Hero’s Journey

A hero’s journey is quite unlike the narrative theory as it contains more sections that are more developed and elaborate different parts of the story. It is known as being a more complicated version of Todorov’s narrative theory. The story begins at the home of the hero everything being as it would, content and at peace. The hero then receives a call to action that is a direct threat to something personal to the hero like the home or a loved one. It is displayed in many different ways like a phone call or an act of violence like the destruction of their home. The hero then meets someone that will help him toward his goal that provides aid and guidance like a mentor. The mentor is a key turning point for the journey of the hero as the mentor provides something that will not be forgotten or go unused by the hero like knowledge or teaching him in a certain way to defeat evil. After their training’s complete the hero must then cross through the threshold between what he was and the new person he must become to be able to triumph. This is when the hero must leave their familiar place and cross through into an new place that they are unfamiliar with in order to start their quest. Now set on their journey, the hero is confronted with a series of challenges that put the hero through some conditions in order to become stronger and capable and complete their quest. They could make allies to aid them on their quest or in even create their own enemies to serve as obstacles to further the completion of their ultimate goal. The hero then finally reaches his goal and must face their foe, where the hero must use all of the skills they have been taught in order to overcome the trouble in front of them. Through this ordeal the hero experiences a metaphorical death and rebirth in which the hero sheds their old selves and come out of it as a new individual. The hero then receives a reward for the completion of their mission. The hero then ventures back after their quest to the safe and familiar place that the story originated from

I have decided to use this theory in my game as it provides multiple options for my main character to go through. However in my game the endings will be different as the choices made throughout the story inflict the hero.

Binary/Character opposition

Binary opposition is the system in which two opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right.

As my game is based on choice the protagonist and antagonist is the same person. You are able to choose what path you want to take so for you good and evil is a matter of perspective. The main character is of himself his own enemy as if he chooses the wrong path it can lead to loneliness, selfishness and hatred.

Rotascoping

Today’s lesson consisted in us taking scene from The Incredibles and traced over it and each frame that we did made the movement more fluid and made it an animation. I did this by placing a blank keyframe on the desired frame and drew over each frame.

Game mechanics

Donkey Kong Country was the game we played today and its is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo. Its mechanics ranged from barrels that you throw to kill enemies and get a companion to help you out. You mainly jump over or on top of enemies to kill them much like Mario, and sort of jog your way to the end unless you hold a button down which allows you to sprint.

Flash, Lip syncing

Today we worked on Flash and was primarily working on working on the syncing the lips with a recording.

GDD

The audience of my game is those who like maze games were you try to find your way through sort of like a puzzle, although you don’t find your way through looking. You find the way out by choosing who you want to team up with as you have a choice whether if you want to go solo or with the group.

Personally I would give my game a Pegi rating of 12 as there is infrequent swearing but then no sexual intent.

Pegi Rating

Today we learned about the Pegi rating system and how some games are shunned upon and specifically targeted for being able to “indoctrinate” or “brainwash” children into murder, terrorism and criminal activity in general even though due to the age rating for the game, children would not be able to even buy the game. What the media and such should really be going after is ignorant parents and guardians as all they have to do is search up the game and see what the game contains. Not going to the extent as banning every game that sheds blood or depicts women in a sexual manner, but for parents to have the sense to know what is right and what is just a simulator.

Personally I would give my game a Pegi rating of 12 as there is infrequent swearing but then no sexual intent.

Daily Story

1. Run off to escape
2. Stay and ask what is going on

Choice 1: He gets up in a hurry trying to avoid contact with all of the people and starts to sprint off into the distance. While sprinting he thinks of what has happened, why would this happen, how did this happen and before he even got to finish what he was thinking he loses concentration and tumbles on the grass. Trying to get up to collect his thoughts he notices that even he did run off he couldn’t escape. The circular inner part was covered in grass with trees but surrounding it was what seemed to be a tall concrete wall.

Choice 2: He asks “What the fuck is this place, why am I here, who am I”? A person comes forward and answers with his British accent, “Hey, keep calm mate. You’re in maze, and rather big one at that. My name is Brodie; it’s alright now you’ll just need to relax”. Brodie seemed concerned for him but didn’t bother too much as so many others had gone through this when they came from the cage.

Narrative Theory

The format of any classic story starts with the Narrative theory. The Narrative theory consists of five core stages of a story that make up many films, animations and games.

The Equilibrium is the beginning stage when everything is good, content and peaceful.

The disruption of the Equilibrium is the second stage in which the protagonist has had something happen to them, someone might be need help and requires an item to help them to get better or most likely in stories the home of the protagonist has been destroyed or someone close has been killed, which leads to the third stage.

The Recognition of the disruption is usually set straight after the second stage when the protagonist has realised what happened is in fact true and not a dream or illusion and they make a goal that they want to reach. In most scenarios it might be revenge aimed at the antagonist that may of destroyed their home or killed or captured a loved one so their goal is to get stronger and of enough skill to overcome the antagonist, or maybe just on a journey to find an object to help someone. Sort of the “montage” stage that shows the protagonist getting stronger and more capable of whatever it is that they want to do.

The fourth stage is stage were there is an attempt to repair the damage. The penultimate part of the journey when the protagonist will confront the antagonist for what he has done and seek retribution. A battle will happen to decide who will win, good or evil, or if it is a story without evil per say but a milestone that has to be overcome like the retrieval of an otherwise impossible to get object or a trial to prove worthiness, then that will be the attempt to repair as they will have to conquer their objective to be the hero.

The fifth and final stage is when the protagonist has finished their journey and fulfilled their destiny/objective and triumphed over evil so that can come home and repair what has been damaged with their new perspective on life.