ECTIP Blog 3

 ECTIP Blog 3

Through my research I composed a document of research about Chinese mitten crabs as the invasive species and the long snouted seahorse as the native species. I believed that the seahorse would be a good choice as they are a stunning creature who many would be surprised to find out that they're native to the uk and Portsmouth. They are poor swimmers due to only the use of the dorsal fin to swim, with the need to eat 40-50 times a day it is difficult in the fairest habitats, however invasive species such as the mitten crab destroy the environments of seahorses making it more difficult to survive. Chinese mitten crabs have come over to the Uk for the last century and have built a strong population causing millions in damage in Europe by burrowing up to 2 feet into river banks as well as in the ocean as the ocean for miles. 

A great deal of this information I found on the Seahorse trust website, which carries out annual surveys of seahorse populations and research. This credible source allowed me to find statistics and figures that would support our decision to choose the seahorse as the main character and gave us information to incorporate into the game. In terms of the invasive species topic we found it important that an interesting native species that is susceptible to invasive species and at a vital time as climate change is believed to inevitably drive the seahorses to Scandinavia with rising sea temperatures the cause. 

The research on the mitten crab I focused on how to identify them and the damage they cause, through their hairy claws they are unique and easy to spot, they are also omnivorous meaning they eat any matter, plant or animal. This also contributes to the reduction of food for the native species as well as their previously mentioned burrowing causing damage to habitats

ECTIP Blog 2

After our day at the dockyard we decided to create a video game as our artefact due to the capabilities of the group, with an experienced member in the group in digital coding and animation, the others and I learned from them to aid the creation of the game. As well as this we had those who lacked confidence in the software blender assigned research roles in order to find a character for a native and invasive species to be put in the game. The research team, myself included, made files of research which were stored in the google drives in order for everyone to access them whenever making additions as they do so. 

We debated between a game that would be a 3rd person video game where a scientist is controlled by the user to complete tasks to defeat the invasive species and aid the native species. This would have been an interesting concept as it would encourage the young users to become citizen scientists and act as the character does. However, we thought a first player concept would be more appealing to young people to be playing as either the native or invasive species itself. From this we considered a concept of an invasive species that has to take over new environments, despite this, we decided to have the first player as the native species to encourage their protection and inform the user how they can aid these species through facts through the game.

Frome here we were mentored how to create assets for the game to allow others to start creating an environment, following the trip to the harbour, we took a keen interest on protecting the native species in the ocean with it being so closely linked to is here in Portsmouth. After scraping the docks in the harbour of ocean life we examined what we found, with a lively shrimp and a lot of sea squirts it was teaming with native species. From this I began researching for native and invasive species that live around Portsmouth's coast, from this research we would go onto planning our finalised concept.