Caleb created a side-scrolling Mario-style video game for a school project. He researched games using Google images to help visualize his design. While Caleb knew he wanted to make a retro game, more research into different genres may have led to a different game. Planning went smoothly once Caleb designed his character, but coming up with the character design took time. Better time management would have allowed more polish, as Caleb rushed to finish sounds in the last two days. Caleb's game resembles Super Mario Bros. in style but with brighter colors that may appeal to younger audiences. Overall Caleb feels his game successfully appeals to the target audience expecting a Mario-like game.

1. Evaluation
Caleb Wilcox

2. Research
On a whole I feel that I worked well with my research down to one reason and that is
because of how well informed//interested in video games I am, so when it came down to
this production I was already thinking of several different games of which I could make if I
wanted to and in the end I went for the more retro Mario kind of side scrolling game. The
main source of research that I used was Google and Google images, this I found to be the
best method of research for my to use as I was able to research games quick time and
also able to view screen grabs off them, this I found to be very useful as they helped me
to be ale to view/picture how I wanted my game to look. But there is one other more
important method of research of which I forgot to mention and that was my mind and
what I already knew about video games and what made a good/interesting video game.
However despite what I have said, I feel that I could have made my production work
slightly better and to do that I would have looked at some different methods of research,
maybe by taking a look at some gaming magazines or even play games that I wouldn't’t
normally think about playing. I believe if I had done this then maybe I could have ended
up with a different production game than the one of which I already have.

3. Planning
• My planning on a whole went quite smoothly as I already knew of an idea that I
wanted to make I was already thinking of how I wanted it to look like the visuals ext.
of the game. However despite this there is one area of which I was struggling to come
up with the idea of how I wanted my character to look, in my opinion I believe that it
actually took some time for me to be able to think up how I wanted my character to
look. But I did overcome this by simply drawing out some ideas/sketches at home and
eventually I came up with the idea and managed to get a rough copy in on a blank
Photoshop document. Although I felt like I knew exactly what I was doing with this
production, when it came to the planning I had so many ideas that I couldn't’t get
them down fast enough onto a mind map and I was overthinking each idea, as in I felt
like each idea wasn’t good enough to put down on the mind map so kept trying to
think of other ideas to put down. IN the future if I had time to go back and re-
do/improve this project I would definitely tried to not other think some of the
planning stages i.e. idea generation (mind map) as if I don’t I will be able to get the
first few stages of my planning done much more effectively and quickly.

4. Time Management
• I feel that I could have made much better timing when it came down to my time
management as it had come to the point where I had two days to finish my
production work and I still wasn’t in to position where I was adding in my sound
effects I was still in fact adding in the animation movements for my character and/or
assests. I feel that the main cause for me being so lacking with my progress when it
came to the creation of my character and also putting in the movements on my game,
this is partly down to the reason that I was struggling on how I wanted my character
to look and at first had no idea how to put in movements on my character, once I had
been shown I was still finding it hard to make it look how I wanted it to. In the future I
would try to make quicker work with my PowerPoint's so that I would have more time
to do my production work and would have more time to do my evaluation or even
extra time to finish of my production work rather than having one day left to add in
my sound effects, as really I should have time to improve it so next time I will make
quicker work with my PowerPoint's so I have time to go back and improve work.

5. Technical Qualities
I decided to compare my game to Super Mario bros, as lets be honest they are in fact
very similar look a like, this is because I have based my game more around the Mario
style i.e. the side scrolling adventure trial game. From comparing my game to the
already existing game you can see that my background/coloring is much more brighter
and bolder giving a sense that it will attract a wider/maybe a younger audience
compared to the actual game production. Or it is just the fact that the screen grab of
Super Mario Bros. is in fact an older version of the game, hence the more dimed/lower
image quality compared to mine.

6. Aesthetic Qualities
Yes I am of the opinion that my game looks good and I also feels that it looks and sounds
creative especially by the way of which it is based around the Super Mario Bros. gaming
aspect. One aspect of my game of which I like is the way I have devised some kind of
coin collecting and the way of which you have to jump on the coins // run through them
to be able to collect them, if you miss them then they will still disappear but wont have
been collected properly. If I have the chance to go back and improve my work then I feel
that I would change the way of which my enemy objects look, by maybe adding in an
eye or two to each enemy object, just so that they will look that just bit more appealing
and realistic to people., when playing the game, however when not playing the game
they just look like bits of mud so to stop this from being the case I would add in an eye
on each enemy object.

7. Audience Appeal
On a whole yes I believe that I have appealed to my target audience aspects based around
what they were expecting my game to look like and I feel that I made it look like Super Mario
Bros. to the best of which I could. I feel that the way I created my background would
especially appeal towards my audience as it tends to look very similar to Super Mario,
especially by the way of which you have to jump and down along the adventure trail
collecting coins and avoiding certain objects i.e. enemies. I feel that my start menu also looks
especially appealing towards my audience as it helps to give my game that extra push/sense
to make it look more like a game. I also feel that the enemy object will especially appeal as
they are more like as if they have come off Super Mario Bros. and been put straight into my
animation game.