I decided earlier this week that I've been wearing myself down thinking about this Kickstarter project. I start feeling guilty any time I work on anything that isn't Wandering Tales related and I keep dreading the release of the fundraiser. So I decided I need to take a step back and put the project on hold for a while until I have a better sense of where I'll be and what I'll be doing in a few months. If I jump into the fundraiser while I'm still worried about finding a job and getting situated in Boston, it will never be as successful as if I were to give it my full attention. | So what will I do in the meantime?? Well besides looking for and applying to any job within a 30 mile radius of Boston with the word "Animator" in the description, I'm going to be portfolio building. This is my last summer break before I hit the real world, so I'm going to stock up on some new interactive pieces to build up my experience and entice potential employers. This will be a better use of my time and I think it'll be interesting to see what I can come up with if I just get a breath of fresh air. |
A Gull and His Guide: Interactive
Once I made the decision to put my Kickstarter on the back burner, my mind flooded with creativity again! My newest project is going to be an interactive environment storybook of a short story I wrote a while back; The Gull and His Guide.The story follows a lost seagull trapped in a storm at sea. He is flying through the dreary skies looking for land, but can find none. A whale approaches the gull from beneath the surface and asks if the bird needs any help finding his way. The gull stubbornly refuses, citing that only a foolish bird looses his way at sea, and he is not a foolish bird. The whale apologizes and disappears again. But instead of leaving the bird to struggle, the whale breaks the surface once more, this time a short distance away. Through the storm his body appears to be a rocky outcrop from the ocean. The gull flies towards it, and as he does the whale slowly drifts farther away. The gull follows the apparent moving island and eventually is led to a lighthouse. The gull unwittingly prides himself for finding the way back to shore on his own.
These pictures may not be very telling, but I sat down this morning and pretty much hammered out the logistics of making the whole app! The user will be have limited control of both the whale and the gull using the buttons provided on screen. The story will progress as the user scrolls back and forth above and below the ocean's surface. When the screen shows the stormy skies, the user will control the gull by flapping his wings. When the screen dives below, the user will control when the whale comes up for air (thereby initiating the interactions in the story).
These are some rough icons I sketched out for a prototype. When the app is all done, I'm going to try my hand at converting it to Javascript so that it can function as a real app. This way I can also figure out how to convert files from Actionscript to java on a smaller scale before moving on to the monster that is Wandering Tales... so I'm kinda still working on that project too. Once it's all said and done I'll publish the final cut to Google Play so you can share the experience and I can say I have something published on my resume!