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1. Evaluation
Alfie Pimblett

2. Research
• STRENGTHS OF MY RESEARCH.
• The strengths of my research for my video game were that all the information that I gathered helped me
to look at other different video games that had similarities to what I needed to create, looking at these
different games helped me gather ideas and inspiration, the game I looked at the most and got inspired by
specifically is PAC MAN because of the NEON maze design that it features. I decided to use a neon styled
maze in my video game. This research also helped me find specific games which relate to my own ideas
which include mazes and characters that were created to fit with the genre. My research also helped me
analyse how music videos were edited depending on their genre for this video game is a Maze Based
Adventure game where I need to escape the maze before the time runs out. My research helped my
product tremendously because I was able to get good ideas about all of the key elements I needed to
include in my game, I needed to find colours, props, surroundings & characters.
• WEAKNESSES OF MY RESEARCH.
• The weaknesses of my research was that most of the video games I looked at to get ideas and inspiration
from were all quite similar, this made it difficult for me to get a large amount of ideas and left me with
only a few that could have been much better and more creative, most games I looked at were similar to
maze games. If it was not a maze it was either escaping a castle or a forest before the timer runs out.
Another weakness in my research was that I only focused on one genre (ADVENTURE GAME) – if I
broadened my research to look at other video game genres rather than just be focused on the one. I could
have also gathered a lot more information about how the games work and how to make designs for my
game, the reason for this is because I did have some trouble coming up with designs for my characters and
backgrounds, if I had done more research and took screenshots this would have sped up the designing
process.

3. Planning
• STRENGTHS OF MY PLANNING.
• The strengths of my planning were that I felt I was very thorough, I had to plan where I wanted my
game to be based in, what world I was creating, surroundings on the planet etc. I had to make sure I
created my own background and did not take other game developers ideas and designs. I had to
plan how I was going to animate my game, where my characters were going to move and where
they will be located. I had to plan what scenes of the game will come first and how it will end when
I have edited it all together. Another strength of planning my video game was creating notes on all
of my found information so it was easy to look back on all of my ideas to see if I have left anything
out whilst producing my product.
• WEAKNESSES OF MY PLANNING.
• A weaknesses of my planning was how long I spent on it, I could have had more efficient time
management if I was careful and kept track on how much time I had to lose on planning and to not
let it take up time that could be used on other tasks such as creating objects for my video game,
other slides that need completing before production begins & also writing up my proposal. This
shows that planning your products can consume a large amount of time that could be beneficial for
other set tasks. Another weakness of my planning was the quantity, I did not think I gathered as
much information that could help me create my game, this resulted in a lack of idea generation and
poor brainstorming, it took me a fair amount of time to decide what game I wanted to create and if
I had all the necessary information I needed to help me construct ideas then It could have speeded
up this process expeditiously.

4. Time Management
• STRENGTHS OF MY TIME MANAGMENT.
• A strengths of my Time Management was that I managed to finish my product on time before the deadline, I managed
to finish my product early enough because I had planned how long I was going to spend on each task and made sure to
have it complete for that planned date, I had a well produced schedule showing me what I needed done by what date,
I used the schedule to prioritise the important parts of my planning and research first. After I had finished up my
research and planning I had managed to start and finish producing my game in the set time given with no delays or
setbacks. Another strength for my time management was the fact I did not let myself get distracted by other people
that could potentially make me fall behind my work like I have done in past projects, I stuck to my work and came up
with my final video game idea and did not waste or take up extra time.
• WEAKNESSES OF MY TIME MANAGEMENT.
• A weakness of my Time Management was that I feel I could have had a little more extra time on producing my
video game, I do think I had enough time to plan and research my product but when it came to producing my
game I felt like I was being rushed to finish as I was only given 2 weeks of production. For my research and
planning I do feel I had enough time to complete it however I do not feel like I made the most of the time I was
given, I was slow, stuck between ideas, unorganised & unclear on what I wanted to create. I did manage my time
well but I just did not make the most of it, I should have researched more video games that I could take ideas
from, written down notes on how games were made and what was popular in this genre, I could have also been
more patient with how I was working because I was beginning to become frustrated with the way I could not come
up with a final idea. Another weakness in my time management was when I created my plan I had thought to
myself that I would be able to multitask with my work, I thought I would be able to work on the design of my
characters and my background at the same time but looking back I think it would have been a better idea to do
these at different times as I felt i was taking on too much at once and was splitting my focus that could have
benefited one task at a time.

5. Technical Qualities
• STRENGTHS OF MY TECHNICAL ASPECTS.
• The strengths of my technical aspects are that I have created my video game in a good level of detail in the
Pixel Art, I made sure that my created characters and objects were clearly visible when creating them,
another strength for my game is the smoothness when my character moves throughout the maze, I made
sure that the animation does not lag when my character changes directions, another strength is also the
extra technical elements I inserted into the game such as the control panel which is controlled by the
switches in the characters direction . My video game is a good representation of a real retro game such as
Pac Man, both games are in a maze with a similar objective trying to avoid contact with enemies and
collect as many tokens as possible, they also share a similar style when it comes to creating the maze, they
do share similar maze styles, both games have a neon lit maze border which allows the maze to light up
the screen.
• WEAKNESSES OF MY TECHNICAL ASPECTS.
• A weakness of my technical aspects are the complexity of my animations, I found it difficult to level up on
the detail of my animations because of how small the size of the image was, for the size of my image I did
a good job with the detail but I couldn't’t go any further without changing the image to a bigger size
which would result in complications with the quality of my resolution which means I would need to come
up with a new design that takes up too much time to complete. Another weakness in my technical aspects
is the way that my enemies move, there is only limited movement with the enemies because I found it too
complex and challenging to make them more moveable.

6. Aural Qualities
• STRENGTHS OF MY AUDIO ELEMENTS.
• The strengths of my audio elements are that I used music and sound effects that fit perfectly with my
video game, the sounds I used sounded like they are traditional retro 8bit sounds from the 1980’s when
these style of game were at their most popular. Another strength in my audio elements is that they are not
all very long pieces of music, they are not complex pieces either so it makes it easier for me to loop the
sounds I have which saves more time, if they were longer I feel it would be more tricky to produce and
match it with the video game, I checked the time frame for my gameplay video then I made my song the
exact same length. My sounds that I used in this game sound similar to the audio in Pac Man, the main
theme tune in my game has a bleeping sound which was inspired from the Pac Man series, this was a
commonly used sound effect in Pac Man.
• WEAKNESSES OF MY AUDIO ELEMENTS.
• A weakness of my audio elements is that I did not really plan how I was going to create my music in my
planning and research PowerPoints, this led to me wasting time that I could have used in my production to
improve my gameplay. Another weakness in my audio elements is that I feel the theme tune I created can
get quite irritating seeing as it is on a loop. The quality of the sound does not sound as clear as I was
hoping for seeing as its not a professionally produced track with audio levels modified which I
unfortunately was not able to do as it was created on a free online software with limited capabilities.
Another big weakness for my audio elements is that I would have liked to have multiple layers of audio
over my main theme tune which could fit into the characters movement, voice and emotions.

7. Aesthetic Qualities
• I do think that my video game looks good, I really like the way I designed the map and the shape of my
maze, I also like how my maze looks like it is lighting up the rest of my screen with the border of my maze
acting as a neon purple light, I deliberately chose a darker background to enhance this neon effect I
wanted and I think it has worked really well. I also like the way my video game looks when pixilated, it
gives players a sense of nostalgia and acts as if they player is back in the 1980’s when games that have this
style were most popular. I enjoy looking at my characters and enemies designs because I love the way that
I was able to create them to be in my own video game, I like that they look like simple 8bit characters but
the fact they are my own designs make me enjoy it even more. I chose my characters to have light and
bright colours because I wanted them to stand out and be clearly visible to the players of the game, the
main colours I used in the characters were yellow and lime green, this is because these two colours are
really eye catching and vibrant. I used slightly darker colours on my enemy avatars because dark colours
create a sense of danger.
• I do think that my video game was creative, I enjoyed creating my game and I involved a lot of elements
from past videogames that make my game feel like an authentic 1980’s 8bit game. Creating a video game
using a few pixels is not as easy as you think and it definitely feels good to have ben able to pull off a nice
looking design.
• I think I could have improved my game by inserting some more necessary video game elements in such as
a bar that shows how many tokens I had collected, a health bar & a second level. I also think I could have
improved my video game by creating more avatars so that the players of my game could have a larger
selection of characters to play as to make the game seem more interactive.

8. Audience Appeal
• I have appealed to my target audience by including elements from other 8bit retro games such as bright
vibrant colours, nostalgic retro style and similarities from other retro games such as Pac man, the bright
colours I used in my video game are very common in retro games, I felt that it was important to include
these and make my game look as close to one of these games as possible. My game genre is a adventure /
horror game and according to my research most horror games have an audience that is between 15 and 25
years old, 16-25 is my chosen target audience. I have appealed to my target audience by including music
and sound effects that sound like they are from the 1980’s, this is when these styles of games were at their
most popular, 8bit pixel games have these beeping styled sounds to them and this is why I chose to make
my games thee tune sound like this. I have also made my characters movements in this game look similar
to how a real games characters will move, since this game is being made to look like it is from another
decade I made sure to add some glitches and lagging into the movement of the character to replicate
some characters that I have seen move within other games. I have appealed to my audience by not making
the game too overcomplicated, I think if my game was more difficult than it is I do not think it will be very
enjoyable, especially since it is the first level of the game which was not designed to be too difficult to
play.