Walk-through Day!

After one particularly nerve racking morning of last minute preparations for the game I found myself seriously doubting the success of our group, due to a lack of communication we found we were missing some reasonably important parts to our information namely the missing page of the case file showing the list of the deceased and how they were killed also we were having technical issues trying to upload the Case File onto our website which was frustrating. It really didn't help being the first group to go up either as my nerves were really getting the better of me as the start of the walk-through was drawing closer.

Linking it Together

Having this information available was all good and fine, but we needed to find a good way of leading our players towards it all. It was important that it was clear to the players what they needed to do but also required a fair bit of thought behind it as well. We put together a folder with all our research in and highlighted articles in a way that suggested points of the conspiracy and the deaths involved with the Urewera case. We had photos of security cameras all over town but underneath all of them were one or two pictures of body bags and officers carrying of casualties. These things were made to have an impact on the viewer which invokes a sense of curiosity as well as  a darker undertow behind the game. Included in the folder was a QR code leading to the website where there would be our password protected case file. The folder also held the key to unlocking the file as on the back of the flap was the password, encrypted using a pictorial style code which would be solved using the key that was found on Chris's blog. The folder was going to be kept in my locker which was padlocked and supposedly Reuben would be given the keys for safe keeping. Reuben being the only one left would lead the players to the locker to find the folder with all the information within.

Link to website - http://civildefenceservice.weebly.com/

Chris Lee's Blog - http://hyunzoo.tumblr.com/

Executing the Idea

Now as we had an idea for our conspiracy we had to establish the way in which we were going to portray it to our audience.We needed at least 4 interactions with our players, 2 physical interactions and 2 Digital  interactions. We already  knew that  one of our most important interactions was one that needed to portray the conspiracy the government was covering up clearly and we needed a clear path to make it easy to find but was also important that we made it look professional. We decided an interesting way of learning this would be through a password protected .pdf file containing brief notes on the progress of a case being worked on by our antagonist group called the Civil Defence Force. Included in the case file would be notes on the killings (only minimal) and a small amount of information on some of the group members near the end. We chose the .pdf format because it was the only file we really knew how to password protect with a considerable amount of flexibility in terms of design qualities meaning we were able to try our best to make it look like an official case file.

Dexter came in then as well so I thought I would task him with getting that done as I felt he needed to contribute to the group more. I also told him that we needed him to be in studio more often as we were struggling to put it all together well with so few people.

Reuben was then given the task of creating a government website that would be hacked into that would hold the case file. I showed him a few of the NZ govt websites particularly the NZ police force website (http://www.police.govt.nz/) for him to base the web design off and he set off to work.

Urewera Death

After looking through a bunch of the articles on the NZ Herald website I looked into some of the more subtle parts of the case rather than the widely important pieces. This was because these are things people might skip over quickly and are more likely to forget. This meant that as we brought attention back to them they possibly realise they already knew about this but maybe missed something quite crucial about it.

Luckily one particularly article had exactly what i was looking for.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/unlawful-filming-led-urewera-charges-being-dropped-4404835

This article was found on the TVNZ website and right near the bottom of the page you will see the following statement.

"One of the original 18 charged, Tuhoe Francis Lambert, died earlier this year. Charges against him have been abandoned."

This was perfect for me as it instantly gave me the idea of using this piece to start off a conspiracy of the government unable to get justice through the court take measures to extremes by executing those involved.

Brainwave and Change to Conspiracy

Me and Reuben were the only ones there one morning when i had a brainwave. For the past few days i had been feeling that our game lacked much drive or anything that would make the players question whether or not they were in a game world and truly immerse the players. I wanted to make the world more personal so that our players could relate more easily to what was going on as well as become more immersed in the reality in order to be affected by it on a more emotional level becoming more stimulating as an experience.

Using our first idea of using surveillance i thought that we could twist the idea of always being watched to be used in a way that whilst doing this project and looking into the surveillance, the group itself was being watched. Developing the idea a bit further I thought of the Urewera case that happened recently and thought we could use our research into that to create a conspiracy that we had uncovered. Unsure what kind of cover up we could use though i have decided to do more research into it.

The lack of group members available everyday is really starting to frustrate me. At any given time there is a maximum of 4 people from the group there and i am yet to have a day where everyone turns up. I feel like i constantly have to give people things to do in order for anything to get done as certain members take no initiative when it comes to helping out in the group.

A good start at least

Once again half of the group didn't turn up, we had heard nothing from either Dexter or Savi and communication with them was limited as no one had Dexter's number and Savi just wouldnt reply. We had a few more ideas to work with but a lot less than i originally thought we would have after the weekend, we ended up working with my idea as it was the strongest one we had. Basically we were dealing with the idea of surveillance and playing with the idea of being watched constantly by someone even if you dont know who. It lead to ideas of the government monitoring and storing information on everyone and anyone caught on security tapes or heard on hidden microphones or cameras that we were unknown to the general public. Though this was a good start we still had a lot of work that needed doing and the idea still needed to be developed into a stronger environment, i found myself getting slightly frustrated at the slow progress, i know everyone is already quite spent with all the work we have been doing but its only one last project to do before the end and we just need to pull together and get the work done.

Ideas

Got in the next day to find that not many people in the group showed up, Shams was late and it was just me Reuben and Chris until about 11oclock trying to get a solid story together for our reality. We discussed things like a world without certain resources or opposite worlds, like a communist NZ and worlds dealing with current fears like the depression and wars, danger, being watched etc. When Shams arrived she didnt exactly have a lot to offer other than a few barely thought out ideas like time travel scenarios or "people being chased by something"...

Not long afterwards people had to leave again and we were left with another day of making very little progress. I told everyone to really think over the weekend about ideas and really get some solid stories down to bring together and develop.

Unreality

For this project we were given the brief from Maggie, so before we were given the brief I had a feeling that we would be dealing with different technologies than we were used to. I remembered her telling us about her passion with augmented reality and different reality's and worlds etc. so I was curious as to whether or not some of that would be a part of this project. Being sick the day everyone was away i missed out on selecting the group I would prefer to work with which left me to reach out a little with a group of people i had never worked with before at all but we were given the brief and told to start moving. My final brief this year is to create an experience or alternate reality for our lecturers to walk through. The reality or experience had to be interactive and have a number of different ways to interact specifically 2 physical interactions and 2 digital.

The first day was really spent gathering ideas and finding out exactly what the brief asked of us as a group. It didnt take long for the rest of the group to decide to leave and come up with ideas at home rather than in studio and left rather quickly afterwards. Me and Chris stayed behind and discussed a few ideas together for a few hours before she went to work and i left shortly after.