update 30/11/09

Currently doing the finishing touches to my interim report references and such , overall my progress is in a good place and i feel that with the coming winter break just over the horizon a good amount of work can be done

interim report

for the past two weeks i have been heavily working on completing my research and creating my interim report

the interim report is the culmination of work that i have done since beginning this game, the final document will be broken down into 3 elements
1- the interim report itself
2- my game design document
3- game concept document

the interim report itself will be broken down into sub-catagories to better explain the depth of research that has gone into the project and example chapters will include

background - this encompasses an explaination of the liver including its makeup and its vital role within the body

research - being the biggest chapter this will explain
the medical research i've conducted on the topic of liver disease ( jaundice , cirrhosis, fatty liver , etc..)

also this chapter will list and breifly explain the programming technologies used to create the game prototypes ie XNA development tools

the interim report also includes the design chapter of the game this includes the game mechanics , genre , style and feel of the overall finished game.

finally i'll have a chapter on reviews, this will include books that i have read and conversations and meetings held on the topic.


p.s. currently working on the design chapter and touching up others but here is the current
document

3/11/09

ok got the general idea behind the game now ...
goin to be a rts rpg style game , the main reasons behind this si the sytle of gameplay works great with how i think the game should feel ... more to come in detail gotta go for dinner

22/10/09

today i'm mainly focused upon the different styles for which a game can be designed :

Fps : first person shooter -> with respect to the game i'm doin I wont be using this style as if is mainly a 1 vs 1 style which in the context of my game would be usless since the game revoles around multiple elements all workin in tandem.

Rpg: Role Playing Game -> the idea behind this game genre is that the player begins with a low level character or set of characters and over time is able to build them up doing various tasks in the game. in the context of my game this could be a viable game mechanic/design since this could create a need in the player to want to continue thus achieving the winning scenario.

Rts : Real Time Strategy -> this game design is based around the facts that the player is given liminted resources to create or maintain a certain requirement in the game . with my project this could be and probably will be the main element that i introduce since the liver itself has multiple elements all working together and thus it works well for my game.

these are the main game styles i have looked at when deciding to develop my game


.... more to come goin for lunch

20 October

today was a fantastic day due mainly to the fact the bryan and myself met up with a doctor in UCD named "Noor Aman Hamid" mainly I was able to ask him questions from the purely academic research and he was able to clarify a lot of things with his medical knowledge.

topics covered:

hepatic cells(hepatocytes) =

cells the are present in the liver these cells band together and form lobules these then form around each other in the liver and form canals between them these filter all material in the liver down into the bile duct which breaks everything down into bile in conjunction with the gallbladder said bile is then reentered into the liver and gets filtered once more to form true bile.

jaundice : is caused primarily when a block occurs within the bile duct this then causes the bile to back up and go up and under the skin giving it the yellow color with which jaundice is attributed.

jaundice is a chemical entity in that you cannot see jaundice in the liver only the yellow taint in the skin gives it away.

fatty liver : this occurs because the body has a natural build up of both sugar and fat cells the body uses the fat cells to repair any damage caused internally. When large quantities of both sugar and fatty cells are present in the liver the body's natural strategy is the eliminate the sugar based cells first and then progress onto the fatty ones , the problem with this is that is there is excess amounts of the fatty cells the liver can become overwhelmed thus not function at the required pace.

Cirrhosis: with respect to alcohol this mainly occurs when the cells die due to over use and form scar tissue this is dead tissue and cannot be reversed this this then causes the liver to work at a much smaller rate . problems attriubted to this are : permanent jaundice thinning of blood and ascites(build up of internal fluid due to thin blood ) ascites causes abdominal pains and swelling.

so the process of deteriation is as follows :

1) bilirubin is unable to be processed due to excessive quantities

2) jaundice

3) hepatomegaly(liver big)

4) fatty liver

5)Cirrhosis

side notes : this session also got me into thinking perhaps the game may involve other issues ie

the effects on the neuro-system due to alcohol (nerve damage)-> wernicke korsakoff syndrome

with alcohol is early memory lose ie dementia , contant state of drunkeness

possible game design updates :: see pic