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1. Evaluation
Ben Harris

2. Research
• One of the major strengths of my research was researching similar games to what my
game concept was. I chose to research ‘This War of Mine’, ‘The Wild Eight’, ‘Deadlight’,
‘Valiant Hearts: The Great War’, and ‘Limbo’. At the time these games had were similar
to my game concept. Therefore, these games gave me inspiration for my game. The
games helped me determine, the colours I were to use, as well as the story behind my
game, the plot to the game. However, I later decided to change the game from a
survival game to a horror game then to a shooter. Therefore, the research didn’t really
help me as much as I would of liked in the long run. I think that was the main weakness
that the games I had researched were completely different to my game idea, which I
changed from my original idea of making a survival horror game. The only thing that I
didn’t change was the side scrolling part. If I were to do the research part again I would
research games that are more similar to my game idea. This would have probably
helped me when it came to designing my game as I could have based my game off one
of those games I researched that were similar. The interview part of my planning didn’t
help at all, I think that if I didn't do that, my work would have still came out the same
therefore I think that, that counts as a weakness as it did not help me at all. If I were to
do the interviews again I would add more questions and ask more people so that I
would have a range of answers. This would benefit me more.

3. Planning
• One of the main strengths of my planning was that I knew what I wanted to do
before starting production which made my life a lot easier. I wrote about how I
wanted my game to look as well as the setting of my game, this included the colours
I would use. The only weakness was that I kept changing my mind in terms of what I
wanted my game to be. The original concept was to make a side scrolling, horror,
survival, shooter, that is set in a post apocalyptic setting. However, I later changed
this as I decided it would be difficult to create, so I decided upon making a side
scrolling shooter set in a post apocalyptic setting. If I were to do it again I would
probably plan some more as I think that if I planned out everything even the smaller
things it would have helped me massively in terms of helping me with my animation.
One of the things that I would do if I were to do it again is write about the results
that I got from the interviews, and if I agreed with them then plan them out, for
example if I am going to make my game using dark colours, then write that in the
plan. Overall I am very happy with my design even though the game that I have
ended up with is not like I imagined at the start of the project.

6. Time Management
• I think that if I had more time I would have been able to do a lot more with my
animation, and my game in general. However, I did complete my project in time
but there are a few things that if I had more time I would change. One of those
being the length of my animation, I think that its too short, and if I had more
time I would probably extend that time to at least 30 seconds to a minute.
However, overall I managed my time very well especially in terms of completing
the research side of things, as I did that very quickly. If I had more time, I would
probably go through everything and improve everything I could, starting with
my animation then adding more to the research. I think that I could have done
better with my time management as during the week when creating my
characters, and animating I kept wanting to change things. This was wasting my
time, as I could of been focusing on my animation. I did make a plan for my time
management but I didn’t really follow it or look at it once after creating it.

7. Technical Qualities
My work is less detailed than ‘Mercenary Kings’ but my game, ‘Chaos ‘N’ Carnage’ and
‘Mercenary Kings’ are both pixel art side scrollers. I would say that mine is a lot less detailed
even though my work is quite detailed in terms of the size of the canvas that I have used on
Adobe Photoshop. One of the things that both my game and ‘Mercenary Kings’ has in
common is that they are both gory, shoot ‘em up kind of games. In both of our games you
have to try to get to the end of the level by shooting and killing the enemy, in my case
zombies. However, our games are still very different from one another. One of the differences
is that in my game there is no timer or bullet count to see how much ammo you have left.
But, in my game you have unlimited ammo, whereas ‘Mercenary Kings’ you have to pick up
ammo from enemies that you kill, by the looks of it.

8. Aesthetic Qualities
• I think that my work looks very detailed and is well done. I think that its original in terms of
other pixel art games that I have seen. However, there are still some faults that I wish I
could go back and change. One of the visual aspects of my game that I like is the detail in
the background, I am very happy with how detailed it looks. I especially like the shadows
that I made. I made each of the drainpipes have a shadow, and this makes the background
much more detailed and visually interesting. If I were to improve anything I would add
more of a colourful background with more variation to make it more visually interesting. As
much as mine is detailed its not as visually interesting as it could be. If I were to edit my
background or do it again I would make more variation to my background like the character
comes out of an alley and out onto a street, and there could be someone looking out of the
window, etc. One of the strengths of my work is that its very detailed and doesn’t lack in
quality. However, a weakness is that its not that visually interesting, compared to some
pixel art backgrounds I have seen on the internet. Another strength is that my background I
made is simple enough to be used in a constant loop.

9. Overall, I think that my work looks good, but I
do thik that I could improve it further
however, I do not have the time. I think the
thing that makes my background so detailed is
the layers that I have built up on top of one
another also the fact that I have added
shadows to some of the background such as
the drainpipes. Each of the drainpipes has a
shadow, and so does the window ledge.
However, I could have made the background
more colourfu with more variation as it isn’t
as visually interesting as it could be. I think
that the characters that I made are all
detailed, I made the default character seen in
the top image, less detailed than the others as
he was my first character that I created and
usually, in other games the default character is
the most simple out of all of the other
characters that you can unlock or choose
from. When creating my video game I used a
lot of ‘paletton.com’, because it allowed me to
create a colour pallete that I could screenshot
and paste in Photoshop. This helped me gain
access to lots of different tones of colours that
I wanted to use.
Aesthetic Qualities

10. Audience Appeal
• I think that my game would and wouldn’t appeal to my target audience, as my target
audience doesn’t really play pixel art games. But, if they do then my game would appeal to
them. I think my game wouldn’t appeal to my target audience as it doesn’t look hard to play,
and my target audience which are people the same age as me, want a game that offers a
challenge and for you to be rewarded after completing levels and challenges. However,
some aspects of my video game show potential in my target audience as its quite a nice
paced game where you can shoot a few zombies using a Gatling gun. One big factor is that I
would need to add a reward system as I think that, that would make it more appealing to my
target audience. One of the main things that will attract people to my game is that it has
guns, gore, and zombies in it. These are usually very popular aspects in video games, and
movies. These factors usually attract a young audience. However, if I added a reward system
in the game I think that it would attract a lot more people to my game. Then I could add
unlockable items to the game, for example adding unlockable outfits for your selected
character, weapons, new characters, variation of game modes to unlock once you have
completed the main game , and new enemies to fight, like a giant zombie for example. I
think this would make may game so much more appealing, then the playr will have
something to work for, and they won’t get bored of my game as there would be more
content if you completed the main story.