Michael Murphy - Team Leader and Lead Interface Programmer.
Secondary Role: Developing Moodbar
Sean McCooey - Scrummaster and Lead 3D Modeller.
 Secondary Role: Presentations and Mahara
Tadhg Deeney - Lead Artist and Animator.
Secondary Role: Paper Prototype and Research
Nicholas Murray - Lead Sound Engineer.
Secondary Role: Persona's and Target Audience
Keith Byrne - Lead Backend Programmer.
Secondary Role: Concept Document and Gameplay
 

"For the group of Nordic people in need of adapting a long dark period of polar nights, EVOKE created perhaps most of the wow reactions during our visit in November 2013. Engagement of colour and sound psychology in game design the way this team was doing is an innovation as such. Not only do colours assist in expressing and thus provide ways to vent one's emotions but the way colours are used in the game might as well provide new ways and data for professionals to assess, analyse and plan therapeutic interventions. Even if designed mainly having SAD in mind, I am already convinced that this game has much to offer for other target groups as well."

- Dr Andrew Sirkka

Welfare Technology Research & Competence Centre

Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Evoke is a third-person open world creative space.  Fundamentally Evoke aims to encourage creativity and provide a space where the user can relax, socialise and most importantly, create & explore. Evoke will combine the use of Motion Controls, an external Light bar (Evoke Mood Bar) and social interaction into an experience that has never been achieved before within a game environment. We will use the fundamental principles of Light & Talk therapy to attempt to emulate the treatment of particular symptoms of SAD, Such as lack of enjoyment, difficulty concentrating and less time spent socializing.

The ideal of Evoke is to alter a world in any way you wish, then explore your space as it evolves over time. Floating above your world are Orbs, Orbs can contain an array of elements from terrain to treasure. As you collect the orbs and drop them to the globes surface the element contained within the orb is brought to life right before you. Create vast deserts or forests or even combine the orbs for something truly unique. No two experiences in Evoke will be the same. Control your character by hovering your hands in front of your computer and simply sway in your desired direction thanks to the Leap Motion controller. Watch as the Evoke Mood bar illuminates your real life surroundings in reaction to your creativity in game. All this while you explore your evolving ecosystem opening messages from friends and family contained within Message Orbs hidden throughout the world.

Evoke prides itself on the depth of creation, unique animals, environments and gameplay all displayed in a distinctive art style will immerse the user and encourage them to, Create, Adapt & Explore.

Sound in Evoke will play an important part in the immersion and enjoyment of the gameplay with its use of dynamic environmental sound effects, orb collection sound effects and wildlife. This, coupled with an original musical score will help contribute to the ambient and relaxing environment we wish to create in the game.

The sound implementation for Evoke is a very interesting one, as we are going to generate dynamic audio using Puredata files which will be fed gameplay specific player position variables to edit and shape the sound in real time. These will include the players characters X, Y and Z co-ordinates, their speed of flight and other things like whether they are closely positioned to a certain animal in the game. Also, a dynamic chime will be generated on collection of different types of orbs in the game and we hope to design these different chimes so they are close to an audio representation of the terrain or fauna type.

For example, if the terrain type is desert, we will generate a "rough" or "dry" sound effect to represent this and immerse the player further so they are not always reliant on visual cues to know what they are doing. This can be applied for all the different terrain types (water, desert, swamp etc).

We have now re-scoped our target audience after much more research into who our game could appeal to. We have discovered that our game could be beneficial and mainly aimed towards secondary school students (12-18 year olds). 

This re-scope came from research in relation to SAD, technology access, use of social networks, playing games of similar genre and realising that this age group would generally rather spend their pocket money on a new game.

The average amount of time that is spent per day in front of a screen (TV, Laptop, PC, Mobile, Tablets) is 9 hours according to research (2-January 2013) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2256067/British-people-spend-NINE-HOURS-day-staring-screens-time-internet-ANY-nation-say-NetVoucherCodes.html

This also suggests that the integration of social networks onto mobile platforms has increased this number dramatically. 

Another research area shows that 82% of students own a laptop, and 80% own a smartphone. This enforces our choices of Windows OS and the Twitter integration to support the social aspect of the game. Laptops are also a lot more affordable these days in comparison to a tablet for a 2nd level student to work on.

(Reference: http://www.neowin.net/news/survey-college-students-still-want-laptops-over-tablets)

More research into SAD shows that light therapy and talk therapy can be used as a treatment for SAD. 

"Increased Light Exposure

Because the symptoms of SAD are triggered by lack of exposure to light, and they tend to go away on their own when available light increases, treatment for SAD often involves increased exposure to light during winter months. For someone with mild symptoms, it may be enough to spend more time outside during the daylight hours, perhaps by exercising outdoors or taking a daily walk. Full spectrum (daylight) lightbulbs that fit in regular lamps can help bring a bit more daylight into your home in winter months and might help with mild symptoms.

Light Therapy

Stronger symptoms of SAD may be treated with light therapy (also called phototherapy). Light therapy involves the use of a special light that simulates daylight. A special light box or panel is placed on a tabletop or desk, and the person sits in front of the light for a short period of time every day (45 minutes a day or so, usually in the morning). The person should occasionally glance at the light (the light has to be absorbed through the retinas in order to work), but not stare into it for long periods. Symptoms tend to improve within a few days in some cases or within a few weeks in others. Generally, doctors recommend the use of light therapy until enough sunlight is available outdoors.

Like any medical treatment, light treatment should only be used under the supervision of a doctor. People who have another type of depressive disorder, skin that's sensitive to light, or medical conditions that may make the eyes vulnerable to light damage should use light therapy with caution. The lights that are used for SAD phototherapy must filter out harmful UV rays. Tanning beds or booths should not be used to alleviate symptoms of SAD. Some mild side effects of phototherapy might include headache or eyestrain.

Talk Therapy

Talk therapy (psychotherapy) is also used to treat people with SAD. Talk therapy focuses on revising the negative thoughts and feelings associated with depression and helps ease the sense of isolation or loneliness that people with depression often feel. The support and guidance of a professional therapist can be helpful for someone experiencing SAD. Talk therapy can also help someone to learn about and understand their condition as well as learn what to do to prevent or minimize future bouts of seasonal depression."

This reference material comes from the teen section on kidshealth.org and further supports our choice for our refined target audience. (Ref: http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/sad.html#)

To complete this project we are using a similiar scrum system to the previous year. The most important change now is ranking the backlog items in the sprint as follows: Urgent - High - Medium - Low. Usually only one thing will be given Urgent in a sprint and it must be completed before the sprint is over. Anything that is low, is okay to carry over to the next sprint. This ensures us that all important elements are completed first and anything extra is rolled over to the next week. We wont decide the ranking of the backlog items until we start the sprint. This had been especially helpful in the last 2 weeks when we decided that we werent going to have enough time to do everything we wanted.

Below is a slideshow of our sprints so far.

We use dropbox for our version control. Each main area of the project is given a folder and a number based off its current importance. This allows use to order the folders in any way we want for much easier seaching. Every area contains a number of sub folders that will hold all the relative content. We have folders for printing, so anything inside has to be printed asap and is then deleted from that folder. The presentation folder keeps track of all current and past presentations and the CA folder holds all our uploaded CAs.