In this reflective evaluation, I go over the 4 main tasks and evaluate my work on each task.
Task 01 - Idea generation
I went with franchises or series of media that inspire my game – Tower of Hell.
In my idea generations, I learned about ideation techniques and comparing other game ideations when compared to my game project.
I generated most of my ideas on a mind map called Mind Manager, the reason I used this software at the time was to utilise the software I had at hand at the time of my task.
The running theme and setting on the idea were based on ‘The Dark Tower’. Whereas other inspirations stemmed from mostly video games (Mega Man, Tomb Raider) with other franchises and series from sci-fi and anime series (Sword Art Online) etc.
Task 02 - Game Design Document
When creating the GDD I created a strong GDD at the time of pitch (March 2021). They were impressed by the detail and said that it would be possible for me create the game prototype.
Within 2 months after the GDD pitch, I decided it would be best to expand upon the GDD itself and see what else there I was could do. I was finding room of improvement.
In my experiences, this was the second-third time that I had ended up creating a game design document. I have enjoyed making GDDs of my own and there are things that I can from my mistakes and improve upon.
I merged my GDD with another unit as the GDD was a necessity for that other unit.
Task 03 - Tower of Hell game prototype
I’ve experienced a lot of trial and error during the ToH prototype. At one stage I was switching up scenes to scenes with different assets in Unity. I was also doing a lot of coding and programming from scratch by following tutorials. If I am being honest, I felt that I was a little too ambitious for my own good. I was also having technical issues with the PC where the drive reset itself twice over the span of 6-7 weeks. Resulting in me losing my work twice. Whilst I did find this to be rather frustrating, I was making the work simpler and more achievable each time I was creating the prototype.
After 4 attempts, I used the ‘Standard Asset Pack’ from the Unity Asset Store and stuck with it since the day I used it. I should have worked smarter than harder. That way I might have been able to create a playable game prototype. My teacher mentioned that “You have a passion for creating games.” I would like to think that I have a passion for creating a game and if I am honest, this is as far as I have gotten to developing a game of my own. Hence why there are lot of trial and errors and my experience in programming is novice.
As part of my assessment, I had to create a prototype video. Ideally, a 20-minute video however with the content I have covered will be less than 10 minutes. Because its not a working prototype I had to cover as much as I could. I recorded the video in college, and I recorded the audio at home. I edited the video in premiere pro.
I made a blog post for game development of Tower of Hell which is a detailed process with plenty of screenshots/evidence.
Task 04 - Presentation
For my presentation, I added content that I made (relating to this unit) from my assignment brief. I had multiple presentations to create for other units so when I started the presentation for this unit, I was shafting to one presentation to the other. I can’t help but multitask sometimes. It would help if I concentrated on one task at hand. Having said that, I had made a lot of progress.
Catch-up review.
21/05/2021 – I had a catch-up review with Leigh regarding Unit’s 23 and 35. We discussed my work progress based on what I had done so far. After the discussion, he had implied that my work is good, and Leigh implied I could get a pass on Unit 23. Furthermore, if I wanted to go for a Merit, I could talk about the idea generations and any other merit criteria to fill in.
25/05/2021-28/05/2021 – This is the last week of submission. I was sorting out what college work for Unit 23 I had yet to finish and prepare to submit my college work by the end of the weekday (28/05/2021).
Conclusion
Overall, the structure of the unit was straightforward despite the amount of work and materials that had to be put in within a 2-3 month time frame. We only had 10-12 weeks to get the unit submitted by the end of May. We started this Unit around late February to early March. The unit was time-consuming due to the time constraints and working on 3 other units.
I am relieved and happy that I got to the end of this year and the unit. I pulled through by working hard and to an extent, smart. There were times, where I thought to myself I wasn't going to get this unit done on time but I feel relieved.