The Turkey Maiden Computer Game: a Project of the UCF Cultural

Turkey Maiden Educational Computer Game Curriculum

A Project of the Digital Ethnography Lab

University of Central Florida School of Visual Arts and Design

www.digitalethnography.dm.ucf.edu

The Turkey Maiden Computer Game: A Project of the Digital Ethnography Lab

This project explores the potential for humanities and social science education (and other subject areas) by using a traditional tale, “The Turkey Maiden,” taken from Kristin Congdon’s anthology of Florida folktales, Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales (2004), as the basis for an educational computer game. As students move through the story world, key concepts in teaching Florida history, humanities, and social science will be introduced and deepened.

The pilot project consists of a mod (or modification) of a popular role-playing game known as NeverWinter Nights based on “The Turkey Maiden” (a Spanish version of a folktale closely related to Cinderella) and an accompanying curriculum packet completed in connection with Arts for a Complete Education (ACE) (written by Natalie M. Underberg, who also conceived and directed the production of the computer game mod). That curriculum packet is geared toward the 8th grade and tied to Florida Sunshine State Standards.

“The Turkey Maiden” as a computer game is set in 1930s Ybor City, the time and place where the tale was collected, and by doing so enables players to navigate the story world of the Spanish and Cuban communities and the cigar industry, cultural centers, and political history associated with it. The current curriculum packet you are reading is geared toward university teachers at the graduate and undergraduate level, with the intention of providing a model of project-based curriculum in research methods and project management. The curriculum is drawn from Underberg’s experience teaching Directed Readings and Internship courses with graduate and undergraduate students in the Digital Media program at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The description of assignments, production schedule, and milestones is game-specific in order to demonstrate the kinds of issues educational game mod developers may encounter, particularly those related to cultural heritage preservation and transmedia story adaptation.

Users of this packet may wish to adapt these lessons to their own ongoing projects.

In what follows, readers will find a description of:

Turkey Maiden Directed Research (Graduate) Assignments and Requirements

Turkey Maiden Production Schedule (from Phase II of development)

Turkey Maiden Milestones (from Phase II of development)

These are included in order to give the reader a model for developing a Directed Research course based on game design, for which a production schedule and clear milestones form an important part. The role of a graduate student Creative Director is also outlined, which was fulfilled by Christian Franqui for Phase II of game development, completed as part of an internship with Underberg.

Turkey Maiden Directed Research (Graduate)

Description of Assignments and Requirements:

1) Attend weekly team meetings with Dr. Underberg and Christian Franqui (Creative Director) and respond to emails posted on Turkey Maiden Phase II Yahoo listserv within 48 hours.

2) Complete 2-3 research/modeling projects for the Turkey Maiden Phase II mod (depending on complexity and difficulty level) from the following list as determined by student interest, skill level and areas, and project needs. Completing these projects includes: 1)creating the model/texture; 2)successfully importing it into the game (Note: This means students must work closely with the Creative Director to ensure that the right version of software is being used and that enough time is built into the project to allow for tasks like file conversion and trouble shooting. Students may need to use 3D studio max for the mod, or they may need to convert Maya files so that they can be used in NeverWinter Nights which uses 3D studio max); 3) finding historical photos and other materials (getting new historical information, arranging and uploading materials to the Yahoo site, researching copyright-free information and getting necessary permission to use photos in mods or finding copyright-free images); and 4) writing a three page project report summary.

Following were examples of projects that could form the focus of the Directed Research:

· Importing/using existing modeling/texturing previously completed in Phase I of Turkey Maiden game mod development:

Models for placeables such as items for the cigar worker’s home (oven, pots and pans) were created in 3D studio max 8 instead of 3D studio max 5. May need to take the mesh, export it as a mesh, and open it in the old version, then reapply textures and redo object hierarchy.

· New models/textures (organized by game space as encountered while playing the game):

*Cigar worker’s home interior:

Objects to add/subtract:

add oven, hanging pots and pans, remove chandelier and other objects that would belong in a more wealthy home (for example, the chandelier should be removed but needs to be replaced with an appropriate lighting fixture to provide light).

Clothes:

Father’s outfit is too form-fitting; need to push and pull vertices so it resembles shape of 1930s outfit.

Women’s outfits need to be modified to be historically accurate as well.

Shrinking the size of the interior of the house:

This requires someone who understands pathfinding and walk meshes (on tile set modification).

*The forest:

Need to research what would stand in as the forest for Ybor City? Is there a section of town that was undeveloped, filled with trees? Maybe have something that serves as metaphor for the forest, such as an alley or a more run-down area of town (could use the models that exist for the cigar workers’ homes and re-texture them so they look more dilapidated). Need maps of Ybor City that show the relative location of the cigar workers’ homes in relation to the factories, in relation to the Centro Asturiano (mutual aid society), in relation to the wooded or undeveloped areas. If we used an alley as a stand-in for the forest, we’d need to retexture it because all hakpaks for alleys are too modern.

The outfit for the woman she meets in the forest (cigar factory worker Aida Ramos) needs to be made more historically accurate.

The dwarf she meets in the forest should be made to look like a duende in Spanish folklore—may be able to just put a new face on it or may need to pull the vertices and retexture it to change the body as well.

*Centro Asturiano interior:

Add more tables, add more NPCs, have a party/celebration going on inside. Add to tables more specific 1930s Ybor City foods.

*Turkey pen and surrounding streets of Ybor City:

Probably need a rich home to be added to the game space in addition to the factory, so the factory owners can live there and perhaps the turkey pen could be in the yard? Need a closer historical connection between turkey herding and 1930s Ybor City. Maybe the rich factory owners owned a small farm attached to their nice house (need to verify historical accuracy of that). Maybe there is a market in the town that Rosa could be hired to work in and where she sold turkeys?

Need new tile set for street—they’re too wide now, probably need to be brick (check historical accuracy of this).

Need new suit for “prince” (could make one suit for guys for which we could just change colors to differentiate)

Need new dresses for the three dancers Rosa encounters outside—need to be correct for the dances they are performing.

*Factory interior (new space):

Can model this on the historical photo that is seen when the Jose Martí part of the mod is loading—picture of cigar factory workers rolling cigars—could have navigable tables, could pick up objects, talk to workers wearing historically accurate clothes, could have father inside reading as a lector on the raised platform that was part of the factory interior.

*Rich home interior (new space):

Also need the rich home to be the space where the sick “prince” is lying (instead of the factory, where he currently is located). Maybe the butler (or whatever kind of servant a rich family would have had) is the gatekeeper Rosa has to get past instead of a guard at the factory. Needs to be dressed appropriately for the historical period.

Make “beautiful dress” more historically accurate.

*Centro Asturiano interior (for ending cutscene):

Make wedding dress and other outfits in the wedding cutscene (including replacing dwarf) more historically accurate.

3) Following the project timeline as established in the Production timeline below (this was for a Spring course):

January-February: Complete assembling team; complete all research tasks (listed in “Turkey Maiden mod development”) and post to Yahoo group; import existing models/textures completed earlier (see note in “Turkey Maiden mod development”); do modeling/texturing tasks that don’t require new models to be built (minor ones like adjusting father’s outfit which is currently too form-fitting—see note in “Turkey Maiden mod development”); work on “Gameplay refinement” tasks.

February-March: Create new models (oven, pots and pans in cigar workers’ home, adding rich house where cigar factory owners live, factory interior with objects and NPCs to interact with); do costume changes/other cosmetic changes (like adjusting look of dwarf) based on historical research; writers work with researchers and programmers to rewrite parts of game listed under “Gameplay refinement”).

March-April: Finish importing new models/textures into game; re-program mod with gameplay refinements; revise or re-do any cutscenes based on historical research (those involving Turkey Maiden and the ill prince).

April-May: Continue programming and debugging; complete and deliver revised mod to Dr. Underberg (including updating “credits” section with everyone who worked on the game this year).

4)due at the end of the semester: 2-3 completed modeling/research projects imported into the game, including uploading all historical research relating to the project on the Yahoo site; three page paper on the research/creative project.

Turkey Maiden Production Schedule

Spring Production

The Creative Director (Franqui) should meet once a week with team members (and communicate as needed between those times via the Yahoo listserv), and send weekly reports via email to Dr. Underberg. Therefore, weekly meetings, weekly reports, and a completed game mod are the “deliverables.” Equally important, however, are following the “milestones” listed above to make it possible to deliver the completed mod by end of semester. While not “deliverables” per se, progress needs to be made according to the timeline and should be demonstrated at the weekly meetings (so the Creative Director should be prepared to show the progress that has been made in building a particular model, or distribute conversations written by the writers, etc. that can be discussed at the weekly meetings).

Timeline:

April-May: Continue programming and debugging; complete and deliver revised mod to Dr. Underberg (including updating “credits” section with everyone who worked on the game this year).

DELIVERABLES: MOD IS DUE LAST DAY OF SEMESTER; WEEKLY REPORTS VIA EMAIL DUE EVERY WEEK.

Description of Turkey Maiden Milestones

Phase II Production:

1)Make corrections to Turkey Maiden tutorial and put in the curriculum packet (maybe as Appendix “C”—revise doc. To mention Appendix C in the intro.). Send this revised document to Dr. Underberg to look over.

2)Make list of roles/skill needs and list under each category the tasks that will need to be completed taken from the attached document “Turkey Maiden mod development.”

The list might look something like this:

Mod programmers: Need to be able to:

· complete tasks listed under “Gameplay revisions” (the top list that Christian wrote)

· debug (this takes a lot of time—someone should be just researching work arounds for the main programmer throughout the process)

· crafting (we want to build in several elements of this based on researchers’ recommendations)

· cut scenes (may need to revise a couple of current cut scenes based on researchers’ recommendations—those having to do with the Turkey Maiden in her “pen” and the ill “prince”)

· new programming (based on “gameplay refinement” list; in particular, if we build a new place—the home for the cigar factory owners—this will probably require new code)

Modeling/texturing: Need to be able to:

· Work with existing models/textures (see note under 1)Modeling/texturing in attached “Turkey Maiden mod development”)

· Create new models/textures (listed in “Turkey Maiden mod development”)

· Importing them into the game (dealing with issues of file conversion, Maya vs. 3D studio Max etc.)

· Pathfinding and walk meshes on tile set modification (to shrink the interior of the cigar workers’ home—right now it looks like a palace and it’s supposed to be a modest space).

Researchers. Need to be able to:

· Research the various modeling/texturing and gameplay refinement tasks. Includes:

o finding historical photos and other materials

o getting new historical information (including a trip to Ybor City to visit the museum)

o arranging and uploading materials to the Yahoo site

o researching copyright information and getting necessary permission to use photos in mods or finding copyright-free images (and/or attributing photo sources that are in game—Dr. Underberg has binders of info. on Ybor City history that served as the source for the images in the game).