york college creative media level 3 evaluation

1. Evaluation
Andrew Downes

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research 1
• The strengths in my research was the existing products which were filled with some fantastic
examples of what I wanted to make my game look like with games such as dead cells and
shovel knight this helped my product because of the sheer amount of research I did into
these games and also because I went into quite a lot of detail and decided to try and go
through most parts of the game. I also made a summary of the Product research to make it
easier to see a few of the more relevant points that I had made, then I had also made a
research analysis which compiled what I put into the summaries this helped my product
because it gave me some quite precise objectives when it comes down to my production. The
secondary research helped me because of what some people were saying they liked about
the product and gave me some more ideas as to what I put into my production in most
cases, this also helped me with what sort of style I was going to use for the art of the game.
The Primary Audience research was not really useful until I got to the interviews where I
actually got some good fleshed out answers that I could use to find some new ways of trying
to improve the product, this helped my product because I got some other peoples points of
view and they couldn’t really lie about it or get away with not doing it. Then I did some
subject research into Greek Mythology such as where it could be set and what sort of themes
that the story should at least try to follow, this helped my product by giving me both a
location and a sort of story to try and build around. As for my practical research the first one
was fantastic because it pretty much is the exact same style that I used throughout my
product and it also gave me some ideas about the character and the sort of layout and
production skills that I was going to use.

4. Research 1 Continued
Exisitng Product Research

5. Research 1 Continued
Secondary Audience Research

6. Research 1 Continued
Primary Audience Research

7. Research 2
• The weaknesses of my research, well I could say that I did waffle on a lot when it
came down to the existing product research so much so that I had to make a
summary for each existing product as well as having the existing product analysis
at the end of it all, I probably could have made this better by trying to stick to the
point a bit more rather than to just each and every small detail that could be over
analysed this may have sped up the time took on the paper work to give me some
more time on the actual production of the piece. The secondary audience research
was weak because it kept telling me most of the same information over and over
again so to improve the product I should really have made it so that I chose widely
varying answers to get more peoples points of view this would have helped my
research by showing me both what I should and shouldn’t add into my product.
The primary audience research questionnaire is always rubbish because
sometimes you can’t get enough replies in time and some times you get answers
that are unreliable, but when it came down to the interviews it is great because
you know exactly who is doing them and they have no choice but to expand on the
answers that they give you so to make this better next time I think I should do
something to make my questionnaire results much more reliable which is really
the only thing that needs to improve, if this improved somehow I wouldn’t have to
spend so long looking for people to answer my survey and thus speed up on the
paper work to give me more time on the production.

8. Research 2 continued
• As for the subject research bits and pieces of it are quite vague and
don’t go into enough detail this could have been made better by
doing more research and explaining as to why I was doing that
research this could have helped the project by giving me some
precise information about my project and what I wanted it to be. As
for the practical research my second practical was rubbish as it
didn’t move as an animation and it only helped me by giving me
some sort of idea for a boss fight at the end of the game. This could
have improved by at least making the image an animation instead
of a piece of art and this would have helped my product by giving
me sort of experience with animating animals and maybe bosses to
an extent. As for the bibliography it didn’t make much sense to me
as it wasn’t of much or any use throughout the project.

9. Research 2 Continued
Existing Product

10. Research 2 Continued
Practical Research

11. Research 2 Continued
Subject Research

12. Research 3
• The strengths of my pre production was the reflection which helped me to confirm pretty much
exactly what I was going to be creating and who it was going to be made for, this helped my
production by giving me some concise guide lines for the production. The style sheets were
amazing because they pretty much took me step by step through what I wanted to include in my
project and in most cases I cut them out to make it so I could at least finish my product which was
about a third of what my project was actually going to be but they were also good because it even
took me through some thoughts which I wasn’t even to sure about and made me want to use them
instead of some of the original ideas. This helped my product by giving me some very specific
design choices when it came down to the creation of my product. The layout plans were useful
because I was able to reuse ideas from this into my game so I decided to start my production at this
point by making some enemies movements and attacks and the same goes for the main character
which was the second layout plan this helped my project by giving me a small head start when it
came down to the creation of my product. The music list was fairly good because it showed me
exactly what I wanted for the game to make it a mixture between happy music and then incredibly
sad music to make a contrast between the two, this helped my project by showing just one of the
few contrasts that I wanted to show however I didn’t exactly follow the music list as I didn’t have
enough time to create that much music. The contingency planning was good because I encountered
two of the issues that I mentioned in it, this helped my product by being able to make me see that I
still needed to work through my sickness and work harder when I am far behind when it comes to
work.

13. Research 3 Continued
Reflection

14. Research 3 Continued
Style Sheet

15. Research 3 Continued
Layout Plans

16. Research 4
• The weaknesses in my pre production. There were a few in the style sheets because I would find
out later that I did way too much for this and ended up cutting over half of the ideas that I explored
in the style sheet also I would find that some times I would get lost in my work and write way too
much about something that is fairly small. I could have improved on this by not being overly
ambitious with what I was going to try and create as it is my product to me is still quite ambitious
and as for writing too much I should probably concentrate more on the goal of what I am writing
about, this would have improved my product by being able to pick out lots of small individual bits
of information rather than have to deal with reading through the essay to try and find something
useful. The sound effects list was weird because I knew that I had wanted a lot of different diverse
sounds but some of them were unrealistic to try and recreate without the actual objects you would
need to create the sound where as some were easy to make such as going into beepbox where as
some of the others I had to either source from youtube as a last resort or create them myself I
could have improved this by being more precise in the way that I though that I could recreate the
same sound as needed, this would have helped my project by increasing the speed that I could
actually create my sound effects. The music list was quite awkward as well because of the sheer
demand of music and the time that I had left to make some in all honesty it was very unrealistic of
me to create that much music anyway but it was a good idea to have some varying music in the
piece, I could have improved this by giving myself some more realistic guide lines to follow, this
would have improved my project by making it so I didn’t waste any more time than I should have
creating music.

17. Research 4 continued
• The weaknesses of my pre production. The resources part of it seemed
practically useless as I wasn’t going to be using anything special all I really
needed was a computer or a laptop, I don’t think I really could have
improved it because I was only doing it because it was part of the
PowerPoint, it just seems as if it has little to no use for me as I was doing
animation. Health and Safety is always quite weird because we know that
if something is going wrong you either have to readjust yourself or take a
break from working for a bit just until you feel a bit better. Yet again this
just seems as if it is common sense rather than anything special that
should have its own page on the PowerPoint it just seems a bit useless.
The production schedule was the worst though because it was far to
overly ambitious leaving me with just coming up with new plans on the fly
each and every time I started to create something for my product, this
could have been improved by not being too ambitious with what I was
going to achieve this would have helped my project by making it so that
my production would have actually had a little bit of structure behind it.

18. Research 4 Continued
Style Sheet, Sound Effect List

19. Research 4 Continued
Resources

20. Research 4 Continued
Production Schedule

21. Planning 1
• The strengths of my planning were the mood boards and mood board analyses because these were what
gave me the idea in the first place however I have definitely strayed from what my original idea was it has
only improved as I have adapted it though, this helped my project in the beginning by giving me some sort
of direction to follow which in the end was a medieval game about myths and mental illnesses and this
helped me even more as it helped me explore some of the possibilities of the game I was going to create.
The key influences were strong because just in general they are all great games and they all looked fairly
close to what I actually wanted to create in both style and some story aspects except for the fact that they
made their own myths, this helped my product by showing some games that are close to what I wanted to
create and also gave me some ideas on the sort of style I wanted to use. The key words were good
because they showed me in a certain direction which was to make everything feel and seem quite
depressing or insane through out the game which I think I have done fairly well, this helped my product by
giving it a shunt towards the mental illness side of things. It was good to see what I needed to improve
upon to make my project better than it would have been if I didn’t do anything, this helped me to realize
what I needed to improve on with some brutal honesty. I also like the audience pro forma page as it tells
me exactly who I am going to try and sell this game to after its production, this helped me realise that I
was actually going to use much more action than underlying messages in my game to sell it properly to
who I want it to go to. Both the mind map and the idea visualization were good because the mind map
explored in further detail what I was thinking about from the mood boards that helped my product by
giving me a more direct set of guide lines and the idea visualisation was good because of its style and just
in general though the grass really moves well this helped my product by giving me a sort of idea of how I
was going to animate and what kind of style of art I would use to create my product.

22. Planning 1 Continued
Mood Board and Analysis

23. Planning 1 Continued
Key Influences

24. Planning 1 Continued
What I Need To Improve On

25. Planning 2
• The weaknesses of my planning was the pre proposal and the skill audit because I
did it all before I had a solid idea of what I really wanted to make my game into I
would have improved this by waiting until I had a good idea of what I was going to
do and this would have helped the product by giving me some solid guide lines at
the very beginning of the product. The mood board was bad because I somehow
managed to waffle on so much that it took up about 9 pages however in general it
was quite good, this could have improved by just slimming it down and making it
easier to find all the crucial information. The key words were bad because of the
fact at how they were fairly random and all I was trying to do was use unusually
dark words to try and explain certain parts of what I wanted to try and include, this
could have been improved by trying to be a bit more objective about what I
wanted to include within the game, this wouldn’t really have helped much but just
give me some ideas of what I would include in my product. I shouldn’t really have
added the parts that I like about the project I was thinking about because it could
have been spent much better by just creating a sort of to do list for when it came
down to production. The others I didn’t see much use in adding them but I really
wanted a distinction so I was adding everything that I possibly could to it even if it
didn’t make any sense.

26. Planning 2 Continued
Mood Board and Key Words

27. Time Management
• When it came down to the paper work most of it was done on time and handed in on time but as with all
of the paper work I added a little bit too much information or just waffled on for far too long some great
examples of this is the mood board, existing product and the style sheet. All of which went over at least
ten pages of PowerPoints doing this so I could have taken less time by just trying to summarize what I had
originally put down. The other thing that took way too much time was the Practical research as it just took
ages to come up with some good ideas that would at least go in with what I was going to create but it was
fairly difficult to come up with some ideas. When it came down to the production of the games animation
it took far too long and when I compared my actual production to my production schedule they are
completely different the main difference is the fact at how I actually had to cut around abouts two thirds
of my project as I only had enough time to make one level of my three level game but I did make the game
as detailed as I possibly could but the part that took the most time was the shading of the piece. I also may
have gone a bit too far with the animation as it ran on a bit for about seven hundred odd frames of
animation and it did become a bit rushed at the start and the end of the game. I think that I most certainly
will have been able to improve with more time I would have been able to have improved all areas of the
game and also I may or may not have been able to make the other parts of the game that I was originally
going to put into my game but the amount that I had proposed was a bit too ambitious. If I had more time
to create some stuff for the game I would have made a better boss fight and a better starting screen and
maybe I would have done a better background added some sort of gaps or something in the bushes to
make it look a bit more real and also I would have made the leaves at the top of the game all the way
through move and maybe fall to the ground. Also I would have at least liked to have created two out of the
three levels I was going to make so I probably would have finished off by creating another seven levels in a
different setting with less things moving about because the next one that I had planned was an
underground type one so their wouldn’t be too much movement going on there and the last thing would
be to add more sound effects and more music to my game as that is the bit that I really had to rush at the
very end of the production.

28. Technical Qualities
I like both of the art styles and designs even though they are very different from one another I
think mine could have definitely been better if I had exported the game properly but it didn’t
and my final product suffered because of it but if I compared the original designs I would like
both of the designs equally. When it came down to the animation the real game was way better
than mine probably because they had teams of people dedicated to it and know much more
about game design than I do mine was sloppy and rough around the edges where-as the real
game was fluid but then again they used more frames in a second that I did meaning they had
much more work to do as a team. The music with in their game fits with their design choices
and it also sets a good pace for the whole game, where-as in mine the music didn’t really fit in
with what I was aiming for as it was supposed to be a bit darker and in general it is too upbeat
and doesn’t set the pace for the rest of the game.

29. Technical Qualities 2
• When it comes down to the enemies I prefer the enemies from the real
game as they some more human qualities than mine and the same sort of
thing can be said about the main character there main character even
though it isn’t human looks more human than mine because mine just
looks like a suit of armour or something and it looks as if nothing is inside
of it. When it comes down to the background I prefer the real games
background and map because to me I guess it is more reminiscent of what
I would perceive as a platformer and also it just has some beautiful art in
the background that you just can’t really ignore apart from that though
they just use a ton of detail in everything that they put into the game,
where-as in mine sure you may see some detail but it doesn’t look half as
nice as the real game of the surreal amount of detail that they had used
and when it came down to the layout of my levels they weren’t really
anything like a platformer it just looked more like an average map that you
could see from any kind of pixel art game.

30. Aesthetic Qualities
I believe that my work looks good as that is what I spent most of my time on so I would be fairly disappointed if it didn’t at least look
alright, well I think that this was fairly creative maybe not the most creative thing and not the least creative either, I like most parts of my
games visuals I quite like how everything moves such as the wind effect on the bushes and small trees and there is also the waterfall with
the falling water and I also really liked all of the character movements except for the boss but just in general it looks really nice and
simplistic apart from the boss level and the start screen but that is because they were rushed in the last moments sort of thing but all the
other designs I really like all of the world apart from the background which I think could have used a bit more detail and when it came
down to the shadows they do look nice but it took far too long to do it. It took about a weeks time just to do the shadows on all of the
map except for the ground and the background. I would have improved both the start screen and the boss fight level are the main ones but
to a lesser extent I would want to add more detail to the background and I would have improved it by adding more detail to the start
screen and maybe even animating it by just making people walk around inside the house the main character resting on one of the pillars
and maybe have the clouds moving. For the boss fight I would have added some more detail to the boss and maybe used a larger head to
try and actually make it look like a bulls head, and as for the background I think maybe I should have used some more detail for the trees
even though they were far in the background and I would also maybe add some bushes in the background and maybe some vines. The
main weakness of the boss is its head because it doesn’t really look like a bull and also for the actual attack animation I believe I should
have maybe made it so there would be one or two more frames to the attack. Also I would have exported the game properly the first time
because at the very end of the project I sized up my work and saved it when I was exiting Photoshop which screwed up all the art that I had
made however I do have some of the stills and most of my characters and levels have stills which will be exported to go along with the
production as most of the end product is screwed up now due to the fact at how I saved the work when it was on a larger scale and now I
can’t revert it to how it used to look like. The other thing that I would have improved was the music to go along with the game most of it
feels too uplifting to be in a game about violence adventure and mental illnesses. When it comes down to the levels though they are stills
they don’t have many changes from the original look which I had to change a few times but the characters and the enemies apart from the
boss have all been animated. So I might have to do some touch up work before I export and hand in any of the levels but the rest are ready
to go.

31. Aesthetic Qualities

32. Aesthetic Qualities

33. Aesthetic Qualities

34. Aesthetic Qualities

35. Audience Appeal
I believe that I have appealed to my target audience however I have changed my idea so much that I
feel as if I may have toned down some of the ideas I may have originally had or I just hid them
extremely well so much so in fact that I don’t know if there is too much mental health illness with in
the game however it was always supposed to be a part of the story behind the main story. The
reasons why this product appealed to my audience is because of its exploration, adventure,
platformer, 2D, fantasy and action are the main genres that the game comes under. The exploration,
adventure and action will appeal to the age group 16-19 year olds because of the tendency of this
group wanting to learn and explore worlds and the action is because I am guessing that it would be
good to liven up the exploration and learning this is backed up by my questionnaire answers as most
of the people who answered the questionnaire fit under this age group. It will appeal to my primary
gender, male because it is who I perceive as who plays the most games but apart from that I think
that the action and fantasy would appeal to these guys as they are the ones who play the most
violent games and the fantasy because most fantasy games use a lot of violence this is backed up by
my questionnaire as most people who answered my questionnaire who are males interested in
games and mythology. I believe I have appealed to the upper middle class because of the adventure
and action this is partly due to escapism and the fact at how they can afford games to escape reality,
but it will really appeal to the audience because of how most of the people I asked in the
questionnaire fit under this title and they all really enjoyed Greek/Roman/Norse mythology. I have
appealed to socially conscious type B because of the fantasy and action because the fantasy takes
them to another world and the action is used to get extra violence into the game this however isn’t
backed up by the questionnaire answers.

36. Peer
Feedback

37. Feedback 1 Julian Wilcox
• What did you like about the product?
• The visuals of the game were impressive and showed a lot of movement,
the animations of the movement its self was good as you could see when
an enemy was attacking and the projectile that spawned.
• I also liked the tips at the bottom of the screen as it added another layer
to the game as well as the instructions at the start of the game.
• The music created for the game as well is a nice touch in the back ground
during the play through and more prominent in the menus.
• The sound effects used as well are very fitting for the game.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• The tips for the game and any text in general went past too fast to read
• The music volume for the game only increased at the last death
• While the style was supposed to be greek, overall visually it did not
suggest a greek based game until the end boss.

38. Feedback 2 Charlie Davison
• What did you like about the product?
• + The additional sound effects help to add some environmental
atmosphere.
• + There's a good variation of scenes, each of which are filled with
new interesting objects/assets.
• + There's good attention to detail throughout, for example, the
blood dripping from the hanging nets.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• - Most of the text doesn't stay on the screen long enough to read,
especially the explanation about the game's setting at the start.
• - Although the sound effects are a nice addition, they aren't in the
same chip-tune style as the background music. And this can take
away from the rest of the pixel art styled based game.
• - It's a little unclear what the character is supposed to be, and why
it appears smaller than most other monsters/characters on screen
(like the people hanging from the trees).

39. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
• - The game world is visually pleasing and correctly draws the eyes towards
certain areas and dangers in the foreground whilst still having an
aesthetically sound background.
• - Multiple components such as parkour, combat and pit traps have been
introduced into the product to keep the content interesting to watch.
• - The game world is animated (moving trees, flowing waterfalls etc.) which
increases the immersion and liveliness presented on screen.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• - The text and menus often times feel unnaturally quick and the text itself
can be positioned awkwardly and/or "skip around the screen"
• - The fonts used don't feel like they fit the theme or aesthetic of the game
and can be immersion breaking.
• - In some areas the animation can feel a little jerky.

40. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
– I agree that my little bits of information spread through out the game went by too fast to read
so I probably should have tried to slow it down even further.
– I think that it is hard to see how the Greek link ties in with many parts of my game.
– I agree now that the drawings have mutated it is difficult to tell what the main character is.
– There is a lot of detail with in the piece I tried to add as much as possible in the amount of
time I had.
– There are a lot of differences when it comes down to the levels and I always try to add
something new in each one.
– I also thought that the animation was one of the strong points as I had almost animated
everything that I had created.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
– I don’t think that the music or the sound effects add anything special if anything I think that
they take away from my project.
– I don’t think that the information added anything to my project apart from being something
that you could interact with.
– I believe that the font fits in with what I was going for.
– I also think that the animation is great personally but I can see in some areas what he means
by this.

41. Peer Feedback Summary
– For a start I would have actually created my whole game idea to give them more of what they
enjoyed from the game.
– I would have pro longed the amount of time that the information would have been displayed.
– I would have tried to add a few more bits and pieces to how my project links to the Greek
world.
– I would have improved my projects by leaps and bounds if I had just exported it properly but it
could still probably be made better by just drawing over the piece again.
– Next time when I animate or draw I will have to remember to do it in clumps if I am planning
on animating ahead and then catching up on certain areas.
– When it comes down to the music and the sound effects I believe I should have spent more
time on it to really try and make it sound creepier rather than upbeat I could have probably
made it better by just slowing down the song which is probably the reason why it is so upbeat
and as for the sound effects I really needed to make the sound quality better and I also think
that if I made the music better the sound effects will fit in much easier than before.
– I believe that I could have made the animation a little bit more consistent by setting up a rule
for how much they can move forward per frame and stick to it like I did with a few things apart
from the animation of the characters and the enemies.
– As for the font it could easily be changed but I don’t think that it takes anything away from the
game.