trouble is at. Some ideas that I'm looking at is a way to procedurally generate economical / resource allocation conditions for each new game. I have got to make sure that this is both technically feasible and not too difficult to do within the remaining time that I have.
Another idea related to the generator is to parallel data in real life to simulate resource disparity, allocation, and harvesting conditions. The penultimate idea is a common land managed by multiple players.
18-10-2020
I played a few short games on itch.io and realized how easy it was to convey a narrative through simple well-placed dialogues and even game mechanics. Small keywords with game mechanic that illustrates it well to describe a short game experience (e.g., Temporal Lucus). Still sticking with the economy management game idea, but thinking of how to adjust the scope appropriately and to create a few paper prototypes soon. I also realized that I just have enjoyment with asset creation and learning (3D, svgs, scripts, essays, algorithms and maths,... photography, clay shaping, etc.).
26-10-2020
The last couple days were spent reading about prototypes and watching Illegal Trade. I reduced the project scope to a marketboard/brokerage system. It represents the user-world interaction mechanics and has simple potential to be extended/modified (probably never!?). It also is cool for a portfolio project and resembles leaderboards backend functionality, yet interactive. It's very much so an interesting mechanic for games, too, and I've been obsessed by that component of online games for a long time. Can't make an MMO, but maybe I can make a brokerage?
Anyways, I started iterating on the brokerage today, but I've been stuck on a sockets.io client to server misunderstanding. Need to bounce back on tutorials to understand it better.
28-10-2020
I managed to improve my understanding of sockets.io enough to solve the last problem. It really felt satisfying. I progressed in V1, but I have some doubts that the fun is in there, especially after playing Prosperous Universe. I told myself to not doubt myself while in the process of prototyping it -- that is a bad habit! I need to commit to this v1 and I will worry about the goodness of the idea and the fun only after.
29-10-2020
I added a basic three.js view following Sabine's demo project. It now seems to open up new ideas to explore, the most dangerous one being to ambitiously create a mini-scaled online rpg... It would certainly be fun, but to scale it in three.js would be insane. Anyways, I wasn't born to be sane so why not?!
That being said, adding cute little things like svgs and animated models in and out seems to be an interest now. Dancing squirrels in particular...
Some ideas were discussed when I shared the v1 prototype with Sabine. A comment on the framed UI made me realize that the game could have multiple rendered canvases (like a trade broker's trading computer setup!) -- maybe to denaturalize the act of "trading" assets. So one would witness nature change with each trade made, and seeing natural shots/environment locations at once would reinforce that effect, but also constitute a game mechanic of its own (needing to observe natural changes and react strategically). So the idea of decay naturally comes into question. Everything decays, so trade must go on.
This also reminded me of rural Cambodia, where everybody it seemed had something to peddle/trade! It was the economic structure, the daily life structure of people there.
Another line of ideas came from reading Mathematical Psychology, where graph theory is discussed. Negative and positive feedback cycles in particular were interesting -- one could model garbage density and relate it to disease and also the number of people alive in a city.... That sort of thing is interesting, especially in the economics side that relate to this project.
One note I consider important out of this self-discussion is the importance of making everything relate centrally to TRADE. So everything in the game must relate, or be tradeable. Buying house licenses in online games... needing to trade licenses/permits... needing to trade consumption for garbage... etc.
03-11-2020
Made the raycasting work with blender objects, thanks to an online tutorial. Yeah! Discovered the usefulness of custom properties in Blender and the might of userData. Now the model (literally), view and controller are coming together nicely. Many options open up ahead. I've decided to focus on the brokerage controller now seeing as I could get the raycasting work. So players can generate data interactively -- let's put that to use by making every object tradable and sellable...
04-11-2020
Ideas for the form of the game: space colony in outer galaxy... trade as means of communication, trade not for profit but laughter, joy, love, sharing.... some alien residents to gain their trust must trade gifts (crafted and brokered from other players... each class has their crafting spec).. exploring solitude and loneliness in conjunction with trading.
07-11-2020
Concerning the previous entry. I've been sketching a few environment concepts for the game, and while I did so, a few ideas came along. One of these is to explore said solitude and loneliness by having the player emerge in a long, long road in the middle of nowhere. The players can explore and gather pieces to craft commute parts (e.g., a bike, a skateboard, then a car, etc.) The goal is to reach the end of the road. They may have to camp? Players can see a flash of other people vs. cannot see other people at all? Or can see people? If the latter, not this kind of experience at all. I've also thought of including a few crazy statues along the road.
08-11-2020
But what about community building and love? The original idea was to turn "trading for profit" into "trading to share". One of the humblest activities one can do is to share a meal with others. Perhaps that could be a crafting activity. Gather some resources then share it with others through a second game mechanic that enables you something * further -- maybe through the power of an aesthetic itself. Just having an open-area with beautiful scenery can inspire people to just sit down and relax. Maybe there could be "community cafes/sharing spots" out there in the open, with no explicit goals other than to just share stuff like that. But why would you need the brokerage system then? To communicate? To craft certain things that would -- maybe those announcements in the brokerage would be "calls for collectivity activity gathering" that people could join/declare interest and then profit from doing that? So pitching in for a collective fishing activity would enable you to get a gain in something, maybe some reward?
Maybe that reward is literally being able to sit down and see other people. So people are invisible until you join these "activity spots". So the only way to see other people is to join these activities -- and the only way to talk to others is through sharing some gift with a message passed down in it. Those two ideas would build the core concept of exploring solitude and relationships with others within a networked community.
11-11-2020
I sprint hacked stuff to get things done for the deadline tonight. That gave the project a small boost and now we have a bit more in the way of character movement, and camera controls. But especially we now see other players' models. Need to build more. Starting to be concerned about the scaling of player synchronization for animations and interactions...
16-11-2020
I almost got the disconnection handler code to work. There is truly a lot of confusion with what data is being passed around. Must simply stuff a bit. Also, got a first user to test the game by ... Wednesday. The brokerage is still missing though...
18-11-2020
Man quaternions are cool but I don't get it yet. Music really influences the soul. Um... Need to fix that camera... Trading stuff doesn't really do anything pertinent yet. This is kinda fun (for me). Wonder how far this experiment can go.