Help Olly Make Games at the NFTS

A project by: Olly Dawkins

£752
pledged of £11,500 target

This project did not reach its target.

Completion Date: Fri 16 Jan 2015
9 years, 2 months ago

7 days left of my crowdfunder. Thanks again to everyone whose supported me. If you are reading this and thought about pledging but haven't yet, please do! The bigger the fund the more attractive it is to others. Don't be shy, give it a try!

I've received plenty of likes on Facebook and been favourited on LinkedIn. I've also had quite a few key retweets on Twitter. I was particularly pleased that philosopher, critic, and head of Persuasive Games, Ian Bogost took time to tweet. Leading London based virtual reality companies Inition and Amplified Robot were also kind enough to retweet. Ana who made the excellent PixelRift game at the NFTS and has recently received an award for it has also given me very kind support online. I also caught my mate Luke talking me up online as a 'rogue philosopher' which I kind of liked. There are many more I haven't mentioned. I've made plenty of new connections but I still need to do more to turn that interest into pledges.

Hopefully with some more work I can secure enough pledges against my higher value rewards. I'm particularly keen to get out there and do some workshops so fingers crossed.

At this point in the campaign my page has been viewed 2067 times which is fantastic. Please pledge and spread the word wherever you can. It might only take one pledge if the right people are looking!

I'm so grateful to everyone who has pledged so far. I hope I can make it so that we get to share this adventure together.

9 years, 2 months ago

Please be aware that I’ve added a reward specifically for companies who might be willing to sponsor me.

Pledge £2,500 or more

FOR COMPANY SPONSORS - Select this reward for the opportunity of first refusal on offering me paid work for your company during the summer recess in 2015. Please contact me to discuss details.

Pledge £5,000 or more

FOR COMPANY SPONSORS - Select this reward for the opportunity of first refusal on offering me paid work for your company following completion of my course in Jan 2017. Please contact me to discuss details.

Please find out more about my creative and professional skills on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverdawkins

9 years, 2 months ago

A number of people have asked me about the game I'm hoping to create at the NFTS. In forming my proposal for my interview I was really inspired and encouraged by the quality, high production values, innovative gameplay and strong narrative focus exhibited in previous projects from the NFTS course. Many of their games go on to receive nominations for gaming awards and funding. Great examples include Off Grid, Pixel Rift, and Sandman which are all very different but each share that NFTS signature care for quality gameplay and thoughtful story telling.

For my game I’d like to explore my interests in psychology, technology, architecture and cities by developing a story based on the ideas of supporters and critics alike concerning the current movement in urban planning for Smart Cities. To that end I proposed the story of an architect struggling to create the perfect city. While dealing with intrigue amongst the powers-that-be the protagonist starts to lose their own grip on reality as the city they are creating starts making decisions of its own. In this way I hope to set the stage for a conspiracy adventure played out equally across the futuristic spaces of the newly sentient city as well as the warped spaces of the increasingly paranoid architect’s imagination. I hope this will offer novel and exciting opportunities for gameplay within an environment inspired equally by the corporate and avant-garde architectures of today and of the past; the paradoxical and labyrinthine spaces depicted by artists like MC Escher and Piranesi; and the near-future science fiction of writers like J.G. Ballard. In order to immerse the player in the experience I’m really keen to make the game compatible with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset because I love the idea of immersing the player in the role of the architect protagonist.

At the same time the story simply that of the architect, but equally that of the city. I’m keen to see if I can incorporate elements of the ‘Science of Cities’ that I’ve been learning in my studies at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) to create unusual puzzles and challenges for the player. Most experimentally I’d like to attempt to use live data generated by actual cities and social networks within the game. Although this is the most challenging and speculative part of my proposal it would be fascinating to see if I could use these techniques to break down the boundary between the game and everyday life by bringing the actual city into my game. Whether I can achieve this and what form that might take I can’t be sure at this point.

This is just the barest sketch but I hope that sounds exciting. I would really appreciate any help you can offer in making it happen. If you like the project please don’t hesitate to get involved and support my campaign.

Cheers Dan, Glad you like the idea. Dark City was one of the film in the back of my mind when I've been thinking about it. Fingers crossed!

Wow sounds awesome, sentient city reminds me of the movie Dark City