Evaluation

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.