Research

02.03.26

Secondary Research - Semiotics

 

02.03.26

Secondary Research - Theme - 1

The subject of my investigation into mythology is a book called 'Gods & Monsters Myths & Tales: Epic Tales'. What I aim to learn when conducting this research is how Gods can be depicted as a physical person or figure within the story itself. I'm looking for how effective this is in context to the story and what I can take away for my work.

In this book, there are several short mythological tales with some pertaining to God. One that I picked out to read was one in relation to that, called 'God Abandons Earth'. 

In this story, God is so pleased with his creations of man and woman, he decides to lower the sky close enough so that humans could touch it and live close to him.

However, after people start to abuse the the sky above them to either wipe their hands, take pieces from it or knock at it, he became frustrated coming down to adress a lady who had been making a ruckus at night, where he was then hit directly in the eye with a very long pestle, furious with this, he pushed the sky up highward and remains up above where nothing could touch him from grounds height.

When I relate this to the human condition, this story provides an interesting prospect of not taking something for granted, being humble to whatever is offered/given to you, may it be taken away.

I think the part of the text I find most interesting is how furious god may act and how his trust was betrayed in the hands of what he deemed pleasant and was very well proud of, However because of the action taken against his home and himself, he rises into anger, which in context to god as a biblical figure and in a relam of power is a terrifying thought.

I think the part I find least interesting is how very absurd everything is with unrealistic actions made by people making the story feel less ground and more comedic, such as the lady who attacked God attempting to build a bridge skyward up to heaven, and attepting to take a piece from below to use at the top, killing everyone who was there to witness its creation and the lady herself. In my project i due to conduct i will try to avoid something like this.

Thinking about what I could take away from this, one thing I could take away is God's presence in the story itself and how he was a real, physical being, not just talked about or hinted at, etc. That can add levity to a story and give a supernatural, interesting theme and tone.

03.03.26

Secondary Research - Theme - 2

The subject of my investigation into mythology is the story of 'Adam and Eve' What I aim to learn from this is how God is depicted as a higher power and as an explanation for why there could be suffering in the world, told through this myth. 

This is a story told through the book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible from chapters 1 to five, the first story. In this story, God created humans in his image, with one of the first being Adam. God fashions Adam, so they place him into a place called the 'Garden of Eden', however, he is then told this: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die". In the story itself, this is seen as a Command from God.

Later, they create Eve from one of Adam's ribs to be a companion, both are shown as characters to be innocent and show no sense of morality or death, or much else from what the story gives us.

 Later during the story, a serpent convinces Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, giving the fruit to Adam who also eats it, this gives them additional knowledge, such as destructive concepts of shame and evil with God cursing the serpent and the ground with god telling both Adam and eve the consequences of their actions before banishing them.

When I relate this to the Human condition, this story symbolises the relationship between humankind and God as well as the journey from innocence before being presented with consciousness and thought, with the duality of good and evil.

I think part of the text I like is the setting for this story, being called Eden, it's depicted as a holy and tranquil place with pure grass, trees, and delicious fruit from all the trees surrounding the area.

What I find least interesting is how God was written in this story, coming off as selfish and morally incorrect, as his "command" comes off more as a warning with how it is phrased.

Additionally, the punishment given for both Adam and Eve was completely ridiculous, seeing as they were depicted as clueless and innocent by nature, making god seem incompetent when it wasnt the intent.

If I were to take anything away from this, the land of Eden is an interesting setting, I feel, that would work greatly in a game made with mythological and magical intent.

09.03.26

Construct 3 - Experimentation

During my research, I was curious about gameplay mechanics I could implement in my final piece, so I created a new Construct 3 file as a simple testing ground to test 2 mechanics and see how they would work.

I did this by following tutorials set on YouTube, 1 being a singular video while the other was a video series in a playlist, which I will link below.

Using these, I was able to create code for both being able to wall jump and dash, which I compiled into 2 separate folders for better organisation and to not interrupt any other code. 

How it works is by checking if the player is by a wall and setting the vector of the player higher to have them bounce off the wall when they press a key I set.

For the dash, it was different as I had to use the bullet behaviour to push the player in the direction they were pressing a key to for a short time.

However, when dashing to the left, the player gets flipped upside down. I have tried to rectify this with a band-aid solution to flip them right-side up when this action is called, but this comes with other issues. I will need to check this later.

UPDATE: As of writing i have rectified the problems I spoke about earlier with the dash mechanic, as I had a toggle on which set the angle automatically (set angle) in the properties window under the 'Bullet behaviour', which messed with my code, flipping my player upside down.

To avoid this in the future, I should check the properties of behaviours more often for them to work properly and prevent issues like those that occurred before.

I additionally coded in two other things, that being Jump buffering, which allows the player to save an input press, that being jumping, so when they land, they jump again immediately.

I also added coyote jumping for easier platforming, so that when you fall off an edge, you are able to jump as long as you are in grace time to do so.

Doing all this helped me figure out controls for the game I might make in the future for my game project. Additionally, it has given me better insight into how to make smoother and more lenient player controls to not frustrate the player.

Additionally, I did some player tests with two of my peers in my classroom, the most common criticism I got was changing the key to dash from 'Shift' to another, maybe double-tapping a movement key. This is something I will look into for the future.

Exported Game:

10.03.26

Primary Research - Player Acting 'Celeste Classic'

    

10.03.26

Secondary Research into a character - Galeem

The subject of my investigation is Galeem from Super Smash Bro's Ultiamte's Adventure mode, World of Light. What I aim to learn from this is how god-like entities representing both light and dark can have controlling tendencies, even if shown off as good.

The story is told by showing the player the actions this being takes and leaving most of the context up to the player's interpretation. from how I interpret it;

This character is an infiltrator who presents himself to the Super Smash Bros. world, aiming to engulf it in light and restore order to a world they deem chaotic. Doing so, though, tears away free will from any fighter who had been taken in it, becoming a copy for an ever-growing army and trapped within an unconscious state.

When relating this to the human condition, I believe this symbolises a higher power oppressing a person's free will, locking them away from doing things their own way.

Part of the story I like is how simple but effective Galeem is to the plot of World of Light, and how his motivations are simple but enough for you to get going on your adventure.

What I find least interesting, though, is how Galeem doesn't exactly make much of a presence throughout the runtime of World of Light. I think if there
were more cutscenes of them being shown off, either doing things or reigning high above, symbolising their power even more. I think they can be made to be more effective in the story.

However, I love the idea of a godlike figure designed as a pure being known to be depicted as good with a sinister twist.

I like this idea, and if I were to take away anything, it may be this plot point and design feature.