INTERACTION AS EVENT
Branding, Design for streaming/gaming
A response to a Goldsmiths BA Design brief, The Environment Keeps Happening to Me, focused on location-specific design intervention. The area addressed was Hertford Union Canal in Stratford, London.
The intervention aimed to benefit the most conspicuous inhabitants of the canal; the ducks! We decided to create a campaign to promote a healthier approach to duck feeding. We discovered that giving the birds too much stale bread, crisps or other carbohydrate rich products was detrimental to their health. An unnaturally high dough diet meant the ducks were more likely to suffer from malnutrition and overcrowding due to the easy food source. Also leftover bread can often cause the spread of pests and disease.
CALM.GAMES
Branding, Design for streaming/gaming
Calm.games is a service offering a new approach to playing stressful video games. By adopting mechanisms used in meditation apps, Calm.games helps players enjoy and recreate a relaxing streaming experience offered by guide @isachal. In the stream, which takes place on twitch, @isachal guides the steamers as calmly as possible through a section of the horror survival game Amnesia: Rebirth. Different Twitch chat commands producing sound, image and brightness changes are introduced to the viewers as a means to counteract the stress created by the sound-scape, visuals and confusion induced by the game.
Using spa-like music, breathing techniques and various pop up images, the project examines the impact of inducing stress in games and how they often mirror the tension created by our packed working lifestyles. A competitive and stress inducing approach can often create a barrier to entry for new gamers and removes the possibility to escape everyday life.
PROCESS
PART 1
Analysis of the video game Don't Starve Together (used in PART 1) to better understand the game dynamics and to find unusual elements that could be explored further.
In the draft livestream, I was exploring vlogging style streaming with horror survival game Don't Starve Together. The streaming experience was pretty rudimentary in its design but it helped me develop my concept of trying to create a relaxing experience for a stressful game.
I found that the contrast with the game genre created an interesting tension in the video but that this would be further enhanced by using a more traditional horror game.
PART 2
Analysis of new game: Amnesia: Rebirth
Logo Evolution
Other Artifacts
Triggered by the !itsok comment the baby bunny is meant to reassure the player in a moment of fear like a jump scare or a shocking image.
The !breathe command triggers this gif to encourage the player to take a deep breath when they are scared.
The !light command triggers a change in background. It's brightness is meant to be reassuring when the game scene becomes very dark
Responses from the Twitch chatbot to chat commands during the final stream
Final livestream
REFLECTION