Because Project Week was cancelled, I decided to make my own project to replace it: making an RPG.

While writing the script of the RPG, I ran into a problem: the beginning was filled with a lot of exposition; the audience would get bored. When I looked at the openings for other games and looked more into how to open a game, I was advised to try and hook the audience within the first five minutes of the game and to try and get them playing as soon as possible. Most of the time, game developers do this by employing media res, or starting in the middle. However, if we decided to start in the middle of the story, the audience would be confused and I felt it would be harder to tell the story. So, I decided that it would be best if we had the main character start without any NPCs so that exposition through dialogue would immediately be off the table. Likewise, we could do a “random” encounter with a demon and have it quickly established that demons would be the player’s “enemies”.

I think I had trouble with the beginning because I was not used to this type of medium. I’m mainly used to writing short stories, and I can explain the character’s thoughts and actions and past through the narration. However, a game (or at least this type of game) does not really have narration. I will have to keep this in mind as I continue writing the script. Games rely more on indirect storytelling (literally show not tell) in order to keep the audience/player interested.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OB3CYtnPFSw9QOesYPrqrFn0GuwFEvpP/view?usp=sharing

 

During this session on November 5 2019, we blocked out Act 4 Scene 9 and Act 5 Scene 2. Both scenes contained a fight scene, between soldiers and the Merry Men. As a soldier, I had to work with an actor part of the Merry Men to create a ten step fight scene; Act 4 Scene 9 ended in my victory while Act 5 Scene 2 ended in hers.

We worked together before in the beginning scene of the play, so it was easier to collaborate in the sense that we knew each other slightly and it was less awkward. I think we both learned from our previous experience of creating the movement piece in Act 1 Scene 1 that we couldn’t spend a lot of time talking about what we wanted to do, so we both started doing actions and rolled with it; similar experiences got us on the same page.

One obstacle we faced was that we didn’t reach ten actions as Ms Bye wanted. At most, we had around eight. This was because in between most of our moves we needed time to react or get into position. For example, there is one where I am “kicked”. In between the kick and the next action, I have to fall down and get back up into a position that transitions into the next action.

We didn’t manage to solve this in the Act 4, but our sequence ran long enough that it didn’t matter. In fact, if we had gone on to create up to ten actions, we would’ve made our sequence too long.

For Act 5, we ran into the same problem but this time we ran short, mainly because we didn’t have as much movement in between actions. We quickly came up with a different way to end the fight by adding a few more actions (another punch and then a final kick). We had to spend a bit more time refining it to make the full sequence work fluidly, but we managed to get it to a sufficient time period; although it still wasn’t up to ten actions.

However, it didn’t need to be and we filled up the proper amount of time, so we didn’t add any more actions.

For collaboration, we essentially gave free reign of what to do when it came to our own character. I would decide what my character, the soldier, would do to attack and my partner would decide how her character, a Merry Man, would react and retaliate; and vice versa. However, we would occasionally give some input as to how we could make transitions smoother or how to make the fight scene more interesting or dynamic. We also didn’t argue a lot, so the creation process was very peaceful and done very quickly. Collaboration was necessary to create the sequence and to make the process cordial and efficient.

For Inkling, I wrote two articles for the Culturama of 2019. The style, tone, and format of the articles were similar to what I did for MUN; in this way, it was a familiar activity to do. However, it was different in the sense that the topic of our articles were broad and we could and encouraged input our opinions into our articles. And that was where I struggled with most, in my opinion.

I didn’t like the activity being so vague in what needed to be in the article. For MUN, it was specific and clear: we needed to present the sides discussed in the debates. For Culturama, the articles could range from how we personally felt watching the dance to what techniques were performed in the show to how it was received by the crowd; we could write about anything we wanted to for Culturama.

I’m better at writing in an objective manner, or at least as objectively as I can be, focusing on facts and being able to present both sides. I’m good at summarizing a variety of topics and able to find someone who can explain to me what is going on if I’m not so knowledgeable about the subject; while not comfortable doing so, I’m able to track people who are knowledgeable in the field of concern and ask them questions that would better inform me and the audience.

Most of these skills were not needed nor particularly wanted for this assignment. Opinions require subjectivity, but I don’t like expressing my personal thoughts on anything. Summarizing a dance isn’t very entertaining to read either, and entertainment is one of the key focus of the assignment. Likewise, it would be hard to recap dances in words in a clear and concise manner.

The activity taught me how to better handle activities that did not play into my strengths and how to force myself to complete it even if I didn’t want to, though I can definitely get better.

UWCSEA hosted a MUN conference from October 11, 2019 to October 13, 2019. I attended the conference not as one of the participants but as a member of Press Corps, meaning I had to sit and listen to the debates and write articles summarizing the different arguments presented.

The goal throughout the entire event was to write at least two articles per day (just one on Friday as MUN just started and didn’t have that much time to do a lot of debate). One way I showed my commitment would be that I worked to reach the set goal and achieved it, meaning I wrote five articles. This meant I had to listen to the debates, interview participants, and then type an article that coherently explained what was happening (the debates were somewhat difficult to grasp if you haven’t done basic research on the background history and stances present in the debate). During these three days, I stayed up late in the night to complete the articles to reach.

If I had decided not to be committed, then PressCorps would not have had as much articles as it does now and may have not been continued for next year. This year was the first time UWC would have a PressCorps, or people to write articles for MUN. If I had not been committed, then it may have been decided that holding PressCorps may not be worth it, which would have disappointed my chairs as well as some of the student leaders in MUN from UWC East.

I was in charge of writing articles for three committees: Disarmament and International Security (DISEC), Legal Committee, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). I was interested in the debates for DISEC and ICJ, but I wasn’t really invested in the topics discussed in the Legal Committee. However, I stayed committed to writing articles for it because I would feel guilty for disappointing my chairs and since I am part of PressCorps, I felt I had a responsibility to do so.

Personal interest and guilt usually are effective in keeping me committed to something.

Articles:

https://www.uwcmun.org/press-corps/legal-the-improvement-of-the-enforcement-of-foreign-rulings

https://www.uwcmun.org/press-corps/october-12th-20191858271

https://www.uwcmun.org/press-corps/october-12th-20193648983

During the second rehearsal of the drama play, we focused on the first scene of the play where the entire cast is present. I worked with three other IGCSE students to create a movement piece that we would perform while the main characters of the scene got into place.

One of the challenges I faced were that since they were in IGCSE they haven’t gone through most of the lessons I’ve already learned, such as how to do lifts and counterbalances. So we were somewhat limited in what our options were, however, this was easily overcome by me just explaining the concepts to them.

The other challenge we faced, and we didn’t manage to actually overcome, was that our movement piece didn’t match the tempo of the music that is going to be used for the scene. We weren’t aware that we had to match an upbeat rhythm for our piece and our piece mainly fit a slower pace; we used a lot of balancing and small pauses rather than a lot of movement. We were thinking of creating a new movement piece that fit the music outside of rehearsals. However, we didn’t manage to exchange contact details and it’s probable that we won’t see each other again until the next full cast rehearsal. So I think we will have to keep our movement piece, unless we manage to create a new piece during the few times we meet each other again near the actual day of performance.

Another problem we ran into was keeping in time with the second half of the music, where we are supposed to drop the “luggage” or the prop and fall down. We kept on missing the last beat and falling too late. We tried to count the beats and go in time, but we somehow managed to miscount almost all the time. The only thing we can do is keep on trying to get in time and hopefully, with enough practice, we’ll manage to get it right.

Collaboration was very important to the creation of the end product. We all had to work together and provide input on what we could do. While it is possible to go make a piece without the input of one person, the outcome would not have been as unique as it ended up. We also needed everyone to work together to make the whole piece work as every member was necessary to make the movement piece flow easily.

To be a better team player, I should try to be more flexible with how our movement piece is going, and where/when we become to stuck on an idea that isn’t fitting in, try to get the group to move onto something that fits better rather than becoming fixated on forcing the concept to work with our piece. To help keep in time to the music, I could try to count out loud so that everyone is on the same rhythm until we get the hang of it and no longer need a verbal counter.