Month - 10-10 to 11-10-21

Skills I developed during this time:

Unity Project Settings:

Player Settings - learned some aspects of how builds will be set up

Forever Endless Runner Engine -

This tool has been an amazing experience to learn from. This tool embodies much of what I am interested in with this whole project. Just a great time fighting this tools, as I don’t have a lot of experience with Unity in general, and thus, I have been force fed a lot of new things to understand inside of Unity. It has made a tremendous jump in my ability to share with my students. Changes happened on the development of this tool so fast, that it was changing fast, but understanding how they built their tools really helped to build a more efficient understanding of how to utilize it.

GitHub - this was interesting. I was used to Perforce, but knew I needed to learn something for myself. This was a challenge. I don't know if it was hard, but it did not make much sense for a bit. Got past things after a break, and it led to a better understanding of how to get into the software.

Jira

Whoah, wat a weerd programm.

This has been fun, and has allowed me to create a critical concept of my production timeline.

This has allowed me to set up and see my general timeline on this project. It's good for my gap analysis.

Trying to tie Github and Jira together is interesting and convoluted to me at this point, but I am sure i will crack it.

11-7 to 11-14 Week 9

Week 9 has been like a vent of steam escaping. I focused on my portfolio and building on my skills.

The programmer and I are breaking down my initial design doc to get it in a better place. We need to find a common location in order to go over the tools I have, and show him how they fit the systems I am thinking about. I am sure he has a job, I know he is newly wed, and so I need to use him as effectively as possible and maximize his time on this project.

11-1 to 11-6 week 8

Got a Programmer.

Got an Audio Guy.

Will need to verify they can play.

Missed some blog opportunities, been so hectic.

Tired of this chair, I need a new chair.

I am reading some of the classmate’s work, and I can sense their anticipation on hearing back from the review. I look forward to reading their experiences and comparing that to their websites.

24= 7

This last past week, I have continued working on organizing the 45-hour review and my assets for the gallery. I've actually even sent an application in without remembering my proper gallery website is completely destroyed because of the update a month ago. So I had to share my thesis website project which means I probably won't get the job because the art there won't relate to the work I'm doing. Or that they're looking for. Excuse me, they're looking for 2D artists not 3d artists..

Scheduled the Review. Winter Quarter, week 6.

17= 6

A Last push to week 6. Major Milestone in terms of work. Busting the butt to be clean for the Review!!! Wrote a lot on my paper,

Holy shit, I Missed the REVIEW!!! Now I feel a relief over me, as this was super stressful and I was not even really considering doing this.

Feedback from the professor and the classmates show it is not a real problem, just as long as I keep my eyes on what I am doing and what was successful or not successful with my classmates.

Worked on the low fidelity this weekend, and really feel I am in a rhythm myself

New thesis, slightly different, a lot more refined towards my new argument. Really excited about this new direction, as it has reduced my thesis work down a little more directly.

10-9-21

Finding the game last night just hit like a gut punch. I coached today, which helped me breathe a little and recover from my gut punch.

I also talked to my advisor, and got great feedback.

The same research I have been doing over the last year is not out the window like the last time I had to change directions, but, I just need to redirect the attention a little. What an emotional night last night, the idea of starting over once again was debilitating.

So, my goals are to quickly catch the hell up.

10-8-21

https://www.endeavorrx.com/treatment/

It already fucking exists.

fml

10-6-21

Way behind after the cold crap I caught last week, but still healing from it. I am focused on getting caught up again this week.

PUtting together my website to clarify my thesis review.

Found a good video on YT, and I am currently working on the contact email to make a connection about this. This will be the beginning of more emails I will use to reach out to my research from previous weeks.

10-4-21

Updated my unit 3 submissions a total day late as I came down with a bug which flooded my head and chest with the grossness. I am more or less up to date with my tasks, yet I feel completely behind and under the pressure of this thing. I think this is where I am supposed to be, though, so I am trudging along.

What comes next is working on the visual and refining the research for my testing. I plan on reaching out to the health care professionals with a series of questions relating to this project to see if I can further refine my goals and testing procedures.

10-2-21

New month, same problem - defining quantitative data for a subject which is only vaguely defined. Found some new info about brainwaves, which I will define as quantitative, as there is data backing a good amount of this data up, and then, defining the qualitative data relating to this all.

My initial low fidelity concept is not super strong, but it at least offers a simple view into my goals. I will work on more visuals to develop ideas further, but this week was complicated to find time to really push into this aspect too deeply. I will see what I can whip together this weekend, although it won’t be as developed as I would prefer.

9-30-21

Mrs Mooney informed me I have until the end of Summer 22 to finish this degree. With only Thesis and the Review left, and while I want to keep building momentum, I will also want a few things locked down before I go asking for this extra time.

An extra quarter or two (3) could really help me with refining my Visual’s impact and allow for a longer testing period for the Written to help prove my theory, in either direction.

The discussion board has been helpful in rounding my direction off, the input is good, and direct in their inquiries. My framework is still a little shaky as my testing in qualitative and quantitative methods is still in working fashion.

The trick is to quantitate something which has only become significantly larger and more vague as a prognosis and understanding grows. To pinpoint even one specific thing is challenging, so trying for multiple arguments to help solidify my theory is even tougher.

Autism has become a Spectrum of concepts which define how a small group of people interact with one another or in larger social situations.

My son, who is still a major influence for this project, and I talk all the time in brief stints about this subject and how his experiences and my experiences relate. We both deal with high functioning levels of the spectrum, him more so than me. I am ADHD, and my son is ADHD with some similarities to AS. Nothing in my diagnosis was quantifiable, even the diagnosis was not considered legitimate enough to allow for prescriptions. My son faced similar problems which come up from time to time when reaching out for help.

So, at this point, I will be picking up correlation types of data, which may not tap into the qualitative/quantitative research enough. There are good things here, and there are annoying things here. One, as the reading suggests, is if I find it directly stated in research, then I am heading the wrong direction. Well, check that off. Second, the reason for the first is because it is so hard to define AS correctly, and can only be seen by associated symptoms and reactions to stimuli.

9-28-21

Influences of my project include many things, but let's start with my son as a major one. It was him who inspired me to build into this research.

We were at his mom's house one winter, he was required to do a homework assignment, which he didn't want to do. She agitated him to a certain point, and in turn, we both agitated her to she snapped at us. He was in a high state of anxiety and could not focus. She left the house to meet with some friends.

I had him do a drawing.

The drawing started as scrambled, angular, and showed his agitation. Eventually, he relaxed and ended up drawing a dragon-dinosaur thing, using clean, measured, strokes.

The way he went from a jerky movement to a clean motion says a lot on how movement can inspire relaxation. This was an inspiration as a research avenue, which only grew as played games later.

The games themselves weren't the total inspiration, but pieces were. Far Cry series and Assassin's Creed both have designed aspect where the player can slide down slopes. This is fun.

In the real world, surfers catching a tube, snowboarders boarding on a virgin slope, and skateboarders riding giant concrete tunnels all influence my idea.

9-26-21

Spent the day buildingi into my Self Review Checklist, and it was completely useful in building some input on areas where I was stuck, mostly in testing. I am not done yet, but I am close.

Timeline for Project

9-25-21

Outline and paper organization day. Filling out as much of the Self Review as possible, aming for completion as it relates to where my research and development are at.

I have begun to pinpoint testing markers, and will begin developing simple progression in my visual component so I can begin testing on devices. My goal is to understand the process of android development from unity and start working on simple builds.

I will tweak the game doc to intertwine the visual and written components effectively.

9-24-21

My workload this weekend to address the comments from Professor this and last week; and here is the link to my blog site

The Gap Analysis is coming along and I plan on finishing it up by this weekend. Interestingly enough, even though I had trepidations last week, I think I have found a system which may help define my testing parameters, and hopefully fuel my game design. The big goal is to incorporate my research into my visual component, of course, but to specifically keep the data wrapped into the game itself as much as possible. Being that I am looking for a game to relax, adding polls before and after the gaming experience seems to against the point.

Regardless, I am looking into this system, named DSM-5 as a means to measure Autism Spectrum within children. More to come this weekend, but this is an exciting discovery in my research and for this project!

++++

The research proved to be challenging to use, but offered areas I can pinpoint my argument around, as well as put into testing methods.

9-22-21

My main website basically dropped refresh rates and load speeds to a point I was done with it. So, I deleted the files and built them up again. I got it up and running, but not quite to the level I need to have for this unit. Should be good to good by end of day today though. I will be using the site for my 45 hour review.

I won't lie, there is a large amount of pressure on this project and how I present it. I have been building in 3d for the last year, coming up with my visual component that my written component has fallen a little to the wayside.

I am feeling a little under the gun, but on the same note, I am in a decent place with the visual component. This being said, still a tremendous amount of work to accomplish.

9-21-2021

My main website basically dropped refresh rates and load speeds to a point I was done with it. So, I deleted the files and built them up again. I got it up and running, but not quite to the level I need to have for this unit. Should be good to good by end of day today though. I will be using the site for my 45 hour review.

I won't lie, there is a large amount of pressure on this project and how I present it. I have been building in 3d for the last year, coming up with my visual component that my written component has fallen a little to the wayside.

I am feeling a little under the gun, but on the same note, I am in a decent place with the visual component. This being said, still a tremendous amount of work to accomplish.

Testing Plan and Strategy (Validation)

• Does your testing plan create actionable insights with quantitative and qualitative data that will be used to provide actionable insights for the final written component and to test and validate the thesis claims?

• Can your claims be proven or disproven via testing and data?

As some of you have mentioned, I have some gaps in my basic outlines, defined as "more research needed," and the truth has come to a simple conclusion, which is also a sum of my anxiety for this project. That is testing. Testing for ADHD as a diagnosis has made some serious strides since I was diagnosed in 1996. I teach people who deal with ADHD and AS (Aspergers Spectrum), another area of progression in psychology.

The trick is define few things:

• What is relaxation or a relaxed state of mind?Conversely, what is anxiety, or an anxious state of mind?

• Then, how does one define measures and markers of this state of mind in any objectified manner?

This is where the testing concepts come to a wall. I need a testing system to create a data set from which to define what I believe in as my argument: Can games be used as a tool for relaxation, specifically towards young adults facing ADHD/AS?

To be honest, I have not heard this explicitly defined during this thesis project until Professor's video, so kudos, Professor Lomelino, and I totally appreciate that input from your videos.

Upon stewing on this aspect for over a year, I have not been able to define my problem specifically, so this comes as great news, and now I understand what specifically I need to hunt down, research wise:

• Professionals who diagnose and consider applications to handle young people who are diagnosed with ADHD/AS.

• Professionals who study and define terms about meditation and relaxation techniques.

• Objectified definitions of anxiety and relaxation in a format found in a gaming platform

How all this ties into my Visual currently will be based on motion, rhythm, and colors to help define a transformation from agitated to relaxed state. This is intended to be done through a lane running game style, grabbing notes to define notes in a song. Color choices (with shape specific for those who do not see color similarly) define a pattern which translates into parts of a song. The more a song is completed, the more the game world transforms from visually anxious to visually relaxing. The song will be specifically chosen and a world built around it. There is a challenge in how I can create this system quickly, or I could miss completely just based on this aspect.

9-19-2021

Been working hard on getting my website up and running, dusting off my documents and research links, and trying to get caught up to where class needs me. Professor added some real useful docs, which help me get where I need to be, so I will do my best to follow them effectively.

There will be some serious late nights coming into my future, and I need to stay on top of all these moving parts to keep things on track and successful.

Link to Thesis Framework

There are a lot of things which I am not fully aware of yet, but, I do believe I am in good spot when it comes to organizing my framework and outline.

11-30

Can I create a humble for the camera so the player does loops? Do I need to?

11-27

CHASE THE RABBIT!!!

the rabbit will create the "the best" pathway. Use a dummy object to run a trail with a mesh trail which creates the noteBricks!!!

Player will chase it like the Money Goblin from Diablo.

11-25

The player will have a constant forward motion, can't really stop as the flow is the whole point. The point of the loop is so the player has a second chance to hit the notes, based on the timing.

Maybe building the note loops as a basic measure of units. Beats are based steps, steps build parts, parts build measures. Measures build songs.

11-24

I have been able to instantiate pieces for a simple endless runner so what would stop me from creating a matrix of vertices from which I can use to spawn the _blockNotes into.

essentially taking the 2D matrix that's seen in that app called medley and adding a slight sine wave to it to give it some three-dimensionality

November 23rd

My views and visions of making a voxel type, view of the world would have a ray traced light bounce system,a should really play into how I see my world growing.

Maybe the notes don't move but they have a bounding box of a cube-shaped system that makes it a compounding box of collision.

not sure if it should be voxel but that really does sound interesting.

A voxel style appeal sounds exquisite but make it like soft boxes like the renders i saw as i grew up.

11-18-20

Forever Runner will work, I think

As player moves, they unlock blocks.

These open access to others:

- player can unlock it. When they hit one, they add to BlockCount

BlockCount defines what opens next blocks.

BlockBase: rendered cube;

-has bounce (tempo time);

-has trails ( color, length, flow type);

-has forward motion (swirl?);

-forward motion defined by "BlockType";

-Has particle splash for "Hit";

-goes dark for "miss"?

-has musical component ( snare, guitar note, etc), defined by BlockType;

-adds to counter (base block +?);

-has landing place established (place to stop forward motion + easing)

BlockType:

Named definition to specify when block appears.

As a block count is specified by user, this can define how erratic motion can be

Types:

BlockA: needs 0 BlockCount to unlock; BlockB visible; simple.music loop builds

BlockB: needs 4 BlockA items to open; BlockC appears, but out of reach (?)

BlockC needs 4 BlockB to become accessible to PC; BlockD appears nearby.

11-14-20

Cartoon car set up is super bouncy, there has to be better structures and numbers to emulate a board/boat.

Dig up some sort of sine based material to drive ground mesh to offer water like bounce. This will be dangerous if I can figure out some easing on the bounce, and some kind of limiter on the rolling of a vehicle.

Consider scaling the collider to make it different somehow... board shaped maybe?

11-12-20

Making a game that responds to the music.

Now that all the actual real-time pieces are coming together the focus needs turn back into the actual research and how I can prove my theory. The idea is that gameplay can reduce the amount of anxiety and stress in the mind of a person suffering from Asperger's Spectrum.

I need to define what triggers the emotional response and record the user's data in a way that creates information towards that theory.

My immediate thought is recording the movement of the player character inside the game arena, and by using the forever runner I need to create three to five levels of difficulty margins.

Thinking and not researching in my mind what makes an endless runner challenging is speed and tempo of obstacles to avoid. This translates to me and my game items that are hard to hit unless you have enough speed. This triggers a thought in my head saying that speed is maybe the major item to look for and record.

The best trail offers the fastest, cleanest travel. Measure Player Velocity. Accruing this value will be the definition of what unlocks (+note brick

When chasing the rabbit the player will see trails admitted from the rabbit these are the target trails for the player to travel upon.

The rabbit will spawn mini rabbits which will signify harder to hit spots which create more pieces of the song. These harder hit pieces will also gain more value in the collections that I am thinking about.

The other consideration is also the music in itself. How do I measure the users' appeal towards the music? How can I make sure that the music I choose will engage the user enough? How can I measure the user's willingness to explore the musical options?

11-7-20

I'm going to have to spend some time breaking songs down to a point of the level where I can give the player opportunities to unlock them.

This will be a huge bulk of repetitive boring work that has to be done.

November 5th I think

Create trees and beacons of direction based on things that bob in rhythm to the song.

imagine trees that will fluctuate the Christmas lights moving from trunk to top in the rhythm of a song. now add color to the little transition from top to bottom to indicate just like a traffic signal so that the player knows which way to go. Like moss on the east side of a tree.

It's a traffic cone or a traffic stop to help flow into the right areas of the song. The initial thought very much is AI but there's definitely a way to trick it or fake it with duct tape. Of Q

November 2nd

thinking about what my environment will look like I'm sitting in the shower and watching drops of hair run water drop through my hair. But then about it is that I could use this as the white rabbit chase method and each one of my pearls would represent one part of the music. So we would have certain curls and twirls representing the baseline, certain curls and twirls representing mid-range hertz and then there's more to represent the higher hertz. The idea would be to straighten the curls out and align it to where it creates a better pathway for the person to ride as if it were a long skateboard too.

The plan that's what I want to do is get a song and basically using a visual sequencer break down the song into measures and 4/4 time beats based on seconds and look at the color coding and where certain things hit in terms of notes hertz and rhythms.

October 31st whatever

maybe I should actually approach this entire visual in the same terms of the musical inference.

think of the starship guitar amp things you've been doing and apply it to these rhythms that you're talking about.

October 30th

One way I can make my measurements is by actually having a listener to record the amount of movements the players put on the stick.

There's got to be a command like on key down but for a controller like a stick; look it up.

October 27th

Thinking about how easy stretches out I remember pearl Otis marvel all these cats there's a purity to the extending sexually or elegantly towards the next level of playtime.

October 25th

https://youtu.be/fJGnC5wXZag

Using the link above to build a beat sequencer I should be able to create the tools needed to get my beat system established.

Using my best opinion that the beat will be the driving force for the colors and the actual rhythm of all the actual functionality of the notes.

The notes will still have to have an interactive functionality towards the actual player.

This beat analyzer has functionality tied to a button and what I want to do is change it from being a button to being the player colliding with they drive/sail.

The notes will

October 24th

This idea is the player is searching for and building "currents of rhythms." There will be an aspect of "chase the rabbit" with also creating new ones while making it an endless runner.

Players will unlock chunks of notes to make up rhythms based at essentially at certain hertz as rhythms and currents unlock, new ones will open up, showing players access points to new hertz and new parts of the song.

As notes get collected, adjacent currents become more visible. Their colors and forms develop each passing cycle of the rythm.

October 21st

Think of the squares and the layout like Billie Jean.

I'm not sure if the stars will be cubes that you dance on but the idea is that they work on the timing and you're looking for a certain color to hit a certain note or something along that line

10-4-2020

Built some Images which reflect some ideas for the environment.

It's sort of clicking, but lacking some immersive artistic values.

Need to begin basic game doc, as an official part of my pitch to SCAD.

Need to include premise and reason for my beliefs and predictions.

Need to portray this idea and how it still follows the definition of "game."

Need to define how it can be tested and reported, and in ways which do not intrude on the whole reasoning behind it. i.e. - can't put a poll at the end asking if they got relaxed.

Define a webspace for this project, a sub-domain built for purely presentation. Organize it based off of the outline above.

9-29-2020

Met with David Wyatt to discuss other art items, and when I steered the conversation towards my Thesis, he had some interesting ideas towards marketing and how to validate that marketing. There were exchanges, again, about making this a gamified music mixer. If my idea is truly unique enough, this as a music is critical to protect and move forward with. Can I dev on a boat? As long as I have the internet and the ability to learn, I could conceivably sweat through dev on a boat. Worry about that later.

Consider marketing concepts from David, though!

9-22-2020

The game level is going to be basically a broken bowl of spaghetti and the player will be using jumping skills and rhythm and flow to connect the pieces to start building up the music

The player will then use semi-open world mechanics to discover the bits of music they want to loop in their song

9-19-2020

Using rhythm to untangle the race track for the user.

The player will need to hit a speed marker to establish the beat. Then to add tracks at intervals which match the (measure?). Once a beat is established, the PC will focus on the next element of the song.

They wreck, it starts over (how difficult do I make if?)

Move into supporting elements and the player will need to maintain pace and rythm through balance and carving the tube. Ideally it can be pretty simple to add or change tracks, through path choices, jumps and other obstacles.

There are seven of these: Pitch, Duration, Dynamics, Tempo, Timbre, Texture and Structure.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elements_of_music

8-31-2020

So now working with 3DS Max and creating some ideas about what the background and environment would be like I stumbled across another concept that may help alleviate the idea of the anxious mind and how we could step through steps of relaxation.

The idea would be that the half pipe downhill slope that the PC will ride on will be made of individual cubes that are rotating and fluctuating in a fairly chaotic method, which become more organized and 'and in control' as the player gains speed and accomplishes tricks/jumps.

The goal of this is to emulate the disconnected fractured and hyper-mind that is associated when somebody on the spectrum is having an anxious moment to a situation. therefore by playing this game and fidgeting with the thumb sticks to create something graceful, smooth and in control the player will be able to step towards and past that anxious state.

This game world is subtly beautiful, but there are dangers and miscalculated challenges everywhere. The mind is already frantic and frustrated, the body is fidgety, the two need/rely on each other to get aligned so as to overcome the intensity being faced. The fingers will fidget and the mind will focus a bit on these actions as the fidgeting aligns with the PC motion.