Evaluation

1. Evaluation

2. Research
Effectiveness of research. What could have been better?
My research was the starting point for my project. The ideas that I generated here were the original concepts of generating video game graphics and animations in the
limited space of Photoshop. My research was very productive and allowed me to look at existing ideas so I could get designs to help me with the final production
process. In research is where I decided my audience and what they were going to be like, for example their age. There are many different ways to carry out research
and planning such as mind maps, mood board, note pages, story boards and document sheets. I do not think I could have changed anything to better my research, it
had everything included in and more and it was extremely detailed and understanding so you could clearly see where I was heading for with this project. Some of the
existing research products I used do show up from inspiration in my art. The Skyrim medieval 3D architecture is inspiration and shows up with a similar build style of
my own creation from planet coaster. Concept art from my research has a lot of detail and such which I did not convey into my project however all of the concept art
I've done are majority sketches but they are along similar grounds. I chose to do this because I believe that it shows off my game idea the most effective. Research
aspect is the foundation on any great project to show how you got to the final product. I did both primary and secondary research which both helped me and you can
see this in my work. I did these different methods because it gave me the chance to get different views and opinions allowing me to generate my near final decided
idea. Some of the reasons to carry out primary research are to aim questions directly at your research objective so you can create an audience and narrow down your
options. The research will also be up to date because it is really fresh and related to the topic in hand. Primary research is effective because it receives in depth
answers by the participant rather than being vague, you can target certain people specifically. Secondary research is rather useful because it is usually based on actual
sale figures, or research on large samples but the main issue with it is it could not be true and it is not exactly created specifically for me as a person carrying out
research and collecting data.
Most of my inspiration gained from this task was from searching up existing products. From these I will now take little aspects of different games and add them too my
idea such as certain fantasy aspects, e.g. buildings. From my research this week I have now decided upon certain characteristics my game will include, I did this by
drawing upon existing products, this is useful and helped me get a sense of the market that I'm creating for. Research is going well so far but I would like to pick up the
pace in the next week and get more done.
From the second week of research, I have learned many new problems and solutions examples of these are the issue which I will be facing with getting my work out
their professionally which I have looked up and have figured out the solution to the problem. I have also learned about the audiences of gaming and people’s interests
due to their certain demographics. With this research documentation I have a great start to my project.

3. Methods
Methods used, missed opportunities?
I used different software's throughout such as unity, unreal and make human. These are the major gaming engines which I learnt how to use and navigate with
beginner's ease. I learnt these because I believe it gave me the best possible outcome to show off my project and I have learnt new skills for future goals and
achievements such as university which is one of the reasons I wanted too pick these up. One of the major software's I missed was blender, this seems very advanced
and much harder to use and I didn’t play much with it but I have a little bit of knowledge after gathering information from different sources. I also missed a few other
opportunities in this idea and they were certain builds and camera aspects which I just didn’t have time for. I learned lots of new techniques as well as utilising old
ones for this Final project, these included creating effects for maps and overlapping images as well as learning lighting and textures for 3D creation, all of which are
talked about in my production reflections and I can now use for different video game aspect needs. I am now the week away from my pitch and to do this I will
probably be creating a website and social media accounts as well as posting my concept on gaming forums and getting feedback from other people who are
enthusiastic about it like me. To present my image well every presentation piece of work that I have for the FMP has been in such a neat layout that is simple but
detailed and not too overcomplicated. This allows me to show off my image and characteristics as a person as well as representing the fact that I take great care in my
work and I'm proud of it.

4. Planning
Final concept?
My finished idea for the project is a concept game idea where I will pitch my game idea and show off some of the few assets that I have created for it. I would like to
post my game idea and assets off on a gaming forum and maybe make a website for my game, this is so I can get multiple feedback on it and it may even become a
good basis for an actual game which somebody might want to create. I have created a backstory and some of the characters for my game idea and then I used
Photoshop, unity, games and drawings to show off some of these ideas, creating backgrounds which could be included, draft sketches of what my characters could
look like and landscapes/architecture which is what the game will look like aesthetically inside. All of these are what make up my project and are what my audience
will love, once I've presented my idea I would like to hear feedback on it, then I can refine and improve it to suit the audience premise.
Planning, what went well…what did not?
Planning is the process I stated with, I first stared off by making my ideas. The planning was very helpful because it started with ideas for what I was going to make
by an initial ideas and these just explored some options and talked about my thought process, this would lead all the way towards the end of the project. My
planning allowed me to generate different ideas so I could allow myself to decide what to make for my Video Game concept throughout the project. I generated
many different ideas by using mind maps that went into detail about specific things, as well as lots of ideas that I wasn’t going to carry through on my final product. I
do not think that I could have changed anything on my planning slides. My planning documents met the criteria and I don’t need to change anything about it. I have
made notice how I needed to fix my Wix project planning page since parts are lacking. I now have a dilemma whether I should finish up the whole write up of my
production page and complete all my design before fixing my website. I have made up my mind and I think that I will complete all my practical work first then I can
sit down and clear my Wix once and for all. During the week, I have taken my days off work so I can stay home and work on my project. I will have all day and all
night to complete it starting from the beginning of the week to end, which I believe I can do. Planning is a task that I was confident in, it is something that I have
done well on in many previous projects and hope to do so this time as well. Planning has gone well and it is a great start to the production of my project. I think that
my planning is at distinction level because this is what I have achieved with previous work that I will be guidlining for this project. Of course I will still be getting
feedback to show if my planning is actually at good standards. I have generated tables with resources and schedules as well as style sheets and layout plans showing
off my work ethic. My website uploading is the best option to achieve a better grade because I can get continuous feedback and improve my tasks. My website is
currently not up to date but I believe my work will make up for that. On my too do list is just to get everything before production handed in so I can get feedback
straight away, this is the only concern I have.

5. Production & Post Production
Production, what went well…what did not?
Production has gone drastically differently for this project as I have done something entirely new and unique which I have never tried before. This went well for me as
I got to learn new skills and my work came out looking rather different and professional, more than previous projects that I had made.
I have changed my mind constantly during this project, and started with creating a game but I have done that many times and wanted to try something different, then
I thought about doing videos, this was a great idea but I really struggled with this so I changed again. What I decided on in the end is a gaming pitch idea with a few
assets and the whole backstory, this is something I really enjoyed and thought was a great way to spend my time and I hope to be doing similar tasks in the future.
I had come down to a point where I was working on the production without putting my work constantly on Wix. This left me with a lot of work to do. with the amount
of steps I had taken to make my outcomes, I do have a lot to write up about and I am aiming to finishing them by the deadline for my project on the Friday the 7th
June. I have changed my layout and the colours I was using on my Wix Website. It feels rather strange that all of this is coming to an end since I became very used to
working on my Wix page but it has been a rather great experience to try and create something professional and good looking to advertise off my work. I have finished
clearing up my Wix website and I look forward to developing my idea a little further. It took me a few weeks but I created all of the gameplay elements that I needed
and they generally all went fantastic and fall under the outcome that I was expecting.
Post-production, what went well…what did not?
Reflecting on my product has been a large part of my project as its an important factor to consider because it shows the process and talks about what you made and
how you did it so it proves that it is actually my work. My continuous reflections through my project has allowed me to use all of these to write up my summary
reflective evaluation, just taking pieces from these because I've been reflecting upon everything I've been doing the entire project. The production reflections is a little
lacking and I could have analysed more but I am sure that what I've done is great enough standards for my course. Post production logs were not done every week but
at the end of every piece of work I made, so they are all in an out of order phase but each of them is explained and shown on my many slides in the PowerPoint
presentation which can be seen rather clearly.

6. Technical Problems
How you dealt with TECHNICAL problems?
I have dealt with many technical problems in this video game concept, some of these include the the coding behind the software and the actual creation process of
some of the assets. An idea I had for the FMP was to create videos showing off landscapes however I had issues with the actual videos and kept getting error codes
and I couldn't get it too work, plus I had minimal time left so this was just a problem that couldn’t be fixed. I needed a plot to my game otherwise all the graphical art
wouldn’t make sense so I had to produce this and specific character profiles to match with my artwork which was an idea that was suggested to me as a guideline
from my tutor, this project however has been entirely off my own back and done to my way of work. One of the major issues people may have is the 2D and 3D assets
as they seemed to have this when I received some feedback because people were getting confused believing it was a game and not an actual concept. My game is not
aspects drawn from both of these, it is entirely 3D I just used 2D and 3D graphics to show off what it will look like. Technically as a project mine runs rather smoothly
and works quiet well with the only issue being unity and my home computer breaking a few times which was very frustrating to get work done on, I have managed
though and finished my project with a nice outcome. During this entire year not just this project technically I have suffered many issues and this is because I just don’t
think that I have a natural talent for film but when it came to this project because it really matters to me then its got my aspirations place into it and I believe that it
reaches to a higher standard.
The map was a project that I wanted to look more realistic so I
added in many effects to give it the paper map look. Technically
this works but I could have added on some smaller details such as
towns and trees, these however just seemed to overcomplicated
and I couldn't add them in as it would cause to much of an
eyesore on my map and I don’t think it would fit the style of what
I already had going. The font that I chose definitely works and is
fantasy like and clearly labels different sections of the map so it
can show where the player is clearly.

7. Management & Emotional Problems
How you dealt with MANAGEMENT problems?
Time management was a large issue for my project, this was because I was doing something new that had never been taught or done before and I had to learn some
new skills and then put them into practice to create something on a somewhat large scale, which took up quite a bit of my time. I created a timetable of all of the
weeks and days I will do and what I will do on them, this was partially followed as I had fell behind a little and my work wasn’t exactly up to date because I was having
issues but what I have handed in was great pieces of work. My timetable was very detailed and it had lots of detailed explanations about all of the work I will be
doing. My time throughout this entire project was managed which was better because it was a larger important project. The work that I was far behind on I just
finished at home and this was only PowerPoint's because they are much more easily accessible rather than Photoshop. I handed everything in on time with it all
complete and nothing to change except for the exception of my production, mainly because this was a huge project. To make sure everything ran smoothly I had a
time schedule and I stuck to this time schedule very well. I didn’t miss out on anything important, plus I got all work in on time. I was on time for every deadline and
sometimes finished my work before which gave me a bit of time to look at what I wrote and if it was good. My project had nobody else working on it with me and
everything in it was designed and created by me so I had no issues that people with a crew may have, overall management has gone very well on this project but I
would to have liked to practice this role as it is a part of life working in a large group of people to create a game.
How you dealt with EMOTIONAL problems?
Emotions wise this project has gone up and down for me. I have felt quiet confident in my ability to create a decent graded project, but time management has left
me to get a move on and rush a little. I would say that I have not really been stressed and I feel that I have done the best that I can and I accept that there is no
changing that. Throughout the making of this project my idea for the finished piece has changed a few times and this is all shown talking about these changes and
what it will bring for my outcome but also my personal feelings have changed as when I started this project, originally I was doing it because it interested me as an
idea but now in the creation of doing this I have now decided upon going to a university course which is similarly guided along the lines of work such as what I have
made in this FMP. Since I want to do visual effects and animation in university as I have previously mentioned, then my project was very game base designed. The
reason I chose this particular topic is not only because of university however also as a regular gamer throughout my early pre-teen and teenage years, I spent my free
time enjoying creativity and art as well as games. This topic will definitely help me greatly as it consists of all of the things I am really passionate about and it will
open my mind about more things going on in the gaming industry.

8. Summary
Does your product meet your intentions?
My project definitely meets as well as exceeds the intentions which I had first set myself at the beginning. I think that all my work has been fairly great and whilst
working on this project my work has kept getting better which you can see very clearly, I am hoping to keep getting better on every piece of work I do from later on,
which I still can do. My work I have done has stuck to my planning and I followed it through to the end, it turned out good and related to the criteria of my original
plan. The previous work, my initiative and my tutor was very helpful and made me push myself further on all of my work including this evaluation which I believe I
have met all criteria that it was expecting me to include and will get a good grade. In conclusion my overall project has resulted in the creation of a more than
satisfactory piece. The process has been both challenging and rewarding and I have pushed myself to a much higher standard than in previous work. My final outcome
has reached my original proposal in a more than adequate way. The overall idea that I wanted to produce was met and my aims were realised. My initial statement of
intent was centered around the personal aspect of the subject. I believe I have successfully manage to create a piece that ties into this thoroughly. When I showed
other people the final project and, they looked as if they were really engaged in the world I have created. The feedback I got is that it was good and that I was able to
have that sense of being uneasy; That confirms that I was successful. I do feel like I could improve the work more if I did have more time. My project idea has changed
so much throughout the making of this it went from a showcase to concept idea pitch because I feel that it suits my method of work much more and I believe that it
generally was the better way to show it off because my creations vary massively.
This Final Major Project was and amazing growing experience for me and was very technical being able to figure out the many problems it had as well as
troubleshooting things that would take weeks to figure out. Overall the aim I had for this project was to create an concept for a game and show it off with
all its assets. The original concept I first had was to create a video game scene and make up animations. This Idea was somewhat very ambitious. I then had
discovered gaming engines and the styles and possibilities that I could make with these. I still kept the idea of the 2D graphics but the 3D as well. I like
having a very complex theme to work with, but this also makes it hard to convey across in the end confusing what my project is, so I am going to have to
describe it in great detail about every piece. I do feel like I have reached my goal with this project as well as learning new things, software, camera
movement, new approaches to texture and styles of video editing. I have learned way more than I had originally intended. This was a
learning experience this project with many problems as well. In the end, my project had a slight change in direction, it was still very ambitious but I changed
my focus to have the overall best textures and lighting I can do at my current skill level. Which I believe will turn out to be the best for my concept.
Continuous feedback from people such as my tutor has helped me to go back over my work and improve it too better standards because some of my first
drafts were a bit lacking.