Links

Updates

I got a lot of great advice from our class breakout room and one-on-one sessions with Andrew and Enrique. Using their advice, I made the following updates to my thesis proposal:

  • decided I would use Unreal (as opposed to Unity); also decided I would begin prototyping with SketchUp, and to think about utilizing pre-made models
  • changed my thesis question to focus more on the emotional core of what I’m trying to explore and address
  • updated my reference list based on further research

Feedback & Thoughts

I’ve since received very valuable feedback from those who reviewed my final proposal. Currently, I am using SketchUp to build a prototype model of my family home (where my grandmother has lived since immigrating to America up until she moved out and into an assisted living facility). I will then need to render it and move it into Unreal so I can start building there.

I am also trying to think of ways to frame the story I want to tell and how I want users to experience my project. I’m sort of struggling with this at the moment because, given how inspired I was by Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, I keep trying to think of what my arc will be, and how I will create a beginning, middle, and end for the user. But I’m not sure if that’s exactly how I want to structure my project in the end. What I love most about environmental storytelling is how objects and spaces are used to provide details about a place, a character, a relationship, etc., without the need for an explicit narrative arc or plot. I love how we can get to know someone based on the clothes they wear or how they decorate their room, for example. And that’s currently what I’m drawn to focusing on in terms of building this world that represents something so personal.

I’m wondering now if it would be okay to start thinking of my world as an exploratory exhibition – which would essentially leave the journey up to the users, in the way that walking through a museum is a journey decided by each individual, where one gets to choose which rooms they want to visit and which pieces they want to see and interact with. I wonder if framing the experience in this way would allow me more time to focus on narrative elements as opposed to an entire arc (though one could also argue that an arc is implied within this frame, since curating museum exhibitions does feel like a form of storytelling after all).