2. Research
• The strengths of my research were, I gained inspiration from
some of the products that I researched which helped me think
of what type of genre I wanted for my game, I was able to
compare all the products I researched and see what features
work well and what features don’t work well. Another
strength of my research was the interviews, I asked questions
involving my product, and it helped me understand what my
audience will like about my product and what they might not
like, so I was able to change things in my final product to suit
the audience. The weaknesses of my research were, I didn’t
write enough about gameplay features, so if I was to do it
again I would focus on doing that, if I did write about
gameplay features I would probably incorporate them into my
game, which would have definitely improved it. Another
weakness of my research is, there's not enough screens shots
of statistics, if every game I reviewed had their statistics on
them I could see which game did the best. Another weakness
of my research is, understanding the target audience of the
existing products which I could have done by researching on
sites like yougov, doing this would have also helped me to see
what works well in a video game. I think if I focus on fixing my
weaknesses it will definitely help with my next project, for
instance, with one of my weaknesses all I have to do is take
more screen shots, another one to fix is not writing enough, I
can fix that by expanding and explain everything I write about.
When it comes to not knowing the target audience of existing
games, all I have to do to fix that is do more research on
multiple websites.
3. Planning
• The strengths of my planning where, I was easily able to
come up with ideas for a video game, because of the
research and my own knowledge of video game,
Because of this I was able to go into detail about what I
wanted to do for a video game. Another strength of my
planning was, I made a schedule which planed out my
five weeks of video game production, this helped me to
keep on track with my work. When planning I was able
to write down what colours I would use, this helped me
to see if the colours work well together. The weaknesses
of my planning are, I didn’t write enough on health and
safety, there where many other hazards I could have
talked about such as a power cut. I also should have
written a lot more on why I picked the colours, because
the colours where an important part of my project. So
like my research if I focus on these weaknesses my
project will be great. When writing about the colours I’ll
do the same thing I’ll for my research, expand and
explain, so for instance I could write about how the
colours will effect the audiences opinion.
4. Time Management
• I made a schedule when planning so I knew what I
had to do each week. Thanks to my schedule I never
fell behind on even when a storm prevented me from
coming in to college, the other reason I never fell
behind, was because if I felt like I was fall behind I did
extra work at home and sped up my working pace. I
managed to complete three PowerPoints to the best
of my ability in two days. I also manged my time well
when working on my final product, because I finished
it earlier than I expected. An improvement for next
time though is to be more detailed with my schedule,
so I can plan out each day instead of each week, that
way my work will be high quality. Another thing I
could improve on is plan for something to go wrong,
that way if something does go wrong like a storm, I
would have planed for it and will still be able to finish
work on time. Considering I managed to stay a head
on my work I think my time management was good,
but from fixing my weaknesses, my time
management on my next project can be even better.
5. Technical Qualities
Dragon age origins is the game I
gained most inspiration from, so
out of all the other existing
games, this one bears the most
resemblance to mine. They are
both medieval fantasy games,
and the reason I picked a fantasy
genre was to make the game
more unique. Another similarity
is the narrative, in dragon age
grey wardens save people from
the blight, in my game wardens
save people from criminals. The
differences between our
products are, my product is
pixelated and 2D, whilst dragon
age is a 3D photorealistic game.
The witcher 3’s similarities with
my game are, it’s set in a medieval
fantasy world, they both have an
inventory system, they both have
one playable character and they
both have a rewards system. The
differences between our products
are, the wither 3 is a 3D
photorealistic game whilst my
game is pixelated, The playable
character in the witcher has
special perks and powers that the
player can upgrade.
Skyrim’s similarities with my game are, The
both have bandits as enemies, they both have
an inventory and rewards system, they both
have one playable character, In both games
you can upgrade your equipment to become a
better fighter. The differences between our
games are, Skyrim has an open world, whilst
my game is more linier.
6. Aesthetic Qualities
The animations in my product are
the best thing about it, I spend a
long time making them and it
defiantly paid off because they
look amazing, I especially like the
running animation I did, because
of how realistic they look.
However if I could improve
anything I would improve the the
fighting animations, they do look
good but with a bit more
tweaking they could look great, I
could add variety to the fight so
instead of just swing the sword
they could stab as well. Another thing I really like about my product is the
inventory system, because it makes it look and feel like
an actual game, and all round just looks good. I would
improve it by adding more features to it, for instance I
could add apart where you can change your sword, so
that it looks more immersive.
The character models look very
unique and creative, this is
because I created them myself
and I didn’t use any templates
to help me. The reason for
doing this was to try and make
my own unique art style, so
that people will know which
games are mine. However I
could improve it by adding
some shading to them so that
they stand out.
7. Audience Appeal
I originally wanted to do a
medieval game, however
when I did my audience
research someone said that
they found medieval games
boring, so to appeal to my
audience I decided to make a
medieval fantasy game
instead to make it more
interesting and less boring.
I wanted to appeal to a wider
audience, so changed a
couple of things when
dealing with blood and gore,
I made it so when you kill and
enemy there's no blood, they
just disappear, but I do show
blood in the background, this
will appeal to a younger
audience as well as an older
audience.
In the interviews I asked what type of rewards
you would like to receive, one person said they
would prefer to receive weapons and armor to
help later in the game. So I made weapons and
armor a reward and I also made a final boss so
that the rewards would be useful.
One of the questions I asked was if
they prefer single player games or
multiplayer, and everyone said they
prefer single player games, Luckily for
me I already planned to make a single
player so I didn’t have to change much.
Editor's Notes
What were the strengths of your research? How did your research help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your research? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
What were the strengths of your planning? How did your planning help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your planning? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
Did you manage your time well? Did you complete your project on time or would your products have improved with additional time?
What would you have done if you had more time to produce your work?
Compare your work to similar existing products and discuss the similarities and differences
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page alongside an existing product
Use text boxes and arrows
Does your work look good? Was it creative? What aspects of your game’s visuals do you like? What would you improve? How would you improve it?
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page and analyse them
Use text boxes and arrows
How have you appealed to your target audience? What specific bits of content would appeal to your target audience.
Refer to your findings from your questionnaire.
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page and analyse them
Use text boxes and arrows