My research at NTU encompassed the creation of a think tank focused on game design and development. Game Design for Entertainment: A Content Development Think Tank

This research is focused on content development borrowing from contemporary game concepts ideas for consumption in popular culture. Our methodology, a collaborative research project, will examine technical aspects of game design and integrate it with research that examines popular trends.

Game Design for Entertainment is an idea that incubates game research focusing on creating unique visuals and gameplay concepts. Much of video game research looks at the psychological effects of violent and aggressive gameplay on the user. Our research will look at appeal in visual characterization and interaction, e.g. game design.

I published an academic article on “the making of” in MIT’s Leonardo online magazine that covers a research grant I received from Singapore’s National Research Foundation through the Media Development Authority.

I did a number of experiments while working on this project. Initially my research team worked on tagging imagery to evoke specific emotions, excited, happy, sad and melancholy.

We mapped this work to design style and created a playback system that morphed from one look to another.

I worked with a number of great SE Asian artists on this project.

My academic site and Google Scholar site. I used to make talking avatars that used chatbot based AI to talk with the site visitor.

Here is my academic reference site at Research Gate.

In a world where scientific achievement has merged the boundaries between man and weapon, one woman stands apart. The Resnick Corporation through advanced genomic research stands poised to control weapon development with an advanced soldier prototype. The only problem, the prototype has gone wrong.

[Vengeance+Vengeance] is a movie that is authored in a game engine, designed in three different styles. We varied the characterization between three design targets. Our standard style targets naturalistic proportions and colors, our cute style targets cartoon-like rounded shapes and colorful though soft tones and our extreme style attempts a more film-noir look with exaggerated though human proportions, more texture detail and an overall more contrasting tonal treatment. Typically this design style is used when she is in vulnerable situations. We use this style to draw empathy from the audience making the character more child-like and vulnerable in appearance.

The movie is created interactively by blending through these three design styles in a interactive director driven authoring system. What is presented is the final outcome of the work where the design of the characters changes in volume and color tone to manipulate the viewer’s experience.