The document provides an evaluation of a game project by Madeleine Ross. It summarizes the key aspects of the project including research on 2D pixel games from the 1970s-1980s, planning focused on visual elements like characters and color schemes, challenges with time management that slowed down animation, technical qualities like choppy animation, use of online tools to create music, focus on aesthetic qualities and colors, and the game being designed to appeal to casual gamers through short, repetitive gameplay.

1. Evaluation
Madeleine Ross

2. Research
I enjoyed doing the research, as my knowledge on gaming is limited, so I needed
to get lots of information to build up my concept so it was solid. For my research, I
mainly focused on looking at 2D pixel games, and I tended to drift into looking
more at the arcade games of the 70’s and 80’s, as the aesthetic is good and they
are quite simple concepts. By researching it helped me build my concept a solid
base, mostly based off of Space Invaders, but it helped me look at other
possibilities for my game, that I might not have thought about before.
I think the strengths in my research was the fact that I looked at a wide range of
games, that were all mostly part of the “Shoot ‘em up” genre, but all had been
done in different and unique ways. The games in practice were all very similar
with simple controls and aims, but they all had different art styles, and themes,
which really helped to inspire me.
Saying this, a weakness was that I just focussed on researching this genre of
games. Although it was good to keep things simple, and not be coming up with
lots of complex ideas I possibly couldn’t execute, I never went into other simple
game concepts such as slide scrolling games, and platform games, which I might
have been able to execute better if I had researched and planned for these.

3. Planning
As my game was all played in the same setting throughout the whole game, with no world
transitions and no narrative, most of my planning was visual. During my research as well as
the pre-production stage, I looked at lots of different world designs, things such as 2D pixel
forests, characters, text choices and colour schemes for the different themes the game had.
I used websites such as Adobe Colour to give me colour schemes that would all work
together, I researched the audiences of the games and where it was most likely to be
played, and I also did a lot of planning on different versions of my characters, mostly my
monsters.
I think a strength in my planning was that I did it very visually, which I think is important in
the game that relies on visuals a lot, and the planning I did translated very well across to my
game, which was very helpful, as the game took longer than anticipated. I think the fact
that I also planned my characters and monster models before I began the proper
production, helped me know exactly where I needed to start, and also what needed to be
tweaked more.
I think a weakness in my planning was that I don’t think I took the size of the canvas and all
the things I wanted to put inside the canvas at too much importance, however that would
have been helpful to do, as when it came to creating the canvas and the world it was going
to be in, I had to resize my characters which meant they didn’t look exactly how I wanted,
and the banner at the top with all the text wasn’t as neat as I wanted it to be.

4. Time Management
Because I struggled quite a lot with the confusion of all of the layers in my
game, and all the movements I had to do for all the monsters on the screen, I
was quite slow in how I started creating the animations, as I didn’t want to
rush so that I would make a mistake. Once I got the hang of the layers and felt
comfortable that I knew I wouldn’t make mistakes, or new how to fix those
mistakes, production was already quite far in, and I was running out of time
for this stage. Although I did take a while to create the gameplay, I was quick
at putting it together in premier, and I created the music simply and quickly,
which meant I finished mostly on schedule, if not slightly over. If I had finished
earlier, and had more time, I would have maybe created a character bio
screen, so that the player felt like they new the Hunter they were playing
with, or would have maybe added some narrative intervals between levels.

5. Technical Qualities
As I struggled with my time management, the animation and all the layers I had to
animate, I don’t think it was technically the best. My animation was not as smooth as I
wanted it to be, as I was afraid of running out of time, and I think the overall execution of
the graphics wasn’t amazing. However it could be argued that the rough and choppy
animation made it look more authentic to the arcade games it was based off. However,
when I had the opportunity to add the Boss Level, I tried to step away from the
choppiness of the gameplay animation, however I think due to the type of game it was
and the amount of time I had left, I couldn’t avoid it.

6. Aural Qualities
To create most of my music, I used the website Beep Box. On there I decided to
create the main theme for the game, which I think works well as its not too
complex, which is similar to what I was inspired by, arcade games. If the theme was
anymore complicated, I think it could have come annoying, and would have taken
away from the game. To add to the impression that this was a game to be played
online, I used a recording I made myself of pressing the space bar, something the
player is told to do at the start to move on and to select their player. I think this
was effective as the recording was good quality and gave the impression someone
was actually playing the game. In the actual gameplay, I decided to only use sound
effects and not play the music, as I think it would have overwhelmed it and
annoyed the player. I think this was a good choice as it gives it a more authentic
feel, and still gives the player some positive and negative connotations. For
example at the end of the Boss Level, I used a sound effect that was going down in
tone to signify that the player had lost. I also used a synth sound when the Boss
appeared to tell the player that this was a new kind of monster and it would be
more difficult.

7. Aesthetic Qualities
The aesthetic qualities and the visuals were quite important to me, as I wasn’t so
good at the technical side. I think overall it doesn’t look bad, however the world I
did it in looked very flat, and I could have worked on more world building.
However, as before, it is based off of games such as space invaders and sea wolf,
which are very simple and easy to look at games, and I think the inclusion of some
more complex looking characters steps away from the blocky aliens that are so
iconic. I thin a strength is the fact that in the world I created, I tried to make it all
to the colour scheme I had created during the pre-production stage, which made
everything look cohesive and nothing seemed like it shouldn’t be there, which
made the colours of the monsters all the more jarring, as they had stronger and
brighter colours. I think the way that I set out the player screen worked well,
having the text all at one end so not to distract the player in the playing zone,
however some of the text looked a bit unreadable and maybe could have been
done better. Overall, whilst making it, I decided to use text that I had actually
typed instead of drawing it, as I felt that would let it down, so I think the pixelated
lettering and numbering gave it a good feeling that I was an arcade game, just it is
played on a PC instead.

8. Audience Appeal
Although the brief stated that it was a game for 16-19 year olds, I made it in a way that most
people with the skill levels to play the game, which was relatively low, could play the game. I
think in the way the graphics have been made, it looks like its more directed to younger
children and teenagers, as its very simple and there isn’t any graphic or gory content other
than the monsters and player flashing red when they are hit. I think something that would
appeal to the audience is the fact its quite a short game which has the same aim throughout,
so it is designed to be quick and addictive, which could be attractive to students with not much
time who prefer casual gaming with no narratives or boundaries keeping them in.