After presenting my findings of my investigations into Safe Spaces, I was able to gather feedback from the class and start discussing the opportunity to begin grouping up into teams. It has been recommended that we start grouping up at this point in the topic (phase 3) as we are now beginning the process of prototyping three decided game ideas.

Teaming UP

Emilia and I have decided to group up at this stage in the project as we both have very similar intentions, interests and directions. Emilia investigated music psychology during the first two phases. Her research focused on the effects of music on the brain, the use of it for emotional regulation and projection, as well as a tool for therapy. Furthermore, she explored immersive experiences and sound design.

I found her research incredibly interesting and helpful towards the understanding of my own research avenues, specifically how music can be used as a personal tool for aiding mental health. Through exploration of each others research and through discussion, we found that we have researched some similar topics such as immersion, virtual/augmented reality and how the brain responds to stimulus.

Combing our Research

To aid further investigation on this project, we have provided each other with a summary of our most significant points of research to be used to for ideation and reflection. These summaries were created in the form of posters that we have put up in our studio space.

Safe Spaces Poster (Made by me) and Music Psychology Poster (Made by Emilia)

Establishing links in our research

Another task completed to point out the themes/topics of research that we have both become "mini masters" on. I feel like this task was incredibly helpful as it shows which themes we both know plenty about and have gathered research to support the development of our project together. It shows where we both have a deeper understanding of some quite sensitive and important social topics such as self-care and therapy.

Linking Themes Explored in our Project - Team Task

We made two separate mind-maps, individually for each of our topics (Safe Spaces and Music Psychology). The mind-map consisted of all of our avenues of research and key words that we associated with them. From those mind-maps, we then highlighted the areas of focus we had both researched.

This task supplied us with a list of variables that we care about and want to take further into our development. These variables will influence the essential experience we intend to present to the players of our game and drive our project.