Minor Project

14/4/2020 - 17/7/2020 (Week 1 - Week 14)
Lee Yu Hui | 0335787
Minor Project

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Project Process

Week 1

For the first class, we met up on Microsoft Teams due to the ongoing movement restriction implemented by the government. The lecturer for this module, Mr Mike gave us a briefing of what to be expected as well as things that we need to do for this module. 

We were later divided into groups for the project. Each group would have to choose a topic to work on based on the choices given to us. For my group, we decided to do a project with Petroscience Malaysia. 

Before the first session meeting ended, we were required to answer a few questions that were given to us:

1. Please describe what is Design Innovation based on the article "What is Design Innovation? by Alex Obenauer". Please cite some examples to elaborate your observations.

Based on the article, Design Innovation is products that go through a rigorous, empathetic, and iterative design process and end up having a fundamentally innovative concept and/or design that wholly innovates on the way the user interacts with the product, and often therefor, the content of their lives. 

An example that were given in the article is that people used to speed up a podcast in order to save time, however in exchange people would need to pay extra attention to keep up. Overcast launched "Smart Speed" to improve the issue, which had the ability to speedup podcasts by removing the pauses. The innovation behind the design had helped improve and resolve issues that people faced, which in a sense is revolutionary. 

2. Please watch this documentary about Design Disruptors and write a short essay about what are Design Disruptors with cited examples.

Design Disruptors are people who adds new value to things and improve the current situation that they're in. They mostly revolve around the idea of innovation. It would take a lot of effort to make people change the way that they're already living, but in time people will start to notice the innovation behind the design and how it will change and improve their lives. These people are constantly reflecting on the world, and identify changes that could be done to improve their current situation. 

A lot of well known entrepreneurs have come out with innovative ideas to help resolve issues that people had in their daily lives. One prime example would be the invention of UBER, an e-hailing taxi service that is well known worldwide. In the current world that we live in, the existence of this service had made a huge impact on the worlds economy and it has definitely made it easier and convenient for people to get rides all over the world. Before, people are used to the traditional taxi service where people might have to wait for long hours just to get a ride, and there are a lot of other cons such as safety issues. However, non of these problems come to people's mind until someone came out with UBER, and it has since resolve the issue that people never really thought of before, and it is safe to say that people are now used to the idea of calling a taxi via mobile application instead of the traditional one. It has slowly become part of people's life, and some people may even count on it as their main source of income. 

Learning to adapt and change according to the environment is important for a development of a designer. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg along with his team first created Facebook for communication between themselves, which eventually it developed to became one of the most used social media platform up until this day. However, even after Facebook is created, the design didn't stop there. Designers are still looking for problems in terms of user experience to be solved, and the evolution of Facebook's interface has changed drastically too over the past few years. Therefore, it is safe to say that designers plays a huge role in today's society, and good designers are able to innovate and adapt.

Week 2- Week 4

This week we were told that we'll be having a project brief from Petroscience. Below is the project brief that was given to us:

Project brief slides

After having the brief from our clients Petroscience, we were told that we will be given the educational contents for the topics that we choose. For my group, we decided to work on the topic Future Energy, and before we can start brainstorming the ideas for the project, we have to wait for the contents to be sent over to us so that we can decide what is the best way possible to present the project. However, we waited for approximately two weeks to have the contents sent to us. 

Solar Energy contents slide

Hydropower contents slides
With the contents being sent to us, we can finally start working on the ideation of the project. Since we've only gotten the contents on week 4, we have to try to rush out the ideation of the project as well as the art direction and the keyframes for the project. 
Week 5
For my group, we decided to work create a 2D screen based game so that children and teens can have fun while learning about future energy. After many discussions, we decided to merge the two topics, solar power and hydropower, and combine them into one game. 
As for the art direction of the game, we thought that turning the game into a pixel gameplay would be fun and interesting, as it also brings back memories from the games produced in the early 90's.
We manage to come up with the art direction for the game, as well as some keyframes from the levels before the presentation day. Below is our presentation proposal to Petroscience, which includes the keyframes and art direction for the game.
Project Proposal slides
After the presentation, we were pleased to know the the clients liked our idea, and we can proceed on working on the assets for the game.
Week 6 - Week 14
Since we've gotten the approval from the clients, we started to work on the assets and environment for the project. Everyone has their share of the work, and Mr. Mike made sure that we organized and distribute the work effectively using the Gantt Chart. For my part, I helped out in creating some of the assets, as well as handling the animated gameplay. 
Below are some off the assets created by me and my teammates:

Fig 1.0 Assets created for the game

Fig 1.1 Characters created for the game
We spent most of our time creating the assets for the game, and when that's finally done, we began to animate the gameplay as the computing science team in my team is only going to be coding the first level and the title screen. Nevertheless, I'm glad that we manage to get everything done on time. 
Below is the screen recording of the gameplay:
Final prototype outcome with animation
For more of the work progress, you may check out our Miro Board and our Google Drive folder.

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Reflection

Week 1

It was a bit challenging knowing that we'll going to spend almost half of the semester online. There's bound to be problems that we need to face working as a team such time constraint. Hopefully there wouldn't be a huge issue in terms of communication. After watching the documentary and article that Mr. Mike shared to us, it opened my mind about the meaning of design. It was interesting to listen to other designer's perspective and I learned about the significance of innovation in design through the documentary. 

Week 2


We had a meeting with Petroscience this week and we have gotten a brief idea of the project. Our next course of action was to wait for them to fill us in with the contents and we could start working on the proposal. Our group ended up taking Future Energy as the main topic for the project, and Mr. Mike was also kind enough to share with us some websites that do similar things so that we had something to refer to. However, I felt a little confused when it comes to distributing the work between computing science and design school as we don’t really know what can they achieve as well as their limitations. We’ll have to hold a meeting with both schools and formally get to know each other.

Week 3

We were a little worried as we did not get our contents up until now. We were promised that we’ll receive the contents as soon as possible, however there were no updates up until now. We are worried that we might not be able to complete the proposal on time since the presentation is due on week 5 and right now we don’t really have anything to work on until we get the slides.

Week 4

It is going to be a little challenging for us as we only got our contents for the topic this week. The contents itself isn’t as hard to understand after going through the slides, but we had to figure things out and try to come up with the proposal in the shortest time. It was also made difficult when we found out that there was a misunderstanding between the design school and the computing school as both schools seem to have different expectations for this project. We’ll have to communicate with them and come out with a solution.

Week 5

Due to the delay of the contents, the presentation was forced to be held next week. Nevertheless, this gave us more time to work on the art direction and amend the storyline of the game. There were a few challenges when thinking of ideas for the game as we had to also make sure that our collab partner will be able to code it themselves. Overall, a lot of us are still in the state of confusion due to the miscommunication between both schools, but we couldn’t afford to waste time any further and therefore we have to work with what we have and try to come up with a proposal for the presentation next week.

Week 6

As this week is the presentation week for our group, we can’t help but feel very stressed with the limited amount of time that we have before the official presentation day. We were required to come up with an art direction as well as keyframes for the game during the presentation, which we only had roughly less than a week's time to create. Mr. Mike did suggest that we could try to look for assets online, but since our topic is rather specific, and therefore there weren’t many choices in regards to the assets available online. Presentation day was also a stressful day for me as we are required to present our proposal to the clients, and we weren’t sure at first if they would like what we proposed. Nevertheless, once the presentation is over, I’m glad that the clients liked the idea of the game.

Week 7

Though the clients are pleased with the 2D screen game, Mr Mike still gave us some feedback and suggest us to work on the storyline a little bit more to make it look more complete. Now that our main game ideas have been approved, we can now start working on more of the assets to create the entire gameplay. Mr Mike wants us to list down the items/ assets needed within the game, so that we know what needs to be done individually.

Week 8

It was until this week that our group realized that we are required to animate the entire gameplay if the computing science team is not going to code the levels. This made me panicked as this meant that the workflow needs to be changed in order to get everything done by week 14. Since I’m the only animation student in the group, I’ll have to take charge of most of the animation. This puts me under a lot of stress as we’re not done with the assets yet and the storyboard needs to be changed.

Week 9

Since I’m working on the storyboard now, I have to make sure that the flow is correct and the placements of the UI is in the right place in the game. There was a lot to be considered when drafting the storyboard for the game as every little transitions in the game needs to be taken into account so that the design team and the comp science students would have a clear view of what needs to be done.

Week 10

There wasn’t much feedback this week, but we do need to continue to work on the assets for the game.

Week 11

Mr Mike gave us the suggestion to add in infographics into our game to emphasize on the learning part of the game, which kind of adds into the amount of work that we need to do as the infographics weren’t really in part of our plan. Nevertheless, we figured that it needs to be done and so the work is again being distributed among our team. I’m growing anxious day by day as the assets are not yet done up until now. I hope I’ll have ample amount of time to animate the gameplay as I am the only one responsible for animating the gameplay for now.

Week 12

I started animating the title screen for the gameplay as the other levels' environment and keyframes are not done yet. I showed the work to Mr Mike and he suggested that the title could pop out more since the colors used for the title is quite similar to the background.

Week 13

As the rest of the environment is done, I proceed to start the animation for the gameplay. It does not make me feel any better when I was told that I might need to animate the entire gameplay if the computing science team fails to come up with the prototype. With the amount of time I have left, I doubt that I can complete the entire gameplay animation as I have other modules to work on too. Despite all the challenges, I’d still need to complete the animation somehow, even if it means that I’d have to make some sacrifices in order to get it done.

Week 14

After many sleepless nights, I was finally able to complete the animation for the gameplay. I manage to also put in audio for the game to look like a legit game. Mr Mike is quite satisfied with the animation, and I couldn’t have been more happy to hear him say so. All of the efforts put into this project is not wasted, and I’m also quite happy with the outcome considering the time limitations as part of the challenge.

Throughout this module, I’ve definitely learned a lot and expanded my knowledge in design. I’ve picked up a new artstyle that I’ve never tried before, and I’ve also grown to appreciate pixel art style as well. As this is a group project, it is expected to have conflicts, but at times it can be frustrating as there was a miscommunication from both parties that causes the project being unable to run smoothly. In the end, it felt like this is more of a project between the design school students as most of the design students did most of the work for the project. Nevertheless, this is a learning experience for me and the process of seeing the outcome come into life definitely gave me a sense of achievement. I’m grateful to everyone that has put hard work into this project, and I look forward to expand my skills in design and animation in the future.

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Feedback

Week 4

Need to aim for a mock presentation of the interactive learning apps that will be built for the week 6 presentation. 

Flow of production:

• Decide the type of game or interactive learning application (must be supported by moodboards)
• Design the flowchart (Information Architecture - IA)
• Design the UI/Wireframes
• Design the intended final visual of key interfaces (Art Direction)
• Design a few key interactive activities that shows the strongest features of your games or interactive apps

Week 5


A story has been developed to combine both the projects of Solar Energy and Hydroelectricity. The interactive story flow is also designed and is pragmatic to be completed by the end of the semester. The focus for both implementations are screen-based, hosted as virtual kiosks or screens in the Virtual Science Centre. However, considerations are made to use the virtuals space as the expanded implementation by utilizing 3D models that could be interacted with. The screen-based design is currently aimed for the 2D-Platformer game design but this idea would need to be verified by the computing side in terms of their capability to produce it.
Week 6

The new combined interactive animations of solar panels and the hydroelectricity station us lopsided in favor of the solar panels. The story needs to be of equal emphasis for both topics. Therefore, a short extension at the ending is required to lengthen and focus on how the hydroelectricity station generates power for the town. The story’s setting is also tweaked to start with the one robot that works to power up the rest of the robot workers in the hydro plant that is in need of repairs. Users will use solar panels to generate power to bring the other robots to live one at a time through interactive navigations. When all the robots are back to life, they help gather the parts that are needed to repair the hydro station. When all parts are found, the sun has already set and there’s no more solar power to get the hypro station started again. As the robots repaired the hydro station with the missing parts, the user will be shown how electricity produced front the hydro stations is used to power up the town.

The medieval water wheel will need to be replaced by more relevant and modern renewable energy equipment and could extend beyond water and solar sources such as wind. The virtual space should also match the visual styling of the actual gallery.
Week 7

The animation story has not been rewritten to completion. The scope of interactive options for the prototype has not been confirmed yet. The Gantt Chart has been prepared but no one has been assigned yet to all the tasks. Also, this chart will change depending on the prototype’s interactive options. Therefore, it is crucial to confirm the prototype’s interactive options immediately. The art style is still being considered between pixel art and vector art that is stylized.

Week 8

UI or screen designs need to be shown next which includes all the HUD and UI elements. Since only 1 of the levels will be fully interactive, the remaining 3 levels would need to be animated as simulation/mockups. All of the relevant vector assets with pixelated edges need to be prepared for the Level 1 game development in Unity. Use the reference below as a guide for production preparation.

As for the 3 other levels which are simulated animations/mockups, production will be via animation pipeline. Latest confirmation from the Computing Team states that they will not be producing any interactive features for the Unity 3D space but just player-approach activation of pop-up text screens. The full interactive features will only be done next semester in Capstone 2.

Week 11

Need to produce the landing home screen for the interactive component. Should emphasize the teaching and information sharing purpose for the 10-18 year olds about renewable energy. Need to maintain the same art direction for all the screen designs.

Week 13

To get the prototype from IT team on Tuesday. The information panel screen should be designed and shown next Friday for review and the animation should start from Level 4 since the likelihood of it being interactive is quite slim.

Week 14

The animation progression looks fine but the timing for the text might be too fast for the audience.

Computing team has not completed the level 1 interactive prototype as agreed and have not confirmed when. Deadline is Sunday for this level 1 prototype. The rest of the levels will be animation simulations. The Unity 3D space models need to be sent over by today the latest for compilation.