evaluation

1. Evaluation
Tommy Lister

2. Research
• My research initially began with doing a case study, on this case study I researched a game of my choice and discussed
certain elements of it which were already on a PowerPoint, including a brief overview of the game, and it’s two types of
game modes, the audio, how the game represents it’s genre, the game engine graphics and console capabilities, as well as
labelling some box art and analysing it in terms of it’s colour schemes, imagery and overall design. I quite enjoyed doing this
activity as firstly, I chose a game I play and have an interest in which immediately makes the task more fun compared to if I
was researching something I had no interest in, as well as this I learned new things about the company in general which I
found interesting as well as learning new things about aspects I had not previously paid any attention to such as the graphics
and console capabilities. I
• feel like this task was beneficial to me in terms of with the rest of this rotation especially the part about representing it’s
genre. This was useful as it showed me how it represented its own genre, although also showed a game doesn’t have to be
conventional of a genre in order to be successful which is why I based my game in an unlikely setting for football. During this
case study I think one of the strengths was my analysis of the box art, unlike other elements of it the content on this section
was original and my own fairly detailed and developed interpretations and was not just describing facts, therefore I feel this
was the strongest part of my work.
• Conversely, a weakness of my work was when I discussed the audio of it, this is because it probably had the least detail and
also covered advantages of audio and how to improve it within the game to benefit you on multiplayer, instead of discussing
the more technical side of the audio and going into further detail, therefore if I could improve my case study I would add
extra details into the audio section.

3. Research
• After my case study, I then went on to do the “ Research ”PowerPoint. On this there were four product slides where I would
discuss the factors mentioned in the notes section about three different games which were similar to mine, the factors to be
discussed included the type of image, the Mise en scene, the use of sound/ music/effects and also the audience appeal. The
first product I chose to do was ”Flick Kick”. I chose this because it is the most similar to my game, and this is the game I
loosely based my game off. This was very beneficial to me as there was a lot of aspects within the game Which I thought
would be very good to include into my own work, so this became a positive influence on what I wanted to do. One of the
features I liked the most was the way they have ” lives ” This helped my product as I implemented it into it and it added a
slight degree of complexity compared to if the feature was not there.
• While researching this product I also realised that they use the colour red a lot, this is because it is the first colour on the
spectrum and is very noticeable to people. The other games I researched were also useful but not as beneficial as this one,
as I also found out from other games that I will need to add a sound from elsewhere such as downloading it to emulate the
sound of a ball being kicked. The product research was generally useful and had quite a good impact on my final project as
elements of multiple games were all factored in to my game in a small way. However one negative thing about the product
research is, often the game I was looking at would typically have had the same audience ( younger children aged 8-14. ) This
was a disadvantage to me as I was not learning about my set target audience which potentially impacted my production by
not having as many features that would appeal to my target audience, in the future, in order to improve, during my FMP
research I will research a wider range of products with different target audiences , but more specifically my target audience.
• I then conducted some primary research in the form of an interview, where I put down some questions for people to answer
that would help with the addition of features in my game. The first question was “Would you like the game to include more
than one unlockable character, and if so why?” Both interviewees answered that they would and because they like a reward
system, this was helpful to me as it gave me a clearer idea of what to add into my game, it was also beneficial as it was
information from my actual target audience so it gave me a better idea of how to appeal to my target audience.

4. Planning
• The planning for my project began with doing an initial reaction to the brief, this reaction was in regards to both what type of research I
will have to do as well as what I thought the game I wanted to create would be. I initially thought of doing a slide scroller as I knew they
were the easiest to do, however this planning did not really help at al as I did not do a slide scroller because I could not think of a
concept with a football type game which is also a slide scroller. I did stick to the research methods I planned of doing a survey/
interview with people in the class, which was good in the end as it proved to be my best source of knowledge for my target audience.
Also on my initial plans PowerPoint I created a couple mind maps as well as mood boards and a schedule. Although I vaguely used
some elements of them for my production anyway, I didn't’t use the mood boards and mind maps while actually doing my work. I think
they were useful to do but they weren't exactly crucial in creating my product. Also the schedule was quite useless as I did not need to
follow it whatsoever but at the time of making it, it outlined what id need to do more clearly and broke things down easier. I also did a
proposal, with the only thing on it that actually helped me with the project being the project concept section. This was useful as once I
had finished it, going into my actual project I had a very clear idea of the game in my head, however some elements of it I wanted to
include which I stated in my proposal were not included, mainly because I didn't’t have the ability to create them, so in the future I will
be more realistic in my planning so I don’t have to change things as I go along.
• The main planning came from my pre production pro forma. This was because the PowerPoint broke things down into lots of small
detail, so it made everything very clear. Although I did not really stick to the style sheet, and didn’t use any of the fonts planned, I did
however use similar colours to the ones planned. In my opinion a style sheet can be useful however for me personally it did not have a
big effect on my end product at all, despite this it will still be very important to use one for my FMP as I am doing print so it was good
for me to try one and explore different fonts and colours etc. Something I did find useful was the screenshot layout, this was useful as
when I was creating my production, I knew how to layout the menus and in terms of time it sped up creating it as I already knew what I
wanted. I also created a list of sound effects I would need which were kind of useful although it was sounds I would have known to
include anyway, the same applied to the health and safety list and contingency planning, as generally they were just obvious things I
knew anyway which didn't’t effect me while creating my product.
• A strength of my planning was the box art. I felt were a strength because it was quite detailed and my own analysis, also because it is
something I will have to do again for when I do my print project in my FMP. However, a weakness within my planning was probably my
screenshot layout as they were not very detailed and were very basic and only really useful for where I would place things within the
menu. In order to improve my planning altogether, generally next time I do research for my FMP, I am going to research products which
have a target audience similar to mine as well as do more research in general on my target audience so I can add more to my product
that will appeal to them.

5. Time Management
• On my first PowerPoint regarding the actual project (initial plans), I created a schedule for what tasks I would do and in what
order on each week. Looking back, I did stick to it however while doing my work I wouldn't specifically go back to it to check if I
was following it, in my opinion it was a fairly useful thing to have although I still would have got all my work done on time
without it, although it was good to have at the start to show there will be a certain structure to it and I wouldn't’t just be doing
random things at any time.
• Generally I managed my time quite well and finished all my production on time and to the schedule in place, however one time
related issue was when college closed which meant I missed out on a few days where I could have done my experiments, which
would have allowed me to start my production earlier. I wanted to have my production finished by Tuesday 20th of March, so I
did have a deadline, in the end I did complete my work by then although towards the end it was fairly rushed which had a
negative impact on my work.
• For example, in my opinion the start of my production with the original football backgrounds were the best part of it, but at the
end the alleyway background is easily the worst, although that isn't only because it was rushed also because it was the hardest
to create, so it was not entirely down to time management. If I had more time to do my work I would have put more detail and
been slower creating my last level background as it didn't’t quite capture an accurate perspective.

6. Technical Qualities
One of the technical qualities of my work that can be seen from this
screenshot here is how there is a form of perspective with the wall and
the path looking further away and getting smaller, however one issue with
this is that during the animation, the ball doesn't’t change size as it gets
further away so it doesn't’t have a realistic perspective.
Another one of the technical qualities was animating the game and the
way the ball moves, in my game the way the ball moves is pretty straight
forward and is usually in a straight line and simulates the movement of a
normal ball going straight pretty well, however this is because I placed the
ball facing directly opposite the target each time as I couldn’t really add a
curve effect like I wanted, despite this, for my second level I did hit the ball
to the side and make it bounce off the wall onto the target. One other
technical quality I could have improved on is if I had implemented a
character into my game actually doing something such as kicking a ball,
following a walk cycle. Or I could even have done what they did in the
game below and just added them into one of the levels as part of a
obstacle from reaching the goal
Similarly to my work, this game “flick kick football” which is the game I mostly based my game off shows a
realistic footballing perspective from behind the ball, and as things are further away, such as the player in this
instance is further away on the left side and looks smaller than the one in the middle which is similar to my
work in the way the path becomes more narrow the further down the alley you look which is a realistic
perspective.
However a difference is that on this game the animation allows the player to add curve to the ball by the way
they flick it, initially in creating my product , as seen on the screenshot above, I added a “ wind” meter type
thing where on the second level the wind is set to 1.5, this was supposed to mean that the player would have
to potentially shoot at a slightly different angle according to the wind, although I couldn’t create a good
enough curve affect so that is another place where there is a difference between the technical qualities

7. Technical Qualities ( audio )
The audio I got for my work was all downloaded clips from YouTube
such as sound effects for kicking the ball and when the ball bounces
off the wall. I also had a background music track which was fairly
upbeat, this was copyright free and also from YouTube. Like my
game, “Flick Kick Football” also has a fairly upbeat music track
behind it and just generic sounds of a ball being kicked . However a
difference in our audio is the noise when the objective s complete,
for example on FKF when they score you can hear a crowd cheer, but
on my game there is no crowd to cheer so I have a firework type
celebratory sound effect.

8. Aesthetic Qualities
In my opinion different parts of my work look a lot better than others, I personally think the initial start
up menus and the first level are the stronger parts of it. Firstly I quite enjoy the creativity of the first level
as it is an unusual location for a football related game, I also think it looks quite visually good in terms of
the details on both the rocky hill, the sky and also the desert. These look fairly good visually I think
because of the variants of shades I used together to create extra detail and make it look more realistic.
However I think a weakness of the level one desert location is the small green cactus like things as if I
was somebody who didn’t already know what they were I would probably have no idea, also I think there
is to many of them, therefore if I was to improve I would make them slightly more detailed and also get
rid of some of them, additionally I would probably add something else that could be found in a desert
such as some tumbleweed. Overall I think that the strengths were the menus and first level, however the
biggest weakness was the last level. My initial idea for my last level was to have a favela/ slums type
location, however due to my lack of ability as well as missing some days due to the snow I changed to a
back street alley location instead because it would be slightly easier to create. Aesthetically I just think it
looks generally weaker for multiple reasons, one of these being the graffiti on the wall just doesn’t look
realistic at all, another being it doesn’t give a very realistic perspective when looking at it and the end of
it looks too narrow. In order to improve it I would make the graffiti look more realistic and try to make it
look more like an alley by taking more time and trying to copy an image from google.
The small outlines on the
rocky hill made it look more
detailed which was a strength
The graffiti doesn't’t look realistic at
all and is one of the biggest
weaknesses of the game.

9. Audience Appeal
• During my research I found out
via my interviews (which were
answered by people of the target
audience) that typically people enjoy
extra characters being in the game as
it gives them something to earn. In
my game I showed a quick menu with
different characters and an
unlockable one which would have
appealed to the typical target
audience as they typically like the
reward factor of it as it makes it more
addictive to carry on playing. Adding
the part where it shows the
unlockable character was a strength
of how it would appeal to the
audience, however a weakness was I
did not include a part that showed
how they unlocked the character.
This screenshot shows that there are
extra characters that can be unlocked
which makes people want to play the
game to unlock them.