New Beginning

I've finally completed my masters degree, a hell of a journey which I have learnt an extraordinary amount from. I'll be getting the final semester game trailer together in the not too distant future. In the mean time I'm back down in the south of England and looking for jobs, wish me luck.

Prince of Persia

Playing through the cell shaded prince of Persia for the first time and i'm given the option of selecting a place on my map to visit.

First issue i have with this is the map looks exactly the same, so what motivation is there for selecting a particular place.

Second issue with this is that i can go anywhere, hard or easy areas. Pretty much up to me but ill likely get stuck if i select a hard area first, which im inclined to do because like a lot of gamers im not logical.

It just feels that like a lot of menu designs its not been given actual user experience testing properly otherwise why would it have been designed in this way?

Jason Mraz- game website

I was on Jason Mraz's website looking to order his new album when I came across a puzzle game which allows entry into a certain part of the site. All you have to do place puzzle pieces together which then gives you access to certain content. I figured its a different way of navigating a website, similar to my research philosophy on playable menus.

Eye Tracking

I've recently been shown the wonder that is eye tracking. Its astounding how easy and quickly a user can get results from using it. I'm going to be implementing it into my project to identify where users are actually looking on menus and how this can be useful when designing playable menus.

Time permitting I'd also like to use it within the game development projects this year to identify whether players are identifying puzzles, as some are placed above the player, as well as to see if players are paying attention to the environment art.

Case Studies

For my research into Menu & Tutorial design I've been looking at a select few console, mobile and motion controlled games. Ill post my initial findings here later on however I'd like to mainly discuss my narrative project this year.

I'm looking at breaking the fourth wall in games and what sort of effect it can have on players immersion. I'm particular interested in the psychology behind what exactly is immersion as well as the advantages games have compared to film of including player sin the experiences based on the synthetic nature of video games.

Playable Eden

As I've spent 2-3 weeks of Christmas with sinusitis ive been in no position to work on any project, however I have been looking at a wide variety of existing games on different platforms and I've found a few in particular which already do what Im proposing. One in particular is PixelJunk Eden which asks the player to literally play the game's main mechanic by jumping and swinging on flowers to reach levels. As a player completes a level and flower grows and new levels become available.

Considering the game mechanics and controls arent necessarily familiar with most players, the fact my girlfriend (generally doesn't play games) loves this game and got to grips fairly quickly helps prove how playable menus can and do work.