Last post-Favourite game

Hello all!

This is my last blog!! 

I loved everyones projects and there was a lot of work done by all. There were a few unfinished which is understandable and there were some that worked very well.

It is hard to pick a favourite however, after a lot of thinking I choose y favourite game of all to be the game made by Ross. His game showed exactly what everyone thinks in work.... well what I do anyway. His honest dialogue and funny pictures or scenarios with each option you can choose. You could sit for hours replaying options and clicking different options to bring you through the game. The story was built on twine which worked really well as the story element of the game allowed me to understand his game the best. I think making is in any other way wouldn’t work in my opinion. There was loads of options and funny images for each out come which enticed my to keep reading and choosing options. It was fun, interesting, truthful and entertaining over all which was the main focal point which I found the best. 

One thing I would say is that there was no colour and it was a bit visually basic. Other then that it was very good. Given the time scale we had however, this is grand at the stage we are at now.

Thanks for reading!!!!!!

Almost there!!

Hello !!

This week we met up as a group to finish the game. As part of the writing team I created the narrative and final story for the game. Here the game designers can finish the game and make sure the game makes sense. I did this through taking the time lines Niamh did of the 1916 rising. I took the information myself and Siobhan did also in order to gather legible information to make our game the most authentic it can be.

Next week we hope to finish the whole game and submit!

Talk then!!!

Beta

Almost there

Hello all!

Update:
So we have made out alpha ...we have a lot of work to do to get it up to speed but myself and the other researchers/story writers are helping out the finalising of the games story with Chris and James.

We are collaborating with the other people in the team also to help bring the whole project together.

As I am a leader in the writing department of our team, I am collaborating on getting the finalised pieces of writing material ( research, ideas, scripts and so on) together and sending them onto Chris and James.

Next week we will all meet finalise everything and I will pop all of our writing material up here on the blog to showcase our 16+ hours of work every week.

I will then discuss grades as per our grading system for the writing section as part of my role.

Right now its all a finalised plan. By this time next week all the in's and out's will be sussed and we will have all of our project for the writing side complete along with hopefully a finished project by the deadline!

Now for a reflection:
It has been difficult communication wise in such a large group however, we have many meetings and these are usually fixed by the end of the week. It just means sometimes doing more work when you think you're finished. This is not a bad thing, in fact its great as it means we will continuously be working on our goals in our project as a series of events rather then a to do list which is the key point in any successful project.

I am meeting my targets by communicating with Chris and James on what needs to be done. Relaying this information back to the other researchers and there fore we all get our parts finished.


Talk soon!!!!!

Our story

Hello all !

url

This week all of the researchers met and we made sure all of our information was there without gaps. We now are working on the story itself.

See you next week!

Update on the research for the story

Hello all!!

This week I finished research on the introduction of the story. The other researchers/ storywriters investigated the day one ( our level we will make in the game) and the ending.

Here is some screen shots of my own research:
These are some images of the sites I used. There is a large document I created which is on our group shared coggle account so we can put our story together next week when we meet up again.

MD2Final GDD

Hello all!

Today and yesterday we had a meeting and sorted our roles, the game storyline, characters, assets needed and so on.

My role is to research the introduction of the game. I have to research history for the time set and research the story of the game for this point. I also took notes and helped fill people who missed yesterdays meeting in on our final game idea.

Here is my research:

Character name:

Michal “Foggy” Fogarty: 

The reason behind this name is that Fogarty is a very Irish name. For a more in-depth character meaning it is important to know what the name “Fogarty” derives from rather then just stating the obvious which is that this is an Irish name.

According to the site “http://www.irishsurnames.com/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?name=fogarty&capname=Fogarty&letter=f" the colours on the crest silver, blue, green and gold mean peace, loyalty and generosity. These are all character trades which “Foggy” would show in the game. He will be loyal to the Irish Republican Army. He will give messages to different people on the Irish side so that one day Ireland can have peace. Finally, he may not show much generosity however, amongst his peers which he is loyal to he may.

The symbols of a crescent moon, garb, harp and Lion on the crest for the name “Fogarty” all signify enlightenment, plenty, deathless courage and contemplation which are all trates a soldier would have. Courage to keep on fighting and going out to give messages. Enlightenment by the IRA and their values. Finally, contemplation which is what this character would do constantly till he joins the IRA as a young teen.

Overall, Fogarty is not only an Irish name but it also has symbolism for strong character trades which a solider would need especially in the 1916 rising such as courage, loyalty and so on.

Age: 

Foggy is 16 as due to our reserch in our previous blog posts , this would be the perfect age which boys would be made to be messengers for the IRA. They would not be 18 therefore they would not have the ability to fight on the frontline.

Place where “Foggy” is from:

Dunboyne was a place where a lot of the 1916 rising occurrences spilled into. Reported by “https://www.gaa.ie/news/sean-boylan-family-link-the-1916-rising/" Sean Boylan a notorious GAA maneger now retired was from Dunboyne and so was his father. Seans father was a captain in the Irish Volunteers. He was in charge of monitoring the Meath region and was a member of the general council.

The general council was a group of the main leaders in the rising.

Overall, Sean Senior’s job was to report monthly to the council. He was also a close ally with Padraig Perase who was one of the main Dublin leaders of the rising. 

Since he was so close to Padrig Perase he wanted for himself and his men to have a central part in the rising. He was told to not go further then Mullhudard and to keep communications with the city open. 

He gave the go ahead to destroy a railway bridge at Clonsilla, kept contact with the Maynooth volunteers and commenced an attack with his men at Tyrrelstown House where British soldiers occupied and ruled from.

However, they had surrendered before they got there so, Sean senior and his men traveled back to Dunboyne.

In Dunboyne, they got arrested and sent to Richmond Barracks where men like Eamon Ceant were held.

He was transferred to Wandsworth prison and here he wrote how the Irish were treated like quote “wild animals”.

Overall, Dunboyne is a great place for Foggy to be from as he is a messenger boy to the Irish Volunteers just like Sean Boyland and his men were. 

Backstory to story line:

 Foggy, his brothers and father are playing in their yards as the first narration appears. Brittish soldiers show up and kill Foggys father after intense interrogation. 

It turns out his father was part of Sine Fine. This makes historical sense as Dunboyne is so close to Dublin they would have party members scattered about.

The second scene opens with Foggy, his brothers and friends now training themselves for battle at they play fight with hurls as riffles.

There will be a montage of them training as this playing turns to real practice in uniforms and with real riffles.

Thirdly, now that Foggy and his brothers lost their father, they drink in their cottage with their friends and play games.

Finally, they get information and march to Dublin. This will link in with the historical review above about Sean Boylan as he would have sent the message to Foggy and his friends to leave and fight with them in Mullhudard and Dublin.

Talk soon!

Game Design Document

pic

Hello all!

This is my GDD.

This is a Game Design Document outlining the main things in our game. This was written by our project leaders James Reynolds and Cris Carney, however we are all on the same team so our GDD is the same.

Below is a video of our GDD in a power point form:

final draft

link to this photo

Todays blog is all of the annotated blogs combined.  It is the final paper to all of the research for our game.  Below will discuss the genre of the game and why we picked it, the games main themes, the cognitive benefits of a shooting game and the benefits of making a game based off of such an under talked piece of Irish history compared to other historical event in different countries e.g. the world wars.

Firstly,  the genre.  The genre of our game is a role playing game. Here I will explain the basics of a role playing game and thus showing the reasons why we picked this as the genre of our game.  So what is a role playing game?  According to a 2007 article of the benefits of role playing games by medium.com, it is when you play the protagonist of a game who is down trodden by antagonists.  Through this you would meet characters who either try to hinder or help you on your journey.  This kind of game is very interesting and interactive as the player in very involved.  According to the same article, there are many sub genres of a role playing game such as video games, table top ( such as dungeons and dragons) and so on.  It is a very extensive area and so as a developer, you can allow your audience access so much more in you’re game then you would in say a quiz game.  Also, they are proven to be one of the most social games. It will teach younger users how to socialise in a fun way.  This is proven by a 2015 article written on lifehacker.com by Patrick Allan.  He explains how a role playing first person game have many psychological benefits.  This is important in order for our game to be the most use to a user as possible.  Over all our genre of a role playing first person game will make the user feel more involved in the game.  The user can create their own destiny in the game and have more creativity.  There is a move storytelling feel about these types of games and they will learn basic social skills which will help them in all aspects of life. 

Secondly, why our game is a shooting game.  An article by techopedia.com explains what a first person shooting game is.  Techopedia.com wrote that a first person shooting game is a shooting game played in the point of view of the protagonist of the game.  As our players will be the protagonist of the story and lead the journey this definitely is needed in order to explain our game.  You will never see the characters face as it will be like you are playing the game.  You will see their arms and legs and the world instead.  According to this article the player will swing from left to right slightly in order to mimic a real person.  This type of game play is more intimate for the person playing the game.  Why shooting games are beneficial shows the reasons to why we choose this. and here they are. Not only are these games more fun for a user but they are also psychologically beneficial according to this article written by Samit Sarkar in 2013.  He explains that hand eye co ordination use in these games improves in users and faster cognitions thinking.  How? As the user has to keep constant focus, understanding of the game and has to learn to act fast, there is no wonder!  We thought a rpg shooting game would work in terms of storytelling but now its even better.  Over all our whole plan was to teach people about the 1916 rising, now we can teach them valuable skills they can use in all aspects of life too.

Now a bit of a change.  Why are historical based learning games beneficial?  This article by digital commons written in 2011 explains the benefits of a history based game.  It explains that the educational benefits are great.  You can learn so much from a game as it is visually striking and can test your knowledge.  You can play a game set in a time in history ( for example the 1916 rising like our own) and learn so so much more then you ever  would in a book.  The user will always have a chance to understand the world of the 1916 rising first hand.  TO conclude, children are way more visually stimulated then academically stimulated therefore having an academic topic in a visually immersive way will allow our users to learn exactly what we want the to.

Now onto our story.  Our story is set int he 1916 rising.  This article written by the Irish times in 2016 explains the whole story of the 1916 rising.  Irish people had to form their own army.  Did they not have one already?!  The answer is no.  Instead they were ruled by the British at this time.  The yearned for freedom.  Through reading the article it occurred to me that there was no real protagonist or antagonist as in a war both sides are wrong and right at the same time.  However, due to this war being a revolution to get the Irish their country back,  and our games genre to reflect this, it seems the Irish rebels were more protagonists then the British who took over in the first place.  The main protagonists in the 1916 rising were the leaders of the IRA and associated groups attached to the IRA.  The IRA were the Irish Republican Army.  They were the newly formed government to protect the Irish people and get back their 36 counties . Arthur Griffith, James Connolly ,Patrick Pearse ,Eamon DeValera, John Redmon, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDounnagh, Josaph Plunket, Thomas Clarke, Éamonn Ceant, Constance Markievicz, Michale Collins, and so on were all main leaders of Ireland at this time.  So what does this all have to do with the theme of our game as the 1916 rising?  The player will be playing as part of the Irish republican army fighting for freedom.  Now you know the background, here we speak of the benefits for making a game based off a piece of history not spoken of.  This article by the Irish times written in 2017 explored how young boys 10-16 were messenger boys during the 1916  rising.  This article from 2017 was specifically speaking of St. Enda's in Rathfarnham in Dublin.  Boys from this school joined "Na Finna" and "the IRA" in order to be messenger boys for the IRA.  The rebel army was like a family to them.  They had to stay loyal.  Especially the fact that Padrige Perce was a head master of the school.  He was one of the IRA leaders of the time.  He gave guns to the boys for winning competitions and so thought them to fight.  This was the very basics of the 1916 rising.  To secretly create an Irish Republican Army. What has this got to do with our game? This is an aspect of the game we are looking at.  For the player to be a messenger boy during the 1916 rising. But not only this, it is shocking that boys of all ages were dragged into such horrible conditions. This is what we want to do. Overall, this is what we want to teach, of a story lesser told.

In every war, especially the 1916 rising there was two sides and how this ties into our game. These sides can create the themes of our game.  This article written by a company called “ O Tnuthghail” in 2015 told the whole story from both sides of the war, the Irish and the British.  Again, there are no real protagonists or antagonists as both sides were brutal in their killings and war tactics, however the Irish were fighting for freedom.  Therefor in this case, the article thought me about the British.  I chose this article as in every story and game alike, you need an antagonist to fuel every mission. In our game our enemy is the British and so, they are our antagonist.  I learned Michael Portillo,  Herbert Asquith, Gen John Maxwell  were the main antagonists of the 1916 rising.  They were on the apposing side of the Irish and so made any complications they could for the Irish.  This ( in our game) would fuel the story arc. Anytime the Irish tried to compromise the British would fight.  Anytime the British were warned of the Irish rebellion, they under estimated the Irish and let them get one step closer to outbreaking into war.  Any weapons the Irish put onto the British , they used a weapon twice as destructive and threw the remaining people in torturous jail cells.  This, creates the story of two sides fighting in the 1916 rising which essentially is the basic story of our game. ( more in-depth explanation of our game to come in the next blogs!!)

Now we know the dynamics of the games theme its time to get into sub themes.  This is an article by enotes was written in 2017. Enotes thought me the themes of the 1916 rising. They wrote this as study notes for exams but it helps for our game also as it is a solid and factual piece which is easy to understand.  The main themes are conflict and resolution in the 1916 rising. The conflict is the Irish being ruled by the British and the resolution is 34/36 counties being won. There is also sorrow and loss. Sorrow being families, friends, neighbours and so on fought against each other and deaths occurred from both sides. Loss being the deaths experienced and loss of historical buildings such as the GPO ( now re build). This site was on a specific book written on the 1916 rising, however, I found this to be a very good source as books are the truth on many situations. This book was a fictional take on a real situation so it had the real themes within the 1916 rising. These themes are clearly going to be shown through out our game as basic building blocks for a really interesting and interactive game for our audience.

Finally, reflection on the governments involvement. Why are we putting this in? Well it is the basics of the fighting and kind of summarises the whole review.  This article by the official Irish government written in 2018 explained their reflection of the government at the time of the 1916 rising.  The main government party was sine fine.  They consisted on the main IRA and main rebels at this time.  The Irish government tried to negotiate with British to try get their counties back.  The government spilt and became military after no negotiations were accepted by the British.  Thus the IRA formed.  The Irish parliament were there to keep up legal discussions with the British and to keep a bridge between the two sides.  The army were the force who drove action and fear into the British.  Likewise, the British government were there to legally stop any Irish discussions at bay and to enforce rule into the Irish people.  Their army fought with the Irish army to force retaliation.  This article explains the in's and out of what happened in the government at this time.  The suppression the Irish government and Irish people were under forced the Irish government into action.  The wanted their whole country back.  After many attempts at negotiations with the British government and noting but push backs in return, the Irish had to fight for freedom.  Therefor the Irish revolution or the 1916 rising broke out. So theres our theme. The 1916 rising and its significance of why we need to teach people of the story. 

Then the genres and sub themes within the topic of our game.  The 1916 rising topic is both historical, educational and exciting for a player.  Having a rag first person shooting game will teach of this story in an interactive way but also will teach skills to people who play.

annotated bibliography 2

Link to where this pic came from

This week I will speak more about our genre of our game.  However, I will delve more into the themes within our genre therefore making our game more filled out.  The main theme of our game is the 1916 rising.

In order to complete this task, I put down more words on coggle.  The main words I found were “Young”, “ opposing sides”, and “governments”.  To me these words could be used to explain the the 1916 rising perfectly.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/1916-schools/1916-the-revolution-of-the-young-1.2353779 

Firstly, this article by the Irish times written in 2017 explored how young boys 10-16 were messenger boys during the 1916  rising.  This article from 2017 was specifically speaking of St. Enda's in Rathfarnham in Dublin.  Boys from this school joined "Na Finna" and "the IRA" in order to be messenger boys for the IRA.  The rebel army was like a family to them.  They had to stay loyal.  Especially the fact that Padrige Perce was a head master of the school.  He was one of the IRA leaders of the time.  He gave guns to the boys for winning competitions and so thought them to fight.  This was the very basics of the 1916 rising.  To secretly create an Irish Republican Army. What has this got to do with our game? This is an aspect of the game we are looking at. For the player to be a messenger boy during the 1916 rising.

2. https://www.irishtimes.com/1916/people-of-the-1916-rising 

This article written by the Irish times in 2016 explains the whole story of the 1916 rising.  This explains why Irish people had to form their own army.  Did they not have one already?!  The answer is no.  Instead they were ruled by the Brittish at this time.  The yearned for freedom.  Through reading the article it occurred to me that there was no real protagonist or antagonist as in a war both sides are wrong and right at the same time.  However, due to this war being a revolution to get the Irish their country back,  and our games genre to reflect this, it seems the Irish rebels were more protagonists then the British who took over in the first place.  The main protagonists in the 1916 rising were the leaders of the IRA and associated groups attached to the IRA.  The IRA were the Irish Republican Army.  They were the newly formed government to protect the Irish people and get back their 36 counties . Arthur Griffith, James Connolly ,Patrick Pearse ,Eamon DeValera, John Redmon, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDounnagh, Josaph Plunket, Thomas Clarke, Éamonn Ceant, Constance Markievicz, Michale Collins, and so on were all main leaders of Ireland at this time.  So what does this all have to do with the theme of our game as the 1916 rising?  The player will be playing as part of the Irish republican army fighting for freedom.

3. http://www.easter1916.net 

This article written by a company called “ O Tnuthghail” in 2015 told the whole story from both sides of the war, the Irish and the British.  Again, there are no real protagonists or antagonists as both sides were brutal in their killings and war tactics, however the Irish were fighting for freedom. Therefor in this case, the article thought me about the British.  I chose this article as in every story and game alike, you need an antagonist to fuel every mission. In our game our enemy is the British and so, they are our antagonist.  I learned Michael Portillo,  Herbert Asquith, Gen John Maxwell  were the main antagonists of the 1916 rising.  They were on the apposing side of the Irish and so made any complications they could for the Irish.  This ( in our game) would fuel the story arc. Anytime the Irish tried to compromise the British would fight.  Anytime the British were warned of the Irish rebellion, they under estimated the Irish and let them get one step closer to outbreaking into war.  Any weapons the Irish put onto the British , they used a weapon twice as destructive and threw the remaining people in torturous jail cells.  This, creates the story of two sides fighting in the 1916 rising which essentially is the basic story of our game. ( more in-depth explanation of our game to come in the next blogs!!)

4. https://www.enotes.com/topics/easter-1916/themes.

This is an article by enotes was written in 2017. Enotes thought me the themes of the 1916 rising. They wrote this as study notes for exams but it helps for our game also as it is a solid and factual piece which is easy to understand.  The main themes are conflict and resolution in the 1916 rising. The conflict is the Irish being ruled by the British and the resolution is 34/36 counties being won. There is also sorrow and loss. Sorrow being families, friends, neighbours and so on fought against each other and deaths occurred from both sides. Loss being the deaths experienced and loss of historical buildings such as the GPO ( now re build). This site was on a specific book written on the 1916 rising, however, I found this to be a very good source as books are the truth on many situations. This book was a fictional take on a real situation so it had the real themes within the 1916 rising. These themes are clearly going to be shown through out our game as basic building blocks for a really interesting and interactive game for our audience.

5. https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Historical_Information/State_Commemorations/The_1916_Rising.html

Finally this article by the official Irish government written in 2018 explained their reflection of the government at the time of the 1916 rising.  The main government party was sine fine.  They consisted on the main IRA and main rebels at this time.  The Irish government tried to negotiate with British to try get their counties back.  The government spilt and became military after no negotiations were accepted by the British.  Thus the IRA formed.  The Irish parliament were there to keep up legal discussions with the British and to keep a bridge between the two sides.  The army were the force who drove action and fear into the British.  Likewise, the British government were there to legally stop any Irish discussions at bay and to enforce rule into the Irish people.  Their army fought with the Irish army to force retaliation.  This article explains the in's and out of what happened in the government at this time.  The suppression the Irish government and Irish people were under forced the Irish government into action.  The wanted their whole country back.  After many attempts at negotiations with the British government and noting but push backs in return, the Irish had to fight for freedom.  Therefor the Irish revolution or the 1916 rising broke out.

Over all through the government, people of all ages, tensioning a fight for resolution the 1916 rising can be broken down into key components. This is what fuels our game and allows the player have the best experience they can!

Thank you for reading todays blog!!! I hope you liked fining out about our themes within the genre of our game!

Till next time!

Layout

url-link to this photos origen 

Hi!

This week we practiced literacy reviews again. We made sure to have the correct format in order for us to learn the correct way of writing. Through this we watched a video and are now reviewing it. (LInk to video)

So what do we need?  We need an introduction, body and conclusion firstly.

The introduction: This should be a short paragraph of what you are doing, why and how you will do it.

The body: At least five articles making up five paragraphs. In each paragraph you will need a link to an article after 2008 in order for it to. be recent. An intro line. Discuss the article and a conclusionary line.

The conclusion: A very short summary of what you just did.

Easy right?! Finding the articles is hard but once you do you are flying!

All literary reviews have a specific format they need to be. Why? Well this is an informal document and it has to have a general standard in order to look professional.

The format: All in a size 12 font, times new roman, 1.5 line spacing, double spacing after every full stop and no space before or after a comma. All has to be spelled correctly and punctuation/grammar has to be perfect.

Not too much to it and easy to follow! IF you don't you lose easy marks so its handy to know how to write one of these.

Till next time!!!!

Annoted Bibliography

This is the link to this picture

Hi everyone!

Today I will speak about our genre of our game. Our genre is a role playing first person shooting game set in the 1916 rising.

First we made a toggle where we put down tones of words that came to mind when thinking of our genre. Then we searched 5 articles about our genre and wrote about them.

My coggle

1.

https://medium.com/@SA_Liberty/what-are-role-playing-games-even-how-are-they-that-50071c5552e2

This article by medium.com was written in order to explain the basics of a role playing game.  As our game is a role playing game it is important to explain this.  This article was written in 2017 so it is fairly recent.  So what is a role playing game according to medium.com?  According to them, it is when you play the protagonist of a game who is down trodden.  Through this you would meet characters who either try to hinder or help you on your journey.  This kind of game is very interesting and interactive as the player.  Why you ask?  Well according to this article, there are many sub genres of a role playing game such as video games, table top ( such as dungeons and dragons) and so on.  It is a very extensive area and so as a developer, you can allow your audience access so much more in you’re game.  They are proven to be one of the most social games so it will teach younger users how to socialise in a fun way.

2.

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/241/first-person-shooter-fps

This article explains what a first person shooting game is.  As our game is shooting based this is important.  Techopedia.com wrote this article in 2019 to explain what exactly entails a shooting game.

According to this article, a first person shooting game is a shooting game played in the point of view of the protagonist of the game.  As our players will be the protagonist of the story and lead the journey this definitely is needed in order to explain our game.  You will never see the characters face as it will be like you are playing the game.  You will see their arms and legs and the world instead.  According to this article the player will sing from left to right slightly in order to mimic a real person.  This type of game play is more intimate for the person playing the game.

3.

https://lifehacker.com/the-surprising-benefits-of-role-playing-games-and-how-1684582789

This article by lifehacker.com. written in 2015 byPatrick Allan. He explains how a role playing first person game have many benefits.  This is important in order for our game to be the most use to a user as possible. 

They make the user feel more involved in the game.  The user can create their own destiny in the game and have more creativity.  There is a move storytelling feel about these types of games. 

4.

https://www.polygon.com/2013/1/30/3932876/research-playing-first-person-shooters-improves-learning-abilities-cognitive-function

This article tells us how shooting games can be beneficial.  Not only are these games more fun for a user but they are also psychologically beneficial according to this article written by Samit Sarkar in 2013.  He explains this theory in more detail.  He explains that hand eye co ordination imporves in users and faster cognitions thinking.  How? As the user has to keep constant focus, understanding of the game and has to learn to act fast, there is no wonder!  We thought a rpg shooting game would work in terms of storytelling but now its even better.  Our whole plan was to teach people about the 1916 rising, now we can teach them valuable skills they can use in all aspects of life.

5.https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=etd

Finally, this article by digital commons written in 2011 explains the benefits of a history based game.  This will prove why a rpg first person genre for our game will be best.  It explains that the educational benefits are great.  You can learn so much from a game as it is visually striking and can test your knowledge.  You can play a game set in a time in history ( for example the 1916 rising like our own) and learn so so much more then you ever thought! Thats why a rpg first person game is best as our genre.  The user will always have a chance to understand the world of the 1916 rising first hand. 

Thanks for reading!!!!!