For Project 6, I need to take practical action to develop my project from a concept into a more specific and testable prototype. My project, Desire Trace System, explores how individuals understand their desires and reflect on lifestyles that truly suit them. Because the project involves desire, uncertainty, decision-making, self-reflection and game-based experience, the network I need to build must include both potential users and creative or professional practitioners.
My existing network includes my tutors, classmates and the MAAI learning community. This academic network helps me refine my research question, methodology and communication. My project is also supported by an intellectual network, including theories of uncertainty, desire and social structures, such as Bauman’s liquid modernity, Lacan’s theory of desire and Bourdieu’s habitus. These theories help me keep the project connected to desire, uncertainty and decision-making, rather than reducing it to a simple lifestyle game.
The first stakeholder group I have engaged with is potential users. I invited a friend to give feedback because she is also facing questions around life choices and personal desires. She said that the most attractive part of the project is that it does not ask players to reflect through a didactic or psychological-test format. Instead, it allows them to naturally enter a character’s life situation through a game experience. She felt this approach would be more immersive and less boring than a conventional questionnaire or written reflection. She also said that Desire Trace System reminded her of real-life moments of uncertainty, when people often know what they do not want, but cannot clearly identify what they truly desire. Through everyday choices, desire tags and monthly reviews, she felt players could more directly see how desire influences decision-making and how repeated decisions gradually shape a lifestyle.
However, her feedback also identified areas for improvement. She suggested that the monthly review should include narrative and emotional atmosphere, otherwise it may feel too mechanical or tool-like. She also reminded me that the questions should remain open and non-judgmental, so players do not feel analysed or evaluated by the system, which could reduce their own judgement and agency.
The second network I need to develop includes people from game design, interactive narrative, illustration and UI design. Since the project will be presented as a small game-based reflective prototype, these practitioners can help me test whether the system is clear, visually effective and engaging. I have already invited an illustrator to help me develop the initial appearance of character, which is important because the character and visual world make the reflective experience more accessible.
The third network I hope to build includes people from education, career support or psychology-related fields. They can help me consider the ethical boundaries of the project, especially how to keep it as a reflective tool rather than a diagnostic or judgmental system.
Through conversations, prototype testing and feedback sessions, I hope to collect evidence of two-way communication and build a stronger foundation for further development.
Leave a Reply