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Amnesia research
On Friday lecture we had to show our essential experience to the class on Trello I showed two of my ideas (mystery and narrative idea), luckily I received a lot of feedback which is good, keeps me away from trouble :). One of the things that my classmates suggested for me when developing the game, is to consider using the lens of projection, I'll take this with more consideration when creating the prototypes. the goal in the next couple of weeks is to go through each feedback and research the topics they suggested. For this one, I am going to look at Lio's suggestion of amnesia.
I think the reason why Li suggested Amnesia as research is that it links with memory loss, when it comes to mental health it's going to be a very sensitive topic, so it is the goal to research the condition and try to implement it within my game.
The goal here is to research the condition and see it fit or shape the aesthetic or the narrative of the game
After the feedback session, I started the research, I have never really had to research Amnesia so I don't know or understand the condition all that well, so for me to educated myself I researched the definition, the symptoms, different type of amnesia, potential causes of amnesia. Here is the notes that I have written.
As you can see there are different types of amnesia's and they affect people in different ways depending on what caused, in some cases amnesia could be caused by head injury which could potentially result to the damage of the hippocampus (the part of the brain that stores memories). My intention was to learn the different types of amnesia and see which one could potentially fit in with my idea.
My idea was to have the character be in a hospital bed getting treatment, the game takes place in his head trying collect his memories and try to find out who they were before everything happened. From my research I'll say retrograde amnesia seem to be closest type of amnesia to the one that my character will have, because retrograde amnesia affects existing memories, the slight problem is that According to healthline. (2016) retrograde amensia affects exisiting memories a little bit slower.
Stories related to amnesia
Quotes from the articles:
Oprah
"I don't remember waking up, My mom says the first thing I asked was. "Where's Dad?" He died in 2001. I thought I still a TV reporter though I'dd switched careers to public relations. And I ony vaguely remembered my fiance". Voorhes, A. (2014)
"Memory loss can be very emotional and fustrating". Voorhes, A. (2014)
Telegraph
"Adrian Ellis is 51 but thinks he is 42. After an accident in 2004, when he fell from a gantry at work and knocked his head, Ellis was diagnosed in 2007 with anretrograde amnesia" Hawksley, R. (2016)
"A devestating condition that prevents him from transferring memories from short-term to long-term" Hawksley, R. (2016)
"Unlike sufferers to retrograde amnesia, who forget everything prior to the onset of the disease, Ellis has crystial-clear memories of his life up to the day of his accident" Hawksley, R. (2016)
Because the retrograde amnesia affects existing memories in a much slower rate, maybe the game is run against time where the player must find out who they were before? if not there memories are gone forever, this could give the player urgency to complete the levels because it is a run against time.
Here is how what I have done with the research
From the research, the level has interwoven it with the narrative of the game, in the game the character Jake has a mysterious accident that affect his memory somehow this related to the research because amnesia is a form of memory loss, also more specifically I implemented retrograde amnesia into the environmental storytelling according to healthline. (2016) retrograde amnesia affects existing memories a little bit slower. In the game, the environment is a memory of the character and because his memory is bad, the environment is foggy, but as the player progresses through the level fog starts to fade to further illustrate the sensitivity of memories.
Voorhes, A. (2014). How It Feels to Lose Your Memory & More Amazing Experiences. Available: https://www.oprah.com/spirit/real-life-experiences-memory-loss/all. Last accessed 4th Dec 2020.
Hawksley, R. (2016). Life without memories: the real people who live with Finding Dory's amnesia . Available: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/08/01/life-without-memories-the-tragic-truth-behind-finding-dorys-amne/. Last accessed 4th Dec 2020.
healthline. (2016). Amnesia. Available: https://www.healthline.com/health/amnesia. Last accessed 4th Dec 2020.
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