Day 13 (February 20, 2013)

Day 2 of presentations start today.  Like the day before I was able to see some interesting concepts for games.  This time i was able to hear about my presentation from my peers.  I learned that I had a problem with hierarchy on my presentation board.  But I was kind of aware of it, something didn't seem are with my board.  I also found out my presentation was a little dull.  It looks like i have to do some more to make my presentation interesting.  Today the concepts were interesting, but i thought the ones on the first day were more intriguing.

Day 12 (February 18, 2013)

Today is critique day for our game concepts.  I was able to see some interesting ideas that was not shown in the first critique.  There were also those that were seen from the first critique, but now more refined.  As people got up to do their presentations, those in the audience were to listen carefully about the concept and the person's oral presentation.  Some people talked too fast or didn't clearly explain the concept.  These may be bad things in a presentation, but these are just things we all have to work on.  Mistakes and failures are not bad things, learning from these mistakes and failures can only make a person better.  The problems in the presentations were learning experiences for not only the presenter, but also the rest of the class. Now I know what to avoid because of the critiques of my peers, but I'm very certain my presentation won't be flawless.  My flaws will help peers and I get better for future projects.  We didn't have time to get through everyone, so the presentations are extended till the next class.

Day 11 (February 13, 2013)

During the last class we were given an assignment to do.  The assignment was to create 9 original game concepts.  Today we did critiques on the game concepts.  It was nice to see all the different ideas people had for a game.  Some were ideas I would have never thought of.  Everyone had some different kind of concepts that were not identical to each others'.  We were only able to critique only half the class, but i was able to see interesting things.  The concepts I created were based on cards games an boardgames, because I was most familiar with those types.  The ones I found interesting were the ones that did not use the card or board game format.  Some of these were quite intriguing on how they functioned, their rules and the goal of the game.  There were some game concepts that were interest. but need more thinking over to make the game work.  At the end of the day the most interesting concepts were the ones I was not familiar with.  I i was hoping to see everyone's concepts, but we didn't have the time to do so.  For the next class we have to fully develop the concepts.     

Day 10 (February 11, 2013)

This is Game Day.  Everyone brought a game to class for the sake of researching how games function.  While playing the games we were to carefully examine the rules, story, goals etc...
There were many game to choose from, but I decided to choose something I was not familiar with which was Tarot cards.  The Tarot cards gave this dark eerie feeling.  The images were interesting and had a dark theme to it.  While examining the cards, it was hard to tell what  each card represented.  Each of the cards told a different story, but since I'm not familiar with them i don't know what they are.  The Tarots work by having a person choose a card randomly while thinking of a question about himself/herself.  Then think about what the card means by looking at it.  After that the symbolism of the card is explained to relate with the question that was asked.  The Tarot can bring out different emotions depending on the questions you ask.  It can lead to hope, sorrow and even fear depending on the question asked.  It was quite an interesting type of game since it was new and different from anything other games I've played.

The second game I played was miniature basketball.  We stuck the hoop on the window and began to play.  The game rules are simple just throw the ball in the hoop like regular basketball, but with a smaller hoop and ball.  This may look like people just throwing a ball in a hoop, but theres a lot to think about while playing.  Aiming is important, you need to know where the hoop is.  Math is a part of the game as well.  You need to know how much arc is needed in your throws and the power required to get the ball to the hoop.  It also is trial and error, if you fail you just adjust the power and angle then try again.  This game doesn't have a definite rule.  The rules are made by the players and the game as well the ball and hoop are just pieces of a game.    

Day 9 (January 6, 2013)

The class began with the us displaying the 7 Deadly Sins assignment we did.  Then we walked around to look at each others work.  Most of the work I saw were different, but there were some similarities as well.  I wasn't too surprised because we all have different ways of thinking.  I found this out in this class.  Each person did different things like drawings and photography.  After this we chose criteria for "awards" for people's work.  The work ranged from story, self portray, sinister types of work.
After this we looked at slides on how to clear the mind.  Doing this can allow for easier thinking.  Then we learned how to effectively brainstorm ideas.  This is helpful for developing ideas fast and generating many different ideas.  Instead of following the normal brainstorming format by using images as well.  The more ideas you generate, the better the ideas will appear.  I've tried this and its true.  But I still have problems with thinking of a lot of ideas in a small amount of time. This exercise should help me come up with ideas faster.  For the next class we have to make a concept tree.

Day 8 (February 4, 2013)

The class began with a group activity.  In the groups we looked over the Competencies of a 2015 Designer.  As a group we were  discussed the different understanding that is needed to be a designer of 2015.  There are 13 of these competencies, but I didn't understand some of them when I was reading them over.  Many of these we learned from school or from home.  Many these are things we experience in our daily lives.  When we discussed some of these things i started to understand them a little better.  There are others I understand but couldn't put them in words.  Discussing these with others was a good experience, if we hadn't done so i wouldn't had understood some of the competencies.  No design has all the 13 competencies, which is why a group is important in design.  I may not have any certain competencies that other people do, which means if we worked together we could achieve all 13.  The next thing we did was watch a video about Polish designers.  It was about how design was in the past for the Polish designers, and what changes occurred as time progressed.  I found it interesting how they did their own designs with the American movie poster.  They were clearly quite different in style.  After the film we were given an assignment for the next day, which was to illustrate the 7 Deadly Sins.

Day 7 (January 30, 2013)

The class started with us splitting into 2 groups.  In these group we talk about ourselves using the questions given on Day 6 of class.  The questions related to the fear-based reaction of our career choice, and the creative process we go through well creating.  As we began to share our answers with the group, I realised that many of us have similar answers.  One similarity would be parental support with the choice of our studies.  The more people I held from the more I saw how similar I was to them in the ways we think and do art.  This was a good experience that allowed us to get to know each other a little better.

The next part of the class was 2 videos.  We watched a TED talk with John Maeda and another with Tim Brown.  Maeda's video was interesting in how he did his work.  His way of thinking and what he did with regular items like french fries blew my mind.  I would have never even thought twice about the things he found interesting.  I might have to look at objects with a whole to light now.  As for Tim Brown's TED I was there for the beginning, but dosing off due to my lack of sleep the day before.  Will re-watch and continue.

Updated

Tim Brown's TED talk intrigued me with his talk about design thinking.  Instead of designing for the sake of money, it should be done because it is important.  Designing something useful that would help people for a long time.  Many designs are today are slight improvements on things that already exists such as the iphone.  Personality I don't see much change from each of the new versions.  But no matter how much it changed or not its just designed for money.  But innovating is not a easy task to accomplish, while watching I wondered how design now can change the lives of the people.  I believe this is something designer should think about as they design, but of course money makes the world go round and i doubt anything will change that.