University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Dissonance

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Dissonance

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Content Dissonance
BY
Zi Li

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
IN
INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND GAMES

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
August 2015

1

Introduction …………..………..……..………...………...………...……….…..………….…. 3
What I Did ………..………..………..…..……..………...……….…...……….……..……….. 5
What I Learned ………..………..……..……..………...……….…...……….…..………..….. 12
Next Step ………..………..………....………....……………...………..……….………....… 16
Conclusion ………..………..………..……..………...………...………...…………...…....… 17
Prior art …………..………...………...………...……...……..………..………..……..…..….. 18
Bibliography …………..………...………...………...……...……..………..………......…..… 21

2

I NTRODUCTION

Dissonance is a thesis project towards my master of fine arts degree in USC Interactive Media and
Games Division. It explores the relationship between three selve s. The core mechanics actualize
the principle of cognitive dissonance
[1]
, hence the project's title.
After spending a half year exploring different concepts during thesis preparation class, I started a
digital game. I want to make a fun game that indicates a bothersome phenomenon within people’s
mind, hoping finding a sad concept in a delightful piece could lead people to think of deeper ideas.
Part of the inspiration is from my life here, in School of Cinematic Arts. I have a lot of struggle
here: I am curious about western culture, but I want to keep my own culture (Chinese culture); I
find it is interesting to explore art in video games, but I love traditional art… Two years passed, I
realized I got lots of fun out of the struggle I have. Since I managed to balance between various
distinctive mindsets, I learned to analyze myself and other people from logical ways.
After tracking down the concept, I started to adjust the gameplay to map it to the concept. I failed a
lot. It was frustrating that I couldn’t figure out how to express the concept with gameplay. I talked
to other students and professors and realize that instead of twisting the game to match the concept,
taking the concept as the inspiration and creating gameplay based on the concept make everything
more natural/easier. Because the concept might not be perfect enough for this project too. I could
develop both at the same time so that they can gradually melt together.
As long as I have a direction to go with, the project goes much smoother. I keep the concept in
mind and adjust the game (gameplay, visual style and narrative) based on how it could offer
delightful game feel to players.
That’s how I come up with Dissonance.
3

What I want to achieve?
My ultimate goal is to make this project as genuine as possible without expecting it to be popular or
profitable. I regard this project as a chance to make a complete game that offers a unique perspective. I
want to make a polished product that could help me to see how far I can go with my creativity and
production skills.

What is Dissonance?
Dissonance is a puzzleadventure game in which players control two 2D figures belonging to a
traveller named Lian.
What is the story?
Lian travels in a world where everything has two shadows, including herself. The player controls
Lilian’s two shadows – Lia and Ian, which affect Lian’s behavior. Lian explores distinct stages
through which she begins to discover herself and the world.
What is the gameplay?
There are 3 characters in the game: Lia, Ian and Lian. Lia and Ian are 2D characters. Lian is 3D character.
There are different levels. The goal of each level is to take 2D character to their exits.

The player controls 2D characters to move on two walls. When the characters intersect, the 3D character
appears. As the narrator, Lian can rotate some objects. The basic relationship between the characters is:
2D characters decide 3D character’s existence; 3D character helps 2D characters to go to different
locations.

4

W HAT I DID
Dissonance changed a lot from a simple experiment to what I have gotten so far. I have been through
failed trials and exciting experiments during these two years.

● Soldiers in 64

I am always interested in exploring different perspectives. But this is the first time I tried to explore
perspectives in a game. It was for a class assignment. But I am happy with this project because it
expresses the soldier’s situation: when he kills people he is following the command and gets close
to get rewards.

● Thesis Prep Prototype A
I explored the relationship between 2D and 3D here. Though people found it confusing, its interesting
visual outcome drives me to go further with 2D/3D.
5

● Thesis Prep Prototype B

The character with a larger green section can cause more damage to the character with a smaller green
section when the two touch. This game was ultimately not so successful in terms of mechanics or visual
design. However, it proved fruitful in teaching me how to design characters with unique abilities.

In this prototype, I experimented with rotation and angles. Later I figured out rotation is an interesting
element I could use.

● Thesis Prep Prototype C
This was the first time I tried two 2D perspectives. The prototype was simple and straightforward, but
there are not a lot of deep mechanics I can explore in this setup.
6

● Dissonance – Prototype v1.0
The prototype is relatively polished. First, it has the basic mechanic I am exploring. The player can control
both characters on the screen at the same time or choose to control one of the characters. Each character
has different skills. The green character can control the height of some platforms, while the black
character can jump and move objects. Second, the visual design I implemented demonstrates proof of
concept in regards to the simultaneous use of 3D and 2D space in the game.

It was the first prototype after I decided to go with the concept cognitive dissonance. I adjusted the space
so that I can take advantage of the difference between 2D and 3D and make two sides work differently.


● Dissonance – Prototype v2.0
In this prototype, players control two 2D characters, they can push objects in 3D world and help each
other. Two walls represent different perspectives of 3D world. The core mechanic is pushing and
interacting with each other indirectly through 3D world. But there is an obvious flaw in this prototype: 2D
character can hardly affect each other since they are in different axises. The only thing they can change for
the other side is an object’s vertical positions.
7

● Dissonance – Prototype v2.1

I found an exciting concept in this prototype: switching characters. It is a super cool concept. But how
could I make the switch meaningful? There are some ways I could think about: one is making characters
have different functions. However it is very difficult to balance the functions between these two
characters. I gave up this idea later. Because I couldn’t figure out how to give them different functions and
a good balance. I still think this direction has a great potential if I could solve these problems: 1. How to
give 3 characters some nice balance? 2. How to allow the player to affect the world? One of the most
charming things of an interesting space like this is to interact with this space. Space should also be a focus.
3. How to make these two characters look reasonable with different functions? I found cylinder is the most
interesting shape since one side is circle and the other side is square. But it is not easy to apply them to
balanced functions.

The other one is that certain items are only available in one of the walls. They need a 2D character to grab
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it and switch it with the 2D character to the other wall. That is where the next prototype come from.

● Dissonance – Prototype v2.2

I tried to make meaningful rotation here. This prototype is still very confusing for a lot of players. Since
the rules are not consistent. It is impossible for players to understand why some items only exist in one
wall and not in 3D space and the other world. Also, a lot of players find it is not necessary to have the 3D
world. There are two problems here: 1. The relationship between the characters and space is not tight
enough. 2. The definition of the space is not clear.

This version focuses more on the characters and the switch so it makes the complicated space feel
redundant. Overall, the space is more complicated than it needs to be.

● Dissonance – Prototype v3.0

Space is the main focus in this prototype. I made one unexpected step forward in this prototype. I figured
out this way could fix the disconnection between space and characters. Unexpectedly, people find the
rotation very satisfying. One of the artists in Team Dissonance Ning told me that if I want to make a good
9

game, then I should at least make a game that people can enjoy. So I decided to go with this direction.

● Dissonance – Prototype v3.1
This prototype is very similar to the last one. I try to put narrative and art in this prototype. The character
is a girl with a magical umbrella that can helps her to rotate the world.

● Dissonance – Prototype 4.0
This is the newest version of Dissonance. In this version, the functions of characters are basically the
same. However, the 3D character can only rotate the objects that are rotatable. As it is shown in this
screenshot, the 3D character can only rotate the platform that has a pole below it. There are five types of
platforms in current version: still platform, weight sensor, rotatable platform, rotatable controller,
controlled platform. We use different design for each type of platforms.

10

Despite that there are some drawbacks like there are a lot of limitation of the 3D character’s power, we
improve this game by giving it clear and balanced rules. Also, we reduce the complexity by limiting the
types of objects we could use. We can easily develop challenging puzzles based on those 5 types of
platforms. The most challenging part is still teaching players the rules. But we tried to break the rules into
different small steps, which greatly improve players’ understanding about the world.

After a lot of attempts and failure, our team finalized rules and basic gameplay . Currently, we are
developing levels and production art. Though it is still not close to a finished product, we are making
progress step by step as it is shown above.

11

W HAT I LEARNED
After some attempts and failure, our team finalized rules and basic gameplay . Currently, we are
developing levels and production art. Though it is still not close to a finished product, we are making
progress step by step as it is shown above. I spend most of my time in Dissonance during this 1.5 years.
This project has been teaching me lots of things:

1. About scope
Before starting the game, my goal of the thesis project was to make a touching, unique indie game. At the
very beginning of developing Dissonance, I gave myself some limitation: no 3D and no action. Also, I
listed out the elements I want: shadow and cognitive dissonance. However, to make the gameplay better
based on these elements. Finally I went with 3D + 2D style. So the scope got bigger after I used 3D. But
the main interactions happen in 2D world and 3D only has limited functions. In this case, I felt the project
is still under control.

When it turns from 2014 to 2015, I realized I may not be able to finish this project before graduation. In
this sense, this project is overscope for a thesis project though I tried to keep the scope small and compact.
I didn’t count the fact that Dissonance is exploring a system or a set of rules that have not been developed
yet. The system of Dissonance is all about two 2D worlds vs 3D world. I found this perspective is
relatively new and unique. But I didn’t realize how much effort and time I need to pay to develop a
reasonable rule set out of it. I spent almost the entire year to settle down the rules and setup.

In fact, I gave some other aspects like emotions and philosophy in order to explore this unique
gameplay. Though Team Dissonance is happy with our current game, I still think if I could have a chance,
I would love to explore expressing emotions deeper.

It is understandable that we couldn’t take care of what kind of emotions we are trying to convey.
Emotions or feelings are passed through the outcome of melting different elements together in a game.
Those elements include mechanics, levels, art, narrative and sound. Expressing emotions is a higher or
later level of developing a game. We spend most of time in mechanics, so we wouldn’t have time to
12

design for a larger image. If we use the rules(mechanics) that have been explored, we would have more
energy and time to do a lot of user tests and develop specific feelings. In this case, we let go the goal of
making a touching game and go with making a unique game.

So what I learned is not only about keeping the scope controllable, but also keeping what we want to
achieve in mind when making decisions.

2. About art
Dissonance is heavily based on visual information. I have learned that art style and art design need to be
treated carefully.

It is fun to explore art in this project. But making decision about art is one of the most challenging tasks
during the development. We are still exploring how to do art design though we have a clear direction.

One of the main reasons is that the basic visual structure is complicated. We have 3 characters and 3
worlds. It is equal to displaying 3 screens at the same time. We have some great concept art with a lot of
details:

It is impossible to use them. Players get confused and overwhelmed easily since there are too much
important and unnecessary information on one screen.

After seeing that, we decided to use minimal style. However, without specific visual details, players could
never understand the gameplay because the gameplay doesn’t go with what people’s mindset is used to.
Then we put a lot of effort in exploring how to pass correct information with visual details. We have tried
shapes, colors, animations. Finally we can only make art based on designers’ decisions.
13

What I have learned from this process is that in a game, it is not always true that choosing better looking
art is better. There are two main elements we need to go for: (1) Choose the art can clear show the content
and the meaning of the project. (2) We should consider to use a neat and practical art style instead of those
art with great amount of details since we have limited resources as students.

3. About narrative
When I was developing the idea, I thought I could make a great story. I was thinking about telling a story
about how a person gets hurt and recovers. I thought I can set down the base and then build the narrative
on top of the base. But the truth is that the base is not flexible enough that I can put my story in it.

At the early stage, I put all of my focus on mechanics instead of narrative. By the time I was happy with
the gameplay, I realized I didn’t have space for narrative creation anymore. Because I have set up the
structure of the game based on the core mechanic, there is not a lot I can do with narrative. Now, the only
thing I can do is using narrative to help players understand the game better since I don’t have much time.

I have learned that if the game is narrative driven, we have to design basic structure based on the the
narrative. Don’t put it away just because we focus on the gameplay and making it fun. I believe this game
would have looked a lot different if I focused on the narrative. Also this game would have be stronger in
showing the story.

4. About team
Making Dissonance is teaching me how to work as a team lead in a thesis project.

(1) Make a promising demo first. Before thinking about recruiting, I have tried more than 5 different
prototypes and done tons of research to get a demo. When I got a chance to show the demo in front of
people, some came to me and told me that they want to work on the project. With 6 members, We worked
on it more until at the end of 2014, when we had a winter show. In this winter show, I met some other
people who also really like the project and want to join the team. That is how my team comes along. I am
very happy with my current team since all members are passionate about the idea and we all try to work
towards the same direction. In this case, instead of trying to recruit team members before you have a solid
idea, making a good demo is more practical and helpful.
14

(2) Don’t expect people to work more than 8 hours for the project. Though we have 10 people in the team,
I am still the one who finishes most of the production part. We have to consider some elements: one is
that we are not paying our team members; the other one is that our team members are probably working on
multiple projects at the same time. So it is reasonable that they won’t spend more than 8 hours in your
thesis project. They are working on the project because they like the project and they like to work as part
of the team. We should understand them and respect their effort.

(3) Make decisions and try not to change them. I always like to make different experiments to try different
ideas. It also means that I always leave options opened. Because a lot of times I can’t make decisions,
members in the team also have done work that would never be used in the game. Nobody would be happy
to do things that would never be considered or used. For example, an artist worked on UI for a while based
on the theme about leaf. Then I changed the theme to umbrella. All of her work basically went wasted.
This type of issues happen more than twice. So the artist got scared of starting working on things before
we finalize the idea.


15

N EXT STEP
To this point, I have gathered some pieces for this project: basic mechanics, levels, basic art, basic music.
Though a lot of them are already there, they have not been melt into a smooth piece. There are two things I
would like to do at the same time:

(1) Put what we have together and work on user tests. Find out all issues we have not expected and fix
them. Since we have not done a lot of user tests. So I am sure this game won’t be ready until we get
everything together, test it and fix it. I would like to let the project lead itself to where it should be.

(2) Keep finding the meaning or what I want to express in this project. Since I am the creator of this
project, I always know that I want to tell something through the game. It is rough and abstract, and I
believe that it is lying inside all these small pieces and wait for me to pull it out of them. I would like to
spend sometime step back and look through all of them in order to catch this idea and make it solid. I
believe that it will help me to point at a direction and instruct me when I try to fix and polish this project.


16

C ONCLUSION
I have to say it is very easy to get lost in a game project. I went up and down a lot in this year. I even
doubted if I am doing things for an art degree since I spent lots of time in working on math, programming
and organizing. However, the closer it gets to the end, the more I see that making a game is the same as
making other types of art. It is just a more complicated way of doing art. Game directors have to put
everything well together: visual, story, interactions and music. It is an easier art form to impress people
since there are lots of elements you can make breakthroughs, but it is the hardest art form to be great since
there are lots of elements you can pick flaws from.

I learned to see myself and the world through this project. Hopefully, one day I can show people
Dissonance with the pride as an artist.

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PRIOR ART

I have done a lot of research for the project. Those are the pieces from which I got the major inspiration.

Folding Structure
TopsyTurvies and Pop Up Paper Architecture both use the folding structure. Also, they
demonstrate the potential in utilizing a folding structure to display different kinds of space. For
example, in TopsyTurvies , the two characters sitting at the table in the image below appear to exist
in a 3D environment, while the character standing to the far left of the image appears relatively flat
in comparison. Similarly in the Pop Up Paper Architecture , 3D and 2D buildings exist on the same
plane.

TopsyTurvies by Mitsumasa Anno
[2]

Pop Up Paper Architecture by Mathilde Nivet
[3]

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Super Paper Mario
Super Paper Mario
[4]
smoothly implements a combined 2D/3D game design. It takes advantage of the
differences between dimensions. As shown in the images below, Mario can’t pass certain obstacles when
moving in 2D; but, when he enters the 3D mode, Mario can progress around the obstacles. This game
inspired me to think about how I might give two characters different abilities in their respective worlds.

Machinarium
One of the things I admire about Machinarium
[5]
is that it uses gameplay and imagery to tell the story,
rather than text. For example, in one scene there is a lady who has lost her dog. The main character needs
to help the lady find her dog in order to continue on his journey. The narrative is clear enough without
requiring further explanation. Moreover, Machinarium incorporates a beautiful art style and animations.
This game has thus inspired me to express my narrative visually.

Windosill
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Windosill
[6]
is a puzzle game; yet, I didn’t get the impression that puzzle solving was the most important
aspect of the game. Rather, I spent the majority of my time casually interacting with the game’s various
lively objects and creatures. The interactions are so wonderfully enjoyable they make the process more fun
than the result or reward of completion. This also makes Windosill highly replayable. With this in mind,
I’ve been inspired to create lively ingame interactions that make the world feel alive and keep the player
coming back for more.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
[2] Mitsumasa Anno. (1989). Topsy Turvies. Philomel Press.
[3] Mathil Denivet. (2006). Upside Town: Popup City.
http://www.mathildenivet.com/index.php?/paperperso/upsidetown/
[4] Nintendo. (2007). Super Paper Mario.
[5] Amanita. (2009). Machinarium.
[6] Vector Park. (2009). Windosill. http://windosill.com/

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Asset Metadata

Creator Li, Zi (author)

Core Title Dissonance

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 06/23/2015

Defense Date 04/08/2015

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag game design,gaming,OAI-PMH Harvest,puzzle,visual space

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lemarchand, Richard (committee chair), Brinson, Peter (committee member), Hardy, Jeff (committee member)

Creator Email mylizee@gmail.com,zili@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-576186

Unique identifier UC11301848

Identifier etd-LiZi-3507.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-576186 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-LiZi-3507.pdf

Dmrecord 576186

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Li, Zi

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA