Lecturer in Game Design | PhD Student | Indie Dev

Not Alone Projects

Not Alone

Overview

Not Alone is the main prototype for my PhD work. The game follows the stories multiple cancer patients and their journey through the British healthcare system. These stories are informed by interviews conducted with current cancer patients, cancer survivors, their immediate families and healthcare professionals to ensure that all perspectives of the process are captured and conveyed in a sensitive and respectful manner. The prototype intends to alleviate feelings of isolation and loneliness in patients by providing them with shared experiences and perspective through relatable characters. It will also be a useful tool for patients, family members, healthcare professionals and the general public by providing different viewpoints, inviting them to adopt different personas and fostering empathy and understanding of their positions.


1: Twine “Chatbot”

When I started this PhD project I began with the notion of exploring different methods for game creation and alternate methods for storytelling (outwith my usual first-person walking-simulator game style). I had heard of Twine/ Twinery as a useful tool for rapidly creating interactive fiction games. Whilst these interactive fictions / hypertexts are an interesting method for prototyping, at this stage I had my eyes set on laying the groundwork for a chatbot application that would mimic a friend/ companion who would check up on you at intervals throughout the day. The first two images displayed above are from my early prototypes of this system using pre-determined replies. Whilst this application would work similar to a mood journal, it would have the added layer of perceived interaction with a real person similar to the Lifeline games (Picture 3). The lifeline game series plays out in real time and the character responds in realistic intervals.

Whilst I still believe that there is merit in this concept, I decided that I was not the person to deliver this sort of product. Maybe in future I will revisit the concept as it could be a novel and interesting way of mapping mood and behavioral patterns in cancer patients. My interests however lie in telling personal, intimate stories for the player to empathise with and hopefully learn from. Although this precursor project was a fun experiment, I thought it best to return to my roots until I have a better idea of what I want to gain from this PhD.


2: Whiteboxing

Since graduating in 2015, the games engine that I was using (UDK) had been updated to a new version (Unreal Engine 4). This provided my first challenge as I needed to gain an understanding of the software required to create my PhD prototypes. As my first exercise I wanted to develop a quick hospital room scene that would feature in Not Alone. At this stage I am not so bothered by the quality of the assets as I was using it more as an exercise to get used to the new development environment and lighting options. The scene above was my first foray into using the Unreal Engine 4 editor.


3: First-Pass Assets - Ward

After whiteboxing the ward scene, I decided that it would be a good idea to dust off my skills in Autodesk Maya. I was used to creating assets in the Autodesk Maya 2013 environment so installing working with Maya 2018 was my next challenge. Thankfully the software remained relatively similar but I found that a few tools that I used to use were now legacy content. Thankfully the replacement tools weren’t too difficult to locate and use. Above are some renders from the environment with my first-pass low-poly assets inserted. I am quite pleased with how the scene is beginning to shape up.


4: Bedroom

In Not Alone I want to focus more on the personal aspects of the cancer journey rather than the clinical practice and process. I want to convey how appointments, tests, scans etc. can impact the daily routines and mental well-being of the patient. As such it is important to convey the typical lifestyle of the patient through home environments. As such, I began creating the ‘teenage bedroom’ environment. Due to using gamed media to convey these stories, the most likely user of the product will be someone in their late teens to early adult years. This first story will focus on a late teenager/ early adult female with breast cancer.


5: Animation & Dialogue Progression System

In my previous games I have never used additional characters to the player / physical characters, only ever alluded to them through environmental storytelling techniques or using written textual prompts. For Not Alone there will be a strong focus on the other characters as they are integral to conveying the story. This provided its own set of challenges as I have only ever modeled a character once (and not a very good one at that!), nor have I rigged or animated before. For the above prototype I modeled a basic low-poly female character, rigged her and exported multiple pose-sets. It was through creating this that I had my first experience with the visual scripting language “Blueprint”. I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this experiment as it conveys movement without the need for fluid animation. The placeholder audio used in this test was taken from online documentary DOCS: Teenage Cancer Ward available on YouTube.


6: Temporary Project Halt

 
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Development of Not Alone has been temporarily put on hold. This first proof of concept prototype was a great exercise in getting used to the new tool-set that I would be using in the coming years for my PhD. For now, I will move on to creating prototypes that explore different ways of conveying personal health stories within a game world. The first of which will be a retelling of my own personal health story and diagnosis journey for spina bifida occulta; causing severe back pain. Creating Genetic Lottery will allow me to explore further systems and themes without having to wait for patient access or ethical approval. Obtaining ethical approval to work with sensitive persons (cancer patients) for the purpose of interviewing seems to be a slow process, with a lot of waiting about for the correct departments to review applications. Until ethical approval has been granted, working on Genetic Lottery provides a solid basis for evaluation and stops the practical aspect of this project from grinding to a standstill.


7: New Concept / Modular Approach

After working on Genetic Lottery, A Short Walk, and obtaining the ethical approval needed, I have finally returned to Not Alone. This time, with a new concept of how the game will ‘flow’. Not Alone will take inspiration from the old-school Crash Bandicoot-style hub world system where the ‘levels’ are displayed in a round room, and the player must walk up to the trigger to activate that level. For Not Alone the hub will be the Maggie’s Centre, as it acts as crucial hub for social gathering, information and well-being for cancer patients in Dundee. The Dundee Maggie’s Centre lends itself particularly to this concept owing to the round labyrinth located directly outside the front door. Standing to the side of the Labyrinth is the statue “Another Time” by Antony Gormley. This statue provided the inspiration for the story select aspect of the game. Each person whose story I will be conveying in the game will be represented as an Antony Gormley-style statue standing around the Labyrinth. As you interact with the statue, you will enter the relevant scene(s) for their story to take place, and upon completion you will be returned to the hub. Upon returning to the hub, you will see their statue disappearing. Upon completing all of the stories around the Labyrinth you will be presented with the Maggie’s Centre. Upon tapping it, you will enter the building and see the characters whose stories you have explored all socialising within the centre. There will be a final dialogue sequence involving all the participants and the game will conclude.

This style of progression allows for a modular approach to design and development, as there is potential for expansion or reduction of scope based on the time left to finish the PhD. The intention would be to implement one or two personal health stories to fully evaluate the systems and storytelling methods. This leaves the prototype open to future expansion if the product was to be taken further.


8: Mobile

Ever since my honours project - Forget-Me-Knot - I have had it in the back of my mind that building PC / console based games isn’t the best approach to developing for a wider audience. At the honours showcase I had a variety of people of different ages wanting to interact with the game, but finding that the WASD and Mouse or gamepad input was quite difficult to get used to for “non-gamers”. As such I have always wanted to try branch my work into the mobile market as a higher number of potential players already own a smartphone or have an understanding of the basic input methods that smart devices require (Tap, Swipe etc.). It was only recently that I had a breakthrough in deploying an Unreal Engine prototype build to a mobile device using NVIDIA CodeWorks. Whilst this test build was just exporting the basic twin-stick template to an Android Device this was a big step forward for me and my projects. Having the ability to push a game to a mobile device allows for easier deployment upon release (can either be loaded to a stationary tablet workstation at a venue or downloaded directly to a user’s personal device), improved usability so hopefully the game can be enjoyed by a larger number of players, and higher uptake as it’s easier to download a mobile game than to go through the download and install process on a computer. My next steps will be to conceptualise a gameplay system for this prototype and develop a visual style that is not too demanding for lower specification mobile devices.


9. Wireframing

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Re-imagining your intended experience for a mobile platform can be quite challenging. Before this project I had very little experience in mobile game design. I intend for this experience to be able to run on lower-end hardware, which will allow for wider accessibility of the product. Aiming at the lower-end hardware however brings with it another set of problems. In order to optimise the game for mobile the scenes will have to be relatively simplistic in comparison with the first/third person exploration prototypes I have been developing up until this point. For gameplay I will need to strip out the default twin virtual stick input method and implement a tap and swipe based input system. As this is a mobile experience, by using gesture-based input, those who are familiar with navigating their phone’s operating system should be able to interact with the product.

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I have decided to create each scene in this experience as a miniature explorable diorama. By building each environment as a small diorama (and potentially depicting it in an abstract form) this can lower the time it takes to produce each environment. I began conceptualising the flow and visuals for this experience using Adobe XD (A free wireframing tool) to explore this method of narrative progression without investing too much time or resource into the prototype. You can play through the interactive project wireframe below:


10: Developing a Visual Identity

For this new version of Not Alone I wanted to rework the visual style to accompany the new intentions and target platform. My plan was to take visual motifs from the Maggie’s and Macmillan logos to create a familiar, yet unique style. The left-most image is Macmillan’s logo which uses a custom font over a green brush-stroke background. From this logo, I took the green brush-stroke concept and applied a similar style to the creation of the grass asset for the diorama. I would love to use the Macmillan custom font in the game, but this will require permission from Macmillan themselves, so this may be something I will chase up further down the line. Maggie’s current logo is almost a complete inverse of the one pictured above, with the house being full orange with no outline. The above central image is what I believe may be an older version of their logo. I used the orange-outlined style instead of a fully orange building on a green grass background as it would cause issues with those who are Red-Green colorblind (I myself have this and it can cause great discomfort and headaches from prolonged exposure). The image on the right-hand side is a visual test of how a diorama might look. I feel that this visual style is striking and takes the strong thematic cues from both cancer support service logos.


11: Main Menu & Hub World

The above video demonstrates the first test for mobile input, transitions and visual style. I am pleased with how these systems have progressed as I have never deployed an Unreal Engine project to mobile before, nor have I worked on a touch-control system. The current system allows for swipe to rotate the scene and tap to interact. The story select screen displays the system that allows for specific interactions only when the player has ‘zoomed-in’ to a scene. As shown in the video, the player cannot tap a statue until they have first tapped the grassy hill. Upon tapping on one of the statues, there is a transition between the move-able camera to a static camera which allows for better framing of the statue. At this stage a small bio for the character and confirmation of whether you wish to enter their story will appear. I am trying to build these systems to be as intuitive as possible for a wide audience. Relying on only tap and swipe input should mean that most smartphone users will be able to interact with the game and experience the stories contained within.


12: Re-implementing placeholder story

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