My final video game evaluation

1. Evaluation
Abbie

2. ResearchAt the beginning of this rotation, I researched a video game as well as three other products that
are similar to what I wanted to create. My case study was about Cuphead. This is a video game
that was released in 2017, however the artistic style is abstract to influence the graphics like they
were made in the 1930s. Researching Cup Head highlighted to me that there are plenty of
different styles of video games; not just photo realistic graphics. Therefore, one strength from
researching Cup Head is that it influenced me to come up with more creative ideas. Another
strength from my research was that it showed me the similarities and differences between the
games. This allowed me to know what to include in my video game to improve the quality. I was
unsure of what featured in a game as I do not play them so this task expanded my knowledge.
This means that I could include on screen features such as the number of lives or the level
number to make the game look more realistic. Another way that my research helped me was
that it brought to my attention how much goes into video game production as well as all the
different elements. This means that I thought in much more detail of what I wanted the aim of
the game to be, what I wanted the graphics to look like and what the characters would look like.
Overall, the research helped my product greatly, as I broadened my knowledge and
understanding on my video games as well as giving me inspiration for my game with what the
graphics would look like and what the audio would sound like.

3. Research
Even though the research helped me create my product and expanded my knowledge and understanding,
there were some weak elements. For example, it was difficult finding products that were similar to what I
wanted to create. All the video games had similar story lines, however the graphics were much more advanced
and photo realistic than anything I would be able to create for my video game. This affected my confidence
during production because I felt that my game would not be good enough. In the future, I would research the
games and not compare the quality as they are not comparable. Another weakness in my research was that it
was difficult finding information about the production of the game. For example, who it was created by and the
head quarters. I found this information not useful because I did not have a production team and did not have
access to the technology used. In the future, I think this step should be skipped as it was time consuming and
did not contribute to the production of the game. During production, I conducted a survey which the class
would answer. However, I found that the results were not the results I was hoping for. For example, the results
highlighted that players would prefer the game to be multi player. This means that I had to do more drawing
which complicated the game. Even though the product has to interest the target audience, I would improve this
task by asking questions that would contribute to production. I also asked the target audience about feedback
interface, however I have no control over the feedback. In the future, I would ask a different question that
would change the game for the better. Another way that I would improve my survey would be asking more
questions as well as asking more people so that I had varied results. The majority of people that completed my
survey enjoy playing video games. Therefore in the future I would ask more people who do not enjoy games or
have not played any games to fill in the survey so I know what would interest them. Furthermore, this would
affect my product because it would not interest a wider range of audience.

4. Planning
Planning consisted of my initial ideas on a mind map, mood boards and a schedule. Planning
helped my product because it gave me more time to come up with ideas and think in more detail.
I could express my ideas onto a page with different elements. One strength of my planning was
my mood board because I researched a game that is very similar to my product. I looked at the
graphics, artistic style etc. to help influence my game to be good incorporating these techniques.
This improved my product because it allowed me to have a better concept of the game and the
graphics. Another strength of my planning was the detailed final idea mind map. I like the
structure of a mind map because it makes me feel like I have room to get all my ideas out onto
one page and they are not messy and confusing. This means that I could write my final idea in as
much detail as I wanted which improved my product because I could look back and refer to my
initial ideas and incorporate and edit these ideas into the production stage. The final strength of
my planning was the mood board analysis. This is because it highlighted to me any repeated
colours, fonts, images etc. Furthermore, I would use this style in my final product to improve the
quality. During my FMP, I would like to create mind maps and mood boards and analyse them
because I found this technique very helpful to production. In the future, I would also like to
include more surveys so I am aware of what the target audience want to see and are interested
in.

5. Planning
The planning process was very helpful contributing to my final product, however there was some
weaknesses. For example, I found it difficult to come up with three ideas to fill the initial ideas
mind map. This is because I do not play any video game, therefore my generation came from
creating ideas that I would like to play. My first initial idea was the idea that I used for the video
game. Therefore, I was set on my idea from the beginning so it was difficult thinking of anything
else. I found this task time consuming and pointless when I already knew what I was going to do.
If I were to do this again, I would give myself longer to generate ideas so that I did not feel rushed
and uninspired. Another weakness in my planning was the schedule. Throughout the rotation I
did not look at the schedule nor follow it. I found this task pointless because I could not predict
what I would be doing in weeks time, or follow what I had written previously. This affected my
final product, because time was wasted creating it and predicting what I would be doing. Instead I
could of used this time to create better alternative ideas. Another weakness was the bibliography
because I did not use the majority of the website. I found the task to be time consuming and not
contribute to my product. This affected my product because the links were not always useful and
were just there to fill space. In the future, I would skip this step and just use websites that I need
and frequently use.

6. Time Management
We had 5 weeks on this video game rotation, however there were several reasons where I was behind
some times. For example, we had bad weather at the beginning of the project where college was
closed. This means that I was behind completing power points. However, I had access to these at home
from my memory stick so if I was desperately behind on time I could still finish work. This was not the
case because we were given an extra day for production. Another reason I was behind on time was
because I had bad migraines from the pixels which means I missed one day. This did not effect my work
because I had completed production before the deadline. During long days sat at the computer I
experienced several head aches. Therefore I completed my development diary instead. Overall, I think I
managed my time well because I completed all my work before the deadline with time to spare. I had a
sufficient amount of time on my initial plans, research, production and evaluation where I could
complete the tasks and check them. If I had additional time, I would re-import my video game into
Adobe Premiere and change the sound effects and music. I am not happy with how the sound effects
turned out as I do not think I picked the correct ones for my game. Furthermore, my product could have
been improved with more detail and precision on the audio task. If I had more time to produce my
work, I would make the background and avatars more detailed as well as the home/ introductory frame
so that it grabbed the players attention more and stood out. Another thing that I would change in my
product would be the multi player. I would highlight this more instead of letting the player choose which
character they want to be. Instead, I would try split screen so that it is clear from the beginning that the
game is multi player. The final thing I would do to my work to improve the quality would be to make the
walk cycle more smooth. I am extremely happy with how the cycle turned out because it was difficult to
create, however if I was given more time I would possibly add in 3 more movements so it was much
smoother.

7. Technical Qualities
The Plague Inc.
Epidemic
Similarities:
One similarity between The Plague and Epidemic is the narrative.
The Plague is a video game where you create new diseases, name
them and spread them around the world where the aim is to kill
everyone. Epidemic has a narrative which is the opposite. You must
control the disease before it spreads from city to city. However,
both games are about disease and the scale they can spread.
Another similarity between the games is that the disease is
represented as red and purple. This is because red and purple have
connotations to danger and blood. I followed this technique to
alert the player and clearly highlight to the player that the disease
is deadly.
Another similarity between the video games is that they are both set
in our world. They highlight the futuristic problems we may face if
there are more outbreaks and diseases spreading. Epidemic is about
controlling the disease before it spreads globally, whereas The
Plague suggests how easy it is to spread a disease. The background
music in The Plague is extremely dramatic and becomes more tense
as the disease spreads. In Epidemic, the background music and
sound effects are very tense to heighten the tension and influence
the game to be more exciting. Finally, the players of The Plague tend
to be young males (YouGov) which is the same target audience I
would like my game to appeal to. Overall, there are several
similarities between the games, although there are much more
differences.

8. Technical Qualities
There are several differences between The Plague and Epidemic. For
example, the artistic style of The Plague is photo realistic. The graphics
are extremely clear and realistic, however my video game is cartoon-like
because I had to draw in pixels. This means that The Plague looks a lot
better than my game. Another difference is the biological elements in
The Plague. There are several cut screens that show what the disease is
doing to the human body. My video game is very basic and simple which
just shows the disease dying and melting away. Epidemic is a game
where you select your avatar then shoot the disease. In The Plague,
there are no avatars. You only control the disease and spread it through
your computer. This perhaps influences the game to be much more
realistic as you feel more powerful and have much more control over the
world.
The Plague Inc.
Epidemic
Another difference between the products is how my video game is
multiplayer whereas The Plague is just single player. I made my game
multiplayer because my results from my survey ,(which was completed by
the target audience), suggested that multiplayer made the game much
more fun and competitive. Although, The Plague is still competitive because
it is you versus humans. You must spread the disease before humans find
treatment and kill the bacteria. The game perspectives between the
products are very different. For example, The Plague is mainly an ariel view
looking at the world, watching your disease spread. However, my video
game has 2D graphics that is side scrolling. This is because I am not good
creating video games, drawing pixels and making them look realistic.
Furthermore, I only knew how to create a side scrolling as this was the
easiest for me to create. Finally, Epidemic is third person where you can see
your character on screen and control them. Once again, The Plague has no
avatars which means you can not see yourself play the game.
Differences:

9. Aesthetic QualitiesTo create the video game, I
used Photoshop and Adobe
Premiere. The artistic style is
cell shading to make it appear
cartoon-like. I do not think
the graphics and drawings of
the game are good because I
struggle to draw anyway
never mind with pixels.
However, comparing this
video game to my previous
game for Irn Bru, I think that
the graphics and drawings are
a lot better. I have become
more comfortable using
Photoshop in pixels and I now
know what techniques to use
to influence it to look better
such as shading and
highlighting.
In my opinion, I created a
game that I would be
interested in and would
potentially play. However, I do
not think that it is very
creative as during research I
found lots of products that
have similar narratives.
One aspect of the games visuals that I like is the introduction frame where the mouse
clicks the ‘play’ button and the game has a countdown then begins. I like this because
it appears like the player is actually controlling the game and it is not just a quick
game mode clip. I also like the game visual of the background moving. I was worried
to do this again because previously it did not work smoothly and look very good.
However, this time I copied a background image and re-drew it as well as adding more
shading. I found a new quicker to make the background move much more smoothly.
Furthermore, the game appears much better than previous attempts.
If I could improve my work, I
would make the avatars and
disease much more detailed. I
am not happy with how the
disease or the female character
came out, therefore I would use
a different image to copy to
make it more detailed and show
off more skills. Another thing I
would improve would be the on-
screen counters. Instead I would
have a counter of how many
people have died so far as well
as where the disease is
spreading to. This would improve
my product because it would be
much more detailed as well as
having important counters on
screen and not irrelevant things
taking up space.
One strength in my work is the walk cycle. I am
happy with the walk cycle because it was very time
consuming and difficult to create. It was also hard
to make sure that it looked like a smooth
movement. In my opinion, I think the walk cycle
looks good for me, where I am not good at drawing
or using Photoshop pixel. Another strength of my
video game is the colour scheme. All colours are
dark and have connotations to danger and death
which is what the game is about.

10. Audience Appeal
The target audience for my video game is 16-19 years old. I think there are aspects of my game that will
appeal to this audience more than others. For example, I think the storyline will appeal to the target audience
because it is extremely realistic and could possibly happen in the future. A disease could spread all over the
world and I think that the player will enjoy having the power to save the world and kill this disease and be a
hero before it kills anyone else. Another element that will appeal to my target audience is the fact that the
game is multiplayer. On my survey, I asked what game mode players would prefer and everyone said
multiplayer. This is because it is more competitive and fun. At the beginning, you select which avatar you
would like to play and the other avatar is played by the computer of player 2. This means that you can play
against other people in the world or your friends. Run and gun games are extremely successful currently. The
aim of the game is to shoot the disease and kill it before it spreads. A run and gun will appeal to my target
audience because it has similar elements to other games that the players play. Even though I could not create
feedback interface, my game will be played on XBOX which means that the controller will vibrate when you kill
the disease and when the disease is about to kill you. To make my audience more interested in the game I
would create new locations and detailed backgrounds to make it more exciting. My results from my survey
highlighted to me that people enjoy the game more when there is feedback interface because it influences
the game to be more realistic and fun. Feedback interface brings the game to life and makes the player The
final way that my game appeals to the target audience is because the game is simple with different difficulty
levels. This means that regular video game players can be challenged as well as beginners having a easy game
to begin with then proceed to more difficult levels. Furthermore, this could progress to beginners to playing
other games that are more challenging. Overall, I think my video game does appeal to my target audience
because the narrative is futuristic as well as realistic.

11. Summary
Overall, I am happy with my video game. I was worried starting this
rotation because previously, I did not enjoy creating a video game
for Irn Bru. I found that using Photoshop pixels was very difficult as I
can not draw. I found the task stressful as I lost my audio and made
several mistakes. However, this time I was much more comfortable
on the task. This is because I understood how to use pixels on
Photoshop. I copied images from Google and used them as
inspiration for my avatars and background. I then shaded and
highlighted certain areas to make them look more realistic and 3D. I
was much more comfortable using Adobe Premiere because I had
used this program for my short film and previous video games.
I think that my game has elements that could be improved. For example, I think that the graphics are not very good.
The artistic style is cell shading which means they are supposed to look like cartoons, however I am not the best
drawer. If I could improve my work, I would spend more time adding more detail to my work. Another improvement I
would add would be to change my audio because I think the sound effects do not fit with my video game and sound
unrealistic.