(Beta) interviews started!

(screenshots)

Hi all! 

So this week we began interviewing members of the group project on their progress and thoughts so far on the our work. I've only included some screenshots of some interviews as my views are practically the same.

Ian caught the frontal of the footage with the main camera setup and I'm set up for a different angle for variety in the footage. We are bound to switch it up again next week. 

We captured about 11 individual interviews that day, very progress day I do say. We've scheduled to do more and capture footage of multiple members working and presenting their work next week as necessary.  

Off course the interviews were set in a basic room due to difficulties with availability on campus with studios been used or booked out. 

However I want to show what the intent is with this footage. Overall the below images are the crop I want to add for clarity to whats going on as I feel not having too much background problems occur in the interviews so the audience can maintain focus. 

Overall great progress was made despite some hardware issues regarding lack of equipment (Tripod on my part) and the batteries died in my camera due to them not being charged by the previous loaner. I feel like me and Ian got a good bit of footage this week anyhow to justify progress.

All interviews lasted about 5 minutes with straight forward questions and nothing getting too complicated to ask or answer. Nearly an hour's worth of footage was caught due to math,

 11 people x 5 mins duration = 55 minutes.

We interviewed the Art team, Leaders, Composers, and Level designers this week with a few members from those groups missing for reasons while get next week. Also we will interview game testers, programmers, and any other members involved whom weren't available also. 

This week's work.

Thursday, April 4th, I managed to capture videos of Chris displaying a very early prototype of the map which the game will be set in. I gathered other footage including research and experimented with different camera angles as mentioned by my team leader Ian. 

Within my power, there wasn't much to capture on that day when only 6 students where available for filming but they were working on other projects and assignments. I captured 5 minutes of footage of Chris displaying the map and reading through research by that was all that was available. I was disappointed with who was available. I thought there would be more to film. I hope this changes in the near future. 

What I am hoping to gain by next week is a lot more footage of students working and I am going to document the weekly meeting we have with Shaun every Thursday and organise a interview set up with some students also on Thursday. 

To break it down, I'll utilize the studio room within the college premises for 15 minute interviews starting off with the students whom have the beginning role of starting the project off which includes storytellers and map creators this week and also character creators too. 

Me and Ian hope to have a foothold next week with a substantial amount of content to work with then and get a basis of our endgame view. 

On the day of filming too, I will experiment with shot types depending on the layout of the rooms and where students tend to work. Multiple angles is necessary but I'd like to implement more styles into the filmography. 

Progress

Not a lot of work was done this week unfortunately, they was multiple days this week where lots of member came in on different days and it was a bit complicated for me but Ian got a fair bit of footage captured. 

I came in on Thursday looking to capture people in the lab working on their work for the game so I could get something to start off with on our video. Unfortunately not many did. The majority came in on the previous Wednesday where Ian recorded some footage too so we have a stepping stone. 

Thursday evening a schedule for all of us in the project where given deadlines for when our work is due. Me and Ian's workload due dates are listed below. 

As seen, all of our work is due on the same day because over the next 4 weeks we will be constantly shooting these required listed things because it consists on all members for their opinion and progression of their roles throughout the experience. That then leaves me and Ian "one week" of editing in post production before submitting for the game. 

Later on that same day me and Ian had a brief discussion on our plans and goals set out by each other to help develop each other's story for the game. This means looking at all aspects of filmmaking. 

Below is our discussion.

So with our goals set, we seek to retrieve them over the coming month to work with everyone to gather information on their role in the making of the game to provide a hopefully great "behind the scenes" for our game.

 I do hope for my benefit that there will be a high amount of work captured and gathered next work for work to be done later on and we go from there. 

  

MD2Final GDD

GDD - Game Design Document

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

Due to feedback, I'm only including relevant information related to what I'm doing inline with my role with the group creating the game. Hopefully give more emphasis on some points too. 

I'm part of the media team whom are responsible for creating a "Behind The Scenes" look at the games creation and each team's input on how the journey has been from start to finish. I will be assisting for the majority with my team leader Ian Maher. 

!!! To be clear about this write up, this is my feature that should be part of the final GDD which I discuss influences and goals of what my role is in this project. This isn't the full GDD from me but this will be part of the full GDD to show my role in the grand scheme!!!
GDD:

Proposed Game Design Document

Introduction

The game we are aiming to create is an open world 3D game about the 1916 Rising. We aim to recreate Dublin, researching pictures and footage from the time to help us. The game will be made in Unity and we will be using the plugin Fungus for the narratives.

Description
You play as Micahel “Foggy” Fogarty, a 16 year old boy who after witnessing the murder of hisfather joins the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Foggy travels with his division to Dublin, Easter weekend in 1916 to take part in the Rising and is tasked with passing messages from the GPO to other key locations the IRB and Civilian Army holds.

Hierarchy and Running Order

• Chris and James will oversee all the Team Leaders
• Team leaders will oversee all their Team Members
• At the end of each week, team leaders will tell Chris and James what has been done and
  who is/isn’t doing their job
• If a problem arises where someone isn’t available to pull their weight. Contact the Team
  Leader first and they will contact Chris or James
• Provisionally there will be a meeting every 2 weeks, but this may not be needed
  depending on how well online communication works.
• Every Week we will meet up in the same lab to get some work done. This way we can
  work with each other in person as Online communication can be perceived differently. If you are a Team Leader feel free to organise your own time to work with your team but please take note of attendance and contact Chris and/or James about the meeting
• We will be using Slack.com to communicate. Slack is a way to communicate with one another through Website, Phone app and a Installed software. The reason we are using Slack is so that we can set up separate groups for every team and allow teams to communicate with one another in private rather than setting up multiple Facebook groups that could intertwine with your social life. Essentially, Keep business with business. If you have yet to sign up to Slack please get in touch with James to be added.
• The workload will be controlled by Chris and James and distributed among the Team Leaders. The Team leaders will then give out the jobs to their members evenly.
  The teams will work in process of hierarchy.
  You follow the guidelines of your Lead members. They follow the guidelines from James or Chris. We will contact every “Lead” person individually or at meetings.

My Role
David: Media Assistant 
- Collaborate with Ian to help out with gathering footage and editing videos (Preferably every Thursday).
- Help out Ian in creating a suitable video to promote the game and highlight the idea of the game.

What we hope to achieve:

Me and Ian are in very early discussions about our roles in the project, Given the news that if the game doesn't fulfill it's potential, The "Behind the scenes" video will be crucial towards presenting the game. 

It is predetermined that personal interviews will be taken by each member for the contribution of storytelling and structure coming from the creators of the game. This will be evident and shown from computer captured footage of the work in progress and the labs every thursday the group has to work on it also been captured (Multiple hours). 

I hope to capture many hours of footage following the next few weeks of experimenting with camera angles and techniques to better vividly show what each member contributes. I will be present most of the day chatting and capturing whilst probably implementing some capture software on the MAC's to capture work been done on mostly Adobe software. 

Off course with the 2+ years of experience with Premiere Pro, Editing wouldn't be an issue but there's always something to learn to better portray this whole experience. 

That's basically my role, although straightwork, It is hoped that harder work is done with a lesser schedule and vanilla out everything possible and try to make it something close to perfect for when the time is up. This is off course in terms of almost perfect purity with video and audio quality and post production editing with no mistakes or unnecessary long clips with no context.  

Inspiration/Examples
Joycestick - https://youtu.be/oOQ-NyNIj_E

A boston college group of students develop a VR game experience/story around James Joyce's Ulysses. This would be the level ground type of behind the scenes video that would be acceptable for our project but I feel me and Ian can do better with our project. 

Assassin's Creed Odyssey - https://youtu.be/DBOmid0FkVk

I've used this example of a professional standard game where a behind the scenes video was created for both main characters of the game and the process they went through as voice and motion capture actors. I really like this style and this is a good example to influence off. 

Batman Arkham Knight - https://youtu.be/9itj2iNxpks

Behind the scenes video with once again, the voice actors of the main characters in the game. We get to experience and listen to what the actors thought of the world and the characters at first glimpse and realise the reality of growth they've gone through and turn out to really love their characters and ambitions.

What I've learned or want to do differently with our behind the scenes video

Off course not many of these videos show the makings of the game but more the finished product and reflection. I think we are going to feature the creations of the game and the finished product but not just the product because that's some of the whole sense of a behind the scenes video. 

Games
Example of games set during WW1 Battlefield 1
• Set during WW1 this game and the events within it are from 1914-1918. It captures the war and atmosphere in Europe very well and is a great reference point for weapons, soldier outfits, vehicles, buildings, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pY3hlQEOc0
Example of story games/dialogue screens Fallout (Game Series)

The Fallout games have a great choice of dialogue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyk_j0D25EM
Example of games that are achievable visually and workwise Medal of Honor: Frontlines
The first mission is the battle in Normandy, which if you have seen the intro to Saving Private Ryan is quite similar (excusing the very basic graphics!). This is a very interesting contrast between two iconic battles. (The scene in Saving Private Ryan is the battle for Omaha beach).
Game intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYVkoiyslJMMovie intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKerypwUDM

I will be capturing footage throughout the process of the games creation to provide a narrative for the interviews that will part take at the end of the process reflecting on the creating of the game with each member and assisting Ian with what I can with this and the majority of the Post Production Editing along with set ups and sets.

GDD - Game Design Document

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

Since the last meeting, I've been doing other work for other modules but now the time begins where the team start creating the game in its own individual parts.

I'm part of the media team whom are responsible for creating a "Behind The Scenes" look at the games creation and each team's input on how the journey has been from start to finish. I will be assisting for the majority with my team leader Ian Maher. 

GDD:

Proposed Game Design Document

Introduction

The game we are aiming to create is an open world 3D game about the 1916 Rising. We aim to recreate Dublin, researching pictures and footage from the time to help us. The game will be made in Unity and we will be using the plugin Fungus for the narratives.

Description
You play as Micahel “Foggy” Fogarty, a 16 year old boy who after witnessing the murder of hisfather joins the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Foggy travels with his division to Dublin, Easter weekend in 1916 to take part in the Rising and is tasked with passing messages from the GPO to other key locations the IRB and Civilian Army holds.

Hierarchy and Running Order

• Chris and James will oversee all the Team Leaders
• Team leaders will oversee all their Team Members
• At the end of each week, team leaders will tell Chris and James what has been done and
  who is/isn’t doing their job
• If a problem arises where someone isn’t available to pull their weight. Contact the Team
  Leader first and they will contact Chris or James
• Provisionally there will be a meeting every 2 weeks, but this may not be needed
  depending on how well online communication works.
• Every Week we will meet up in the same lab to get some work done. This way we can
  work with each other in person as Online communication can be perceived differently. If you are a Team Leader feel free to organise your own time to work with your team but please take note of attendance and contact Chris and/or James about the meeting
• We will be using Slack.com to communicate. Slack is a way to communicate with one another through Website, Phone app and a Installed software. The reason we are using Slack is so that we can set up separate groups for every team and allow teams to communicate with one another in private rather than setting up multiple Facebook groups that could intertwine with your social life. Essentially, Keep business with business. If you have yet to sign up to Slack please get in touch with James to be added.
• The workload will be controlled by Chris and James and distributed among the Team Leaders. The Team leaders will then give out the jobs to their members evenly.
  The teams will work in process of hierarchy.
  You follow the guidelines of your Lead members. They follow the guidelines from James orChris. We will contact every “Lead” person individually or at meetings.

Leaders
Chris: Project Manager- Creates reasonable and achievable goals for all team members.
- Keeps in contact with each team-leader to maintain communication and make sure there is no confusion.
- Contributes with Conor for the GDA to make sure the game is not obscured or changed.

James: Designer
- Keeps in contact with each team-leader.
- Contributes to final decisions from team-leaders with Chris.
- Collaborates with Chris and has the 2nd voice for all decisions made by Project Manager.
- Creates grading system and keeps up with the workload and Marks team-members depending on their work done.

Writers
Ellen: Lead Writer
- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- Refers to GDA to create a compelling and interesting story surrounding the 1916 rising. - Using historical research gathered by Niamh. Stay on topic and use locations, names and Stories that are historically correct.

Niamh: Researcher
- Assists Ellen on punctuation and story writing.
- Keeps in contact with Ellen regarding the story and plot of the game.
- Gathers evidence regarding the 1916 rising. Who was involved, what characters should they be and based on what facts?

Nathan: GDA Creator
Siobhan Lee: GDA Creator- Work with the writers and Chris to create a GDA to help out the rest of the teams. - Work with Ellen to find out the main story, names, characters etc.
- Use the GDA online we used with shaun in semester

Programmers
Aidan: Lead Programmer- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- Creates achievable goals for the Junior Programmers. - Has the final say in programming sector.
James & Chris will help with programming.

Music Team
Eoin: Sound Effects- Create Authentic sounds for the game i.e Footsteps, breathing, voices etc.

- Create Ambient sounds such as wind. Use different records and make it as realistic as possible.

Trevor: Composer- Aid Eoin in all thing's music and sound.
- Create ambient sounds and music related to the 1916 era and time. Study different music that was popular at that time and use it to create a Composition that can be used throughout the game

Game Testers
Shane: Game Tester- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- At the end of the week they will create a document using a template to say whats good, what’sbad and what needs to be changed. This way you’re not just testing the game and getting an easymark.
- Communicates with Everyone discussing what he thinks works and doesn’t work.

Adam: Game Tester- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- At the end of the week they will create a document using a template to say whats good, what’s bad and what needs to be changed. This way you’re not just testing the game and getting an easymark.
- Communicates with Everyone discussing what he thinks works and doesn’t work.

Art Team
Leah Byrne: Lead Artist
- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- Designs the 3D World using their own Assets & Designs or finding assets in the unity store. - In charge of everything regarding the artwork for the game.

Conor Brennan: Graphic Designer
- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- Work alongside the art team for criticism and oppinions.
- Create Loading screens, Graphics for promotion such as Logo, Banners etc. - Be prepared to help out on creating textures and assets.

Isabel: Asset Management- Always keeps in contact with James & Chris.
- Communicating with Conor, Leah and Chloe. Find assets on the unity store that would benefit in world creation and mechanics of the game.
- Take notes of every asset we use and may use in the future for easy finding among the teams.

Chloe: Character Creator
- Create Characters and NPC suitable for the Game
- Use assets where necessary or create your own textures
- Create multiple characters with distinct features i.e. Clothes, Models, Gender

Daniel: Level Editor
- Collaborate with Game testers to find mistakes in the level and make sure that it works properly - Make edits to the levels and world WITH PERMISSION FROM LEAH. And fix mistakes made by other artists.
- Essentially your job is to make sure the level is playable and okay to use and fix any issue that may come to arise

Media Team
Ian: Media Management- Document the entirety of the process of game building
- Work with each department separately, gathering information and footage - Create a “Behind 19Sixteen” video.

David: Media Assistant
- Collaborate with Ian to help out with gathering footage and editing videos.
- Help out Ian in creating a suitable video to promote the game and highlight the idea of the game.

Inspiration/Examples
Some of the inspiration for my idea comes from the recent Centenary celebrations in 2016, 100 years on from the 1916 Rising. It is an important event in recent Irish history that I believe should not be forgotten, and along with it the stories from the Rising should not be lost or forgotten either. Here are examples of works, artefacts and history that are relevant to our project.

Games
Example of games set during WW1 Battlefield 1
• Set during WW1 this game and the events within it are from 1914-1918. It captures the war and atmosphere in Europe very well and is a great reference point for weapons, soldier outfits, vehicles, buildings, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pY3hlQEOc0
Example of story games/dialogue screens Fallout (Game Series)

The Fallout games have a great choice of dialogue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyk_j0D25EM
Example of games that are achievable visually and workwise Medal of Honor: Frontlines
The first mission is the battle in Normandy, which if you have seen the intro to Saving Private Ryan is quite similar (excusing the very basic graphics!). This is a very interesting contrast between two iconic battles. (The scene in Saving Private Ryan is the battle for Omaha beach).
Game intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYVkoiyslJMMovie intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKerypwUDM

Art
Example of expected Character - quality/detail Medal of Honor – Airborne characters
Call of Duty 3 characters (first picture is better quality than what they look like in game)
Example of Clothes

Example of Architecture
Relevant reading: http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2016/05/31/city-and-the-rising-1916/

Example of Assets
Medal of Honor – Airborne

Example of Fonts
Battlefield 1 and V – Futura font family

Both games lean heavily on Futura for title screens and it looks sharp. The font is heavily associated with WW2 but is a great example of a font.
Irish Republic Flag
Celtic/Blackletter fonts
These might be worth looking at for some inspiration for fonts that were still widely used at the time.

Music:
• https://irishsheetmusicarchives.com/Galleries/Irish-In-World-War-I-Songs.htmExample of Actual Songs from the Era
• John McCormack - It's A Long Way To Tipperary
- This song was recorded in 1914 and often sung by Irish soldiers who fought in the British army during World War 1. I feel something like this could capture the "war time feel" in a game, and the song features in a campaign mission in Battlefield V which is how I knew it would fit perfectly with my game idea.
Example of Songs Related to the Era
Example of Marching Song
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2dAGWjUBUExample of Background Music

• Enzo - Vincent Peirani- This is a moody instrumental piece that I feel would be perfect as an intro piece or even in the
background of the game.
Example of Title, Home Screen, Credits Music

Source Material for Inspiration
Books/Graphic Novels
Blood Upon The Rose - The Rebellion That Set Ireland Free
- This is a graphic novel that I read when I was younger that portrays some of the stories of the Rising in a different light.
Movies
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
- Although this movie is set during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) it still manages to capture the feeling the Irish people at the time had following the Rising and gives examples of the horrific treatment the British soldiers gave the Irish civilians at the time.
Please watch the opening scene of the film, link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDLBVXZXnN8
Media
Examples of Documentaries
Granite and Chalk – A short animated documentary that Hugh Rodgers worked on that talks about two undercover British spies that kept an eye on the IRB before the Rising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POpxLQt8w6I

Grading System

• Everyone will receive a mark out of 10
• Team Leaders will grade team members
• Project leaders will grade team leaders
  0-3 = Poor effort
  4-6 = Average
  7-8 = Good Effort
  9-10 = They essentially did the job that was given

Please be unbiased when grading as we don’t want any confrontation or giving your friends 10 marks consistently because they’re your friend.

I (David) will be capturing footage throughout the process of the games creation to provide a narrative for the interviews that will part take at the end of the process reflecting on the creating of the game with each member and assisting Ian with what I can with this and the majority of the Post Production Editing along with set ups and sets.