Problem Solving Story Writing

Explanation of Experiment
• I want to become better at story writing before I start writing for my
production just to make sure that I can write to a decent standard before I
start doing it for real the only issue that I will have is coming up with
names but beyond that I don’t think that I will have to many problems
except for maybe some pacing errors. The other reason for wanting to
create some creative writing was to expand on my skill that I already have
but refine it further by reading other books and then try and replicate
some of the effects that they use but even though I have read quite a few
books and I don’t really know of any other way of writing other than the
way I write which is a mixture of Anthony Horowitz, Andrzej Sapkowski
and Oliver Bowden. Obviously I have read from other authors but I haven’t
really taken much notice of their writing style such as I have read some
Poirot’ and I have also read The Lord of the Rings books, but the ones I
have mainly learnt from are Alex Rider, The Witcher and The Assassin’s
Creed books. So I either need to grow my repertoire of books I have read
or do some research into certain writing techniques.

Example of Experiment
Assassin’s Creed Revelations Excerpt

The Witcher Time of Contempt
Excerpt

Alex Rider Storm Breaker Excerpt

Experiment
• When the cloaked man reached his destination it appeared to be a chapel out in
the boonies. With sword in hand he slowly marches up the stairs towards the
doors, his face covered by cloth so no one knew his face. When he reached the
door he gave it a slight knock with the end of his sword. Which no one originally
answered but after a few minutes of repeatedly knocking on the door with the hilt
of his sword eventually a plump and slightly rounded man garbed in a monks
clothing. He ran back into the chapel almost immediately after opening the door in
the vain attempt to escape his predator, but in his hurry he tripped over himself
and started to crawl away as fast as the fat monk could go. Yet for all of his
attempts to escape they were all useless and he still found himself at the end of
the cloaked mas sword which quickly impaled the monks stomach. As life escaped
from what appeared to be the monk his body started to morph to a thin devil like
figure with his rib cage sticking through its skin and you can visibly see its heart
beating incredibly quickly. Yet the demon still lives with a devilish smile plastered
across its face, to free itself from the blade the demon tried to scratch the cloaked
mans face who evaded it with ease but had to leave the sword with in the demons
body which was slowly but surely failing it.

Experiment Analysis
• It was difficult to think up of ideas and I believe that the idea that I came
up with it should have been much longer and thus I think maybe I should
have added more detail to the actual chase scene than just oh there is a
predator and he is chasing the prey and the prey turns out to be
superhuman see I could sum it up with in just a few words. So I feel as if
there should have been more description and less story with in that small
little area , however I feel as if the first example for the experiment was
fantastic though because it actually just used description as it was a sort of
almanac explanation. I had other issues with this experiment being that I
didn’t really incorporate many different creative writing techniques I have
only used a lot of adjectives and tried to create a decent story around that
only which is quite difficult to do. If I were to do this again I would have
tried to have used more creative writing techniques and maybe do a
different scene to test out different types of pacing. Even though it didn’t
go very well it shows that anybody can write but not a lot of people can
make their writing entertaining to millions of people like the Harry Potter
books or the series of unfortunate events books.

• The reason why I wanted to do an experiment
for music was so that then I could experiment
with how music can set the tone of a story or
help the product fit in with a certain time
period.
• I will be attempting to do this by trying to fit
into an NES period game but beyond that I
think I will be trying to attempt a fast paced
chase scene.

Example of what I would have liked to
have done with the game if it was
created
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72S2aAxt
ZOs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP8c1q-
uiqM

Experiments
• file:///Users/andrew-
downes/Downloads/BeepBox-Song(1).wav

Experiment Process
• With these three different songs I used a website called
beep box to create the music.
• To start off the songs I had to create a pattern for the
music to follow which is why you hear repeating parts
of the songs.
• Then to make the songs seem a bit different through
out I decided to use the exact same technique but use
a different pattern as to make it either sound as if I use
oscillating rhythms or some times scale.
• Then as an overarching pattern I used a pyramid so
then everything gets at least repeated once also it
makes everything look nice in the images.

Experiment Analysis
• For these experiments I was trying to sort out some sort of pacing for the
character and the story and I found out that slow and sombre is the way to
go for this project however in some cases I will need to speed up the pace
of the sound track to fit some of the action sequences however when you
are out of those action sequences, where things are frantic and chaotic
you need to create some space for the main overarching plot which is
much slower and concise and in some cases it may need to sound dark,
sad but in some cases it can be quite upbeat but only towards the end.
This experiment was really to help me out with pacing however it has also
helped me to set the tone to an extent as well. Beyond all of that though it
has also helped me to realize that if I used actual instruments the song will
probably be even more crisp and it will probably more a kin to what I want
to make if I make the music by playing the instruments rather than using
programs such as garage band. However I no longer have my drum set so I
will have to do some random bits and pieces through programs such as
audacity or garage band.

Explanation for Experiment
• For this experiment I will be looking into the use
of the 3D with in my project when it comes down
to the 3D element I was going to be using the
Unreal or is it the Unity engine but either way I
will be trying to create some 3D assets which and
for the art style I will try and use pixel art in a 3D
manor but I think it might be too difficult to do
when it comes down to the final project so I
might put a spin on it and make it 2D but look 3D
in Photoshop which will be much easier.

Experiment Analysis
• I wen through all of the tutorials in Unity but to actually add any of
your own designs into it you have to sculpt them in a sculpting
software such as Z-brush and Sculptris. However it is incredibly
useful setting up levels and making things how they should look in a
game. All I did in this though was follow the tutorials. I tried to
create a new project but the prefabs wouldn’t load in for some odd
reason and none of the art options worked, so next time I might
start out with a pre made option and then start with the same floor
plan but different rooms, weapons and enemies but it will take too
long to learn as I start production next week and it will be pretty
difficult to get to grips with this software in time for my production.
Also there was yet another massive issue which is that I couldn’t
put the folder that held all of the files for the game into the
PowerPoint so you couldn’t play it but it might work if I send it to
one of my tutors so instead just in case I decided to put some
screen shots to show that I have done the work.

• For this experiment I will be testing out
different software including Photoshop,
Illustrator and Sculptris. In all of these
software' I will be creating certain characters
that will relate to my end product and if I have
enough time I will also make some weaponry
or instead of protagonists I will create some
antagonists. In other words this is just a test to
see which software is the best for what I want
to create when it comes down to my product.

Explanation for Experiment
• For this experiment I will be looking at different ways of
drawing art with pixel art and also I will be looking at colour
to see whether a vary of colour is good or if a monotone
colour palate gets my point across better. Here is an
example of some previous works which are similar to what I
want to create.

Experiment Process 1 Part 3
• Inside of Photoshop it was fairly easy to do these processes as it has
been what I have done for the past two years so I already know
exactly what I was doing inside of the software.
• As my first step I imported an image of a warrior who was wielding
a single blade and had some armour on
• As my second step I decided to trace the outline of the character,
their blade and some more important bits of armour but to do this I
had to lower the opacity of the image of the warrior so I can see
both my lines and the lines of the original art.
• As my third step I added more little details such as the rest of the
armour that wasn’t important I used my own designs to fill in the
gaps between the armour and the body.
• As my fourth step I added colour to it all just to add something
extra to the design as I knew I could easily do it.

Experiment 2 Process Part 3
• Inside of Illustrator it was much harder and yet the design looks much more
refined than it does in the Photoshop version. Also this was my second time using
this software so it was slightly difficult to find my way around it.
• My first step was to import an image of a warrior who was dual wielding.
• My second step was to lower the opacity of the image so I could see my drawing
over the original image.
• My third step was to do the general race of the original images outline and some
of the more important parts of the image.
• My fourth step was to fill in the banks with my own patterns and designs.
• I was going to use a fifth step to colour everything in but then I couldn’t find the
right tool and when I did, I had the massive issue of not understanding how to use
it even though I had watched YouTube videos on it as well.
• In other words the creation was incredibly similar Photoshop if anything it was
neater than the Photoshop version but I didn’t understand how to use some of the
more basic elements of the software so I couldn’t colour anything in unless I took a
day to paint it with the paint brush.

Experiment 3 Process Part 3
• For this experiment I was using Sculptris which is a sculpting software for
3D use. I have never used this software before so it was incredibly easy
just to mess around and make something complex which is effectively
what I did.
• For my first step I created a new plain because for this experiment I was
going to be creating a background which was going to be like the desolate
mountainous area of my game.
• For my second step I made some indentations on the flat plain to make
the area feel less flat and also make it so it doesn’t just look like the floor
is flat and everything was going up from there.
• For my third step I started to create the mountains and hills around the
entrance to the mountainous area which means that now there are both
ups and downs on this map.
• For my fourth step I decided to colour it in. It is all coloured in brown with
the same colour but I added an effect onto it so that then it would appear
as the area was dark with splodges of moon light showing up as well. I did
this just to add some atmosphere to the image.

Experiment Summary
• Through out all of these experiments I have been using a Wacom
drawing tablet and for both the Illustrator and the Photoshop
experiments I used background image to work to. I only did that
because it is incredibly difficult to hand draw a human figure quite
quickly. As for software in this experiment I tried to use a lot of
different software that I had never used before so I had one safety
software which was Photoshop and then I moved onto Illustrator
which I had only used two or three times before unsuccessfully and
then I tried to learn how to use two different software one being
Unity which is a video game design software so it wasn’t to useful
for these experiments but that is what I had to find out and the
other was called Sculptris which is effectively a less evolved Z-brush
so you can sculpt characters in 3D. I have improved on my old
techniques by using different software to force myself to learn
new ways around some both major and minor problems.

Resources What I need them for What could go wrong
Garage Band for creating some music
depending on whether or
not I can record some
music of my own.
I don’t understand how to
use the software or I am
too slow in using it or I
don’t understand how to
export the music I had
created.
Beep Box for creating music if garage
band becomes impossible
to use.
I don’t understand how to
control speed or pitch or it
could crash every time that
I try to export something
Photoshop is to create some of my
characters that I had
created with in my stories
that are going to be the
backbone of this product.
It could crash at any time, I
could get some of the
information wrong whilst
exporting the products, I
could have issues with
drawing some of the
details I want to include.
Microsoft Word is to write down the story
which is going to be the
centre piece of my
product.
I could get lost in my own
story writing and take too
long on that aspect of the
product. Also I could write
something that is rubbish.

Resources What I need them for What could go wrong
Guitar For playing some music if I
can get some recordings
done for the music.
Strings could break, the
guitar could be out of tune, I
could play some absolute
rubbish.
Audacity To create some music but I
don’t know if I will need it
for sure as it depends
whether it works or not.
I could not understand how
the software works, it could
be an issue how well the
music records.
Unity could be a resource that I
use because it is a piece of
3D software which I could
potentially be using for my
designs.
I have never used this
program before so I won’t
know how to use it,
exporting work will be an
issue as I don’t know how to
do it, also programming is a
big part of it and I don’t
know much when it comes
down to programming
Computer to be able to use a majority
of this software
Computer could get a virus,
my work could become
corrupted, my work might
not work the same in older
versions of the same

Problems What could go wrong Fixes to the problems
Memory stick Files could either go missing or
become corrupted easily, or even the
memory stick are quite easy to
misplace.
Save the files in multiple places
and if that didn’t work I would
have to make full use of the auto
save on Word and PowerPoint
and work from where the auto
save, saved my work.
Story My story could be rubbish and not
entertaining, or it could just make no
sense, or I need help with how I order
the story.
Ask for feedback on the story
from multiple people to check
whether it is good enough.
Beyond that though it is mainly
grammar which is easy to
correct.
Illness Falling ill could be at home for a long
time.
I would either have to catch up
in my own time or working
through the illness.
Recording Software
( Audacity )
Audacity might not record what I play
correctly, I might not know how to use
it as I haven’t used it before, and
exporting the work might be a
problem.
Doing multiple recordings could
fix some of the issues as it would
get me more acquainted with
the software and then I just
have to worry about the volume.

Software Could potentially crash and lose the
work, it could be on an older piece of
software and thus wouldn’t work on a
more up to date version.
Keep all of the software up to date
so it could work anywhere, and also
save repetitively to make sure you at
least have some work to go back to.
Techniques I don’t understand how to use them or
use them successfully or I don’t even
know about some techniques.
Watch some YouTube tutorials and
workshops on some of the
techniques and search for ones that
would be useful otherwise ask peers
and teachers for advice.
Laziness Self explanatory loosing interest or just
getting bogged down in the amount of
work you have to do.
Your work will become visibly worse
if this happens and if you work
through this the work will continue
to get worse to try and stop this you
have to have a better mental state
about your work and yourself.

Time There could be way too much for me to
do and I fall behind my production
schedule
The only way I could correct this is by
either working faster, working more in my
own time or just cutting par of the
project
ambition Could become overly ambitious with
both the design and the writing aspect
of my concept.
I could only correct this by making
everything less impressive in other words
compromise and make things look and
sound worse.
Designs Could become overly complicated which
would be waste of time or it could be
too simple and be a waste of time for
everyone.
Don’t try and add every little detail such
as if there are a lot of ruffles in a
characters clothes only draw a few to
depict them as an example.
Music It could be a waste of time because it is
just to help the pacing of the story I
write.
Depending on how much time I have left
when it comes down to the production if
I have a lot of time I will create some
music but if not I won’t as it is not crucial.
Biomes This could make it quite difficult to
explain with in the story because there
is the luscious forest biome and the
desolate mountain biome which can’t
really be right next to each other.
To fix this I might have to add a third type
of biome or create a massive gap
between the two or I could even make it
so that the city or a city spans the world
and splits the two different biomes

Contingency
• One of the main things that I have a problem with is my time management and
that is in all of my projects except for my print project work. When it comes down
to time management though the main reason why I get wrong so much is because
I want to create something fantastic which I will always need more time for. This
project feels incredibly similar to some of my other overly ambitious projects prior
to this one as there is so much to do which either means that I have to make my
project smaller or manage my time much more efficiently. I have taken steps to
manage my time more appropriately by creating multiple schedules and one being
more specifically just for the production but beyond that I still feel as if I am being
a bit too ambitious wanting to create back stories and bestiaries for almost
everything I am planning on using as story devices to expand upon but I feel as if it
will be a major problem if I keep them and I think I will have to slim down my idea
a little bit but before I do I want to see how everything works out and see if I can
work to my production schedule. The main other issue is that when it comes
down to it I try to put to much effort into some of the designs and end up making
them worse with more work but other times it just takes me ages to draw
something that I actually like and could call a finished product.

Contingency
• The other main issue I had from all of my other projects is that I have never really
liked any of my projects and how they turned out as far as my production is
concerned the main reason for that is because I am overly ambitious with what I
want to create and it is incredibly disappointing when I cannot complete the plan
as I set it out, the other main issue with this is that I just don’t think that I have the
great production skills I need to create anything that I want to draw so production
wise I just don’t think that I have the necessary skills as I only draw in one way
being pixel art on Photoshop as I have never really tried to do anything creative in
any other software which means when it comes down to using illustrator or Unity I
have no idea what I will be doing or how I would even start doing it. My
production skill is an issue which is why I will be concentrating mainly on my story
writing skills on this product and then do the creation of the characters as a
secondary to the story just to play to my strengths. Also there is the issue that all
of this adds up to me wasting time to make something look even close to final
project worthy which it rarely ever does anyway which is why I am hopefully going
to be moving into game design courses when I enter University which I believe
would also play to my strengths.

Problems How problem is caused How to fix problem
Repetitive Strain caused by doing the same action
over and over again in the same
way.
You can easily fix this by either
taking a break to get rid of the pain
or try moving in a different way.
Posture caused by working in an awkward
position or slouching a lot other
example could be lying down.
This can easily be fixed by either
taking a break or sitting upright
whilst working.
Sore Eyes caused by working for too long or
staring at monitors without blinking
for a long time.
This could be easily fixed by
blinking every once in a while or
taking a break from working.
Migraines caused by over working, under
sleeping or not having enough sugar
in your system.
This could be easily fixed by taking
a break, sleeping 8 hours a night
and always making sure you have
had enough sugar but not too
much.
Cramps caused by resting in one place for
too long or doing the same
movements over and over again but
beyond that there are normal
cramps such as eating too much too
quickly.
This could easily be fixed by not
sitting in the same place for too
long or by trying to do different
movements as easy as moving your
arms whilst typing, the other fix is
to not eat too much too quickly or
just take a break from work and
wait to feel alright again.

Week What will be done Potential problems
one I will be making my story and backstories
for the main characters and also create the
main story line.
My issue will be how intriguing my
writing is and this can only be fixed
by showing it to other people.
two I will be finishing my creation of the
backstories and all of the information for
all of the demons, monsters and settings
and then I might also have to draw some
of the characters and creations.
I am not very strong when it comes
down to finishing off the stories I
create. I also have a problem
probably when it comes down to
drawing my characters.
three I will be trying to create more of the
companions and enemies as well as their
back stories.
as I rarely think about other people
than the main protagonist and
antagonist.
four I will be creating all of the designs for the
creatures and monster and then on top of
all of that I will be creating the bestiaries
for all of these creatures and monsters.
poor understanding of story writing
could affect my product.
five I will be creating my settings such as the
forests and the desolate lands and also the
bios.
I might have some difficulty with the
backstories for the areas because
having large forest areas next to
some desolate mountainous regions
wouldn’t make much sense.

Week What will be done Potential problems
six I will be going over everything
that I had created and polish it
up a bit.
the issues that I have brought
up before that could come
back potentially.
All of them Production diary of how
everything turned out.
The issue is that some people
might not understand what I
write about

Problem Solving Story Writing

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