Meet the Characters

I got my new chess set yesterday, let’s meet our characters 🙂

*Justice

-Good King Godspeed: He is the ruler of Justainia and the defeater of Dosjer. King godspeed was the most admired King throughout the Kingdom and led his knights into battle against King Dosjer.

-Good Queen Daphne: Daphne is the twin sister of Tara. With King Godspeed falling on love with her Tara decides to have her killed. daphne finds out of the plot and warns her husband that King Dosjer is planning a war against their Kingdom.

-Bishop Jean Jacques: He is King Godspeeds Wizard and closest confidant. He is the one who casts a spell over Dosjer and Merlock sending them to the underworld when they invade Justainia.

-Knights: King Godspeeds famed warriors known for their courage and bravery.

-Rook Good Kingdom of Justainia: Justainia is known for its prosperity and its fair treatment of its subjects. Many people flock towards Justainia in hope of a better life.

-Pawn, Good Soldier:- sworn soldiers to protect the kingdom against all enemies.

*Evil:

 
-Evil King Dosjer: Once the ruler of Latium, King Dosjer became jealous of King Godspeed and decided to go to war with him. He was defeated and was banished to the underworld for eternity with the rest of his kingdom.

-Evil Queen Tara: Tara is the twin sister of daphne. She was deeply in love with Godspeed but he was in love with Daphne. She decided to marry King Dosjer and fueled by her jealousy for her sister she ided in the plot against the Good King.

-Bishop, Wizard Merlock: With the promise of fame and fortune, Merlock is recruited in the underworld. He is very knowledgeable in the black arts, he comes from a family who made a pack with devil in order to obtain their evil powers.

-Knight Gargoyle: The gargoyle is meant for protection against evil spirits placed on corners of buildings but in the wrong hands these gargoyles come to life at night and create havoc on unsuspecting people.

-Rook, Evil Kingdom of Latium: Latium once a symbol of prosperity is now a barren wasteland. With the battle between Justice and Evil Latium became the Kingdom of evil beings and wrong doers.

-Pawn, Evil Soldier: From the darkest places in the underworld, these are King Dosjers hired conscripts who don’t mind who they fight for as long aas they are paid.

pulp fiction: non-linear way of story telling

Ezekiel 25:17
“The path of the rightous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and justice shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truely his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children and I will strike down upon thee with great vengence and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brother and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

When Winnfield repeated his words at the end, i began feeling interested in this cool man, he was experiencing such tough situation and he could use his smart and calm to slove those problems. I really appreciate Samuel L.Jackson’s acting, he made this cool, calm, efficient man. Although i don’t understand the words clearly, i liked this character.

Cause their speaking speed are a bit fast, and the plot is non-linear, i don’t understand so clearly at the first time. So i had watched the moive twice, it was so wonderful, all the characters are just….too cool!! Now i gonna say something about the movie that i can apply to my project.

Actually, this movie is telling story of several characters, but they are connected to each other (more or less), each one experienced differently, separately, they don’t know each other, but they came to one point at the end, a robbery in restaurant. Taking drugs, killing people, transmitting money, all these little story made up the story point–pulp ! The story is non-linear, but every part is narrative, that’s key point of this movie.

As for my project, i am telling a chess war story, can i try to follow this way? I also have characters: kings, queens, knights, pawns… i can tell their stories separately, but also they are part of the whole war story. Dividing the war into 3 or 4 parts, beginning, middle game, ending? Then show it in non-linear way, letting users choosing which part they want to see first, letting users choosing which characters they want to know first.

That’ what i got from watching the movie, which might be useful…

Get my chess set!

Today i made an important decision, i bought a new chess set for my project!

Actually i wanted to do it several days before, the reason i wanted to buy is, those chess pieces are like human being, they are characters, they are more lively which means it is easier to tell story about ‘them’. But it is expensive, so i didn’t make up my mind at the beginning, after several day trying to draw chess characters and pictures, i must admit i fail to do in this way. So, lastly, i had to buy this chess set as my models. Now i am waiting for my models, looking forward to taking pictures of them.

What’s more, i discovered a story for this chess set, the chess set is called Justice vs Evil, there is a story behind it. The story of Justice vs Evil. This battle is between Good King Godspeed of Justainia and Evil King Dosjer.

  

Idea, idea, idea…

Last week i drew some storyboards of my project, but then this week, when i want to draw these in the computer screen, it becomes difficult, then, my question is, the idea is good, but how can i achieve that?

I just keep sitting in front of my computer, drawing rubbish one after another. Looking through the pictures via Internet, try to find something useful. Here i found some pictures that are similar to the picture in my mind.

First one is 3D picture, a King and a castle, they are live ‘chess’, actually they are characters, so the story can go on like this way, live chess characters, king, queen, bishop…battle,..war..meeting…talking..

Second one is a castle model, some pawns are guarding there, it made me think about building some castle models like this, then i put my chess in model castles, put them in the environment i create, take many pictures, and then tell story!

Third one, chess graphic, like cartoon, no, i don’t think i will make it this way, i don’t know drawing. Forget about this…

Where i am going??? God help me !!!
 

Lovely chess :)

Just post some lovely pictures of chess pieces and boards:

        

        

Narrative++

What is narrative?

Everything surround us is narrative, every event happened to us is narrative. We know this world by narrative way, we shape our knowledge and memory in narrative way. We are so familiar with narrative things, but still, as a question, it is hard to answer, what is narrative?

In the book <Fim’s Art>, it says, ‘narrative is a chain of events in cause-effect relationship accurring in time and space.’ ‘things begin with one situation, a series of changes accurs according to a pattern of cause and effect. Finally, a new situation arises/brings about the end of narrative.’

So, clearly, we know that in narrative, there are two key things: time and space, cause and effect. When we discribe a thing to someone, we will tell them when it happened, where it happened, how it began, how it developed and how it ended. This is so easy a narrative way for people to understand. Moreover, people pay more attension to the how it developed, that’s plot of the story. Why is a story so interesting? “The plot may arrange cues in ways that withhold information for the sake of curiosity and surprise. Or the plot may supply information in such a way as to create expectations or increase suspence.” That ‘s the point behind narrative, why we enjoy story telling so much, since we were kids.

Some Chess notes

Considering i am doing a chess educational project, i began to learn more about chess again, trying to remind myself the skills and improve my level, here i took some notes from the books and sites i had seen.

1. Some translation of chess words:
竖格file  横格rank  斜格diagonal  黑白格light/dark square  王/后翼kingside/queenside 将军check  杀棋chechmate  营地camp  吃capture  挡住block/hinder  兵(P)Pawn  车(R)Rook  马(N)Knight  象(B)Bishop  皇后(Q)Queen  皇上(K)King  王车易位Castling short/long

“En Passant” 吃过路兵
“Promotion” 兵升变 promote the pawn to a Queen
“Stalemate” 逼和
“Loss of material” 棋子交换中丢分

Tactics:
“Pins” 牵制
“Forks” 同时攻击两个棋子 treaten two pieces
“Discoveries” 让开攻击

Opennings：
Sicilian Defense 西西里防御
French Defense 法兰西防御
Ruy Lopez / Spanish 西班牙开局
Queen’s Gambie 后翼弃兵
English Opening 英吉利开局
Two knights defense 双马防御
Gruenfeld defense 格林菲尔德防御

2. Rules

Pawn: move forward, how to capture:move one square diagonally;
Knight: “L”-shape way of moving, can jump over, knight does its best work in the center;
Bishop: moves diagonally, one black one white, two bishops are powerful in open games;
Rook: tower of a castle, play its best in the open files/ranks, rooks should be able to see each other, no piece between them;
Queen: so powerful! Don’t bring it out too early.

3. Some tips

About pawn:
Make a good pawn structure, link them, let them support each other, make a good defense; Pawns should capture towards the center.
Aaron Nimzovitch said”A passed pawn is a criminal who should be put under lock and key.”
That means a passed pawn can be so powerful that decide which side will win.

Rook development:
Always go to open files, become more powerful;
Two rooks together can double their powers;

Knight:
Knights should be close to action, becasue they can not move long range;
“A knight on the rim is dim” so knight should be in the center, centralized!

Online resource

Here are some sites i feel quite useful for my chess learning and gaining information,just take a note for them, in case i need to use them in the future.

1.http://www.chessjoy.com/
A chess community with Web2.0 elements.

2.http://www.itsyourturn.com/
Play online chess here, Joe and i are playing here:)

3.http://www.6park.com/parkbooks/messages/3191.html
Translation of Chess Openning in English and in Chinese.

4.http://chess.about.com/
So much information about Chess, like: Chess culture,history,rules,introduction and so on.

5.http://www.princeton.edu/~jedwards/cif/intro.html
Although full of text and boring grahics, but there are some useful notes.

6.http://www.letsplaychess.com/chessclubs/asplogin.asp and
http://www.freechess.org/
Chess clubs, also you can play online chess here using its software.

7.http://www.chessclub.com/
Another famous chess club, chess news, tournament news.

8.http://www.personalchesstrainer.com/index.php and
http://www.wildgames.com/ECS/htdocs/GameInfo.aspx?dp=wildgames&bw=high&itemname=ChessmasterChallenge
Chess game, download and play with computers.

9.http://www.chess.com.cn/index.asp
A Chinese official chess web site.

Time Schedule

Here is the gantt chart of my master project time shedule:

 

Brainstorming

So far, i am thinking about these four ideas that i can use fro my master project:

1. An interesting chess game, which will be done in Flash; Audience are mainly kids and chess beginners.

2. A web-based chess teaching webcast system. It will use video tutorials (or+text+graphics) as main resource to teach people about  the chess rules, openings, tactics.

3. Chess online community/ Chess club. Using some Web2.0 elements (such as blogs, wiki, RSS, podcast) attract people to join these issues of chess community.

4. Chess (visual) Gallery.  Telling people storys about those famous chess tournament  games or some great games by chess champions. Using some animation and background audio to achieve the story telling.

After i have done some research via the Internet, there are quite many examples of first idea and second idea, so that means they not new areas and not worth doing more work as master project. There are many chess clubs and communities, although some of them don’t have Web2.0 elements, this research area is not new. However, the last idea is quite challenging, it will come to answer a research question like: How do interactive technics challenge story telling in achieving educational aims?

Finally, after i talked to Joe about my ideas above, we came to agreed that the last idea would be great for doing my master project.