Fantastic Voyage

OGR #1
02 / 03 / 2016

Pip Harris

Chosen Bioscientific Scenario:

The immune system and resistance to antibiiotics.

My short animation will be in the form of a partial play through/trailer of a videogame,
based on a typical platformer fighting game, but designed for educational purposes.

Target Audience:
I want my animation to appeal to an audience of GCSE aged teenagers, for the 'game'
Im creating in my animation to serve as a learning aid about the body and immune system, and the role of antibiotics therein.

Further Immune System Research: (to clarify some points)

The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. One of the important cells involved are white blood cells,
also called leukocytes, which come in two basic types that combine to seek out and destroy disease-causing organisms or substances. Leukocytes are produced or stored in
many locations in the body, including the thymus, spleen, and bone marrow. For this reason, they're called the lymphoid organs. There are also clumps of lymphoid tissue
throughout the body, primarily as lymph nodes, that house the leukocytes. The leukocytes circulate through the body between the organs and nodes via lymphatic vessels
and blood vessels. In this way, the immune system works in a coordinated manner to monitor the body for germs or substances that might cause problems.
The two basic types of leukocytes are. Phagocytes; cells that chew up invading organisms and Lymphocytes; cells that allow the body to remember and recognize previous
invaders and help the body destroy them.
A number of different cells are considered phagocytes. The most common type is the neutrophil, which primarily fights bacteria. If doctors are worried about a bacterial
infection, they might order a blood test to see if a patient has an increased number of neutrophils triggered by the infection. Other types of phagocytes have their own
jobs to make sure that the body responds appropriately to a specific type of invader.
The two kinds of lymphocytes are B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes. Lymphocytes start out in the bone marrow and either stay there and mature into B cells, or they leave
for the thymus gland, where they mature into T cells. B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes have separate functions: B lymphocytes are like the body's military intelligence
system, seeking out their targets and sending defences to lock onto them. T cells are like the soldiers, destroying the invaders that the intelligence system has identified.
When antigens (foreign substances that invade the body) are detected, several types of cells work together to recognize them and respond. These cells trigger the B lymphocytes to produce antibodies, which are specialized proteins that lock onto specific antigens. Once produced, these antibodies stay in a person's body, so that if his or
her immune system encounters that antigen again, the antibodies are already there to do their job. So if someone gets sick with a certain disease, like chickenpox, that
person usually won't get sick from it again. This is also how immunizations prevent certain diseases. An immunization introduces the body to an antigen in a way that
doesn't make someone sick, but does allow the body to produce antibodies that will then protect the person from future attack by the germ or substance that produces
that particular disease.
Although antibodies can recognize an antigen and lock onto it, they are not capable of destroying it without help. That's the job of the T cells, which are part of the system
that destroys antigens that have been tagged by antibodies or cells that have been infected or somehow changed. (Some T cells are actually called "killer cells.") T cells also
are involved in helping signal other cells (like phagocytes) t do their jobs. Antibodies also can neutralize toxins (poisonous or damaging substances) produced by different
organisms. Lastly, antibodies can activate a group of proteins called complement that are also part of the immune system. Complement assists in killing bacteria, viruses, or infected
cells.
Source: http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/immune.html

Market Research:
To appeal to my target audience I have to consider what sort of game appeals to this age group, and why, and how I make sure I
take this into account in my work.
Key Factors to consider:
I don't want the game to be too complicated, or some may be put off by this - therefore not make it too strategy based/ not a lot
of thinking & planning involved. Fairly straightforward to play, but still educational.
Not be overly 'educational' - I dont want to laden the game with scientific terms or large areas of text explaining things. I want this
to be fun and engaging or it will completely go against the whole point of the animation.
Guilty pleasure - although the game may may not seem sophisticated" or serious", I know if done correctly this will still appeal to a
large target audience. Simple games are very popular with this age group, prime examples being simple app download games, and
for the more gaming orientated person, the rising popularity of the 'indie game" - prime example being Minecraft, with its simplistic graphics and relaxed gameplay. Other more modern examples include games developed by The Behemoth, such as Castle
Crashers and Battle Block Theatre. Plus, historically, simple slightly strategy based games have proven long term favourites, aimed
at a teenage audience, classics like Pokemon and Kirby being prime examples.
Want it to be painterly and pretty - however dont want to go overboard on the detail making it too complicated, but dont want
large blocks of colour, this may make it seem too basic - good example of simplistic interest is the Splatoon squid design, overall
quite basic shape and mainly 2 colours, but with small added details of spots makes it much more engaging than having it all one
blank colour would be. Similar goes for my environments, want to keep colours simple and friendly to attract and draw interest,
and not make it seem too sophisticated, while not being boring. Also to match in with simple shapes and non complicated models.
This pretty-but-simple design will help make the game animation appealing and engaging, while also not distracting from the
"action" of the bacteria vs antibiotics.

Animation game Basis

Bacteria are attacking the body, you must defend against them
Initially all the bacteria are relatively low level, all with different
abilities (mutations) to either attack or resist. All look similar,
but have different colourings/accessories.
You are the antibiotics, you also have different abilities, do your
best to wipe out as many bacteria as you can within time limit.

End of round, you are given the opportunity to pick new attributes
for the antibiotics, but it will be chance if they are useful against
the new bacteria. You will have to remember what types of bacteria you were unable to kill off in the first round as the new bacteria will have these, plus have picked up the destroyed bacteria
attributes.
Too many uses of antibiotic that are unsuccessful leads to the bacteria mutating into superbug bacteria, with a very low possibility
of being defeated, ergo lose the game.

I want my basic colour scheme to be

dusky pinks and swampy greens, pink representing healthiness and green representing areas the bacteria have infected.
I like the idea of having veins and bits of
organ etc blocking certain parts of the
scene view, to make you feel more as if
youre cramped inside a body.
Also I was playing around with the idea of
having certain structures, made from
parts of the body, resembling something
else, taking inspiration from The Hookworm animation. I also thought this could
be a good way to show the bacteria progressing on to be come more serious as it
moves around the body, perhaps starting
in a fairly unobvious place, then moving
on to say the lungs, stomach, heart, brain,
as it mutates and gets stronger. These
locations could possibly be portrayed
through these different settings and with
sound design also, although Im not sure
how organic I want to go with this.