#3: Keeping tempo
“A story is really just a very interesting thing to do with the air.”
Project update
This week I’ve been assembling resources and materials to facilitate the script creation process. I’ve been writing strategic documents about my intention, planned creative direction, theme, act structures, distribution of story information, mechanisms for advancing the narrative, emotional weighting, and above all… symbolism. Symbolism is something that has permeated my imagination since I was born, and really, I see symbolism in everything. Because etymology is a thing and we might get into confusion here, I’ll just say that what I mean by “symbolism” here is the deliberate substitution, replacement or representation of one thing with another, to deliver more meaning than either of the things separately.
I’ve been thinking about the nature of relationships between things, themes, events and characters. I’ve been considering whether it’s best to represent an important, real, living person from my life as a person, or whether their importance and symbolism to my life might be more powerfully evoked if they are represented in some other way. For example, by an inanimate (or animated) object with zero lines of dialogue? Is a life event important to deliver as a process that takes place over time, or should it be portrayed through exposition, or a colour palette rather than words? Above all, which of these things advance the vision, the purpose, the goal of the project to emotionally move you and inspire you to love your fellow human, improving people’s lives? I have so much to say on this, but because I’ve been so busy on my challenge to build a game in a week, I’ll leave the exposition for next time.
Personal development
I made a game in a week and a half! It’s called Zora’s Island, but unfortunately you can’t play it just yet. I hit snags right as I was trying to make it publicly available, and I have some bugs to sort through before I can share it. You could play it in about 15 minutes if you wanted, or you could use it as a relaxation aid for as long as you want. The game has you freely wandering around a recreation of an imaginary place that I invented to escape depression, stress and anxiety many years ago. I would shut my eyes, and transport myself to this idyllic island, whether for 3 deep breaths or an hour, to bring myself peace during hardships. Sometimes I would sit cross-legged in the gazebo above the sand, and watch, and listen, as the sea rolled in and out. Other times I would follow the course of the river through the trees, or walk up a steep hill to a cosy cave where I always kept a warm fire going, and I could look out over the treetops.
This game has nothing to do with The Vessel of Argeus, but I undertook this challenge as an exercise in stretching myself creatively, working in tight timeframes to specific goals, and simply finishing things. I am a serial perfectionist if there are no time pressures, so it’s great for me to work to tight deadlines as often as possible. I didn’t actually finish in the 7 days allocated, it took me about 10, but the fact that I started, progressed, and finished it is something I’m shocked and surprised by. The game is simple - it only has 1 mechanic, where you walk around the island and click on books, listening to voiceovers as you wander from one book to the next. When I have a spare moment, I’ll upload it so that it can be played directly through my website.
It will be available very soon, and I’ll share it as soon as I can!
Games I’ve played
With my 1-week game project I didn’t have time to play a single game for myself, but I’m really looking forward to an opportunity to relax this coming week, to work on my own project, and to wind down a little.
Personal reflections
I find that sometimes it’s hard to know why you’re making progress. Sometimes it’s because you’re passionate about the work, sometimes it’s because you have a deadline and are on autopilot. Other times it’s because you’re afraid of failure and are being propelled by the expectations of others, and yet other times, simply because you know the material well and can regurgitate it by rote. I’ve always been curious about the unknowability of motivation, our own thoughts, and the things about ourselves that we’ll never know. If you have ever undertaken ‘inner child’ work / therapy, you may understand the experience of, inexplicably, learning things about yourself, from yourself, as simultaneous mentor and mentee. This, coupled with the phenomena where you learn more about a subject by trying to teach it to others, makes undertaking a project to map my life experiences onto a fairytale framework an enlightening experience into my own understanding of, well… everything.
Love you all - see you next time.
