EVALUATION

1. Evaluation
Jack Lowes

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
• My research was broken into three sections ; existing products, audience research and practical research.
The existing products collected a multitude of games in the market currently. Where the existing products
research excels is going into detail about different mechanics and functions about the games they explore
(eg. The combat systems) as well as an analysis on the graphic material presented by each game and its
effect on the audience. One core component that should have seen more attention is sound and SFX.
These were mostly glossed over and I have noticed during production that these areas were some of the
hardest to develop. I believe a lack of research in that area has created the difficulties. I will take this into
account in future projects and make sure that all areas related to my product are researched to a sufficient
level.
• Moving on to my audience research, the write ups were successful at vaguely stating what it was about
each of my researched games that held the audiences attention wether that be a narrative, game
mechanics etc. This allowed me to mould my game around these working concepts. To improve I could've
taken the research one step further to pinpoint specifically what was working in these games. For
example when talking about the narrative I could have mentioned key narrative moments in the game or
pin point certain emotions that were elicited. It would be beneficial to go more in depth in the future as it
will allow me to better shape the core aspects of my game.
• The practical research was very useful to me as it allowed me to experiment with some componants that I
wasn’t to familiar with in an animation and evaluate wether they would bring much to my final product or
not. Despite this, I could have still used the research more efficiently. Many of the experiments failed and I
left it at that beut a smarter descision would have been to build off of the experiments that werent as
good and try to enhance them to create something useable. Not only would this have made the
development of my final product easier but it would have helped me develop my animation skills further
which would be useful for any future project. I will remember this as I move forward.

4. Planning• The planning mainly featured style sheets, concept art and a production schedule. The production
schedule was helpful towards managing my time as it allowed me to accurately log what needed to be
done and when. It also gave me the opportunity to think through my time and think what would be
manageable in certain time frames. This type of forethinking helped massively when it came to production
as time management has never been one of my strong points however by breaking up my work into a
detailed schedule I was able to complete the tasks I'd set for myself on time.
• The concept art was useful but lacking in my opinion. It was a good opportunity to visualise my characters
and entities and what they might look like in game. This was helpful because I feel like it may have saved
me time experimenting and changing parts of the characters as I created them. I think I definitely missed a
huge creative opportunity here however as I could have created more variations and experimentations of
a character to really get them perfect for there place in the game adjusting their key elements like their
tone, atmosphere and look. This can be seen beginning to emerge on the concept art for the Puppet
Master showing different designs for the mask however a full outfit experiment would have
definitely helped. This would have simply developed the product in a more refined way and would have
allowed me to elicit certain feeling, thoughts and responses more precisely. Alongside this, more character
sketches would have been very useful as well seeing as there were only 2 presented in the pre production
of my project. Although many of the characters I had initially planned for didn’t appear in the final version
of the product this couldn’t have been known ahead of time and it would have been beneficial for me to
engage with that process which could have helped spark a creative idea for any future project if it were
not to be used in the current.

5. Planning
The colours and fonts (presented in the style sheets) could have been prepared much more efficiently. A
big downside to my project is the lack of colour variation / grey scaled textures. I had only looked at 3 very
similar colour palettes which definitely shows in my product as I have very little colour variation and a muted
colour palette at that. If I were to approach this again I would look at a more colour palettes as well as a larger
variety of colours. I would also make sure I have clear documentation on where each colour palette could be
used and why. What would it show? How would it make people feel? Etc. Similar to this, the research into the
fonts were not very extensive. This was problematic as there was a lot of text in my project and the fonts could
have suited there purpose better. There was not a lot of variety in the fonts I'd looked at and they were also not
very inventive. All of the fonts I'd looked at were very blocky and didn’t offer anything in terms of a theme.
Looking at future projects I would definitely try to look at more imaginative fonts. The animation I have just
created was based in an asylum so something creepy would have been good to look at for a font style.
Something like a overly curvy font like an overgrown vine or a font with blood dripping from the bottom of the
letters would have helped to set a better mood and tone.

6. Time Management
• For the most part I managed my time well which is definitely an achievement
for me as time management has been one of my worst priorities in the past.
Towards the last 2 weeks of the project my time management did slip quite a
lot and there was a knock on effect on the rest of my schedule leading up to
the dead line. I had under anticipated how long it would take to create
animation cycles for different attack moves in the combat portion of the
project and so they took much longer than I had expected. Because of this I
ended up taking nearly an extra week on production which is not optimal and
has giving me less time to evaluate my work. With the time I did get I did
manage to accomplish all of the main goals I had for the product. It should be
noted however there was a massive amount of complimentary ideas that had
to be cut from my game to get the core functions and narrative completed. If I
were given more time I would have liked to bring some of these ideas into the
game such as different areas of the asylum to explore such as the basement
and electrics, new NPC's, enemies and allies and more combat opportunities.
These ideas could always be reserved for projects that they might fit into and
adjust to in the future.

7. Technical Qualities
Frame by frame effects are
added by creating multiple
variants of the same object
and alternating between
them e.g. live fire.
In one specific room shadows are cast depending on the
light source (being the furnace) in the room This could
be enhanced by creating flickers as the furnace fire
does. I could also add an orange glow to the edge of
boxes to give the room a correct light tint from the fire.
Similarly, games like Undertale display shadows and
highlights in their games. Some noticeable differences
are the glow around the windows stemming from the
warm light inside. A warm light can give the player a
feeling a comfort and safety and the added highlights
help to enhance the effect. The game also has layers
of shadows creating more depth in the trees (and
other objects in the rest of there game world) which
become very pleasing to look at.
Like most games the animation features
a walk cycle. Every frame the character
is replaced with a new model with his
feet in a different position to give the
impression he is walking rather than
just gliding across the map

8. Aesthetic Qualities
Simple yet appealing
graphics. Nothing feels to
cluttered or messy.
- The shading could be
more intricate.
All recognisable objects.
Nothing particularly
creative however four big
red buttons creating a code
is definitely a point of
interest.
Colours are bold but not on
a scale of variety. Many
greys and browns help
other colours stand out.UI and HUD are simple and
easy to look at
Basic textures make the
product easily digestible to
the eyes.
-Some textures are
underdeveloped / need
more detail

9. Aesthetic Qualities
The UI has a clear divide
between the player and
the enemy.
It is easy to read and
understand the menus and
UI
The colours and style are
very bland and
monochrome
There is inconsistency
between the monochrome
UI and the properly
coloured entities.
Due to unforeseen size
limitations, Parts of the
vertical ends are cut off
creating some awkward
components / text to the
menu's and UI

10. Audience Appeal
I think I have managed to appeal to my target audience with the use of many RPG like
qualities throughout my game. In my opinion the most notable aspect is the combat
which showcases many recognizable features from other popular RPG's like the move
set given to the player sharing similarities to Pokémon or other ability based RPG's an
open world definitely helped to produce this feeling of appeal as well as it gives the
player a thrill of adventure and the feeling that they are in control. I think if I were to
do this project again and try to create more appeal one thing I would add is more
enemies. This gives the player more combat opportunities which could lead to new
inventive enemies with specific weaknesses and counter play allowing for a fully
replay able experience. I would also add in much more items that could be equiped
by the player. This would be appealing as it allows the player to customize there
character and make it feel like there character is theirs. Lastly a small tweak I would
make is to the point in the story where the player is teleported back to the elevator
after finding out there ally has a key. This should be optional so that if the player
desires to further explore the area (which could be extended) then they could do so
and be rewarded for it.

11. Peer
Feedback

12. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
Pros:
– I like the design of the levels even though in some places it looks quite simplistic it can
be very detailed, in general it looks nice.
– The animation is quite consistent and you don't see many frames going out of place.
– I also like the layout of the HUD it doesn't get in the way and the map is easy to find
your way around and quite pleasing to the eye.
– I like the combat system even though some parts of it seem a little bit forced.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
Cons:
– It seems like you may have over used most of your textures it may have been nice to create
some different book cases or floors.
– I don't like how as soon as you have completed a part of the mission and you are told that
the woman has found a key that you automatically teleport to the place where the key is
linked to.
– All of the pillars due to the perspective look as if they are one massive unit rather than
separate ones this could have been made better by shading them slightly different each time.
– I don't like the ending the only reason why is because it just fades to white when it could be
showing something integral to the plot of the game.

13. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– The adventure was clear and interesting to watch
– There weren't any unnecessary characters are boring points.
– The layout id good and easy to understand and remember
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
– You could have changed the textures up because after a while they were
getting a little old seeing the same thing in every room.
– Some of the walking animations could have been a bit more smooth. The main
character looked like he was kicking half of the time
– The fight scene looked a little off. you could have made separate sprites in
black and white to fit the rest of it and changed the health bar to white.

14. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– Its easy to follow what's happening and its actually quite interesting watching
him do the objectives
– I like the fights. Not the music but the fights were fun to watch.
– The character dialogue was good. I just wish there was more of it.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
– Some of the textures merge into each other cause they aren't shaded or look
to similar.
– The music is a bit out of place. Especially the boss fight. It sounds very
droning.
– I don’t now what the main character is. I cant tell if he's like a world war pilot
or something but he doesn't seem to fit the theme.

15. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
– I agree that the visual quality of the game could have been
improved. As stated there should have been a greater quantity
of textures used in the game. I also personally feel like the
lighting could have seen improvements to.
– Another big issue was the music. This could have been due to a
lack of time and experimentation however I agree that the
music feels out of place and doesn’t fill the role that it was
supposed to. In future projects I would allocate more time to
the music portion of the product.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
– The purpose of the main character was supposed to be a
detective exploring. While I understand the link between the
miscommunication I don't think in any way that the character is
misleading. Perhaps just a little under developed.