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1. Evaluation
Ewan Wild

2. Research
• I think for video games, my research has been stronger than the other
times in the past year. I have used more examples of games than other
times, and I have plenty of writing about their similarities and differences
compared to my game. The research was really useful to me as it gave me
an idea of the colours and the wide variety of styles that basketball video
games can offer.
• A weakness of my research is probably that there’s areas of research that I
didn’t talk about as much as I could’ve done. For example, I talk about the
different pixel art styles of the different game, however I didn’t mention
how the style goes with the game. A more pixelated game goes better as
an unrealistic game, looking back at bouncy basketball. This might change
my game as I am doing a very pixelated style game, and so I might have
made it more strange and weird, adding some more unrealistic areas.

3. Planning
• My planning had both strengths and weaknesses to it. During initial plans,
I made mind maps and assorted other items to help create an early vision
of my final video game. My first mind map, which had my three ideas on
it, was a definite strength. It gave me three strong ideas which I could
complete any of, as well as little extra ideas which I could incorporate into
any of them. Another strength of my planning was the mood board. This
was extremely useful to making a colour scheme for my game. The board
shows just how colourful basketball is, and so it gives me colour schemes
for my game.
• A weakness would be my second mind map. It didn’t have as much detail
as it could’ve had, and so I fell slightly more behind on my image. If I was
to create a more detailed mind map, I might’ve had a more clear idea for
my game earlier on, and so it would’ve been easier to make it.

4. Time Management
• I think that time management is one of the things I do well, everything
section I did from production experiments to now was done in the time I
was given. With additional time, I would have concentrated more on initial
plans. It’s one of my weaker spots throughout the process and so if I had
more time, I would spend most of it going through that again and adding
more detail to different areas. Especially my second mind map with my
final idea on it, that didn’t nearly have as much detail on it as I could’ve
added to it. I would also add a third experiment to my first PowerPoint. I’m
happy with the two I have, however a third one would’ve made it even
stronger. I don’t know if this would’ve improved my grade, however it
would make whatever I get much stronger.

5. Technical Qualities
For my final game, I had some very obvious weaknesses that I wasn’t too pleased with,
but it also had some strengths. The main weakness of my technical skills is that I am not
very good at pixel art, the style I used was basic and although consistent, it was quite
simple. Mine next to another pixel based basketball game, such as Bouncy Basketball
(bottom left), shows a distinct difference in pixel art quality. This other game compared
to mine has just as simplistic controls, however the visuals are much better quality. One
strength however, is the movements for my game. I had around 40-50 layers for the
different movements my characters would do, from walking, to dribbling with the ball,
to shooting. The movements really helped add some detail into the game, as well as the
various menus I added. These two really improved the game, and made up for my lack
of skill in pixel art.

6. Aural Qualities
Like the technical qualities, my aural qualities are very hit and miss. After creating my
animation I created all the sounds and music (other than the cheering noise of the
audience). When I made all my sound effects, I was pleased with them. They did what the
were supposed to do, and sounded how I wanted them to sound. On the other hand, I
wasn’t so pleased with the music. No matter how much time I spent on it, it sounded
rushed. Next time, I would rather just start all of my music from scratch rather than just try
to edit it to make it better. I had my heart set on a certain sound, and so I didn’t want to
change it, which eventually led to some music that wasn’t quite as good as it could have
been.
Looking at other pixel games, for example looking at the sound effects of the original Super
Mario Bros, the sound effects last a similar amount of time to mine. They drag on a little bit
after the action, like mine. The main difference is just what I expected, the quality of the
music. Super Mario Bros has different songs for different levels, and they all have layers to
them, my music is quite thin and not as good quality. It’s a big point to improve on next
time as music is a very important part of a game. Everyone remembers the music to Mario,
it can be an iconic part of a game.

7. Aesthetic Qualities
Although simple, I quite liked my games aesthetics. The game was colourful and
the background has a good amount of detail. Throughout the whole process,
creating the background was what took the most time. One after another, I made
fifteen different characters that would be randomly placed around the background.
After this was done, I duplicated some of them and placed them in different areas.
As it was the background, I thought making some duplicates wouldn’t matter too
much, and there was a lot of open space so I thought it would be better to fill it up.
Once this was done, there was still some space behind them with nothing there, so
I traced a photo of a chair and duplicated it a lot of times just to add something to
behind the background, so there isn’t just one colour there looking out of place.
I tried to make the foreground colourful as well, so to do this I made a create a
character menu. My game isn’t supposed to be realistic, and this was the way I
showed that. I created a ridiculous looking character that would be controlled by
the user. This is not only the best way to show that my game is meant to be the
silly, unrealistic style, but it also adds colour to the foreground, acting as an
opposite to the bland floorboards and greys of the scoreboard

8. Audience Appeal
I think I have made my game appeal to my target audience. The game would work
with the geodemographic I chose as well as following my chosen social class. The
game follows the simplicity I wrote about in my portfolio with it’s limited controls
and simple rules. This will appeal to a lot of people, especially younger people, as it
is easy to pick up what to do. This is where I might argue that it doesn’t follow my
target audience. The game might be too simple, and so my original target of 15-24
years might be one stage too old for the game. I think that if I targeted my game
towards kids rather than teens, then I would’ve had a more successful outcome with
my audience appeal. However everything else works. Like I mentioned, it is targeted
towards males. Not only because the sport is stereotypically targeted more for men,
but also because my create a character only includes a male character, and I didn’t
have to time to do a female section as well. Finally, my game is in English, this again
suits it more to the USA rather than the other listed countries I had, Spain and
Lithuania.