The document summarizes research conducted for a video game project. It discusses researching similar existing games, which provided useful information, and conducting a primary survey to identify the target audience. The research strengths included insights from similar games, while weaknesses included a less relevant case study game and primary research that did not significantly impact the final product. Planning strengths included effective research focus, while weaknesses were a lack of detail. Time management challenges arose from losing a week to weather, requiring rushing work. Technical qualities were compared to Sonic and Mega Man, while aesthetic qualities could be improved by more detailed stage textures. Audience appeal prioritized themes, gameplay over story, and cooperative play based on survey responses.

1. Evaluation
Your name

2. Research
When I was researching different Video Games, I had researched several
different video games in order to get an idea of what I was going to make,
this included several similar products as well as a case study of a game
released in the last few years, as well as this, I had also conducted some
primary research in order to find out who the target audience of my game
would be.
The strengths of researching these different products were that since
most of the games that were researched were similar to the one that I
ended up making, I ended up getting a lot of useful information that had
helped when it came to developing what would go into the game. In
terms of the Primary Research, this helped me to find out what people
had wanted when it came to developing the game, with questions ranging
from what level theme they wanted, to what features they felt should be
in the game.
However some weaknesses that came from this were that whilst the
similar products were really helpful when it came to making the final
product, the game that I did my case study on wasn’t as helpful with this
due to being a different genre entirely. Another Problem with this is that
whilst the Primary Research was somewhat helpful, it also didn’t impact
as much as I thought it would’ve, and overall if the Primary Research was
cut out entirely, it likely wouldn’t affect what the final product would’ve
looked like. One thing that could’ve been done better would’ve been to
change the questions for the Primary Research, as I could’ve changed
them in order to find out what they would’ve wanted from the stage
itself, rather than if I were actually making the whole game.

3. Planning
Some of the strengths or my planning were that by
planning out what I was going to do before the main
research and production tasks, it meant that I could not
only manage my time more effectively with certain
tasks, but it also meant that I would know in advance
what I was going to need to add to the game, for
example, by planning out what type of game I was going
to create, I was able to do the research more effectively
by narrowing down what type of games I would need to
compare.
However some weaknesses involved with the planning
process was that there wasn’t enough detail when it
came to planning out certain aspects of the pre-
production PowerPoint, for example the style sheet
showed some of the colours that would be used,
however it didn’t show anything else, and with certain
things like the Sound Effects and the Contingency Plan,
there wasn’t enough detail added to them.
One thing that I could’ve done better when it came to
the planning would be that I would need to put some
more thought into what would go into the Style Sheet,
as well as what could go wrong during development.
This may end up improving the game somewhat as I
would be more prepared for if any potential problems
came up during development.

4. Time Management
Initially we had 5 weeks in order to complete the
project, however due to weather conditions we lost a
week. Because of this, we had to rush certain parts
of production in order to make sure that everything
could be finished in time. And whilst the Game was
completed in time, I feel like if we had that extra
time back, I may have been able to add in some
additional features that were cut from the final
product due to the time constraints, such as more
enemy variety and a boss fight. As well as this I
would’ve made the stage look nicer as while this
video game has improved from the Advergame done
at the start of the year, I still feel like I could’ve
improved it some more. As well as the things that
were cut, I would’ve also added some story elements
into the game if I had some more time, because not
only was this requested by my Target Audience, but
also because of how much it could potentially
improve the quality of my game, since currently it
basically transitions from the main menu straight to
the first stage of the game, by adding something like
a cutscene in between, it would make the transition
somewhat smoother between the menu and the
start of the level.

5. Technical Qualities
Some similarities between them is that the basics are pretty much the
same, get to the goal whilst collecting different collectables (in my case
Coins), and beating as many enemies as possible. However, when
comparing the movement between the two games, whilst the
movement in my game isn’t bad, when comparing it to a more fast
paced game like Sonic, the movements would look worse by
comparison, however when compared to other 8-bit games like Mario
and Megaman, the movement system looks a lot more fluid, and looks
like it would belong in that era of games, especially once the graphics of
the games are compared. When comparing my game against both Sonic
and Megaman, there are similarities and differences with both of them,
as the movement style resembles that of a Megaman game , however
the way the games meant to be played with the concept of Score, Time
and Coins means that it is more like that of a Sonic Game. As well as
this, the power up system is like its own twist on several concepts that
platformers usually explore, whereas Megaman can get his power ups
from defeating each boss in an area, and where Sonic get temporary
power ups from items or from collecting the Chaos Emeralds and a
certain amount of rings, in my game the item boxes gave a permanent
boost until the player either got hit, died, or hit another item box.

6. Aesthetic Qualities
For the most part I feel like the graphical design of my
game was quite good, especially when compared to the
design of the Advergame that I made back in October, this
would include the slight graphical update that I had given
certain objects such as the Player, the Clouds and Coins.
Clouds were also updated so that they would slowly move
forwards on their own, however at the same time it’d look like they are moving backwards
because of the speed that the player is moving at. The sprite has also received a boost with the
addition of several power ups in order to give more variety, this included the additions of a
blaster and metallic boots (which were briefly seen after breaking the item box).
However if I had to improve something for next time it would be to make the textures of the
actual stage look a lot better, as whilst movable objects and collectables have been made a lot
better, at the same time the ground, ocean and sky are still really simple and with some more
time could’ve been improved more in order to help make the stage look nicer, the lack of detail
can especially be shown when comparing the ground next to the bridges ,as the bridges are a
lot more detailed.
When comparing the visual design of my game to that of Sonic 1 on the Master System, the
basic design is somewhat similar, however whilst the background on mine is a little more
detailed, the main levels texture itself isn’t as detailed as the checkerboard patterns of Green
Hill Zone, and the environment is slightly more detailed as well, for example Sonic 1 has plants
placed in certain parts of the level, meanwhile my game doesn’t have that.

7. Audience Appeal
From what I had gathered, my Target Audience had wanted a mixture of
different level themes, of which the Plains were chosen with a little bit of
the water theme being added to the background in order to help make
the environment look slightly more detailed, I’d asked them in the
questionnaire to choose a level theme because I wanted to see what
themes would appeal to them most, rather than potentially picking one
that they would dislike. When asked to choose between having a story
mode or just focusing on gameplay, whilst more people had wanted a
story mode added into the game, because of the time constraints added
onto an already limited schedule, this meant that only gameplay is
actually shown, however if I would’ve had more time available in order to
develop the game some more, this may have been added into the game.
Whilst the Co-Op feature wasn’t properly shown during the animation, on
the start screen an option for co-op was shown, having the co-op feature
in the game would appeal greatly to my Target Audience since most likely
they will want to play the games with a friend, and with this option it
would increase replayability for them, as there would be multiple options
available for them to play through the game together, for example playing through the game normally with two
players, or they could potentially race through the stage trying to be the first one to get to the goal. Finally with the
last question I’d asked people what they thought would need to be included in a 2D Platformer, and pretty much
every response I got I ended up implementing in some form in order to appeal to everyone. For example I’d put the
leaderboards into an option that could be selected on the start screen, the rewards system was incorporated into
the Score, with the rewards being more points based on how fast a player completed the level, as well as how
many coins they had on them at the end. The levels were made to have multiple pathways in order to increase
replayability, and whilst the pathways shown weren’t as expansive as something like Sonic, it still provides some
replayability to the game, which is something that the Target Audience wanted.