Week 6 – Research Reflection

We were given tasks to focus on specific areas of our game design. I worked on developing our branching narrative through the open-source tool Twine. The goal is to have a working text-based prototype of our 3D game for when we visit Storm Lake. Since creating an interactive and functional 3D environment with a story and characters in Unity can be time-consuming, Twine would help us quickly create a text-based prototype to aid students in imagining and gaining a feel of what the final game may play like. It’s my first time using Twine, and by the end of the week, I had created my first version which read like a plot. After receiving feedback and getting to understand better the code used in Twine, I plan on modifying my narrative to be more engaging by incorporating dialogue and having the player choose their course of action and their responses to other characters. Curtis presented ideas on what a cybersecurity game may look like which I plan to integrate to further increase the level of engagement. Kris has also been working hard on obtaining assets that we plan to use for our 3D game. For now, we intend on taking screenshots of these assets in Unity to serve as background images when playing through the text-based prototype. That way players would be able to visualize what the game would look like in a 3D environment.

Besides working on the prototype, we also had a big meeting with everyone on Thursday to reflect about Saby and Edith’s visit to Iowa State University. Kimberly shared with us some of the literature review that highlighted research on how to effectively guide people of hispanic backgrounds to post-secondary education opportunities. I found myself heavily resonating with pretty much everything that was being said. If it wasn’t for the constant and direct care and attention I received from my mom and my teachers and counselors in high school, I most likely would not have gone to college (growing up I honestly pictured myself working at Deka or at Tyson like the rest of my family). And if it wasn’t for my deans and advisors always checking in on me and pushing me to explore new things in college, I most likely would not be here right now either. Because of that, I’m thankful for all the people that have been in my life, and I appreciate the fact that Saby and Edith were given that same level of opportunity to connect with those in ISU and receive their guidance. It may seem like a lot of work to always direct one’s attention to someone, but like Kimberly said, “it can really make a difference”.

We also listened to Carmen Gomes during this week’s luncheon lecture. Her vibrant personality made for a very engaging presentation, and her use of graphs and diagrams facilitated the flow of her talk and aided in my understanding of her research on food development. I’m starting to see the value of integrating flow maps in presentations to better direct the course of discussion as these have helped me a lot in grasping what is being said, especially during Yvonne Farah’s dissertation on studying features and associations when measuring team cooperation in gaming.