Evaluation

Reflect on your research into Sound, design and Interactivity, and how it informed the development of your final idea.

Sound Research

My research into digestic and non-digestic sound helped me as well as it made me think about what the player would hear and then what the main character would hear, so the main character wouldn’t hear the background music but they would hear the bullet sounds and the damage sounds, and the reason I added these sounds is because of the research I done, if i didn’t do the sound research I would’ve forgotten to add them in and only focus on the background music.

Visual Production Research

My research into Visual Production made me realize how important HUD and whats around the game screen is, and how much time and effort is put into the development of these small parts of the game. It gave me ideas of the stuff I could add to my game like scoring and timers.

This research changed my final product because I put a lot of effort into the HUD and how it all looks so it looks as if it is a part of the game.

Interactivity Research

This research was very useful to me! Since it made me realize that a good game is immersive and it keeps the player playing the game for even longer and following up the series since they feel involved and important within it - My research shows itself later on for example, I didn’t know my start menu would be based on a label for a lemonade bottle until I done my research, it could’ve been a typical start menu with a background image but I went a step further and wanted the player to feel immersed within the game world through doing this.

Nautical Mind Map & Research

This research made me realize how broad of a theme Nautical is - since I was doing all my research I figured that Nautical means sea - and sea means water - and then I came up with the crazy idea of making a game based in a bottle of Lemonade, which I would’ve NEVER thought of if I didn’t have the theme of Nautical and the research on Pinterest, even though none of my final idea is seen in these Pinterest boards on that part of the blog, they did help in the long run as it helped me have a weird idea which I don’t regret picking to this day!

This research also helped me with picking what genre of game I am going to be making since at first I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I used this research to help me narrow down some ideas.

Pros: The pros of this research is that I realized that a game involves much more little tiny details, which I added into my game which made my game feel more finished. - This research also helped me come up with many different ideas.

Cons: The cons of all the research is that it took a while to do, but in the end I do think it was worth it.

Reflect on your learning and skills - What you have done and why you have done it?

Programming/Using Unity

I have learnt so much about programming with C# over this unit as I have been using Unity Documentation and YouTube videos and then debugging my code so it would actually work and adding in all these little details so my game looks more complete, I’ve learnt how to move between scenes and game objects and I have also learnt more about Trail Renderers and how they work, and Particle Emissions! (I will be using a LOT more of them in the future!) Using Unity constantly made me much more comfortable with using the software then I was before, I know where things are located and how different little things work.

For example, even though I couldn’t get the animation for my game working correctly, I know how the animator window works as I’ve had to go over it multiple times trying to get my animation to work.

And I know how sound within Unity works now with the Sound Manager and the sound component to adjust pitch and volume.

Another thing- which I wouldn’t categorize as any of these categories is that I learnt more about how I should organize my files whilst making a game, I learnt the positives and negatives, like earlier in my game development, I had my game inside a game which caused many errors within Unity and Visual Studio, and I eventually fixed this, and now I know not to do this next time, I also know that when I save my unity game, I can Zip it up and put the date on it and then I know which file is the correct one to use.

Art

With art, honestly, I haven’t learnt much which I didn’t know beforehand - I guess I learnt about how to make your sprite art look sharp using point (no filter) in unity and how to insert and cut down multiple sprites on a sprite sheet but I would say these fit in the ‘Using Unity’ category.

My concept art of how the game was going to be laid out was important though, I’m usually the type of person to go straight ahead with the final product rather then doing lots of concepts.

Pros: I’ve learnt so much which has made me a lot more confident with making games in Unity, I can now make my own without being confused on how Unity works!

Cons: I think I should’ve focused more on the programming route so I could learn even more programming and get better at it.

How effectively did you work with sound? Was it successful and why? What could you do to improve it?

I experimented a lot with sound as I wanted my game to have good sound and music, so at first I attempted to make my own tunes and my own music, but in the end it didn’t turn out right and I always ended up somehow using chunks and small clips of songs which I already knew without realizing, so I decided to use copyright free music and edit it my own way, and I think this was a good idea since it’s very good music and it’s catchy and that way I can focus more on the atmosphere of the song and where the music would be played.

For my sound effects, I do admit, I should’ve done more of them and different variances of them instead of just a few here and there as I ended up using the pickup_negative sound as the hit sound, so I should’ve planned my sound FX in more detail.

Pros: I learnt how to use many different pieces of software and online based software, for example, BFXR was great help, and beforehand I wouldn’t know what to use to make the sound effects for my game, but now I know of BFXR I know how I can make sound FX

Cons: My cons would have to be that I didn’t know too much about sound, so I didn’t know how many sounds I would have needed so I should’ve planned much more.

How effectively did you design and create graphics? Was it successful and why? What could you do to improve it?

For my graphics and assets for the game I am proud that I done lots of different pieces of concept art and research on Pinterest since I got many more ideas about how my game is going to function - An example of this is that I included a kill bar in my game, and I treated this kill bar the same as a experience bar in a hack and slash game, in the end it wasn’t implemented into the game but I did do some development of the kill bar in my concept art and in Photoshop, I just didn’t get it put into the actual game as I don’t think it fit in well.

I really liked designing the graphics because it was fun to place them into your game and make your game look more proper and complete, there is so many different and quirky ways you can make your graphics and I really enjoyed making mine, in my opinion I think the graphics for my game were successful.

Pros: Lots of fun to make and implement into the game! It has definitely opened up my view on the jobs in the industry, I would love to work with HUD!

Cons: I should’ve done a more wider colour idea pallet so everything looked good together, I didn’t know what colours to use for the kill bar so it didn’t go so well when I tested the kill bar in the game as the salmon colour clashed with the bright yellow background, I wish that from the beginning of the game development I kept a photoshop document of all the colours I used within the game so I can make them all look better together.

How effectively did you work to create interactivity within your game (programming and UI design)? Was it successful and why? What could you do to improve it?

I talked about this previously in my other sections of this evaluation but I think that all the time that I put into developing the Main Menu for the game has not gone to waste as I think it is very immersive as it is a label on the side of a lemonade bottle, which is what the player is in, and another thing I think is immersive about my game is the sound effects and the particle effects when the enemies die since it’s like they’re being squished and fade into the fizzes of the lemonade, and I like the depth of the fizzy bubbles in the background since it makes the player feel as if they’re actually inside the fizzy bottle and moving really fast.

I could’ve improved my interactivity with some sort of story to go with my game, with the lemon speaking to the enemies “Oh seriously?! How many of you guys are there?” the lemon could make comments toward the enemies each time he comes through a wave of them or he could say stuff like “Booyah!” when he kills a bubble, I think this would’ve added more character to my game and make it feel as if the character of the lemon is more fleshed out.

Pros: I think what I managed to do (involving UX/immersion within the game) is very good within the timescale I had!

Cons: I wish I had more time so I could’ve added much more and made my characters much more fleshed out.

What have you learnt during this project?

I’ve learnt a lot of programming and how to use Unity during this project, and a lot about how to organize my files whilst making my own game project. I’ve also learnt about all the tiny details you find in games and how important it is to make all these little details perfect. - Another thing I have learnt is the importance of research and how it can make you have many many more ideas which you can branch out to be unique.

Pros: I’m happy about the amount I have learnt through this project, and I’m hoping I can learn so much more in the future - I know I will be using Unity so much more now.

Cons: I wish this unit was longer so I do more development on my game and learn lots more things (Although I can just develop it in my own time I guess)

Reflect on peer and tutor feedback.

Interim Deadline 1: Peer Review-

My first peer review, I didn’t have since I had lost it, so I had it redone for me, but it

wasn’t great help since my first peer review was done after the deadline for that interim.

This did make me realise that I should be more descriptive in my blog posts, but I already do think my blog posts are descriptive so I think it was just on that task where I may have lacked description.

After this feedback, I will always remember to be more descriptive when I talk about my ideas and concepts and why I have picked what I did so then the reader can understand my ideas and why I think they would be good.

Interim Deadline 2: Peer Review-

I think this peer review is one of the most helpful peer reviews I’ve had since in this task I was struggling with what was meant to be going in task 3, so after reading this review I neatened up my blog so all of my work was more organized and easier to find, and then I went through the tasks which are missing and incomplete, eventually finishing off all of these and getting it all properly put in an orderly manner in my blog so it could be read and assessed much easier.

Otherwise, the assessors may miss out on the work which I have done but didn’t insert properly into my blog!

Interim Deadline 3: Peer Review-

This is my 3rd peer review, and I wasn’t happy with the G on task 4.2, since I believe my development log went into great detail since I put a lot of effort into it, it may simply be the fact she stated that I didn’t have it finished at that time, but now it is finished, I hope this one can go up to distinction level.

I understand the referrals since I hadn’t got that work fully completed at the time of marking.

Tutor Summative Assessment Feedback (As of now)

This feedback made me realise that I should have more annotation in my task 1.1 and 1.2 - Perhaps it should be in more detail, perhaps I should use more examples, I think that is what I need to get up to distinction level.

I am really proud of the distinction on 2.1 so there isn’t too much I need to say about that one, I should look at this work as an example of distinction level work in the future so I know how much and what I need to achieve that level of work.

I was proud of how this one worked out since I got 2 distinctions!

1.1 was only a G, so I think to improve that I would need more research, I think that is all since I think the other bits of it is alright.

Again, I can refer back to this work for examples of distinction work.

I am proud of the distinctions in this one but it still isn’t good enough since I set the goal of getting distinctions in everything, I think all in need for this one is more research and explanations about why I picked what and how it inspired me.

Overall, I think my reviews are good, it made me realise that I really need to push myself more to get the best grades I can so I can advance more.

It’s made me realise that more research and writing is required to get distinction level work.