The birth (and death) of an idea

Since my last blog entry I've somewhat gathered an idea, thought about it for a few days, listened to other people's ideas and realised my heart just wasn't in my own, and then scrapped said idea. 

So! I'll begin by talking about what I had and then move on what I'm hoping to have. 

The original idea:

My original idea was to look at the use of colour in characters and environments, and see how players react differently depending on the colours used. 

For example, if a player was given a scene with an NPC running towards them, would they react the same way to a colourful NPC as they would to one with a darker colour scheme? Or would Mario look as friendly and like as much of a good guy if his colour scheme was more like Waluigi's?

I thought it would be interesting to compare these things and work with different colours in the same scenes, though honestly my heart just wasn't in it. I liked the idea and found the research that I had done already interesting*, it just wasn't filling me with the same passion that my previous projects have - which isn't a good sign! 

*I'll write about the small amount of research I've found in a blog following this one, just for reference in case it'll come in handy later.

The NEW idea:


After talking to my good friend Matt, eating a flapjack, and drinking an overpriced coffee... I think I have my new idea.

We talked about my Futures project from last year - Virtual Realitea - and how much fun I had with that and the potential it has to be an actual product. I was super sad to hand that project in, so I would really love to be able to expand on it further in new ways. 

Also with the announcement of Pokemon GO, the VR meets real world market is one that will start to grow more and more as we go along, so this project could be more relevant than ever if pursued.

Rather than doing the same Tea and Monsters work from last year, I'd like to explore more real world objects - maybe things that people see faces in? (that just came to me and that sounds kinda cool so I thought I'd add it in there???)

The game 'Ingress' focuses on real world landmarks and large scale places for the player to scan and 'capture' with their phone, but what about that one tree stump in your local park that looks like an old man?  Or that little corner of the games studio that looks like it could home a family of friendly moths with a passion for home cooking?

I still have a lot to think about for this idea, but I'm a lot happier with this one than I was originally. This idea is sitting much better and communicating more with my Inspiration Station, so that's a good sign. :)

For now I'm going to look into different VR apps, not necessarily game ones, and see what kind of inspiration they bring. Niantic, if you're reading this - it'd be super useful if you could release Pokemon GO early, just saying. ;)