Category: GCS

By evaluating everyone’s abilities and what we could bring to the project as individuals, it began the process of thinking how we could organise ourselves as a team with varying skills and experience. Figuring out these skills was beneficial since it began to shape our product since we knew what we were able to produce as a when working together. This also made way for dividing us into smaller groups who would focus on separate things which brought clarity to our work process.

Groups that were identified were the Illustrators, games designers and Creative Industries & media. This helped to figure out our process as this highlighted three main groups, the mini-game concept illustrations, website creators and marketing.

Therefore the way the groups were decided was putting someone from each skill group in each location, so a pack of research, development and imagery was created for each city. When making creative decisions though about the overall theme and logo, we came together to make sure we attained as many perspectives as we could in a quick and affective manner.

We used a google doc to keep track of our zoom discussions and thoughts since this was the most used between us all and it allows instant live editing and communication within the document. This allowed key points to be noted down as we spoke which made sure nothing was missed as if we were meeting in person. These regular points of coming back together after doing work in our smaller groups proved useful in keeping us on track and in sync as a group which was vital.

I have little experience with collaborating with a large group with some being from overseas, therefore having my partner Laura from Ryerson was useful since we were able to discuss our situations as well as becoming friends. On our neighbourhood walk we chose to focus on transport since it is something common all over the world and shapes what you are able to do from day to day.

Location	Toronto Georgy Porgys Grill & Bar; 1448 Lawrence Ave E Unit 1, North York, ON M4A 2V6	London The Sun of Camberwell61-63 Coldharbour Ln, Brixton, London SE5 9NS
Vehicles	Majority of Canadian vehicles have automatic transmissions, and even being able to drive manual is becoming very rare. There is a running joke that a manual transmission is a “millenial anti-theft device” since no one can drive them, and they aren’t stolen very often. We have a 3-stage license program you can start at 16yrs, there’s starts at 17yrs & they have a separate class license for automatic.	Here in London having a car is rare due to how high the living costs are. To get from place to place public transport is favoured. Unlike Canada, automatic vehicles are hard to come across due to how much they cost and when it comes to obtaining a licence the majority take a manual test. Laura lives further from the city center so she has a car to get places whereas here in London everything is so close there is no need to drive.
Temp./Weather	At the time of our call it was 4 Celsius in Toronto, very windy, and looked like it might storm later on. Oct/Nov (fall) is pretty cold and rainy in Toronto, going below 0 often at night.	For once England wasn’t the cold stormy place! It was a lovely warm evening of 17 degrees. Even though it was humid and windy this was made up for by the fact I was nice and warm.
Public Transpo-rtation	The TTC only has two real subway lines, with some LRTs and streetcars, and lots of busses. Outside of the downtown core though, it’s mostly just busses and a lot of people drive. Being from outside downtown, I drive a lot to get around, unless I need to go to campus which is when I’ll use the subway (and the bus). Both systems are pretty vast, but the Tube seems superior to the Rocket.	The sun is right next to a few bus stops which can get you to central London very quickly. You can also take the overground and Tube which are just as useful. We compared the underground maps for Toronto and London and thought about how busy London’s looked in comparison.
Size/Gov-ernment	Ontario is more than 4x size of the UK (according to tripadvisor.ca), so we can drive 5 hours and it takes us to Ottawa, and we’re not even in a new province. They can drive 3 hours and they’re on the other side of the country.	The population of London is 8.982 million (2019) and we all fit into a 1,572 km² area. The Queen of England is on their notes like ours since she is the Constitutional Monarch. However both places act independently from the monarchy.
Covid Limitati-ons	This is a new development, but a lot of what we used to do is limited. I’m not downtown or on campus really at all this year, so I don’t go out to eat with my friends after class or sit in the student lounge. And I also don’t leave my house much at all, other than a walk around the neighbourhood almost every day, so finding somewhere to go for this call was interesting!	Because of Covid the places we can go are very limited, our environments and daily surroundings have changed in order to fit with restrictions. Even though travel is easy and quick in London, I have stayed in my area only going to places which are a short distance away. Therefore this was an interesting contrast between the restaurant Laura drives to with her family as opposed to the pub I walk to with my housemates.

A difference between Canada and the UK that surprised me was that in Canada manual cars have become very rare, many drive an automatic and will for their whole lives from when they learn onwards. However, in the UK, automatic cars are considered a luxury due to the higher prices, therefore many choose to learn in manual and stay with it. Additionally due to raising living costs and more people living in crowded areas cars are becoming less of a necessity and more of a burden with how expensive they are to run and upkeep. But Laura lives far from the city centre and having a car is necessary to get places for her, in London it is different as public transport is well connected and affordable. COVID-19 has affected us both in very different manners, due to Laura’s location her life has not been hugely changed by restrictions since she lives far from campus and friends. Whereas being in London, COVID has drastically changed my way of life with entertainment venue’s being closed and large gatherings against the rules. This instantly highlighted the differences in people’s capabilities to travel as everyone’s situation is extremely different, shedding light on the way that Co-Pilot can provide this platform where everyone is on the same level in the world of travel as a community. Brining people together this way is becoming important during this time.

When the project was coming to and end we came back together to discuss what we had learned about international collaboration from this project (here’s the link to a recording of the highlights of our 60min discussion). Firstly, when collaborating online it becomes clear how different people may seem over text. Even though there are many benefits to this method of communication, such as helping people who are more shy, miscommunication can happen and something may be taken differently from how it was meant to come across. However this was combatted by how online it is easier for many to make friendships, this highlighted the importance of understanding someone on more than a face to face professional level. Since we were comfortable speaking to each other, even those who were quieter, it made way for a more productive work environment where agreements and decisions were easier to make. This was because people felt more comfortable expressing their opinions, to me this was the most important element to my groups’ collaboration. Text slang and emojis were also extremely useful when communicating since it gave our group-chats a colloquial and chatty atmosphere which made evaluating things and sharing ideas a lot easier for us all.

Even if we were functioning well as a group, Laura and I had both picked up on the difficulties of working around schedules and time zone differences. This became a bigger problem with international collaboration since we were all living very different lives. However it became clear that ultimately this made us work closer as a group and make sure no one was left behind as you needed to consider everyone if we were going to have a team call. These differences between our lives was not the only difference that we learned to work with, but also the diversity of perspectives that were brought to the table. However, this came as a huge benefit to our process, since the concept could be shaped by so many different ideas from different angles. I have also learnt from this as it helped bring different ideals to my own attention which I could think through which is turn would inform and mould my own perspective.

Researching the target audience was guided by the idea that many people of all ages enjoy a holiday. Families connecting with other family members they can’t see because of Lockdown, friend groups who want to have some fun online or even people who want to meet someone new. Everyone experiencing lockdown has a desire for escape and company, therefore there are many people who need to be considered when developing this concept. Group zoom calls have become extremely popular with the elderly who are shielding seeing their family and grandchildren, friend groups having fun as if they were out and for educational purposes. Considering this chat feature was important since it reinforces the immersive nature of Co-Pilot and emulates the experiences of making new connections in a COVID friendly way. Due to this, incorporating a group video call feature would develop this interactivity since you could ‘sit in a restaurant’ together as a group after making a meal from a recipe provided. Therefore the game needed to be accessible for all ages and family friendly, this idea of accessibility led to considering expanding the audience to those who also aren’t able to afford the expenses of a trip abroad. Travelling is a form of education too and this sort of resource should be open and affordable. As a result, inclusivity and community regarding every circumstance became important.

Additionally when bringing in a chat feature like this there needs to be a form of protection for the users, safety guides, rules and regulations. When discussing the concept with the group it was something that we thought about since if Co-Pilot was to be this safe space for all ages these kinda of measures were necessary. Therefore the process of buying a ticket and entering the game was altered, where when purchasing a package you can choose whether you want to explore privately or not as either a group or individual. This determines whether public chat features are open or not and if you are online with other users you have not met before.

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Researching competitors proved useful in developing our concept by helping figure out what was already out there and what was popular. Some competitors were:

• Airbnb online experiences – Unique activities led by hosts across video call , £8-73 per person.
• Google Arts and Culture – High -resolution images and videos of artworks and artefacts for free.
• Around Egypt – Oculus immersive VR experience – explore tourist attractions in Egypt, £2.99.
• National Geographic VR – VR experience of culture animals science and travel for free.
• World Traveler – Immersive VR experience where you figure out which city you are in, £2.29.
• Looking Glass – VR experience of the world during the 19th century for free.
• Out for Delivery – Is an interactive experience where players follow a food courier in Beijing, the scenes play out but the player choose what to focus on.
• Wheels of Aurelia – Drive along the Italian coast with an in-game companion with a multiple choice dialogue that reveals Italy’s political tumult. There are 16 different endings depending on where you choose to drive and what you say.

From looking at these games and experiences it was clear that there is no fully immersive travelling platform in the form of a choose-your-own-adventure that is also educational and provides accessibility to multiple locations. There is also a lack of being able to connect realtime and speak to others as well interacting with businesses in an engaging manner. Here are some more examples.

Within each city, I decided that the most relevant information needed was about the local cuisine, activities and history. When researching I came across Gladiator School of Rome , here they provide a museum tour and access to a training ring where an instructor will teach moves and supervise mock gladiator fights. This triggered the idea of having a mini-game linked to the school as part of Co-Pilot. Therefore I decided that finding things that were exciting and worked with a game format in an engaging way was important. Additionally if the concept was taken further it would be beneficial to work alongside these businesses as part of the experiences linked to them in the game, since during the global pandemic it would provide a platform for business.

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This (above) is the illustration I did as an example for the gladiator mini-game. After research into the school on Tripadvisor I could see what the tourists were given to wear and what the instructors wore, this was important since its incorporates more of the actual company into our game concept.

Here’s another example of an illustration by one of my team members, it provides this warm homely and welcoming feeling that we were focusing on.

Having this gaming interface was important since it appeals to the theme of adventure and exploration, bringing in this fun sense of community on an online server. It shows the users that they are not alone in their exploration of the world from their bedroom. Co-Pilot needed a welcoming tone to it to match the community aspect, therefore, a warm colour palette and simple graphics were needed to appeal to the audience and not confront or defer them. Bringing this no stress environment to travelling meant that Co-Pilot could offer an experience that was extremely different to the potential amounts of stress and exhaustion that travelling can bring in real life. For someone who struggles to travel because of physical or mental illness this could be a useful tool to explore without difficulty.

I created a Pinterest board for the group which we could all add things to in order to provide an idea for the playful, warm and welcoming yet awe inspiring imagery we could produce for our concept. For me this mood board was important since we could not sit together and draw and look at colour schemes as we were all so far apart but it allowed me to bring everyone in to consider imagery we could all add to and edit. It brought a collective direction to our thoughts. Reproducing the cities in a stylised manner would emphasise the video game side to the project and make it a fun intriguing place to learn, we all had very different styles yes it was an aid in understanding the direction we were taking.

One of our group members was proficient with 3D modelling so he created some concept ideas for the streets of our locations. It was our aim to make it as immersive as possible and unlike anything we found on our travel market research, with the realistic looking avatars which were personalised to the user’s preference.

Considering the concept it is clear that there needed to be more consideration of how it would actually work. Even-though it is not the finished product there is still a backbone missing, if it was taken further there is still so much that needs to be done. These gaps lie in the research around protecting users when using the chat feature, since Co-Pilot will be open to teens, adults and the elderly. Signing up to use the platform would require official age verification, this is due to the exploitation that chat and video features could be used for. I also believe that clear examples of these features are missing from the mock website and presentation. There was a lot that we discussed that did not get translated into the finished concept, including more visual examples that would have brought it closer to life and making it more intriguing. We discussed all the experiences but did not provide many finished examples, many were brought forth with research but were not continued with into the later stages of development. This issue lay in the difficulties we faced in creating the website and lengthy process of the 3D modelling. This demonstrated that the length of tasks needed to be considered as well as just making sure the tasks were equally separated.

Even though our group got on very well there was still a lot of confusion and uncertainty when it came to creating our concept. Trying to organise the group and sort out a style and cohesion between our work proved difficult since there was a strong desire to do what was individually desired. This made way to visual imagery that did not have a common enough theme between it, thus missing out on Co-Pilot having a visual identity because of this mismatched nature. It is all well everyone getting along but it made me realise that authority was important in organising people and making sure tasks were done to plan. There needed to be a main figure within the group who kept track of each team and what they were producing, taking special care in ensuring that all the pieces fit together. This issue was certainly emphasised by the distance between us all, problems COVID has had for mental health and work ethic and our general inexperience in this form of work process.

Working with a group of new people on a completely new experience did require some acclimation. Getting used to the group was important since we did not know each other and understanding the way we all work was important, this was benefitted by how well we got on. This project informed me on how you create and present a concept rather than the usual creative outcomes we produce on other projects. This was beneficial for me though because not having a piece of art as the final outcome but instead a collaborative concept meant that I was able to understand the skills I have and how I am able to learn to apply this knowledge.