Project title: Ocean, Whale, Us
Project Statement of Purpose:
The focus of this project is the marine debris. In numerous recent reports, a number of marine creatures, such as whales, dolphins, are documented to have dead from marine debris. The debris usually come from people dumping waste from coast, on beaches, from boats, even from the air. When the density of the marine debris reaches a certain point, the marine creatures would easily suck the debris in, which would result in suffocating easily. Therefore, my partner and I would like to design a game, where human, the player 1, would help whale, the player 2, to escape its situation being trapped by the debris, unable to breathe. The greatest challenge is about the general logic of the game, through which the user has to feel pleased, enjoyable. The game is intended for every human-being, as the ocean is the shared assets of the entire human race. Humans would also be seriously affected by the pollution in the ocean. Through playing our game, we are hoping to establish the awareness of not polluting the ocean among the users, otherwise their friend (the second player) would die.
Project Plan:
April 26- April 27:
Basic design for the whole game and detailed compositions
Research on how to write the code for the game
Basic design for the animation
Decide and start to prepare necessary materials
Decide the ways of interaction and console for the two players (adjustable later)
April 28-May 9:
Finishing the code
Finishing the animation
Finishing the circuits
May 10-13:
User testing
Make final adjustments according to the feedbacks
(the sensitivity of interaction for the audience, debugging the circuit and codes, thinking about whether the informative significance of the game is clear enough for the audience, ways of displaying the game for presentation)
May 14-17:
Presentation
Context and Significance:
My definition of interactivity in the preparatory research, which emphasizes the emotional, mental take away for the audience after the interaction, has reminded us to set the topic under a broader background. It also aligns with my project in terms of the way user would interact, this is also a unique part of our project. As the human player would use an oar to control the forward and backward of the boat. The whale player would probably use another bodily sensing part to interact. The project is significant because it could educate people the harm of dumping waste into the ocean.