Here’s the screens for my game. The elements will be reused in some poster designs as well. For now here’s the progress!
Look for an update soon with how the game looks, there will be a video up. Also I’m working on my gloves and will have some pictures of those soon.
How do you go about choosing which parts of the story should be part of the adaptation? Is there’s a specific process?
There’s no specific process, we always are making it up as we go. In general we start out with an idea – like Elizabeth Bennet as a grad student with a video blog – and then take the book chunk by chunk. Film a month, write a month, film a month etc. But we try to always keep a character driven perspective. So in terms of which parts of the adaptation to keep in, we have to consider where each character starts and where they’re going. Can that character still get where they need to go if we cut out X? If the answer is yes, then we’re probably better off without it. Things get left out if they feel redundant, if we just can’t make them work for the new setting, or if we feel like we’re trying to squeeze something in only as a reference to original text, and not because it serves our character and their story.
Also, as embarrassing as it is to admit, tools like sparknotes have been a big help to us. Not because we don’t read the original text (believe me, we do) but because it’s easy way to understand the commonly accepted ‘big plot points’. This big plot points are the imperatives. You’ll notice that the Pride and Prejudice sparknotes plot summary only mentioned the three Bennet sisters: Elizabeth, Jane and Lydia. This isn’t how we decided to only have the three of them as sisters in the show, but I think it confirms that our instincts were right.
Do you have suggestions on how I should approach rereading my book for the adaptation?
What you’re doing is going to be very different that what we do, I’m afraid. When we read, we’re thinking about what world we’re going to put the book in and what kind of modern people have the same flaws as these fictional people. You’re going to making a game though, I and feel like that probably takes a totally different thought process. I haven’t actually read Ready Player One (I know about it though) but it seems like an interesting choice. Since you’ve already made a decision about your format, just knowing that will help you when you re-read. You can think about all the questions of game design, and also figure out a meta-game strategy. (Since your book focuses on the main character playing games.) You can have a list of questions that you ask yourself when you go in for the reread such as: Is your game going to be in first person or third person? Does the person playing the game take on the role of Wade? If so, how do you lead them towards making the same choices that Wade made and take them through the narrative? How do you make the player feel like they have agency? How do you incorporate Wade’s in-game life and out of game life in your game?
What are some challenges that you face in adapting a book into a series?
Because our shows are vlog style, we always struggle with what to show and what not to show in the main videos. Some important events just don’t make sense within our conceit (everyone asks “why would she be filming right now? why would she put this on the internet?”) so we have to find ways around that using transmedia.
Since your series span multiple mediums how do you focus down which parts go on which platform?
A quote from Bernie: “As for the synergy between the writer’s room and the transmedia team, for LBD the writer’s room went first. Block out the episodes, figure out what’s happening for the next few months, get that locked down, and assign the episodes out. Once that’s done the transmedia team would then work around what’s there. The evolution to present day Emma Approved is that the writing team is actually smaller while the interactive team has grown and is now larger. There was more going on in EA non-video wise on a week by week basis so we’ve grown the team. But since our very rough start of the show interactive wise, I feel there is a lot more synergy because it really is just one big room now. So even though we still block out the episodes by month. Basically, we don’t have writer meetings with transmedia support scrambled together later, we now just have story meetings where we cover everything. So if you get anything from my answer, it’s that. Think of it all as part of the story.”
Progress update with some of the coding in place. More to come later on. I have big weekend of everything that I need to get done, so look out for a logo and UI for the game!
Lots going on here, it’s getting crazy. Went to COGG this past Saturday with Jillian and got a ton of help. I had my Makey Makey glove out for testing and everyone was playing it. They helped give me tips on the game play. Some people are also helping me out with music for the game which is awesome! They also helped with coding as well. Here’s some shots of people talking from Saturday!
Here’s an updated version of my game too. Jillian did some work to it and now it has fog and it’s dark and creepy!
So for next update I’ll have the coding finished hopefully and my gloves ready to go. I’m sewing some conductive fabric and string to the fingertips of my gloves to help it work. I did a ton of testing this weekend so I feel confident in the way everything is working out! I also have a meeting with Jillian this Thursday so more to be updated then!
Some visual on the glove testing for some quick Thursday progress check in. Still a long way to go. I’ve bought some conductive thread and fabric from Adafruit which will be here soon. Will get you more to look at soon!
I’ve spent most of my time since the last update trying to decide on if I
want to continue playing with Makey Makey or if I want to try out FLORA (pictured right) or some other kind of component. In the interest of time I’ve decided that using Makey Makey will be the best of the choices. I’m still tinkering with the process, but will be posting progress within the next week or so for you to see. I want to make sure that I go down all avenues before I commit. I’ve started diagraming the look of the gloves out and will have a scanned picture out for you to see next time.
As for game progress I’m getting there. There’s a lot of components still to add and I’m doing my best to get as much of them done by the time Saturday rolls around. There is another COGG meet up that I’m going to and I want as much done as possible so that I can get feedback. Below is the video of what I’ve updated since last time.
For next week look for updates on game progress and the Makey Makey gloves. Once those two are done I can spend the rest of the time finishing out the trailer and poster designs. I’ll keep you guys updated!
Hello again,
So I’m basically starting my game over, again. I was doing so well and getting so far, but Unity 5 crashed. This is what it looks like when I try to put new items into Unity right now.
Yup…and it keeps freezing, so I’m downloading Unity 4 again and starting over. It sucks, but it’ll go faster now that I know how to work. My flow is going a lot better since I’ve gotten better at the keyboard commands.
In the mean time here’s a screenshot of the old map so that I can use it as reference for the newer version. I’m also going through the asset store and making the place actually look nice, since it’s a little bare right now.
I’ve also begun working on the Haptic gloves. I have two pairs of garden ones, some wire, the Makey Makey kit, and extra alligator clips. I’m in the middle of stripping the wire, which I can tell is going to take forever since I keep accidentally cutting the copper, but I remain strong in trying to get it to work. I’ve also started listening to audio books while I work on it. Working through Gone Girl at the moment, but maybe should switch to Ready Player One…’cause I can.
As for what I need for next time, I need the game map to be officially finished and sent to a programer so that he can get it done. Also ready so that Jillian can send me the components to place inside the game. I need to play test with the haptic gloves on and figure out how I want people to move with it. Maybe it should be more full body? Step on the floor? I need to work out how that should work so that I don’t get behind. April 4th is when I want as much of my game done as possible so that I can get to the other components.
Updates soon!
