Project 2

This is the brief information document for this project. This document allows me to keep all of the information for this project in one place so I don't have to go to multiple different sources such as the Unit Syllabus and Unit Site just to check and see if there's anything I'm missing for this project.

This document isn't essential to this project at all, but I find it handy to keep the information all in one place for organization purposes. It will also make it more clear what the actual objective of this project is, which is always important.

This is the document that I have used to plan out my workflow and what I will be using/what I need to do in this project. It consists of the workflow, various sources and references, and key working points for the 3D model and materials, the user interface and the audio.

Things are a little less over-exaggerated as compared to project 1, such as with the interactions and the user-interface.

In my research of a viking shield, preferably one that looks similar to the model I'll be using, I found some useful sources of similar looking shields and the look and materials of them. 

The two shown to the right, despite the fact that they're of a latex shield designed for LARPing (live action role playing), show a pretty good example of what a typical viking shield (one that looks similar to my chosen model) from the Middle Ages would look like, with the colours, materials and finishes, as well as the smaller details like the bolts in the iron frame. 

I also found the diameter of this shield through the source of these images, Epic Armouries Australia, which is listed as 69 centimetres.

As part of looking into an effective inventory and equipment system for my project, I took a look at how other games have done their equipment and inventory system. I was mainly focusing on the equipment systems of games as that will be the most important system in my project.

For some examples of the equipment system from other games, I went around some Discord servers I was in and asked for some suggestions of games that have a drag-and-drop system for equipping armour and defensive items (such as shields), and got some good suggestions that I looked into. I found some games like Rust and 7 Days to Die (pictured right) that have a very similar drag-and-drop equipment system to the one I'm looking to create. Although they are laid out differently, the systems are essentially the same.

I also found that Minecraft's equipment system (also pictured right), while simpler, is more directly related to the equipment system I'm looking to create, as that system focuses more on armour and defensive items (such as shields) instead of a more general purpose system for things like clothing.

I also took a look the Gestalt Principle, more specifically the key laws for the Gestalt Theory for computer screen design. As outlined in a research paper on the Gestalt Theory by Chang, D.; Dooley, L. and Tuovinen, J. E (2002), "The Gestalt laws explain how the individual elements from the environment may be visually organised into fields or structures (Koffa 1935). Traditionally the Gestalt laws are used to suggest how static visual elements should be presented in order to achieve effective visual results."

I found that my idea for the UI of this project follows along with some of the laws presented in the Gestalt Theory, such as the Law of Continuity with the individual equipment panels in the Equipment section having lines that connects it to the corresponding part of the player, and the inventory and equipment system following the Law of Balance/Symmetry as it equally fills both sides of the screen, giving a sense of balance/symmetry.