Evaluation
Task 1 – Concept Art & Story
Development.
At the start of the unit I felt some of
the areas we had to write about were fairly challenging and could be
frustrating at time because of the lack of information I could find. Some ways
that I can make an improvement on, therefore this could be to find accurate
research in other ways which could be asking people who have played the game
which I am researching, one particular area I was stuck on was Representation,
this assignment involved choosing two different types of characters and
explaining what type they were, The Reluctant Hero, I could only really think
of two stand out ones for this unit, I could improve this by expanding my
gaming knowledge by either playing a more variety of games or asking people who
played games which had Reluctant Hero’s in them.
Some parts in this task weren't that
complex and was surprisingly fun to do, one that I was particularly proud of
doing was the Emotional Themes segment, for this I chose a game which I found
really enjoyable and was one of my strengths because I had the knowledge to
write this confidently, some reasons for this could be because of the game I
chose as it was one of my favorites and because it had so much detail for that
specific area, I analysed the opening prologue of the game which contained more
than enough for my blog post, I feel I achieved my goal that I wanted to for
writing this blog which was to have as much detail as I possibly could.
During this task I had to find my own
pre-production research, this would then help me to really analyse the games
which I had chosen to write about for this task, I found that such websites
like YouTube which had a video clip of the prologue I needed to analyse The
Last of Us for Emotional Themes and the obvious one in playing the game. For
Story Structure, websites which contained The Hero’s Journey, which helped me
with step by step instructions for each step. Finally writing these blogs would
have consumed a lot of time, I managed this by doing at least one daily, this
gave me enough time and effort to really put together a well drafted blog which
had as much detail as I could put into it.
Task 2 – Defining Your Audience.
At the start of this particular
assignment I didn't’t know how to really how to write about quantitative or qualitative research, so I found this to be a particular weakness that I needed
to strengthen so throughout this task I was learning different techniques to
understand them, at the very start I was quite complex because I really didn't know what to write about other than my own opinions on the games which I had
chosen.
Upon starting this task I found
websites which did help me a lot with my pre-production research, these were
Metacritic and GameRanking, they gave me accurate opinions on the game from
expert game critics and also gave a list of regular players such as myself and
they also posted appropriate opinions, some were inappropriate but everyone has
their own views on a game, no matter how bad., both professional critics and
regular ones gave the game a rating, typically between 1 and 10, with 10 being
highest. Other research methods were the questionnaire that I has types out,
this would give me an indication of how popular the chosen games I had with my
fellow peers. Once I had finished this assignment I felt quite proud of it
because considering at the start I was quite frustrated and didn't really know
what and how to write about it, to how it finished is something I am very proud
of doing since I never expected that I’d write so much and have so much detail
in my blog.
Once I had finished this task I felt
that my own knowledge had been improved because at the start I didn't fully
understand how I could complete this task, some of the skills that I have now
gained will help me to complete a project with similar objectives such as
researching different games and comparing critic responses from professional
critics with other professionals and then comparing critic reviews from regular
gamers like myself.
Task 3 – Defining Your Content.
During this task I had a plan of what I
needed to do for it, what information needed to be included, for this I chose
to very recent games and analysed, finding the first game was pretty easy, I
chose one that I’ve recently played because it’s fairly easy and it had a lot
of content which was relevant to what I was writing about. Choosing the second
was a little more difficult because I needed a game which had a similar scene
to the first one I was analysing, after a few minutes of trying to find a game
that had a similar scene to the first I thought of one, this was also a recent
game, upon finishing this ask I felt comfortable that what I had wrote was good
enough and to the best of my abilities.
During this task I was particularly
proud of the first half as I knew the game I wanted to write about, the scene
that I wrote about has sufficient information which helped me write a good
enough blog. The second game also had enough information in it to write about,
both scenes were graphic, but one is implied violence unlike the other.
After finishing this task I feel that
it would help me at some point in the future as it has helped me to analyse
scenes from two different games which are similar and explain why one could be
worse than the other and why one might have had extreme scenes for publicity
reasons other than because of the game itself.
If I had the chance to re-write this
particular task again I would have probably wrote about two different games,
such as writing about a most recent game and then the other could be from years
ago, then I’d compare then to see how scenes from games have evolved, rather
than getting straight to points, you now have multiple choices on occasions.
Task 4 – Reference Imagery.
For this task we used a website called
Pintrest which enabled us to take pictures from the internet and use them as
reference material to what we wanted our characters clothing style to
represent. At the end of this task I felt that I had could have gathered more concept
designs for clothes, if I did this then I would have had a wider range to
choose from, although I think I had enough to start my concept designs.
There were a few things when completing
this task I found slightly complex at times, one of them is because my game is
futuristic as it is meant to be set years from now, finding some reference
images for things that are futuristic can be quite challenging at time since I
have an image in my head that I want, but find it hard to find something
similar on the internet. Although it was hard finding images that I liked,
there was a fun aspect that came along with it; the fun of finding some
extremely imaginative designs of cityscapes, vehicles and item, all looked
really stunning.
During this task the pre-production
research techniques I used was mainly the internet, I would use websites such
as Google images to find some reference images on there, I also visited other
clothing brand websites like Topman to view different types of clothing. When
researching different environments I also used Google Images. Another research
method I used was taking pictures of real environment scenes and using them as
reference materials.
If I had the chance to start this task
again then I would probably change the concept of the game from being
futuristic to something a little more modern, although it would be easier,
there wouldn't really be any challenge in creating the concept.
Task 5 – Concept Art.
For this unit I felt quite confident
considering it was a lot of drawing, I had a clear idea of the artwork that I
wanted to draw, I did three pieces of concept art and showcased them in five
different art forms ranging from pencil sketch work to digital art. I’m quite
proud of the work I did for creating concept art for my character because it
was all drawn by hand and not a template which was copied from the internet.
In this task there was one thing that I
found particularly difficult, this was drawing the concept art for the
environment, at the start I thought it had to be something huge and an outdoor
scene, I quickly found out that I could draw the inside of a building, which is
much easier, I would have lied to do something a little more adventurous but at
that point I really didn't have enough time that I’d like to attempt that. 
For this task I had around two weeks to complete it, I had three
different concept ideas and i wanted to display them using five different art
forms, so in total I had to produce fifteen or so designs. I managed this by
completing at least 2 different designs a day, this would ensure me that I had enough
time to finish and have some time to spare for any adjustments that I wanted to
make, if any.
In this task I had my strong point and also my weak points, some
of my strongest points could be my pencil sketch work and my digital work, I
knew if I could take advantage of these two then my designs would look half
decent and would help out my sketchbook a lot, I also knew what my weaknesses were, most
probably would be my charcoal work, I could have improved this by practicing this more and developing this skill,
Task 6 – Building an Environment.
For this task I felt it was quite
daunting purely because my 3D modelling skills aren't the greatest, but I did what I could and was pretty satisfied with the results which I produced, it did
take me two attempts as the first draft was pretty poor considering what my
environment was supposed to be, on the second attempt it was much better as it
had a lot more detail within it.
Something that I’m least proud of is
what I said before, which was my first attempt that was very poor, it’s
something that I am not very proud of considering it needed to be of a higher
quality, but something that I am proud of is the second attempt which was
considerably better. It had more detail and was all round better than the
first.
During this task there were a number of
things that I did find particularly difficult, one of those being the actual 3D
modelling part, 3D modelling isn't my strongest points, but I knew I had to
produce something of a decent standard. The second thing that I found difficult
was some of the texturing on the models, at times the textures would not apply
and would cause me to lose time on modelling my environment, I know I can
improve this by practicing my 3D modelling skills and finding how to apply
textures and find out if I didn't select
something which resulted in my textures not being applied, which is something I
think was the problem.
If I had the chance to re-start this
task again then I would try something with a little more detail on the textures
and more 3D models within it. Some of my models were quite basic and could have
had more detailed objects, which then might have made my 3D environment been of
a higher quality.
Task 7 – Writing Your Games Story.
For this task I was feeling pretty
confident because I already had my games story thought out in my head, I just needed
to write it out in a more detailed document. We had to create a biographies for
each character, then we had to write a description of our world which needed to
be fairly detailed, an example of this could be looking at a plot for a film
which is a brief description which contains more than enough information that
someone would need to get a slight insight to the idea. Finally we had to
create a flow chart which pictured the main events which would happen in our story;
it had to include one branch where the character would have to make some kind
of choice which could end up shaping the story in some way or another.
Probably the easiest thing that I found
for this task was the chance to be creative in making your games story, writing
your characters own profiles and who they are, what they did and what they do,
and the chance to create an event within out story which had to be made by the
player. During this project there were a few things that I was particularly
proud of, one of those being how well my story is and what it contains, the
second being how my characters are described, each has something which happens
in their life that shapes them for my story.
Considering we only had three or so
days to complete it, so for this my time keeping had to be spot on. For the first
day I focused on writing out my three characters biographies, I used the whole
day in order to make them as detailed as I could, the second day I spent on
creating the description for my world so it would be as detailed as it could be
and telling the reader what exactly the world has in it, and then the third day
was spent creating my flowchart, which showcased the main events which happens
within my game and the choices your character can make and where they end up.
Task 8 – Scripting a Trailer.
For this final task I had to create
some dialogue for a scene in my game, and then create a storyboard for the
trailer for my game, overall I felt pretty confident in doing this as it’s
fairly simple. One of the things that I
am most proud of is the script for the chosen scene, the scene was meant to
have emotion to it as your character is contemplating on whether he should leave
or stay, and is being persuaded by a friend to stay and others to leave, in the
end it is down to the player to choose, the other thing that I am proud of is
my storyboard for the trailer, this was a fairly simple task as you just needed
to draw out a chosen screen shot from our trailer and then write a little
description underneath to explain what is happening, I also found out about
different types of shots from a long shot, medium shot and a close up.
Working on this task I found both the
storyboard and the script quite enjoyable as the script because I could add
what I want to it and because I like writing my own stories, the storyboard was
also fun to do as I could make up my own trailer and what went into it such as
what scenes, so I included the three characters who I created the biographies,
so in the trailer I used a little insight to each character. For this task I
only had two days to complete so for the first day I worked on my storyboard
which has sufficient information, then on the second day I worked on my script
which I think is quite good considering I only had a day to do.
