NAME - John Michael Padden
MA COURSE - MA Game Design
DATE - 04/09/2024
VERSION NUMBER 3
Brief Explanation / Outline of Project / What?
I am hoping to continue and expand upon my previous project, which is a potential 2 player 2D side-scrolling game to enable players to journey alongside the player character through an alien world that is representative of the 5 stages of grief, allowing the players to gather the tools necessary to deal with their own grief or help others suffering from it. Alongside this, I am going to produce illustrations of creatures that are representative of the different mental health issues that globally affect individuals in present society in the form of a mobile game akin to Pokemon Go to help inform players of the symptoms and information not always readily available through design and aesthetics of the creatures.
Context / Rationale / Why?
Grief is an emotion that touches upon everybody at one stage in their lives, gaming and other such activities are often seen as a distraction from facing these emotions, frequently viewed negatively in terms of actions that can heal or benefit those suffering from grief. I wish to turn this convention on its head and offer an alternative through the use of knowledge gained from researching pro-social games to provide a game that develops personal tools to assist those going through grief from both viewpoints (whether you are/will lose someone/something or are suffering with a terminal illness and wish to leave behind lasting memories with a loved one through the act of a shared experience in this game).
Secondarily my side project dealing with mental health issues that are annually increasing shows an obvious lack of resources for people to understand what they or others may be going through providing an enjoyable yet informative medium through a mobile game that illustrates creatures depicting these mental health issues to provide a unique way for people to learn and empathize with others who may be suffering or even understand their own thoughts and feelings a little better and feel less isolated from their issues.
Key Areas of Research / How?
A lot of research for the 5 stages of the grief project has already been undertaken but a more in-depth and precise level will need to be followed up on from the previous more experimental areas to push forward the exact outcomes I wish to achieve from the game, predominantly looking at how grief can be represented authentically to create empathy and compassion from players rather than just appearing as a game attempting to cash in on peoples emotions. One overlapping area of research will be therapy-based methods for enabling clients to deal with grief and mental health issues and how they can be manipulated into artistic choices during the creative development of the games. Further research into the development of these types of games (2D side-scroller and mobile game akin to Pokemon Go) to understand how the artistic choices made can be implemented into a playable format to achieve something that will emphasize my work during the degree show.
Intended Outcome of Project / Results.
To have a portfolio of character concepts for a mobile game based on mental health issues as well as be closer to having a showreel version of my space game based on grief that showcases my abilities to utilize decision-making skills during the design process of making concept art and illustrations for a game with such a deep and sensitive subject matter.
STUDENT SIGNATURE - J.M.Padden
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