Lydia Granholm
Raleigh, NC | lydiagranholm@gmail.com
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Writing Samples
Projects
Combating Conspiracy
Masters Thesis Project
Combating Conspiracy is a multiplayer serious game that aims to teach a mindset that prevents teens from falling into conspiracy theories, by gamifying the curriculums of English and Theory of Knowledge classes. The goal is to develop in players an understanding of what makes a credible source of information and how to think critically about what they see online and in the news. The supporting research for this project is based in how games can be used in education, how games reach a diverse audience, and the evaluation of sources of information.
A large portion of development was dedicated to prototyping the "combat" with other characters to make sure it was engaging and easy to understand quickly.
I was invited to speak and the 2022 East Coast Game Conference about this project. When they release the video of my session I will add it below.
At the end of the camp our game won the grand prize of being finished and published by Girls Make Games.
What They Don't Sea
Girls Make Games - Lead Unity Counselor and Artist
As the camp counselor I was in charge of directing a team of 15 year old girls to develop a game of their design. Together we created an action platformer with horror undertones created by the mechanics, changing atmosphere, and enemies.
I also worked with them to maintain a cohesive art style throughout their art and mine that would show off their monstrous sea creatures, all based off of their own research into weird but real creatures.
Orbital Loss
Undergraduate Final Innovation Project
Orbital Loss is a VR prototype made in Unreal that explores intuitive and non-obtrusive tutorial design that can teach new players without frustrating experienced ones. This was a 12 week solo project.
I maintained various types of documentation and reported regularly to the class's advisors throughout the project. Several of these documents can be found under the "see full design process" button.
I learned a lot about how a game's medium changes the way we play; for example, the biggest design challenge throughout this project was the size and layout of the level. From my research into VR games I found that the ones that limit the level space are the most compelling because they encourage interacting with the things in your immediate area, and this also gave new players a safe place to learn the mechanics.
Wander
Graduate Project
Wander is a VR game designed for a group of students in juvenile hall during quarantine, meant to help them manage their stress and lack of ability for self expression. We met with their teacher about their needs and interests and did background research into how the prison system affects kids, and my main takeaway that I wanted to focus on for the design of this project is their lack of opportunity to express themselves as individuals. This was reinforced during our meeting with their teacher, who said they were interested in poetry, writing, and meditation.
For the first part of this project I worked with a partner who focused on the art for the game, and I continued it on my own for the second half of the semester.
The Memory Exchange:
A Cabinet of Generative Curiosities
Graduate Group Project
For this project each member of my class had to create their own room in Unity that involved some form of generative AI and that built upon our work from earlier in the semester. I took on the role of creating a hub world that would link together everyone's work. I modeled an area for each of my classmates based on one or several of their previous projects and created a script that randomly built a room based on three of these areas.
I was also responsible for implementing the work that my classmates did and I helped them with troubleshooting and by writing a few scripts that could be used to link our scenes together.
Tiny Travelers
Undergraduate Group Project: Team Lead, Lead Designer, Programmer
For this project our professor assigned us groups and team leads. My responsibilities as team lead included setting deadlines, communicating with team members both individually and as a group through team meetings, and giving feedback on completed work. I also picked up tasks that otherwise would have fallen to the wayside, such as editing and general polish, to ensure the quality and cohesiveness of our final game.
The purpose of the game is to introduce kids to different cultures. Because of this we decided to make it a tablet game so as to be easily understood and accessed by a young audience. The biggest design challenge was trying to introduce unfamiliar cultures and languages without making it too complex to be understood by our audience. I overcame this challenge by highlighting items of interest that the player needed to learn about and by using simple language with foreign greetings added in, as the context would make it more clear what the new worlds meant.
The Death Inspectors
This is a game I made by myself under the theme "the game is a liar" in one week. It is a puzzle/mystery game where you have to use the clues provided to determine the killer, but throughout the game you find that the clues you have been relying on might be misleading.
I wanted to make sure that everything about the design of this game reinforced the creepy atmosphere and message. The gameplay has you judging people you have never met and the art is bleak and desaturated. Because I was more involved with the community for this game jam than I have been in the past I received a lot of positive feedback to this project in regards to the atmosphere, gameplay, and multiple endings that will be helpful if I choose to continue this project.