Diary:
Monday 23/01/17
At the start of the week I began work for Animation class. I began sketching down ideas for the character I would be creating for my game. The character I'm looking to create is an old woman. I went online and unfortunately I didn't find too many videos that fit the idea that I had but I found plenty of pictures on Google. I found that most designs of elderly woman included them wearing cardigans and dresses. This is something I must take into consideration when designing my character. I then drew some animated poses that I think will come in handy when designing the character.
Concept:
Monday 23/01/17
My initial idea for my game was to be inspired by the game Unravel. In Unravel you play a character called "Yarnie". Yarnie is a character that comes to life from an old woman's ball of wool. At the start of the game you see an old woman reflecting on all the memories of her life before she heads to bed. A ball of wool falls out of her basket and that's when Yarnie comes to life, he then goes on adventures through the old woman's life giving an insight into all the old woman has been through. This helps create an emotional attachment to the old woman. I really love this concept and is something I would love to include in my game. Here is a trailer for Unravel which showcases what I have discussed
Wednesday 25/01/17
Before starting with my elevator pitch I sat down with my mother over lunch and discussed the poem "The Stolen Child" by W.B Yeates. Straight away my mother began telling me what her interpretation of the poem was. She told me all about stories she was told as a child long ago about fairies taking children. Also thanks to my Grandparents in Mallow Co.Cork I would overhear them talking about "Fairy Rings" and how farmers would be terrified if they came across them. Because according to legend it is very unlucky for people to interfere with the Fairy Rings. These stories fascinated me as a child so I was very excited to do research into these mysterious things.
Immediately I went onto Google and researched everything I could find about Fairies and Fairy rings. That's when I came across the myth about "Changelings".
Below this I give you the research that I gathered and the concept I created after this research.
"The concept I have created is for a game called "Síofra". This game will be based loosely on both the poem of W.B Yeates called "The Stolen Child" and also the ancient Irish myth of "The Changeling".
Changelings in Irish mythology took babies and replaced them hence the name "Changeling". Síofra in Irish means an elvish or changeling child.
After reading the stolen child I was inspired by Yeates' referencing an Island where they have hid the faery vats. When reading this poem I quickly discovered this was describing the old Irish myth of young children and babies being stolen by fairies. The reason for this is the fairies want to protect the child from the human world that is too full things that will make it cry for reasons it cannot apprehend yet.
My game will follow the story of an elderly woman named Siofra who looks back on her childhood, relieving her past experiences. The game starts with Síofra as an old woman reading by the fire in her home.
For the first level of the game Síofra remembers a particular moment from when she was a small girl. She that was out walking through the fields on her way home when she happened to fall into a fairy ring.
Fairy rings are considered in folklore to be magical places where fairies gather and should not be interfered with by humans.
Upon entering the fairy ring Síofra discovers the fairies are very reluctant to take her back to her family. So for the first level Síofra struggles to escape from this magical place. The magical place is inspired by the imagery provided in Yeates' poem.
Yeats describes where the rocky mountains of Sleuth Wood goes into the lake, there lies an island covered in leaves and trees, where herons make so much noise with their big wings they wake up the water rats. Inspired by this my game will take place on an island covered in woodland.
My idea is for my game to have a main menu. Next you will be sent to a drawing of Síofra sat at the fireplace reading her book. You click a button for "Next" that pops up on screen and it sends you to a page of the book. It gives you the backstory of the level. Finally you play your way through a level of the game. It starts off with Síofra in this magical place with water and trees. The only things I'm unsure about at the moment is do I make the enemies fairies or do I go with something else. And also what type of puzzle to incorporate into the game. But I'm sure by my next blog I will have done more thinking and will land on a final idea.
Thursday 27/01/17
Now that I have a backstory put together for my game I started to come up with some ideas as to how my characters will look. I am going to tweak the elderly Síofra design to something more realistic. I am thinking of going for a lifelike drawing of her sat by the fire reading a book to include in the opening scene. Another aspect of the game I need to have further thought on is the design of the young Síofra. I am thinking of using something old and familiar such as a girl's nightdress which people would associate being in movies and books set in the 17th - 20th Century. When doing a little bit of research I came across this picture.
Something like this is what I am thinking of going with for the main character in game which will be young Síofra. I have yet to start sketching out ideas but this is something I plan on doing this upcoming week.