Okay, I’ll be the first to say it - this is not working. That’s a day I’ve mainly spent staring at a screen but not writing much.

So. Let’s do a new approach to writing a project report.

To understand my own thought processes, or rather, finding what they originally where, I’m going to analyse each section/screen of the game and pull apart why I did what, and what kind of research might have been behind it. It’s a good thing I have my research archives and my Pre-Development Archive so that I can find things I thought ages ago.

Scene-to-scene

1. “Dundee Landmarks App”

What? The game starts with this deceiving title displayed over a fantasy-style map of Dundee for few seconds, until it fades away.

Why?

• I wanted the game to pretend to be a landmark app. This gave framework for my story (a ghost haunts your phone) and made for a nice breaking the fourth wall at the start.
• I wanted players to first be greeted with a map.
  • I’m proud of the map. It fits the game’s aesthetic.
  • Map is also result of playtesting and supervisor feedback. Earlier version of the game simply listed out the landmarks, and there was concern of this being the first screen of the game.

Research

• For drawing the map: Storybook maps, Dundee
• Nothing for the game pretending to be a normal map first

2. Warning guidance

What? A warning/guidance to encourage players to stay safe while playing.

Why?

• There are risks in playing outside. I needed to make sure people understood this before conducting any testing.
• It breaks the “this is an innocent app” illusion, but I like it - I think it also gets the hype up, and lets player know they need to go to the places in order to play the game.