Evaluation

1. Evaluation
Hannah
Palfreeman

2. Research
When researching for my product, I completed 3
PowerPoint documents filled with different types of
research. The first document which I completed was my
Case Study. I have never been a fan off a video games, I
considered this a weakness as it put me at a
disadvantage as I could not think of a game to analyse. I
struggled to think of one in the first lesson which we
had. I thought about it through my break and decided
to choose ‘Animal Crossing’. I have played this on
numerous occasions so I knew most things but I did
have to google some things.
Throughout this task, I felt as though I was well
organised as I used the same order which was in the
Video Game Theory PowerPoint which was available on
blackboard. I think if I ever did this task again I would
research a game which would have influenced my end
project.

3. Research
The second task which I completed was My Initial Plans. This
included my initial reaction to finding out about the end
project, it also included some idea generation ideas. I came up
with 3 ideas, a retro video game called ‘Escaper’, a basketball
competitive game called ‘Shoot the Hoop’ and a racing game
called ‘Barrier’. These were based off some already existing
games. I found it very tricky to come up with my games as I
hadn’t got a genre in my head of what I wanted to recreate.
However, by the end of the day I had decided that I wanted to
create two competitive games and one old school game. I think
if I could have done this again, I would have thought about my
ideas even more instead of rushing into them. This would mean
that I had more detailed and professional ideas instead of three
very sketchy ideas. I mainly focused on the genre which I
wanted to represent. I wanted to recreate a Space Invaders type
game so I researched Pacman and Space invaders to get the hint
of a retro genre. This is what I spent most of my time recreating
as I thought it would be difficult to do but at the end of the
project I would have a result which I would be happy with.

4. The third task which I completed was an actual research PowerPoint.
This is where I compared existing games to the video games which I
wanted to create. I analysed 4 games, Bouncy Basketball, Need for
Speed Most Wanted, Pacman and Space invaders. I compared these
to my games and suggested the things which I will take away from
this existing product. For example, I chose to create my retro game
which I had suggested that I would use a similar colour theme and
similar characters. I compared 2 old school games, mainly as I knew
that I wanted to recreate one of these. I felt as though I analysed
these 4 games well and created a reason why I would make a game
similar to this already existing one. As well as finding existing
products in this task we had to interview two people. I had come up
with three questions:
What genre of game do you enjoy the most and why?
Do you prefer old school games or modern day games and
Would you play a game which had a multiplayer option and
The reason for setting these questions was to get some audience
research and see what my target audience would enjoy and how I
can adapt my game to fit these answers. Overall, I felt as though the
weakness which I had during the research process did restrict me
from my final product. The major thing which I wish I would have
done differently was to research a different case study game instead
of choosing one which would have nothing to do with my final
Research

5. Planning
To commence our second rotation week we started on our
production experiments, I decided to make a match game like
snap. I didn’t spend a lot of time on this game so it was very
messy and not the greatest of work which I have created. If I
could ever do this again, I would change the whole concept and
redo my game. This task was just to remember the skills which
we will be needing to create our final project in this rotation. I
remembered most of the skills which I learnt form the Irn Bru
Project at the start of the year. We had to complete our process
over the two days which we were on this task. We had to
express what we would use in our final product which helped
build more of an idea in my head of the final game which I
would produce.
In the second week we also had to complete a proposal
document with specific word counts for each question.
This was the moment where I knew what game I wanted
to create, I decided to create the proposal to be about
‘Escaper’. I struggled to keep to some of the word counts
as I wanted to add as much detail as I could. I found that
one of my strengths was knowing what I wanted my
audience to be, I used the yougov website to back my
audience criteria up. The trickiest thing to write about
was the Evaluation which was meant to be 50 words.

6. Planning
Our last task for this week was to complete a Pre-
Production PowerPoint. This included style sheets,
layout plans, music and sound effect ideas, health
and safety and a contingency plan. The slide which I
struggled the most with was the music and sound
effect ideas, this is mainly because I didn’t know
what sound I wanted to produce. I wanted to create
my own music soundtrack to go in the background of
the game, I knew the website ‘Beep Box’ could be
used to create an original soundtrack and it was
pretty easy to use. I planned to use this in the
production weeks. Everything seemed pretty easy, I
struggled to think of more contingency factors but in
the end I came up with a few.
Overall, the Planning week seemed to go quite well
and I had everything completed on time with the
right word count on the proposal document as well
as everything else.

7. Time
Management
Over the 5 weeks in which I have been planning and
producing the video game I would consider that I had
good time management as I had all my work in on
time and by the deadline which was set for that week
of work. I think with additional time I would have
added more detail into my video game. In the two
production weeks, I had two days off, this made me
quite behind with my work so I stayed on some
Thursday afternoons to catch up. This still left me
quite behind so I had to make do with what I had
created. The last moments which I had gave me the
chance to create my own sound effects! I ended up
going on beep box and creating a explosion noise
and a countdown noise. I even had the time to add a
little sound effect when the planet got hit by the
enemies. However, if I had a bit more time I would
have spent more time on making all the soundtracks
link up properly. I would also add a scoreboard and a
stopwatch onto the animation, this is because it
would look more like a video game. I spent a lot of
time on my animation and went into the second
week of production which worked out quite well as
when I had completed all the animation I could make

8. Technical QualitiesSimilarities
The colour themes are both very
similar. I took my inspiration from
space invaders for my game. Everything
stands out against the black
background so it looks really good.
Differences
Where as the space
invaders layout has
a scoreboard mine
game does not.
Similarities
The actual characters look very
similar and both fall under
their linking genre of retro/old
school video games.
Differences
There is no extra lives in
Escape, if your planet dies
then you lose and the game is
over where as in Space
Invaders you have 3 lives.
Similarities
The concept of these two
games are very similar.

9. Technical Qualities
Similarities
The backgrounds are very similar but
Pacman uses a lot of darker colours where
as I chose brighter colours.
Differences
In pacman there is not anything
which gets shot at buy the ghosts,
instead they chase the playable
characters. Where as in my game
they got shot at by the enemies.
Differences
There aren't any proper
enemies in Pacman like there
is mine.
Similarities
The playable characters look
very similar.

10. Aesthetic
Qualities
I think my work looks okay, there are some
moments where I wish I would have had
more time to make it look more imaginative
and creative. The first page was one of the
visual aspects which I liked. I felt it looked
really cool, it was very creative and all the
colours went well together. However,
throughout the two weeks I started to run out
of time for some of the background details.
When the game actually starts I wanted more
of an interesting background than just a
black background, if I could have improved
my work I would have changed this boring
background and made it more imaginative. I
would set the background in one of the
galaxies with a planet in the background
which the playable characters would protect.

11. Aesthetic Qualities
Strengths
 Matches the genre which the game
was based on.
 I have created my own soundtrack as
well as sound effects.
 Everything is in the right order and
nothing is out of place.
Weaknesses
 The actual game doesn't look
that creative
 The game isn't very clear on
what to do, it needs a
instructions or a little story page
so it makes more sense.

12. Audience
Appeal
The target audience for Escaper is aimed at any
gender aged 15-24. However, because of my genre of
my game it can attract an older audience. In the
interviews which I had conducted at the start of this
rotation, the two people who answered my questions
showed an interest for a multiplayer option. I added
this option into my video game, this would appeal to
the younger generation as the two-people said it would
be more competitive and fun.
Many people enjoy old school games. For example, the person who I
interviewed second expressed that some of the old school games are much
better than some which are being produced now. The first person who I
interviewed preferred a modern game because of the graphics. To overcome
these two opinions, I tried my best so that my graphics were as good as the
modern-day games to appeal to my audience.