Introduction

This is the first entry in what I hope to be a long journey of documenting what's going on with the progression of my master's thesis project. This is mainly to help me keep a record of my thoughts, choices and opinions during the development of my project. 

What's the project about?

As of publishing this devlog, the aim of my study is to better understand the impacts that the act of game design can have upon the values of the designer doing the act. I won't go into much detail on what are values here, because that would be too long and tedious, but quickly (very quickly) put they are elements that guide our choices.  In my experience the act of designing, whether it be game design or graphic design or interior design or any other design, has such a large scope that it can often be very formative. 

To study this phenomenon, I decided to explore the legacy of my great-grandfather named Paul Provencher (I will call him Paul from now on, hope he doesn't mind). Paul was an avid amateur of nature and exploration. He worked as a forestry engineer for most of his adult life, and through his job at the opportunity of spending countless hours with individuals from the Innu Nation in the Côte-Nord of the province of Quebec. He left behind him an impressive collection of photographs, which are available through the Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec, painting and books, which have been passed down through our family. I strongly suggest reading Paul Provencher : un témoin des savoirs ancestraux | BAnQ for a quick overview of who he was. There is also a section of the Musée régional de la Côte-Nord which is dedicated to him, if you ever find yourself is Sept-Îles.

What's the aim of the game?

Mainly through the books that Paul wrote I want to create a short experience that conveys his deep respect and appreciation for nature. However, my goal is not to create an experience that rivals with nature. As of writing this devlog, I strongly believe that  games are a great medium for creating meaningful experiences but that they shouldn't act as a substitute for real experiences, especially when that experience is putting on shoes and going for a walk through a forest. Therefore, I mostly want to light a spark in people that will want to make them more conscious of the beautiful, and not unlimited, planet we call home each day. Paul mainly wrote two types of books, books about survival and books about the observations of animals. While reading these books (I read them all during the past few months), I resonated more with the one on animal observation, I mainly focused on bringing the essence of those books in the game. That's not to say I don't want to incorporate elements from his books on survival, but I'm not quite so sure as to how I will end up doing it.

What can you do in the game?

As of publishing this devlog, the main, not to say the only, thing you can do in the game is to walk around and take pictures. You currently have a limited number of shots you can take, me being an amateur of film photography (you can find some of my stuff here) I believe that limiting the number of photos creates a deeper bond with each one of them. 

I plan on adding a sort of narrative tram to help guide the player through the game, but I want it to be mostly driven by curiosity (reminiscent of games like Outer Wilds or a Short Hike). The level is also pretty barebone at the moment, it's in my list of things to do. I want to add a lot of fauna and flora while always trying to stay true (or close enough) to the forests that Paul would have traversed.

Anyways, I hope you can find something interesting in the game, and don't hesitate to give any feedback.

Thanks, Raf Raf