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--- research_report_tot:start [2010-01-11 12:44] – 94.225.45.31
+++ research_report_tot:start [2010-01-11 13:26] – 94.225.45.31
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 http://tale-of-tales.com/foam/PlantRPGprototype04.swf
+http://lib.fo.am/plant_game
-In this prototype rain and sun provide nutrients.
+//There's two types of resources: sun and rain. When it rains, sun energy diminishes, when the sun shines rain energy diminishes.
-Growth is initiated by the player clicking on buds.
+Rain energy can be used for stems and leaves. Sun energy can be used for flowers.
+Stems, leaves and flowers have different types of buds. Click on them to make them grow.
+Buds only appear when sufficient energy has been gathered.
+Leaves speed up the accumulation of sun energy.//
-additional concepts: being a plant, vegetal mind, being inside a plant, inside the seed, guilds
+The simplification of the natural context (sun and rain for energy) in this propotype is quite appealing, even if it is far from realistic.
+Disadvantages of this prototype are the random shape of the plant and the all too direct control by the player over growth, creating an emotional distance between player and plant, where the player feels more like a gardener than a plant.
+== The vegetal mind ==
+being a plant, vegetal mind, being inside a plant, inside the seed, guilds
+A brainstorm discussion of the project lead to several ideas and inspirations.
+One of the strongest ideas was the desire to create a game in which you feel like a plant, experience life as a plant and perhaps learn from the plant's existence ways of improving our lives as humans on this planet. There's two attractive aspects to "playing a plant": one is letting going of individualism (no longer thinking of yourself as a single unit separate from others) and the other is the idea of a sort of unconscious or subconscious life (dubbed "the vegetal mind" during the meeting, i.e. a state of life where everything you do is instinctive, where, in other words, you are fully connected with your environment).
 http://lib.fo.am/tale_of_the_vegetal_meeting_notes
-roots, dungeon
+== Going underground ==
+To solve the problem of feeling like a gardener when directly manipulating plant growth, we came up with the idea of focusing on the roots as the "control center" of the organism. We imagined a kind of hi-tech factory with an pseudo-technical abstract look that you would control as a manager of sorts. Or it could be a sort mining operation where digging tunnels in search of nutrients would represent the growing of roots. Rather than interacting directly with the environment, we imagined a group of minions doing the work for us and thus creating a sense of autonomy in the plant (i.e. nature running its course).
 http://lib.fo.am/tale_of_the_plant_dungeon
-casual games
+== Casual games ==
+We realized that there is already one type of game that is capable of "reducing the player to a plant". It's the mindless casual game that is so popular with web savvy senior citizens.
+Perhaps we could come up with a match-three class mechanic, the outcome of which would produce a plant.
 http://lib.fo.am/tale_of_vegetal_time
-hex
+== The hex game ==
+When thinking of simple software systems to grow roots in 2D, we stumbled on the hexagonal grid. Hexagons have been a staple for a certain type of strategy games, so it sort of felt right.
+We started prototyping a root growing game with hexagons.
+The abstract nature of the hexagon shape also connected well to our desire to make a hi-tech underground factory.
+http://tale-of-tales.com/foam/growHex1.mov
-hex dressed up
+== Hex dressed up ==
+The mindlessness of the early hex prototypes was extremely satisfying. But the lack of aesthetic connection to plants (apart from a vague abstract representation of root growth) felt uncomfortable.
+When Dave introduced us to a way in which textures on a hexagonal grid could be used to represent roots more naturalistically, we found a means to correct that problem.
 dave continues inside the roots