(Part 2) British Jobs Classes

So I need to have 11 unique families of 4, with different jobs and classes that I can incorporate into their character designs to show a portrait of a more modern and relatable British culture in games.

I've listed occupations of previous 'Happy Families' games, and below, is some research I've done to determine my final 11 families.

Q 16 Mr. Dunne: How many people are employed in retail in the UK?

Jane Milne: About 3 million. It is about 11 per cent. of the work force altogether.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/busrate/090120/am/90120s02.htm

"As expected, the most generic titles 'Manager' and 'Project Manager' come first and second in the list, accounting for over 5,000 responses in total. Next comes the trusted 'Teacher'... "- http://www.mysalary.co.uk/most-common-jobs.php

Most popular UK jobs, and their average salaries: http://www.aboutmybusiness.co.uk/top-jobs-data.php

"Most journalists are women. Most authors are women. Most teachers, lab technicians, therapists, editors, librarians, public relations officers and insurance underwriters are women." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17287275

"Actually a recent study has shown that about 60% of the cleaning industry in London is covered by Bulgarian and Polish residents themselves" - http://www.cfsflooring.co.uk/the-most-common-jobs-that-immigrants-in-london-work.htm

The UK's best-paid jobs (shows salery average and % work) as well as lowest median saleries -  http://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/dec/18/uks-best-paid-jobs

Trying to be balanced as possible in class, gender, race and beyond, so I'll be going with my findings. I don't personally believe all Polish people in the UK are in cleaning or that they're not capable of more, but with my findings, it makes sense that the one Polish family I will have will have a job in that area. I am restricted by having only 11 families, of which only 1 is of Polish nationality.This is the reasoning and difficulties I'm facing with creating this game; I don't want unfair representations, but I am following statistics shown in the links above... edit: After afew people have seen my list, too many raised eyebrows for Polish cleaners. I'm going to ask the lecturer before I do it.

If any ethical issues arise or if I'm feeling insensitive in my work, I'll ask for help from my lecturer. For now, here are the families I've decided to work on for my version of 'Happy Families':

Retail - Middle Eastern

Pub Owners - Caucasian

Chemist - Asian

Unemployed - Caucasian

Teacher - Black

Banker - Caucasian

IT Manager - Indian

Police - Black

Taxi Driver - Middle Eastern

Cleaners - European Caucasian

Restaurant - European Caucasian

The Different Families (Part 1 - Existing/Research)

I now need to start catogrizing what families/groups I want to create. A good place to start is to look at exisiting families/titles, and to alter them from there. Below is a list of familes found in different versions of the game, underlined families featured in the deck I played with from the 70's, and italics will be families jobs/classes from the original created game:

Florist
Baker
Brewer
Undertaker
Teacher
Carpenter
Butcher
Policeman
Crook
Swabhand
Dyer
Doctor
Farmer
Vet
Greengrocer
Grocer
First Mate
Captain
Fireman
Pilot
Milkman
Plumber
Painter
First Class Passenger
Fisherman
Chimney Sweep
Tailor
Dentist
Chef
Gardener
Lawyer
Author
Builder

Also through the Wikipedia for 'happy families', I found this gem! Dartmouth has it's own set of cards created back in 1987, and apparently some of the families of the professions which have incredibly appropriate names are still going strong today. Article: http://lydiadimitrova.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/dartmouth-happy-families.html

"Sorry, Not At Home!"

My lovely neighbour was kind enough to come round yesterday with her childhood pack of 'Happy Families' cards, from 1970! Wow. So her, me and mum played a quick game of it. Of course I won. :)

I've been able to look at different artworks online for 'Happy Families', but it was very interesting to play the classic 70's version. The art is lovely, and British, and actually not based in the 70's at all - but it's all very middle-class and the characters are all represented as Caucasian. My aim is now to create modern British characters that could be used within the rules of the 'Happy Families' card game.

It's a turn away from creating characters for a video game, but this will allow me to focus my time into creating the characters (as my original project stated) and not get stressed out trying to create a game brief/idea/mechanics/world.

A moodboard of various card arts I found:

Queueing becomes Families

This weeks stumped brief ideas for "Queueing!" has been annoying and slowed me down. But in this weeks meeting, Robin G brought up the possibility of a British 'Guess Who' which later turned into 'Happy Families'. Now I've honestly never heard of it til today but it looks 100% down the route I wanted to go.

I'll write another update soon on a more detailed direction. For now, here's some cute illustrations from the game:

"Queueing! The Great British Past-time"

So I'm still in early stages, but plan to flesh out further my game idea of "Queueing! The Great British Past-Time". In short, a simple mobile game, which progresses in levels of different settings of British characteristics (Post Office, Bus stop, takeaways/fast food, coffee shop counter, Job Seekers, library, pub, nightclub, traffic....the list could go on), and you can play as a character from first person persp (allowing the user to be of any identity) with a range of items and commands they could use, that range from violence and a yob-like accent, to polietly asking to cut infront while apologizing over and over. All the characters encountered in the queue would be, esentially, visually British, as the game is set in British environments.

The gameplay itself isn't very fleshed out, but I'm going to bring this up next group/class session. The reason I've chosen this isn't because I want to work on gameplay, mechanics or a win/lose, but so I could introduce a wide variety of British characters in one area. I considered other things, but not everyone drinks tea or like to watch sports. But everyone, at some point in the day, MUST queue, no matter their class or status.

Again, I'll have to check that this loose brief is okay before starting on characters. But I'm excited. :)

Coincidently, a queueing game (and the only queueing game I can find...) actually came out late last year, "Waiting in Line 3D". Here's a link to a review with a link to the game if you want to play it... called http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-11/27/waiting-in-line-3d-game

The creater cites the game as an "anti-game", saying it's "a game that deliberately undermines the very idea of what a game is meant to be. So the game isn't interesting, exciting or fun."

Well, I plan to do the opposite...Here's to a good British love and angst of queueing!

Catch up and game design

I finally managed to make it to class and chat with the team/mentor! It's really helped, as I've hit a snag with this project. This week I was assigned some tasks and I'm grateful for that, especially with all my other modules. One was to create a "British-y" moodboard:

Some stereotypes, current issues/portrayals, and famous conceptions (BBC shows, Geordie Shore...)

I've also been told to try back up my characters. Sure I want to go ahead and start drawing, but I need the facts to back up the research behind the sketches. Otherwise how can I argue for my project?

Finally, a suggestion was made that I design a British-style game, and therefore create the characters for it. This idea sits well with the fact that I was worried about genre-type characters, I can now design a world which could have various British qualities co-existing without the need to worry theres an elderly knitting lady in a FPS environment.

Next post will be more detailed game ideas. I have an idea budding, will flesh it out and present to the group next week for feedback.

Some links with humour for me, later:

"The Most British Things", all humour, all very British: http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/the-most-british-things-that-have-ever-happened

I know it's unprofessional to relink Wikipedia, but this list is a pretty comprensive one of British humour and it's themes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_humour

Focus!

Admittedly, re-reading my last post, I've been out of touch with my module lecturer, and I've given priority to my other classes. But no more! I am trying to structure myself and this semester better. So my posts should be more frequent, or at least have more research/depth.

Genre for a range of UK NPC?

Genre of games are important to the characters created, otherwise, there will be a bunch of British characters in everyday clothes for...a FPS? Adventure RPG? So, in order to cover as much ground as I can, I'll make them suitable for any type of Sandbox game. They will be NPC in an open space. It should be noted that the characters will be modern, and not historically British.

Migrants in the UK

It's important to note, I cannot draw a caricutre for every British nationality or migrant, and must choose carefully. Researching the top migrants in the UK, and duel nationalities, or family histories, will show which are more common in the UK. Chart and quote below showing top countries of foreign-born residents of UK found here: http://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/briefings/migrants-uk-overview   (Website also reveals India contributes to highest group of foregin-born in UK)

"India, Poland, and Pakistan are the top three countries of birth for the foreign-born (Table 2) accounting respectively for 9.1, 8.7 and 5.8% of the total, followed by Ireland and Germany. India and Poland remain the top two countries of citizenship of foreign citizens, with Poles being the biggest group, accounting for about 14.9% of the total."

Next steps

I need to get in contact with Dayna, as I'm feeling slightly lost on the academic side. I'm going forward drawing British caricatures but think I'm missing something here...So my first step is to arrange a meeting with him next week, and ask if I'm doing the right thing.

Interesting Links...

'British Tropes' - Almost every stereotype ever that needs to be incorporated into my designs... - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NationalStereotypes
BBC - Why are fantasy world accents British? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17554816
Top 50 'Typically British' traits list: http://metro.co.uk/2008/11/09/top-50-typically-british-traits-120837/