The document provides an evaluation of Patrick Colman's research and planning process for developing a real-time strategy (RTS) game set in the Wild West genre. It discusses strengths and weaknesses of the research, which focused exclusively on existing RTS games without exploring the Wild West setting. The planning process utilized mind maps and mood boards but resulted in wasted effort planning an unrealized World War 1 concept. Technical qualities of the work are compared to Half-Life 2: The RTS and Command & Conqueror: Red Alert. Aesthetic qualities are contrasted with League of Legends. Audience appeal drew from research on target demographics and the success of Red Dead Redemption.

1. Evaluation
Patrick Colman

2. Research• When researching my game concept I had already decided on a genre of game, this being a RTS style game. Real
Time Strategy games such as Command and Conqueror and Star Craft's game play focus on a quick and action
packed game of resources and control points, Producing units to combat your enemy and win the match. However
the main difference of RTS games to TBS (Turn Based Strategy) games is as the name implies in a RTS the game is
continuous and all players move their units at the same time. This leads to the game play being as much about
reflexes and micromanagement as it is strategy. On the other hand a TBS game is generally slower and allows the
player time to calculate the actions they take. This allows the player to play to the exacts of how they play with
precision but takes away the pressure and urgency that can be found in a RTS where speed is key. A TBS game that
I researched was X-Com 2007. This is because the camera angle and art style was similar to how I imagined my
game to look. In this game the characters are moved individually however this is not how i planned on having the
commands work in the game, Preferring to follow another title I researched C&C.
• Strengths of my research include that I covered both RTS and TBS games to make sure that if I was unable to make
one of them due to a game play mistake or foresight i would have a backup that would not require me to rethink
my animation or POV style for my game as they share identical properties to one another. Unlike if I researched a
FPS or TPS where i could not use the research to better my existing work/ idea.
• The Research helped my product by showing me how the HUD was arranged in most strategy games while still not
hindering the players game play experience. I deduced by researching C&C and various other RTS games that the
best way to approach this is to have many different menus that pop up when activated or relevant. This can be
best seen in HALO WARS(tm) that does this so well it is able to be controlled on a controller with limited buttons
unlike Call Of Duty that has a very minimalistic HUD that does not change.
• My products research was exclusively on RTS games, This allowed me to better understand the genre of game.
However there are no RTS – wild west games on the market within the last 10 years. This meant that when
deciding to set my game in the wild west I had no research on how this could be a chived or how the characters of
the time could be implemented into a RTS style game. If I where to improve my research I would have done a
more diverse game research including more genres than just the Sci-Fi and Fantasy that I used. I would do this by
researching Red Dead Redemption, A game set in the wild west. The game is a Third person shooter and has no
game play elements that i used in my game however it would have given me inspiration to use in the game for
graphics and design.
• If I had researched a game in the same setting of time my game most likely would have included more unit types
and a more realistic and immersive world with relevant objects in the game that i did not include in my final
product.

3. Planning
• When planning my game I primarily used mood board and mind maps to put down rough ideas of what
elements of the game would go well with each other while simultaneously trying to say away from any
popular or unoriginal concepts such as Fantasy or Sci-Fi games. I found that primarily mind maps where
the most useful for me as I made one initial mind map followed by 2 more exploring more detailed and
specific areas that appealed to me in the first. This was I was able to oversee a large genre of games and
styles while also focusing on an area that seemed likely for me to use and expand on it. This meant that
when I got to my mood board stage of planning I had a clear vision on what my game genre would be and
when it would be set.
• The planning stage of production helped me to refine the image of my game, This meant that when we
came to do Experiments with the game that I was able to make them about the theme of my game (wild
west/ WW1) This game me the opportunity to practice the art style that I would later use in my game and
also the ability to re-use the assets that I made in the experimental faze in the final product where
appropriate, an example of this is the James bond style parody I made simply testing pixel art and wild
west themes along with walk cycles made it into my game in the form of a flash title card.
• My planning however Faulted in the fact that I put an equal amount of planning into an idea that I never
used (the WW1 themed RTS game). This Meant that I Wasted a lot of time down an avenue that was not
realised into a production. This gave me less time to plan a Wild West game that would have allowed me
to include more detail into my planning making my workflow and idea generation both in pre-production
and production more efficient and easier.
• To improve my work I would have added an extra step in between my initial mind map and the two more
genre specific mind maps that I produced after. This step would include bullet pointing 2 ideas that I had
(the Wild West and WW1) similar to the mind maps but in less detail and would only take 15 minutes to
produce. After this I would have created similar mind maps to what I did but revolve them both around
the same theme (Wild West) and gone more into detail with “gameplay” and “Design”.
• This would have made it so that my game idea had more attention to it and therefore more of the concept
would be set in concrete. This would have made my production of the animation quicker and more
detailed than it was as I would have spent much more time on my specific idea rather than 50% of
planning on something else.

4. Time Management
• When managing my time in pre-production I was easily able to keep on top of the written
work and had plenty of spare time to start pieces of my production in the meantime. When
an impulse of written work was needed to be completed I took the work home by E-mailing
myself the work and completed it outside of college to allow me more time on production.
However when I began producing my animation/game in Photoshop it quickly became
apparent by the end of the first week that I would not be able to complete what I had
planned on making in the 2 weeks of production. When managing my time I was forced to be
restricted to only in college time as my Photoshop CS6 Copy on my home computer was not
functional and I did not fix it in time for production. For this reason even though my
management of my time was sufficient for the pre-production my planning of production was
not as good.
• My animation was not complete on time for the hand in date at the end of the 2 week
production time. However due to completing my evaluation over the weekend it has allowed
me an extra week to finish the work. If my production time was extended I would have been
able to accomplish much more and add the detail that I originally wanted to include.
• If I had an additional week I would have added walk animations for all of the characters and
units in the game and added more detail to the map and the objects in the surroundings. If I
had an additional 2 weeks I would have added a objective and more visible game play
features to distinguish what the goal of the game is as it is not made clear in the animation
what the player is doing and why.

5. Technical Qualities
• My games camera cannot be moved as it is restricted to a 2d
dimension much like Pokémon or an early Zelda game.
However the angle of the camera in Half-Life 2: The RTS is
similar to the one that I use. It is not directly above the
character but is not like a side scroller game, this allows the
games characters to have more detail than they would if it
was top down like RISK a game where there is little detail.
• The HUD in Half-Life 2: The RTS Is Very similar to the one I
designed in my RTS game taking up the bottom of the
screen like mine so that the player can always easily and
naturally look at the information he requires. Many RTS
games have very similar HUD designs as they have been fine
tuned to make it easy and quick to get to the aspect of the
UI you are looking for. I copied this aspect of it by making it
similar so that players who already know how RTS games
work and have played others will quickly be able to use the
interface.
• The Units in Half-Life 2: The RTS are a similar distance
from the camera to as in my game. This is important for
game play as it dictates how far ahead you can see the
enemy and with how much precession you can move
the units as a group or individually. This changes the
battle from macro game based battles to
micromanagement of units. Furthermore the game
camera in Half-Life 2: The RTS can zoom in and out using
the controls of the game when the player wants, this
allows the player to see a overview of the map and his
units while still able to control the units unlike when
opening the minimap to fullscreen map.
My work

6. Technical Qualities
• The units in Command And Conqueror: Red Alert have their Health
bars displayed above the individual characters. However in
my game I do not have health bars to show the player how
much damage a unit has taken as in my game the units are
alive, or dead. There are no health bars and therefore the
screen is less cluttered and the player must judge for
themselves if they are loosing a battle and need to retreat
their forces. This allows my game to have less busy clutter
blocking the units as they are small and have less detail than in
the higher resolution game that is Command And Conqueror:
Red Alert.
• The structures in the game are different to my game as they
are constructed over a long period of time. In my game when
you have the resources that you need for the structure it will
be fully built as soon as you place it. This is to make the game
more fast pace and about combat over construction. This also
puts more of a focus on getting the resources as you can build
the structures later. However units are built over time.
Furthermore in Command And Conqueror: Red Alert there is a
limit to where you can build. In my game there is not a limit as
long as there is a builder unit that can build the structure.
• One of the main differences with the HUD in Command And
Conqueror: Red Alert and my game is that it is on the left of
the screen. This is unusual for RTS titles as they often have
their menu at the bottom of the screen to allow the player to
see the game more clearly and not clutter the screen.
Alongside that they also have much larger buttons and a very
small map in comparison to my MiniMap. This makes it harder
to see what is going on in the map and means the player is less
aware. Finally the HUD in Command And Conqueror: Red Alert
is a solid entity unlike mine which has lower opacity and is
made of several different parts to allow the player to see even
more allowing more visibility to the gameplay.
My work

7. Aesthetic Qualities
• The contrast of dark and light in League of legends is different
to my game that has very little darkness in the graphics with
only a black overtone over parts of the map that the player has
not explored and does not know what is there. In League of
Legends the shading and colour slowly fades into the map
making the map look seamless however my map ends abruptly
with no warning. This is a weakness for my game that has little
shading in due to time constraints and as my game is in a pixel
art from it is harder to make such seamless shadows to mask
the edges of the playable area.
• In League of legends the Minions and heroes are extremely
vibrant colours and make the hole screen bright and cartoony.
This makes the game look more appealing as the background
and the characters look picturesque and beautiful however it
makes the game look fake and oversaturated for the themes in
my game that are more mature. Furthermore the fantasy
themes in the art style mean that the proportions of the
characters and the map are out of place further adding to the
plastic. My game has very mild colour pallet using very little
vibrancy in the game to make it look more realistic and gritty.
This helps the game come across as more serious and hardcore
with less unrealistic fantasy elements. However this makes my
game less appealing to a younger audience and not as eye
catching as a game like League of Legends.
• My games art style is a mixture of blocky and cartoony sprites
with a more serious and realistic background. This makes the
character stand out and let me put more detail into them to
make sure that you could tell what they where and make them
interesting, while still making the game have realistic
elements. In a game such as League Of Legends the art style is
not in a pixalated form so they are able to add more detail to
the sprites, however it is in the form of a cartoon/ cell shaded
style making it look unrealistic.

8. Aesthetic Qualities
•I think that my work was to a good level because it included detail into the animation and
the background while having very low detail characters and objects present by using
multiple different sprites and variations of them to make the game look randomised and
big. Furthermore the colour schemes in the game work well as reds and blues are
particularly vibrant where everything is brown and yellow making some areas of the game
pop.
•The originality of the game while being heavily inspired by concept art I found and other
RTS games is unique in that there are no other Wild West RTS games that look like my
game. Furthermore the art style is cartoony but does not draw many parallels with other
cartoony based games such as league of legends or Team fortress 2.
•My favourite aspect of the games visuals would be the character design. It is small enough
to have a large amount of them on the screen at the same time while has enough detail to
tell what the unit is supposed to be and what it is doing. Another aspect of the visual that I
like is how I implemented higher rez people in the form of commoners that would talk to
you to make the game seem more realistic and so that the Units seem like real people.
•I would add more detail and variety into the background and buildings in the game as I
ram out of time I was unable to add that level of detail to the game, In addition the map
design is bland in places and needs more props and aspects to make it more iconic and
remembrable instead of a bland desert.
•To improve this I would...

9. Audience Appeal
To appeal to my target audience I used the website (YouGov.co.uk) to look at what my
target audience of young adults and teens of 13 to 24. This includes having serious
tones and mature themes while still having a PG13 rating. Unlike if it was targeted at
children where more colours and cartoony graphics would be more appealing to the
audience. The Western theme appeals to the hard-core gamer and the mature teen as
it conveys interesting themes in a genre that is less populated than other over
saturated areas of games such as WW2 and the future Sci-Fi. The game red dead
redemption was set in the exact same setting and therefore is a good basis to grudge.
I used this PowerPoint to make sure that my audience was appropriate.
(https://www.slideshare.net/dudeitslucy/red-dead-redemption-marketing-mix)
The Units in the game come in may forms, this is to draw in hard-core gamers to play
multiple hours of the game so that they can learn to use them all effectively as appose
to making a simple game with less units appealing to casual games with less
commitment.

10. The dark and colourless background is to
keep the tone of the game realistic as a
bright yellow sand colour would not suit
the audience as they are hard-core
gamers and look for a serious tone of
gaming.
Due to the Questionnaire I added a large amount
of people and units to the game to add variety to
the gameplay as in the survey they say that good
gameplay is more important to good graphics. This
lead me to making 7 different types of buildable
units into the game to accommodate for this
demand
Because of the interest in a variety of
intractable objects and quests form the
Survey I added multiple different objects
that inhabit the game world and can be
seen in the animation.
In read dead
redemption the
game has very
bland and light
colours of brown.