I decided to think more in depth about why I am actually interested in horror and fantasy genres of games, narratives, myth and legend. During my peer interviews and talking to people around the class, I was asked why I was interested in horror and fantasy. To tackle this question, I did a mind map of some of the reasons to try and understand more about what is interesting about designing creatures that appear frightening, exciting and unrealistic.
When thinking about fantasy, I realised that there are no limits to what I could design-anything could exist because what I am designing comes from my imagination, based upon the myths and legends told through generations. It is exciting as it essentially another world, universe or dimension that can be designed and explored made up of these creations, we become the 'gods' in that we control the narrative, the environment, the characters and, their actions. We also base fantasy off of things from real life- what could the most mundane things in life inspire? Take for example, the wood carving exploration. This is an artisan skill that has been existent in hundreds of cultures for centuries. We see these things in the every day world, as I described in my context experiment with the Jumbie wood carving. But when we take an element of something so visible and simple, and change it, it could turn into something completely unreal and new.
When thinking about myth, it is fascinating to see that we have the ability and imagination to take elements of a culture and their myths and legends to bring it 'alive', whether it be in the format of art, film, games or even music. Being able to expose these myths and legends from a culture to a wider audience is something that I find very important, and is what I consider to be one of my key goals from this project. I also found from talking to my grandmother and reading books early on in the project, that superstition and fear are interconnected- they both guide each other. This could be influenced by religion, or just the general human fear of the unknown. After all, if there is no way to prove something, what stops us from believing that it exists? I feel like this is a key reason why people still tell stories of myth and legend, even if not as much as before.
Finally, the horror genre is interesting to me because humans are fearful of the unknown. There is always the thought 'what if' something is actually real and true, such as the existence of spirits amongst the living world. Horror allows creators to explore the extremes in a scenario, the lengths of the human imagination and the darkness of the human subconscious. In a horror game for example, such as Until Dawn, the psychological relationship between the player and the characters on screen can be manipulated throughout, depending on what is happening to the characters on screen and the options that the player is provided to guide them through the narrative. Once a player makes a decision in Until Dawn, it will effect whether the character lives, or dies. In turn, this has an impact on the emotional investment that the player has in the game. The characters can reflect the fear of the player in the situation, or present a threat towards the player and the other characters in the game. This mechanism reveals people at their best and at their worst in dire situations. Finally, combining horror and fantasy creates a completely fresh ground to explore the depths of imagination and human emotion. The boundaries between reality, the fantasy and the supernatural can all be walked when exploring the horror genre.
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