A Reflective Practitioner

My chosen portrait is a collage of the work I have done. When I look at myself and think of what or who I am as a creative, I define myself by the work I do. I don't see a creative person, I see a person who is trying to find a solution to problems. Even my personal project Fractured is a problem with which I want to find a solution. As time goes on I am wanting to get into the game industry, to be involved in something larger than myself and to make a positive difference, Fractured is my solution to that. By proving my capabilities I plan to be noticed and find a way into that world.

With no single direction in so far as its topic, all of the projects being games of some sort, yes, but the topic of each being almost random. The reasoning behind this is my desire to learn and express a new skill. The way in which I go about my creative process I touched on in my creative practice talk, where I defined my creative process and the different routes I take to get to an end goal. These techniques I split into two areas, being inspired creativity and methodical creativity, the former being driven by what is currently on my mind, inspiration being fueled by the content I consume first and foremost. This means that any show I watch, any article I read, and image I see will effect my mood and so creative style.

When reflecting on the inspiration for the portrait above, I realised that the work included reflects what is currently on my mind, be that positive or negative. With the start of university I've found that my time is consumed with academic work whilst my mind is struggling to not dwell on work left incomplete. Looking at the piece I have noticed that most of my works are centered on grey scale, the majority of designs taking in the shape and symbols of the item first and foremost with colour as a distant second.

In the portrait you can see some flow charts, these are gameplay loops for some of Fractured's components, the break down of these mechanics being broken down into tasks. As with my creative process focusing on the flow of ideas as coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, I predominately focus on the practical aspect of my works, building a physical thing, my passion for creation being to have a tangible product with which to share with others

Within my process I appear to do nothing when initially set upon the task, however I spend a long time going over the question in my head, processing what is required. Sometimes I take a day or two to begin writing or working on a project, as if I dive right in, my lack of mulling it over becomes evident, ending up with a demoralizing flounder that further pushes back any effective production. So in reality, patience is a large part of my design process.

Overall I have a lot of progression to make, both academic and with my practical work. The mental strain of my work being reflected in what is produced, with the academic and practical sides both showing my current mental state, often reflected in their topic and quality.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikzentmihaly, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (Vol. 1990). New York: Harper & Row.

Curiosity and Creativity

A Door of Curiosity

With this task we are asked to look at these doors and select one, following each door dig deeper into why we chose that one.

What choices did you make? Why?

I have chosen the vault door, I find that I am drawn towards complex mechanisms. The little fiddly bits that come together to make the door function interest me, just like a Rube Goldberg machine that serves a purpose.

Does this say anything about you?

I feel this almost why I enjoy designing games, each piece of a game project coming together to create layer upon layer of little things to make something large and complex, and when looking back should not be seen as single components but a single complex mechanism.

What did you learn?

Upon looking further into safes and vault doors I found that most do not rely on a heavy deadlock system, where the sheer weight of an object keeps the door closed like a wooden plank behind a keep door, but lots of light mechanisms, almost delicate that slide into position with minimal resistance, with their resting state and dense material on multiple short but thick pegs keeping the door in place.

Various safes have different systems including pressurized glass plates and fluid systems to hinder tampering with the lock.

What inspired you to dig deeper?

The requirements of this blog made me dig deeper, supplemented lightly by my own interest in the complex little systems and movements.

Did you enjoy wandering the web free to discover knowledge at the whim of your curiosity?

I am not much of a wanderer. I will look with the intent of finding a goal, this is a parallel with real life as well. I will not go for a drive for the sake of going for a drive, driving is work for me (if it isn't go carts) and I will avoid it if there is no end goal, be it to go shopping, get to an appointment, or reach a class.

With the time pressure of other classes and projects, idle searching feels almost like a chore.

Did the lack of a clearly defined knowledge quest leave you feeling a little aimless or frustrated?

At first yes. As I further understood the end goal I found myself feeling more and more in control of what was required. I appreciate having an end goal and time to have it done by. A lack of restriction actually makes a task harder to complete, evidence of this is when trying to create a game with no rules. It doesn't really have much of an appeal, aimlessness is not interesting.

What part of this task did you enjoy most? Why?

Thinking about how why I chose the vault door in the first place. The reflection of the choice on my own style of design is enlightening and makes me question why I keep choosing these little mechanical designs.

What part of this task did you enjoy least? Why?

Needing to rewrite this whole damned thing because ctrl+R on a web browser does not redo a task like in most other applications, it just refreshes and loses everything you have written...... The frustration following this made the rewrite that much harder as the anger about the web page not saving what has been written feels like a broken system.

A Plan for Curiosity

An outline of your curiosity plan, identifying what sparks your curiosity and your creativity, and what deliberate steps you can take to increase your engagement in those things. 

I believe what sparks my curiosity is when a thing or things has a name or a function which refers to something else. An example of this was the other day when I saw a video about the most feared sounds of WW2, a few of them being machines or weapons that I have previously read about, but missed a bit of trivia that makes them more interesting. An example of this is the JU-88 Stuka, a dive bombing aircraft that was capable of pulling up under extreme load. The role of the aircraft was to provide close air support or precision strikes against key targets, the distinct shrieking they made was due to a pair of sirens fixed under their wings named "Jericho Trumpets", in reference to a biblical battle and the end of a war. I did not know about their biblical roots so learning about the name and what it refers to was an interesting segway.

New Models and tile set incoming!

Over the past few weeks I have been working on the civilian ship tile set. Civilian ships range in quality, some being self sustaining new age models, and some were built using preexisting components. This means that some hulls can resemble passenger aircraft, often using their fuselage for quick assembly. For most of these craft, take off and landing had passengers seated in commercial aircraft seating, stripped down to save on weight.

New screenshots will be coming soon with the first civilian level being polished!