Finished?

1. Evaluation
Spencer Fox

2. Research
I felt my research had a number of positive effects on my finished product:
• The existing video games I researched were all similar to what I had envisioned
for my own attempt at making a ‘game’.
• I had fairly extensive experience with playing some of those games,
particularly Super Mario, meaning I had the gameplay in mind while I was
discussing everything to do with it’s aesthetics and such.
• I watched a number of videos on each game to get an overall feel of how the
games are played by different people, allowing me to create a game that
caters to a number of play styles.
• I also made frequent comments on the impacts of certain things on the
audience itself.
• Each game had a similar demographic, both to one another and for my own
game.
• I commented on the audio, despite not being able to hear it from the
PowerPoint itself.
• I explored a variety of different aesthetic styles from these games, meaning I
could take certain techniques and adapt them to be replicated in pixel-art
form for when I designed my own game.
• I adventured through the structure of the games themselves, allowing my to
construct my game with those in mind, giving me more knowledge of how
these types of games flow.

3. Research
I also felt my research had a number of sections that could have been
improved or added to increase the overall quality of the
• I would have benefitted from a further analysis of sound effects and
soundtrack
• I also would’ve improved my research if I added more of an analysis of the
effects that each thing that I pointed out had on the player.
• It would’ve been better if I had talked more about each game’s
demographic and possibly even the developers and other games.
• Possibly could have mentioned the effect that having an establish brand
had on games like Mario, and how it wasn’t the first game in the series
whatsoever, meaning they had the ability to correct mistakes from all
previous games and they had experience with the pre-established
characters.
• I actually would have benefitted from analysing the more indie games, like
the Adventures of Pip, and how they became successful despite not being
made by an already established company that has a good reputation.
• If I were to have analysed the marketing of each of the games, my mock
up of the box art may have been better, although that wasn’t a specific
weak point, in my opinion.

4. Production Experiments
I had a few weak points originally, when we had just began this project:
• My original animation of a walk cycle was horrific, sparking me to have
low confidence at first.
• The ‘art’ I created was extremely simple and ugly.
• The animation wasn’t even remotely fluid whatsoever.
• All audio I created for the second experiment was very bare-bones and
somewhat simple, yet some of it was effective which was a plus.
Despite these issues, I did have a few stronger points too:
• My second experiment was a much larger success. I drew a background for
the experiment level itself that I put a lot of more effort into and actually
liked.
• I created a much simpler character with a much easier walk cycle that
made it so fluid to animate in comparison.
• The audio, although simple, was at time very effective and sounded much
better than expected for my first time digitally creating chiptune audio.
• My confidence level started to rise the further I got into the second
experiment.

5. Initial Planning
• My initial reaction was honest and very straight forward, although could have used a bit more
depth.
• The three mind maps I had quickly created for the three ideas I had were simple, probably
could have benefitted from going into more detail, although they were only the very start of
three concepts.
My chosen idea mind map was much better:
• It was hugely in depth drawing arrows from each strand to other similar or linked sections
that added to the depth of the idea.
• I linked certain aspects to established games that I had taken inspiration from in my head.
• I explored many paths that I could take my game down.
• I could possibly have added a few more strands to certain aspects, maybe even adding
screenshots of existing games as an example of what was in my head while writing down
some of the concepts.
• My mood board had plenty of images from games that were similar to what I had in mind for
my own product.
• It also showed a variety of sections of the games itself, ranging from gameplay to menus etc.
• The analysis of my mood board was short and to the point, although more depth would’ve
been appreciated.
• My schedule was incredibly in depth, detailing each week that I would have to complete if I
were to do it all in that time, no slower, no quicker.
• My bibliography was the bare minimum in length and had little-to-no variety whatsoever,
only displaying video games I planned to analyse.

6. Pre-Production
Audience:
• My audience profile was detailed and matched my proposal.
• My addition of the similar games was a nice touch in terms of displaying the audience I was aiming for.
Style Sheets:
• The style sheet was slightly varied, although was all pixel art to some degree of skill or another.
• I had a couple of different aspects of games displayed, from items to pick up, characters and
landscapes, as well as actual screenshots from gameplay as well.
I created two mock layouts of levels using images that I found from the internet:
• The first layout was decent as it had enemies, the player and a large coin collectable all displayed in this
simple, yet textured landscapes.
• The second layout was a lot more simple, it had a very 2D background with no texture. It had enemies
and coins, but also had obstacles, like spikes and a wrecking ball. It also had a large circle that indicated
the end of the level.
Sound Effects:
• My list of sound effects was fairly in depth, I ended up scrapping achievements all together, so that
effect wasn’t used. I believe I may have created a few more effects and more music as well.
• I added things like the player death noise, rather than the enemy dying.
Contingency Planning
• My contingency planning was very bare-bones as I didn’t see many issues that could present problems
that would require a solution.
Health and Safety
• As I knew I would be working entirely on the computer, there were not many health and safety issues
at all, so I only managed a small list, but it covered most issues that could arise during the project.

7. Time Management
Time management has appeared to be one of my strong points from
the past projects I have done on this course. I finished ahead of
schedule, as usual. This time I am about a week ahead of where I
need to be. I started production about 4 days early after finishing
pre-production very quickly. Editing it all together after creating all
the music and other sound effects was extremely quick and efficient
as that is one of my strongest suits and my most experienced area. I
managed to do the edit in about 2 hours going very slowly. As for the
other areas of the project, I took longer doing certain areas than I
wanted to, but I feel that extra time was made possible thanks to my
editing speed. The aspects that took more time than I intended
were, for example, the production experiments section, where I put
too much effort into making the second one, in particular, as pretty
as possible when I didn’t necessarily need to.

8. Aural Qualities
The audio for my game was better than I had expected it to be. I’ve been one to write and make
music, although the tracks I did create where suitable enough to add the necessary noise to the
video game itself. If I were to redo this project, I might put more effort into learning about how
to make a song using a similar software as Beepbox and then subsequently have a smoother
sounding song to add to each section of the game. As for the final composition, I feel that the
levels were good and the music didn’t overpower the sound effects or distract from the dialogue
that the player must read. The variety in sound of each track is also something I am fairly proud
of, despite being not exactly top notch. I felt that overall, the sound fit the game’s feel very well
and helped amplify the emotions the characters felt as each moment happened during the first
level. Obviously my music is nowhere near the quality of a professionally made game’s
soundtrack would be, but I do feel it is in the same style, despite being very repetitive
throughout.
I am much more satisfied with the work I put into making the sound effects, as that is something
I’ve done before for film-based projects. I believe that the many SFX I made purely for this game,
excluding the ones that I took from the production experiment, were the strongest part of the
aural section of this ‘game’. They were dynamic and contrasting from one another. Thankfully,
they all sound as though they belong in a game from the old pixel-based genre, which is exactly
what I was going for. I actually created more sounds than I had originally planned for, making the
game itself a lot more immersive despite being nothing like real life in any aspect whatsoever. I
didn’t use the same sound for more than one thing; the coin pick up was different to the
heart/life pick up, the landing noise was far different than the jumping sound itself etc. Even the
objective arrow makes a different noise depending on how quickly it points at an objective.

9. Technical Qualities
Overall, I think that my animation was very technically sound. The animation was fairly smooth
throughout and the pixel art itself had lots of detail to it, particularly with the trees and the
main character themselves.
The enemies in the game, weren’t very complex and were heavily based on other people’s past
creations although I had changed them so much to create my own take on pixel art ghosts and
ghouls. The main villain was more complex for sure, but both the villain and his minions only
had very basic animation. For example, the villain had two states, facing left and facing right,
and the only thing I did to animate him was have him float up and down. I would improve his
animation more next time by possibly adding more movement in the cape-like body of his,
perhaps making it flow through the wind of him moving. As for the hench-ghosts, they had a
few more sprites, but less complex animation. All I did to animate them was move them side to
side, and when they died, flash a few times after switching to their “dead state”, which was the
same as their normal look, but with crosses over their eyes.
The main character was a lot more complex, and a hell of a lot smoother too. He had many
different states of being, he had standing, left step, right step, crouching, crouching left step and
crouching right step for BOTH directions, left and right. He also had an attack motion too, as well
as a dead state and waking up stage. The smoothness of the animation for this character varied
throughout the level. When moving slowly, his walking appears very smooth, whereas when he’s
running or at least moving quicker, it is less fluid and feels more jittery. His first 2 jumps and his
double jump is a lot less fluid as the two jumps at the very end of the level.

10. Technical Qualities
As for the the other non-gameplay aspects of the animation, the animation appears fairly smooth. The
selection boxes from the level select onwards are very smooth and work pretty well. I think that the main
menu selection could do with some work. If I were to redo it I would change it up to match the other
selection styles using the same style and colour scheme.
Now that I think about it, I would add more movements to the player, like arms swinging as he walks, and
to the enemies too, like attacks and movement in the drapes. I’d also add more steps to the attack
animation.
The pixel art has a dynamic depth to it, including shadowing on the trees, interesting and vast roots,
plenty of textures from different surfaces etc. The combination of working on a 120 x 80 canvas, then
changing it to a 480 x 360 for more details and finally ending with a 1080 x 720 sized canvas, which
allowed me to add small adjustments and additions to each section of the ‘game’.
Compared to Magicat, a similar game, my animation is fairly similar in a number of ways. For example,
both games transmit dialogue from cutscenes through text boxes, and the sound effects aren’t too
dissimilar, really. Magicat does a number of things better than I did with my attempt: the background has
more depth to it, the surfaces have more texture to them and the animation is smoother. One big
difference is the way levels are set out: my whole level is seen the whole time, whereas the levels in
Magicat scroll as the player progresses through them.
Summarised, my animation; could be more fluid, but is at times very smooth; has detailed pixel art
throughout; varying levels of animated elements.

11. Aesthetic Qualities
Personally, I believe my game’s visuals, on the whole, are really good. The art style is very
pretty, particularly with the main character, and all of his different sprites, and the level
selection and pause screens.
I really like the loading screen, level select screen, “Press Any Button” screen and the level
itself. The only section I don’t particularly like it the main menu. I’m not overly keen on the
music, but that’s only because I’m not great at making chiptune music.
If I was to improve the aesthetic qualities of my animation, I would attempt to add more
depth to the background of the level, adding more of a 3D feel to a 2D game, like The
Adventures of Pip does, as well as Mario etc. I would also add more steps in the animation of
the enemies to add to the smooth look of them.
As for colour scheme, I think I did pretty well. The enemies are really the only things without
colour in them. The villain is also the only dark coloured sprite in the whole animation, as well
as being the only one with a different coloured text during dialogue. Both of these differences
really drive home the point that he is against the protagonist.
The fonts used throughout are very relevant and slot right into the art style. The dialogue is
distinguishable from the pause menu font etc., meaning players don’t get confused.

12. Audience Appeal
All the content in my animation appeals to the target audience I aimed for in my proposal, long before I
began producing the animation.
The music is generally upbeat and fairly happy. It also is very repetitive, meaning that the audience is
more likely to remember it and get the tunes stuck in their heads. This would mean that they remember
the game in the future, increasing the longevity of the product. The only track that is unlikely to be
enjoyed by the demographic is the theme for the main villain as it is quite jarring and scary in comparison
to the other soothing songs.
The sound effects are also very simple and cartoon-like, meaning the 7-12 year olds playing the game
would be well accustomed to that style of audio, as well as being something that is unique and contrasting
to real life and other games they may play.
The visuals are possibly the most likely aspect of the animation that would appeal to my target audience.
This is because of the high contrast of the bright colours against one another. The main goons that the
character fights in the animation are very simple and easily recognisable for their young minds. The
protagonist himself is very much a cute character that they can get behind, and is not complex
whatsoever. He also represents good in all ways with no possible moral flaws unlike characters from
games for older gamers, like Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2. The collectables are very
simple, coins and lives when you’ve lost one, meaning they are not hard to understand. They are also a
part of many well known games and franchises out there already, namely Super Mario and such.
Even the font I chose appeals to my audience as, not only is it part of the art style of the whole game, but
it is also very similar to the 2nd best selling game of all time that too has a similar target audience,
Minecraft.