BA7 | Concept and Pre-Production #02

2 Minute (kinda) Project Proposal Presentation

On our first day back at uni we were asked to produce a 2 minute “elevator” style presentation consisting of 2 slides. This presentation was to pitch our final year project to our tutors so that they could let us know their thoughts, feedback and, most importantly, whether our ideas were to be “green lit” or not. So basically, whether we get the go ahead or not.

At the time, I wrote up a blog post describing my thought process whilst designing my 2 slides. I got fairly stressed over this because of how important it was to ensure I gave my tutors the correct information regarding my project idea.

Obviously from my initial introduction that I did over summer covering the brief introduction to the history of horror fiction, you can understand that my topic and themes of choice is horror. I want both my research report and studio project research to overlap and contribute to one another which is why both areas will be focussed around the creation of horror within video games.

Slide 1, Studio Project Idea

This slide is fairly self explanatory. I want to focus on 3D asset creation, primarily as a part of level creation and design. I plan to create a small concentrated area of a hypothetical level from within a horror game.

I’m not working in a team therefore I don’t have the time to create an entire level walkthrough which is why I am going to concentrate on a smaller area that would be found within the bigger environment (e.g. a dark dystopian hallway with a room leading off the side containing important assets that may be relevant to the narrative progression, a collectable or puzzle piece). 

Slide 1, Why?

• To build up a beautiful, intricate, detailed and technical portfolio based upon asset creation for game environments.
• Push my knowledge and confidence in 3D creation in preparation for my future careers.
• Immensely motivated, inspired and influenced by horror games, the project wont become boring for me, it’s a subject/genre that I admire and adore!
• It is directly associated with my research report (dissertation) so the research work can mould together.

Slide 1, How?

• For BA7 I plan to create a body of small, technical mini projects which will be in the form of 3D assets. With these I plan to work towards furthering my rendering, lighting and organic modeling techniques. To aid this I will produce research that will help me determine the aesthetical nature of my assets.
• Technical, practical, cultural, software related, experimental and creative research.
• I aim to research horror game developers and learn how they build fear into their levels so that I can translate it into my own work.
• I will produce in-depth environmental studies and horror game analysis’.
• I’ll explore how other mediums create horror.
• I want to study level design and environment creation in games. 

Slide 2, Research Report Idea/Topic

For this slide I am going to discuss my research report topic. I don't have a fully rounded question that I feel confident answering in my report yet, however I do have rough ideas. What I am sure of is the kind of research I want to par take in and the angle I want to spin my report from.

Okay so the overall theme is horror, horror in games the history of horror fiction and other media's that incorporate horror. But how do I plan to produce a research report exploring this topic? Horror as a genre is huge, what angle can I take in order to focus my research on horror to create an interesting research report?

I don't have a finalised research report question yet, just a very basic and rough working title, but that's not a massive problem at this stage. What is important is that I know what I want to communicate in  my report and I understand the angle and areas of focus. They are as follows:

• What makes horror games scary?
• Exploring the history of horror fiction across various media's and drawing comparisons to the horror found in video games.
• How do horror games affect their audience and why?
• Studying the history and evolution of horror games, learning how horror has progressed within games, how it's altered over time and why, how the genre has evolved and forced changes in mechanics and play.
• Are games still scary or is horror as a genre within games dying?
• What influences horror games?
• Researching the mechanics used in games to create horror and analysing how they create fear in the player.
• Studying play, what core mechanics create horror in games?
• Researching and analysing the variety of sub genres (survival, action, psychological) that horror has spawned through games and discussing the different types of games that audiences can find horrific.
• How does horror affect us and why?

These bullet points cover the fundamental areas of study that I want to focus on for my research report. However, there is a fair amount of information there which I wont have time to cover in depth during my presentation so I need to be able to sum up my research report subject and areas of focus in a shorter description.

Slide 2, Why & How?

As I need a working title for my presentation, I need one to cover all the possible angles I want to study so that my tutors can understand what I want to talk about just from the title. That title is: Studying the History of Horror Fiction & its Evolution into Video Games, how are Audiences Scared & Influenced Emotionally by Horror Games? 

 

Key points to include in my presentation are as follows:

• How and why horror games are scary?
• The history and evolution of horror video games, where they began, where they are now and how they are growing.
• Key influential figures of horror fiction and how they have inspired and influenced horror translating into games (Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Romero etc)
• Consider the gameplay mechanics that are used to create fear in the player, study the techniques used in other mediums that also create fear and horror and study how games have replicated these.
• The subject matter links in directly with my studio project idea and any research I do will aid me in both the writing of my research report and creation of horror environment assets.
• Again, I love loveLOVE horror and I know this topic wont bore me, ill just keep wanting to work on it :D 

Presentation Feedback!

I was lucky enough to have my project green lit from my tutors after I presented. My studio project idea was fine as was my research report idea (which is lucky as I had already bought books over summer specifically associated with the subject haha). The only part that needed extra consideration was my research report working title which I was totally fine with as I wasn’t even sure what my title was going to be. In my feedback email I was told that my working title/question would evolve with my research but my presentation was clear and well informed so I was given the green light :D