A Dragon's Memories (2018)

龍 の 記 憶

A Dragon’s Memories

The Process

Kirthank Manivannan

Dedicated to my late friend Macklin Lam (Saizawa Ryuu).

I once had a friend whose name meant ‘dragon’ in Japanese. He was one of my closest friends, and together we went on many adventures together, whether it was bug-catching, exploring off the beaten path, and creating narratives from or for them. This would all be in the pursuit of finding rarities to remember the occasions, and to potentially collect. We would also spend time creating games out of those narratives, and creating art for them. My practice in the field of art and design would definitely not be the same without him. Recently, I found out he passed away, and so I decided to dedicate my final degree project to him and our memories of exploration together. I have titled my degree project ‘A Dragon’s Memories’, or in Japanese ‘Ryuu no Kioku’.

Inspiration

After I had heard the news of my friend passing away, I wanted to use our memories and create a project that encapsulated the creativity that we fostered together as children. I had boxes of our old sketches and games that we made sent to me, to get inspiration from our past creations. Pictured to the right are samples of our creations. From these artifacts, I decided I wanted to create games in some form for my degree project. At the time, however, I wasn’t sure how I would tie multiple projects together, and how they came under a single theme that acted as an homage to my late friend.

The First Stepping Stone

When I first started mapping out my project, I only knew I wanted to create games. I wasn’t sure what directive to base them off of. Then my degree project advisor Tom Ockerse gave me a rock. He told me to analyze the rock, and find a way to integrate it into my degree project. At first, I was very lost as to what this rock could mean for my process. It seemed like an unassuming rock. I then started to think of how this rock could relate to my memories of my late friend. One memory that came to mind was how my friend and I used to collect rocks and gemstones, amassing quite the collection. One particular area that stood out to me was how we used to even collect normal pebbles, in the hopes that if we cracked them open one day, we would find a rare stone inside (much like a geode). I took the core themes of collecting rarities, and getting lucky and finding such rarities, and tried devising a short game to guage the reactions of others.

The short game I developed was inspired by lottery games. In this game, you would be given an opaque envelope in which a ticket was concealed. Depending on your luck, you could either get a common ticket, uncommon ticket, or a rare jackpot ticket. To incentivize receiving the tickets and give them value, I made the common ticket worth one, the uncommon as three, and the jackpot as eight chocolates. With corresponding rarities, I brought the miniature envelopes to class, and had people take random ones. After they took the tickets, people would open them immediately to see what they got. If they got the common ticket, they would be somewhat dissapointed, and vice versa for the one person who received the jackpot. From this, I understood that my projects to come had to focus not only on the media and narrative creation, but also on the people interacting with them. I wanted to encapsulate this feeling of finding and collecting rare items, as well as exploring and creating narratives. After reflecting on what I had discovered from this experiment and my memories, I came up with three core design principles to base my projects on:

Knowing what we might get from an action, we are motivated by the potential reward to do said action.

We are willing to take risks to discover what others have labeled as ‘rare’. Being placed in a new environment allows us to explore without preconceptions, and create our own experiences and narratives.

Project 1: Garapon

The first project I worked on was a Japanese-style lottery box called a Garapon. Garapon are typically octagonal boxes that, when turned, drop a colored ball from a hole in its side. The color of this ball indicates the rarity of the corresponding prize. For example, a white ball is very common, and usually means either no prize or something very small and cheap, while the gold ball is equivalent to winning the lottery, and gives the player a very large or expensive prize. Usually, Garapon have their prizes out for display to entice players with the biggest prize possible.

The Garapon plays off of the design principle of knowing what we could potentially earn through an action, and thus being motivated to do it. This principle is evident in many media forms, especially in Japanese games that use the mechanic called ‘gacha’. ‘Gacha’ refers to when we pay a small fee to earn something unique and rare. The chances of acquiring the rare item are low, but players are unaware of that and so are willing to spend more for

the rare moment of success. We see this in capsule machines and in video games with loot box concepts. For this reason, I decided to have instead of small colored balls that corresponded to a prize, capsules that contained the prizes themselves, to create a more contained experience. I was further inspired by my initial project of creating small lottery envelopes to create the same experience of anticipation and either frustration or joy.

Irene Wei, a furniture designer (BFA ’19, RISD) and I collaborated on the Garapon project. She created the machine, including the mechanics and box, working tirelessly to help me, and going above and beyond my original vision. I made the 3D models of the prizes, and 3D printed them in various materials to correspond to rarity. I then put them in capsules with architecture moss to conceal the prizes (to prolong the anticipation beyond just rolling the machine and taking the prize immediately).

We started out by researching the structure of Garapons. After Irene made a test prototype, she then started making the box itself. I created a dragon scale laser cut pattern to adorn the box, to unify it under my Degree Project title of Ryuu no Kioku (A Dragon’s Memories). This proved to be very useful

for my following projects as it was a pattern that could be applied easily and work in each context.

As Irene was making the machine, I started to think about the prizes that would go inside. When I thought of prizes, I often thought of how they were tiered or ranked by rarity or worth. I then made a fairly unlikely connection: With bug hunting. My late friend and I would go hunting for bugs, hoping to find something new or rare to catch. Grasshoppers were really easy to find, as long as you knew where to look. Dragonflies were really fast and harder to catch. Cicadas were everywhere, but finding one alive was definitely harder than it seemed, considering their short lifespan. Praying mantises were really rare, and we only caught a few during our childhood. Finally, there was the elusive beetle. We could never find one in our neighborhood, we would have to go hunting in a forest fairly far away, making it the rarest bug of all. In this sense, the bugs acted as prizes with different tiers. I decided to make bugs out of a media to put in my capsules.

Initially, I wanted to make the bugs out of origami. After attempting to make them, I realized that the more complex bugs like the beetle were too complex to allow me to mass produce them for a 1 inch diameter capsule. There was also the problem of its fragility, thus making their worth seem less to people who got them from the capsules. I scrapped

that idea, and instead 3D modeled them using Cinema 4D, and opted to 3D print them to give them a more lasting and collectible feel. After learning to 3D model and create this bugs, the next step was to consider the materials I would print them in. Originally, I was going to have the capsules have color on them to indicate rarity like in traditional Garapon machines. However, my order of colored capsules did not arrive, which was a blessing in disguise. It forced me to order clear capsules, and then apply the colors to the bugs themselves. This helped build up the anticipation of the player so they were completely surprised when opening a nondescript capsule, and it applied the rarity of an object directly to it as opposed to its packaging. For color and material choice for the 3D printed bugs, I modeled them after the color rarities found often in games (taking advantage of the preconceived notions people already have). The order of colors, from common to rare, are: Green, blue, red, and gold.

I 3D printed a small batch of bugs in black to remain a secret prize as well. For the gold bug (the beetle), I had it printed in platinum and then gold plated with 18k gold. This would make the bugs have more tangible worth when holding them. After this, I put them in architectural moss and then in a capsule. The moss concealed the bugs from view at first

glance, prolonging the anticipation and making the emotion felt afterwards stronger. It also protected the bugs from breaking in the capsule while being rolled around in the Garapon machine (the bugs were only 20 mm or so across dimensions, making them breakable if handled roughly). I stress tested the capsules by throwing them on the floor, and found that the bugs were adequately protected.

Once I packaged the prizes, it was time to test them in the machine. Irene had finished gluing up the box, welding the internal mechanism which would limit the number of balls falling out of the hole, and had mounted it on a stand that was attached to a platform. I created a pattern for a pond, which was to be routed from the platform, to give the capsules a place to land in. After this, we tested the machine. There were several areas we had to solve for. The first was that the pattern and the direction of turning (which was counter clockwise) did not match, and so we solved this by laser cutting arrows from ash veneer to stick on the handle area to indicate to the audience. The second issue was that the handle did not lock and turn with the Garapon, so to solve it, Irene drilled a hole deeper in the middle supporting bar that held the handle, in order to lock it in place with a small pin. The final issue was that

with the method of turning, the machine let go of two capsules at a time and would roll them into the pond as opposed to dropping them. This meant that people would have to move the Garapon at a steady speed, and it made us rethink the design of where the capsule should end up. Initially, Irene was sculpting a clay frog with its mouth open, in which the capsules would fall into. This was a reference to old machines from Japan, like seismic detectors, which would use dragon and frog motifs (in our case, the dragon scales and the frog sculpture). Instead, we decided to keep the frog (to add a unique flair and departure from traditional Garapon machines) at a smaller scale in the pond. This way it would also act as a stopper if the capsules dropped at a higher elevation by chance. Irene then had to attach the frog to the Garapon platform, so she added sand to create texture for the pond, and then casted the frog and pond in resin (for protection as well). With this, the Garapon was complete.

There were several reactions to my projects which I felt hit what I was aiming for. One was the fascination over the materiality of the bug prizes, and the craftsmanship of the Garapon. The material choice made the objects seem valuable, and the custom Garapon added to the effect.

Project 2: Trading Card Game

The second project I worked on was a trading card game. Trading cards have been around for a very long time in many countries. For example, Japan is where Yu-Gi-Oh!™ and Pokémon™ cards are created, and what I grew up with as a child. I would sometimes play the game associated with the cards, but usually I would collect them for their illustrations, as well as for what others would consider as rare cards.

When we bought cards, we would buy them in small packs of 8 or so cards, or individual cards at the local flea market. Back then, cards were not cheap, and would cost ¥500 ($5). It went to show that we were willing to take risks to discover and collect what others had labeled as ‘rare’ or ‘cool’, which was a design principle I wanted to work with in this project.

The principle of people taking risks to discover rarities that I found when collecting cards was not the only time this occurred. It was such an ingrained part of our childhood that both my late friend and I would go home and create our own card game and illustrations, taking inspiration from the fact that we

could create our own rare cards for ourselves. We extended this to encapsulate narratives we came up with when exploring and playing games together. I considered the narrative quality we came up with equally as important. It was all this in mind that I decided to take the medium of trading cards and make my own set, based off of a narrative I had been creating, and illustrating cards with monsters I had been designing for a while now. I wanted others to experience what we had when we were kids: Getting cards that had shards of narratives written either in descriptive format or through images, and being able to piece them together. This would enhance their happiness when getting cards that they wanted. I also wanted to recreate the experiences me and my late friend had as a child when we were trading cards, as well as the community and interactions it built among all our friends.

To make these cards, I took illustrations I had drawn over the years in pen, and then scanned them into my computer, allowing me to color them in Photoshop. Afterwards, I imported the finished illustrations to Illustrator, where I had made a card template, and put the images in.

As part of my process, I had several boxes filled with drawings, games, and cards that my late friend and I drew as children sent over, and then took a look at the contents. The sketches were all narrative-focused, so I then decided that I would make the primary focus of my cards on the narrative I had created. I gave each character illustration I did a sentence or two to give it context in the world I was building. I was primarily focused on the narrative but also wanted to create an underlying game mechanic in order to appeal to a wider audience. After rough sketching different rules, I finally settled with several primary rules that I felt were relatively fair. As a trading card game, the rules do not have to be completely fair, as everything is dependent on how lucky the player is in getting good cards when buying them in packs. I focused on making the rules very simple and streamlined so that it was accessible to a wider audience as well (in many trading card games, there are over 10 rules just for card abilities alone, in my card game, there is 1 primary objective, and 7 abilities). After figuring these two areas out, most of the process was coloring my sketches on Photoshop, putting them into the card template on Illustrator, and then giving them a narrative, name, and ability. Writing for these characters put the constraint of space on me (due to the card size, and

wanting to keep the text legible), so several revisions were needed for each card to make all the text fit and have enough space to breathe. When naming the cards, I tried to capture the core characteristics of each monster and character, and then sum it up in a name. In terms of the card design, I had several challenges that I needed to resolve. The first was indicating the rarities of the cards. For this, I decided that the text color and sub-border could adopt the rarity color (blue for rarest, gold for rare, silver for uncommon, brown for common). These colors were chosen for similar reasons as how I chose the prize colors for the Garapon project, by looking at various games and the visual languages they used. Another design challenge was applying symbols that showed the associations some of the characters I had created with fictional organizations in the narrative world I was creating. I tried various iterations of placing the symbol on the card in a way that wasn’t disruptive to the player but also was clearly visible, and chose to create an inflated border to place the symbol in, near the illustration. One final design choice I had to make was how I wanted it to look like a traditional playing or not. I realized quickly that it was very hard to play with type and image in the context of an

slobbe rs, carryi ng its e gg sacs on its bac k.

illustrated card, because of the various colors making it hard to read text on the card. As a result, I left the text on a darker colored version of the background. After all of this, I had the cards printed both on 300 gsm paper, and foil printed (applying a shiny rainbow coat to the underside of the print to make it shimmer). Once I was finished calculating the number of cards I would need of both the foil and color printed cards, I then packaged them into groups of 6 cards with rarer cards appearing scarcer, and each pack containing 2 foil cards. This way I was able to simulate a trading card game booster pack. I tied the cards together using black and white string (an homage to my late friend, since in Japan when concerning a funeral, envelopes are tied in black and white string).

People enjoyed the cards, having different reactions. Each person had a personal favorite card, regardless of whether it was a rare card or not, and were more concerned by either the narrative or illustration. I hope that the interactions when trading between people will allow for personal narratives and experiences to form, beyond the narrative I have constructed for the small contained world.

Project 3: VR Space

The third project I worked on is a virtual reality (or VR for short) environment. Virtual reality is a relatively new media which allows for immersion in a person’s environment of their own creation. It tries to let people move around in the environment and simulate scenes that might not be possible to encounter in the real world.

The design principles behind this media-form are as follows; the idea that you are put in an environment with no context behind it at all, leading to free-form exploration and discovering something new each time; by taking away the norms of reality, we can create an environment that can constantly defy expectations of the viewers and cause them to explore an environment with an open mind.

The environment was coded using HTML and JavaScript, running a framework called A-Frame (which enables VR experiences). To complement the space, I created models of bugs (as a reference to the bugs we would find and catch, or attempt to, as kids), forests, and more in Cinema4D. The idea was that I would be loading many different objects in this virtual space, and that viewers could take a trip to explore and discover new objects each time. It could also lead to word of mouth, where people tell others to try and find certain objects, which in itself leads others to discover new objects along the way.

My process involved a lot of trial and error. To begin with, I thought of my childhood memories, many which centered around exploring off the beaten path, and finding new structures. I remember the feeling of disappointment when we would find the same things over and over again, and the feeling of elation when something new would show up. I wanted to capture this feeling and thus turned to creating my own environment. By providing a new environment, people can create their own narratives if given no to minimal context.

I created a foggy atmosphere to conceal the objects, making them harder to find. The result was a

journey that could leave the explorer feeling very lost and small, but cathartic when the discovery was finally made. When modeling, I had to go back and forth from coding and 3D modeling to configure sizes and compatibility. I drew several maps of what the space should look like to guide my process, revising it each time a new constraint showed up. The main aspects I wanted to include was a digital grave for my late friend located at the far end of the map, for players to visit if they were willing to explore far enough.

Some issues I encountered while making the entire map was that initially, textures were not loading, due to their complexity, making me opt for a more simplified solid color look to the map. In addition, I had to make the map smaller to accommodate for my code not making the explorer move faster in the environment. I also had to construct a script for my code to randomly create floating balls in a constrained environment, to indicate to people the explorable areas of the environment. Finally, the number of faces of the models and sizes caused my VR site to crash, so I had to optimize it to let it load. I would also test the VR site throughout to see if I was getting the surprised and satisfied reactions I wanted every time someone encountered a new

reaction. To my delight, people responded exactly as I hoped. I also learned through these reactions the amount of fog that would optimize this reaction, and how to balance the distance between objects to make the experience of exploring enjoyable, and not too easy or too frustrating. Through these processes, I learned a lot about coding and modeling for VR for the web, and managed to create a connection between explorative nature of people and an environment I had created.

Much like how my late friend and I explored our environment, I present to you a VR space to make your own memories of exploration. The link to view this on a computer browser is https://ryuu-nokioku.glitch.me/. I hope that through this experience, you too can find connections to explorations you have made in the past that have inspired your current processes of finding new discoveries.

Final Reflections

I think working on this project really helped me distill what the friendship I had with my late friend meant, on both a creative and personal level. It helped me understand more about myself, how I’ve come to stand where I am today, and how my work draws inspiration from my past memories and the people who surrounded me. This is in terms of my own development as a person, and my development in design thinking. I am also glad I got to use my concentration in Psychology in this project, by seeing how certain designed aspects affect the human psyche, and what motivates people to do certain actions. Finally, I now have a greater understanding of different media forms to use to express different topics, such as coding for VR, digital illustration, and 3D modeling. These skill sets will stay with me just as how the memories of my time with my late friend always will.

Ryuu no Kioku

A Degree Project Made at RISD

Typeface: Freight, TodaySHOP

© Kirthank Manivannan, 2018

It’s been a long 20 years of friendship. Rest in peace.