3. Research
My research helped by giving me ideas and inspiration for my own creations.
The existing products included similar designs and elements to my products
as well as sharing the fact they are both side-scrollers, that helped me with
ideas of what my game should be like gameplay wise and also the
background/foreground appearance, collectibles, the HUD, the menu and the
characters, playable and NPCs.
On the other hand, I could say that my work was restricted by my research as
I knew what not to copy and steal. If my product was to closely like the
already existing ones then that would be plagiarism. Luckily I thought about
and strayed away from gaining too much ‘inspiration’ from them
The audience research did help me get a feel of what demographic I'm aiming
towards while making my game but it also limited me to staying to that plan.
Although I did try leave it very open to everyone
4. Planning
Many ideas from my initial plans did have to be scrapped due to time
management problems and them not fitting in with other ideas for the game.
An aspect that I did have and I did keep up until the final product was having
different characters with different abilities, yet sadly due to time restrictions I
only created one and decided to make the level about her and have it as her
introduction level, so in that respect my original planning was worth it
For the mood board, that helped me get ideas for colour scheme. As some
levels that were featured in it were dark and moody but had high contrasts
against the player or collectables or enemies. That’s how I wanted to have
bright features and in the production progress I ended up choosing the
buttons as being the brighter layers.
5. Time Management
Going back to planning, a lot of ideas I had were scrapped due to limitations
of time; some plans included multiple characters and multiple enemies and
my final product was supposed to act as a side-scrolling level when actually it
has just one setting.
In the end I had just the right amount of time to complete my product, even if
I still have to do my reflection and evaluation. The game is finished and over
with. In the future I shall either attempt to speed up work or slow down on
research and planning as I spent a lot of time on both and had high hopes for
planning.
Given more time I would have liked to execute my plans for my product and
given it more elements like collectables and enemies rather than a detailed
background.
7. Aesthetic Qualities
I believe the original plan for my game was creative and new and yet to be made in
a format like mine, though the actual final product was not exactly what I imagined
at the start, I’m still proud of the result and think it looks visually pleasing. I’m
happy with the design of the background and character but believe it could use a
better, brighter colour palette, whereas for the enemy I’m happy with the colour
palette but believe it could have a better design.
The graphics used for the icons within the buttons
could be of better quality i.e. the grapple hook looks
grainy and low resolution. To save time I used the
shape drawer tool to make the heart for the life
counter but I think it would have looked better
done with the brush.
Other assets like the boxes and background were somewhat simple to make. The
boxes I had to make one then copy and paste many, many times to use in the
animation and background was built with the same technique but was more
difficult to place and add depth to.
8. Audience Appeal
I think I appealed to my target audience pretty well, as I stated in m research,
there’d be different difficulties of levels and this is one of the easiest ones as there
are only two buttons to use and isn’t hard to learn. Whereas there would also be
levels much harder than the one previewed here.
The contrast between the bright and dull colours also draws a line between the
younger and older people playing the game as the kids will enjoy the bright blues
and greens while adults might want dark, moody surroundings.
The fact that the lead character is a woman may be inspiring for some girls playing
this game, but to not leave anyone out I made it so there are unlockable characters
of all genders and race, to avoid offence and to also involve people in the media.
10. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– I like the sound effects that went with it
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– More brighter colours
11. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– The details of the graphics
– The ‘flowyness’ of it
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Could have made it longer
12. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– The smoothness
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– More going on
13. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer
feedback? I agree with opinions that my animation should
feature brighter colours but I also think that the sound effects
were indeed fitting and timed rightly
• What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback? I disagree when the interviewees said the
animation was smooth and flowy because actually it was slow,
grainy and lagging.
14. Peer Feedback Summary
After receiving my peer feedback , I think that I could have had a
brighter colour scheme that might have attracted more players
as the darker colours don’t really match with buttons and style
of the game I envisioned in my initial plans. One thing that
wasn’t mentioned in my interviews but I would really want to
change is the running animation for my character as I believe
that could have made it seem more fast paced and less clunky
than it is now.
Also, the comment of ‘it could be longer’ is valid but on the
other hand making just the existing 5 seconds of the animation
took days of work, and was a painstaking process.
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
What changes would you make to your product based upon your peer feedback and why?
