What I learned in Interactive Entertainment

When I first entered the Orlando Tech Center building I had no idea what I was in for. I heard from Christopher Stapleton in the previous spring that the Interactive Entertainment class would be a, “free-thinking forum for ideas and growth of innovative concepts.” I almost had him as a teacher but instead I opted to leave my Mondays free for work. Working in the Interactive Entertainment course was the first time I felt I was really working in a conceptual design course. I did not have to be confined to strict rules and I found the general guidelines to be very enjoyable. The only problem is that I wish I had more time to explore the concepts more thoroughly.

Eileen Smith explained the outline of the course in an enthusiastic tone of voice on my first day (which for me was the second week because I couldn’t show up on the first day). She happily told us of what amazing things we would learn about in the field of entertainment. This would also lend itself to marketing, toy design and theme park commerce. Each week started off with a fun assignment that led us to explore the world around us and figure out how we would alter environments to make our own designs for assignments.

I found myself usually combing over my essays again and again to try and find out where I fit in with the whole idea of making something that was for interactive entertainment. I was frightened at the fact of having a website due at the end of the semester but I was more frightened by the idea of finding a story to build my site.

When I was asked about what my favorite story was I was dumbfounded. I did not want to make an entire website from a story everyone knew all about. Besides, I like different stories on different days. Things I read now sometimes I love or hate or just forget about. Then I realized I was thinking the wrong way. The story I had to choose had to be timeless; something that wasn’t a piece of pop culture but a comment on human nature within an entertaining context.
There was a story when I was young that I simply connected to on all levels. I knew it would be the perfect story for my website because I could build on its minimalist story. “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak was written straightforward enough to allow me to bring my own ideas to the story and meld the style of his artwork and narrative with my concepts.

However, before I could start brainstorming about the story, I had to learn about the various concepts that I had enjoyed in my life purely for fun. I tried to work in ideas from my essays that I knew I would be able to use later. This would be for future reference to use in my website. Many times I’d have to re-read my essays in order to see if it could help with my design.

The first assignment was to examine a playground, read a few essays from online about playgrounds and then explains how we would design our own playground. I thought it was going to be a difficult assignment, considering I had not been to one since I was 11. Playgrounds had always been a source of fun when I was young but it was a bit of challenge for me to think of what I could do to make one of my own.

When I arrived at Blanchard Park off of Dean Road something unusual happened: I remembered my childhood and for the first time and I felt nostalgic. I remembered what it felt like to be young and explore the feeling that I could do anything. I appreciated the websites that I read. The article about playgrounds found at http://www.pps.org/topics/play/Play_Elements was quite in depth and even though I subconsciously knew most of the theories about how kids have fun it was nice to see someone to have articulated the ideas, especially the part about the importance of aesthetics in a playground.

When I got back to class I confirmed I was now in touch with what made me happy as a child. The possibilities I came up with gave me a sense of the fun that would occur in the class again and again. I learned a lot about the locations for designing a playground and how important it is to keep the fun spread out to others beside children. Grown-ups, the elderly and curious visitors pass through playgrounds and might come back based on the joy that is found in the area If they do not want to use the playground then they can simply enjoy the scenery.

The best lesson when it came to playgrounds was how to work with others in designing something that everyone thought was fun. Some people had crazy ideas about planning the playground. My group wanted to make it continually evolving and make it circular in design, an idea that was well-received by the class.

Working in groups had not been something I had done in years and it was refreshing to work with a group of individuals who wanted to make such oddball ideas into reality. I’m still trying to get over my group’s toy concept, “G.I. Joe - Gender Bender Edition.” Though I found it disturbing I must say I was happy to know there was never a condemnation from the teacher or the students that the idea could not work. In fact all ideas were met with either enthusiasm or at least curiosity.

Learning about videogames was also great. There was not a lot that I did not already know about first-person shooters but what always surprises me is learning about what other games people respond to in their lives. I was surprised at how many people still love their old Nintendo games. As the semester progressed I found that my favorite lessons were the ones when I explored avenues I had grown up with all this time. In fact it seemed the class had similar feelings.

One of my favorite assignments was the assessment of theme parks. Christopher Stapleton came in and talked about working on Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. There was an informative video that illustrated how important the illusion of fantasy is in theme parks and how important the guest’s imagination plays in the park. The video revealed the secrets of the rides, “Spiderman,” “Dudley Do-Right” and the show, “The Adventures of Sinbad” but did not reveal any of the secrets of the “Jurassic Park” section. The video was meant to give a hint of what the park offered and certainly heightened the interest of those in the class about its development.

I appreciated Stapleton’s inside look at the building of the “Dudley Do-Right” ride and the Cartoon themed area of IOA. Apparently theme parks are meant to overload the senses, disorienting the guest at first and then giving them the chance to explore the park on a purely visceral level. This is helped by the blaring music piping through the park and the larger than life surroundings with life size cartoon characters walking around.

My parents have always considered the cartoon section of IOA to be very gaudy and disturbing. However, it seems that it’s exactly the way it should be in the context of making a cartoon live. The people who visit don’t seem to mind either. I’m curious to witness IOA when there are hardly any visitors. Would a guest take a longer period of time going through the park or would they still walk at the same brisk pace that is common when you are excited? I also liked the video’s bit of information on the idea that the building of rides should be futuristic in order for them not to be dated when they are finally completed.

Another one of my favorite lessons was learning about Retailtainment. My all time favorite website was http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/512.html. When I read about the infomercials I could not believe they were real. The article was extremely funny but it also made a great point about how people are “suckered” into buying something by being manipulated into thinking they need it. The psychology behind infomercials can be applied to all forms of entertainment media and politics. I have bookmarked this website to show some of my friends who are going into law school or focus in psychology to give them a laugh.

The trip to Sci-Fi City was also eye-opening on the possibilities of Retailtainment. I liked the rows and rows of tables set up for all those wanting to sample the merchandise of board games. I thought board games had declined over the years due to increasing sales of video games. However, I tried the game “Blockus,” which was a lot of fun. The group I had kept playing the game the entire class period while others came over and watched us play. Sci-Fi City had a great assemblage of books, toys, games and all other nerdy things that my friends and I love. I learned that there is a store for every niche in society and even though the idea may be far-out, people will check it out. I did not know about many places like this and I’m glad I do now.

I went back to Sci-Fi City afterward and found it to be a wonderful place to play games and feel comfortable buying merchandise. I think it’s important that customers are not pressured or bullied into buying something but rather they feel compelled to peruse the product out of curiosity and interest. It may sound manipulative but I feel it is the best way to make the consumer feel comfortable and have fun.

Although, IOA and Sci-Fi City were terrific excursions, my absolute favorite learning experience was going into the VR lab and exploring the different emerging technology therein. When I put on the virtual reality goggles I explored a virtual kitchen used to help Alzheimer patients remember places in their home. The graphics were good enough to make me get used to the reality in the goggles. Many of the students tried on the goggles and despite the graphics not being completely realistic they seemed to have no problem believing their surroundings. The practical nature of the device could be quite beneficial to those who need to have special help in day-to-day tasks.

The lab was large and it was great to explore the different facets. I liked the room that could be lit by a single light and could have text messages printed in it. Although I feel it is going to be awhile before the technology I saw in the lab will be commonplace in the world.

The only thing that was disappointing was that I wish I could have seen a working version of the virtual reality simulator of the military game we discussed. I like the idea of a game changing its AI (artificial intelligence) every time it is played so the gamer has to constantly adapt to its settings. I wondered how the game would be used and if its uses would be only for military purposes or for commercial use. I’m going to assume that the technology will be so involving that the commercial sales of the constantly changing AI games will happen soon after the technology is perfected.

A good point of reference for making a player feel special is the game series, “Half-Life.” Even though it does not change game play each time you play, it does give enormous attention to detail to make the gamer believe the computer generated world is really alive. The game has influenced countless other companies in the field of game design. I think many people who do not play computer games in general would enjoy “Half-Life” and lead them into a world of gaming.

It was then; right after the videogame essay I realized that my only limitations in the class would be my own imagination. I could do anything in the class because I had free reign. I tried hard to think of the most bizarre and complex ideas for my website but also ideas that I knew could be marketable. One of my own personal favorite ideas was the toy design for the “Wild Things” toys.

My toy design came from an idea I had while in class when we forming prototype toys from white paper. I didn’t want my design to look like anyone else’s. I realized the Sendak story lent itself to a toy that could be assembled by interchangeable parts. The fantasy creatures were put together by parts of other animals and making a toy that used this idea was exactly what I wanted for my concept.

At first I felt like I had to experiment with everything, but I realized I had to play on my strengths. I’m a writer and I wanted my concepts centered on the story. However, I’m also a huge fan of theme parks and also wanted the concept to be centered around it as well. I came up with a theme park that had a back-story which added on to the original Sendak source material.
This leads to me my most valuable lesson I learned in class: website design. I had no previous experience in designing websites. Having to upload the essays each week was a hassle. Luckily Matt DeSalvo was able to show me how to use Dream-Weaver software in order to build an engaging and vibrant website. Before then I had to struggle to use html to design the website and link it up properly. I thought it was going to be a disaster and I was considering leaving the class before I would have the chance to fail. Yet, I decided to stick with it and I’m glad I did.

If not for Matt I would have probably resorted to paying someone to design my website because I could not get my skills up to speed in time. I hope UCF offers a course in website design that a student can use for their own practical purposes. This would be a very helpful course in instructing people on how to make a site advertise your material.

It was difficult at first because I did not know how to use any of the tools that were in Dream-Weaver. The tools were unlike that of Microsoft word or power point and required many hours of patience and hours of meticulously created text and pictures for the website to be uploaded properly and formatted correctly. Once I learned the program it nearly became second nature to me.

I noticed that color plays an important role in the design of the website. The colors must be bright but not distracting or irritating to the eyes. It also has to be easy to follow because the viewer will not want to pursue the links further if they are hard to find them or if they are not engaging enough. It also helps to be pretty original in the creation of your website. So many websites I see on a daily basis seem like clones of one another but with different text. It’s important to change up the material and make it original to stand out among the billions of pages.

The pictures I chose to put on my site were mostly original artwork from an art major at UCF. I told the student, Wesley Gunn, a general guideline for drawing pictures on the website. I had to learn how to articulate instructions for the innovative concepts I was trying to formulate. I wanted him to be given the same free reign I had been given to see what he could develop.

When I presented my website in class and saw the other presentations I realized how different each person decided to take their idea. Some of their ideas I decided incorporate into my own website. These were mainly layout and formatting of text that was easy to read. I would have liked to put music on my website but I find it distracting and not worth the effort on the site. I wish I could have uploaded some video to my site but I learned it was really unnecessary for the design I was going for. I did not have enough time to make a video but considering the story is literature to begin with I think the text and pictures go well with it.

I learned a lot about business through the interactive entertainment course. I am considering trying to get my website approval from Maurice Sendak. My model for the website was that I wanted to make sure the content would shine through the effects and make it interesting. I want it to be appealing to the company I would be trying to sell the creative property. Any effect I give on my website would pale in comparison to the effects they could make on a professional level. I want to sell the idea to them so they can build on it like I did with Sendak’s work.

Interactive Entertainment was a very enjoyable course; a welcome change of pace from my film courses. I think it has helped me in my filmmaking to see how people respond to a story and develop an emotional attachment to the characters. The timeless stories are the ones that people have connected to over the years and I think the story “Where The Wild Things Are” will be around for a long time to come.

It was great to focus on the positive aspects of our culture that have influenced me thus far. Videogames, theme parks and toys have shaped the way I designed the concepts in the course and I wish I could do more with them in a practical sense.

I think a two semester course in Interactive Entertainment would be a good idea for those who have the drive to make these ideas come to life. They can spend one semester developing their ideas and the other trying to market them. The industry is constantly looking for new people and the possibilities of the new Game Design school offers a slew of courses dedicated to just that. I wish I could have examined the building of a videogame in order to make my “Where the Wild Things Are” videogame more involving instead of a summary of what I would like to do with it.

All in all I really just wish I had more time to explore in the classroom and outside of it. I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of the media in Interactive Entertainment. I want to see the meat of the work; how things are designed, how much it costs and how things get developed. Most importantly, I want to know what companies are willing to take a chance on an idea that is so bizarre and costly they could risk ruin from it. It was briefly touched upon in class, but a more vivid analysis on this idea I think would be great.

The things I’ll remember the most is the encouragement of creativity and the embrace of new technology in its various forms. I wish there was more time in college to explore all the vast avenues of the digital media department. Even though I’m graduating (hopefully) in the spring I want to keep the website I’ve created and use it for future reference. I liked it so much I want to keep designing websites and use this form. Even if the website does not become a marketable concept the process of making it was my own reward. I had fun and I learned.