7. evaluation (interactive)
- 3. Research • A strength of my research is how thoroughly I looked into similar games that have done well in the past and present so I can take ideas from them and base my game a bit more around what I know for a fact my target audience enjoys. This helped me find out more about my audiences demographic and psychographic which greatly helped my production and also the rate I was working at as I could build my game more around what my target audience wants. • A weakness of my research is the more planning I did and research into similar arcade fighting games the more copyright issues I found the deeper I went meaning I had to be especially careful not to cross any lines which could result in my game being struck down for infringement of copyright, this meant I had to look research deeper into individual games I was taking some ideas from to make sure there will be no backlash from the companies and to see if there had been any issues like this in the past and what I could do to avoid them. • Regarding my research I could have done a couple of things better for example; I could have researched more thoroughly a colour palette as this will be a large piece in my game because I want it to be as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as possible. I could have also done some more research into the lighting of my game, this would’ve also helped me to boost up the aesthetic quality of my game. • If I was given more time I would use it to do more interactive research such as watch trailers for the games I studied and take notes and also play the games myself to see how the mechanics work and what I could implement into my own game.
- 4. Planning • The strengths of planning was the fact that I already had a basic rough idea of what I wanted to do I then created a mind map to help narrow the process down, by creating a mind map this also helped me go through a lot of different ideas some good helping develop my game further and some which I left out. This way I could visualise my target audience and mould the game around what will be in demand from my target demographic • The weakness of my planning came from trying to create a new idea for a retro fighting game which hasn’t been done yet and more importantly one which does not tread on copyright infringement. • Another weakness regarding my planning was my mood board and how I just used generic well known fighters as my sprites because for my final product I could not use characters from other games but instead I had to create my own, realising this early on and putting it into my planning or research would have greatly helped the quality of my end product and the time in which I produced it. • If I had more time I would have been more thorough in planning around my audience and I would have looked into different types of ways to design sprites for my game. I would have done this because if I had decided on a set target audience straight away and stuck closely to that then my end product may have been more appealing to my set audience. Another thing I would’ve made sure to do is plan different ways to design my characters as I only chose one way and one style it made production very limited which I believe effected the end quality of my game.
- 5. Time Management • In the beginning I managed my time quite efficiently as I already had a set idea of what I wanted to do and with that in mind I created my mood board and found images which fit right into what I wanted to add into my game. • When it then came to creating my characters and sprites I was a bit lost due to the fact I didn’t use my planning to my full potential as I failed to research a few different ways to produce sprites for my game leaving me single optioned making my game a lot less creative than It could have been. • I also struggled with the audio production in adobe premiere which I did not plan for originally because In my research and planning I decided I would sample sounds the majority of my effects from YouTube, I later found out most sounds I wanted to use did not fall under fair use which means If I used them it would result in copyright infringement, I later defeated this obstacle by producing my own sounds but this cost me valuable time which in the end could have impacted on my games quality. • I am happy with my completed project but with more time I could have had a better opportunity to create a more well rounded, smoother game. If I had extra time I would have focused on more of the audio side of the game rather than the graphical as that’s what I am more talented in hence doing more on the graphical side and leaving the audio until last.
- 6. Technical Qualities Both of the games have a character on the left and right followed by the health bars above them depicting how much life they have left. The existing product has a timer on it showing how long is left of the fight, I decided not to include this option to give the player more freedom as they will not be trapped to fight in a set amount of time. Street fighter also shows small profiles of the characters you are playing as and against followed by their names I did not include this mechanic in my game because I ran out of time, if I was given more time I would have added a feature similar to this to make the game stand out as much as possible. Comparing the two games graphics together mine is clearly more simple due to my limited time and resources compared to street fighter which pixel style looks a lot more defined and polished. This means my game does not hold the same graphical value as street fighter making it a less superior game, along with the graphics being quite basic my movement had to be very linear due to my resources and time so I could not animate my fighting to the extent I wanted to. Both games seem to feature quite an avid background, the background was a large part of my game due to the fact it is key to have a game looking as graphically pleasing as possible and believe with my backdrop I have achieved that.
- 7. Aesthetic Qualities There are a few good aesthetic qualities in regards to my game, one of them being the background which I designed to look pixilated but not to the extent that my sprites are. By designing the background like this it gives my game a similar feel to the retro street fighter games on the arcade, this will help draw in an older audience who may want to relive their arcade days and will be drawn to the aesthetic qualities. I also wanted to stick to a general colour scheme with my game and on this particular background I stuck to it and I was happy with it straight away creating a bit more free time due to the fact I had already planned my colour scheme. I feel as though with the characters I could have spent more time using the website I created them on and exploring different ways of shading and colouring them to give them both a more defined finish. If I created my game again I would spend more time making my characters pixel by pixel rather than becoming impatient and deciding to just draw it normally which resulted in the quality being lowered and the proportions not being as spot on as I would’ve liked them to be. When I created the health bars I thought they would look creative and match the theme my game was going for and I am pleased to say they fit in with the aesthetic I was aiming for giving the game a more polished off look.
- 8. Audience Appeal Originally I did not have a set primary target audience but I did want to have an age restriction on my app for 12+ due to the violence and ethical side of it making everything a lot easier, I feel as though my game appeals to most over the ages of 12 due to the fact the art style is very ‘indie game’ styled and retro making some even older generations want to play to relive a part of them which still loves video games from an arcade. My game will appeal to its target social class which is all social classes due to the fact first of all it is free to play on a phone which allows almost everyone to partake apart from those without phones, I also created it for all social groups to enjoy with the hope that if there is any microtransactions in the game then some may be more lenient to want to participate. I feel as though I have fitted my aimed psychographic audience of belongers due to the fact the characters are in a style similar to retro games like Mortal Kombat and street fighter which have large fan bases as hopefully this game may creating a topic of conversation between players.
- 10. Feedback 1 • What did you like about the product? – I like the colour scheme used in the games background. – The games concept is very straight forward and appeals to the right psychographics and demographic. • What improvements could have been made to the product? -The animation of the characters was very slow and the quality of the movement with more time could have been improved.
- 11. Feedback 2 • What did you like about the product? -Good graphics style gives symbolism of old arcade games and draws me in with the simplistic pixel design. • What improvements could have been made to the product? -There could be more on the screen like names for the fighters or the name of the location in which they are fighting etc.
- 12. Feedback 3 • What did you like about the product? -I personally loved the design of the character wearing a ski mask I thought he was very cool and mysterious. • What improvements could have been made to the product? -Give the characters something to make them unique and individual such as powers they can use or catchphrases or different colours for example.
- 13. Peer Feedback Summary • What do you agree with from your peer feedback? - I agree with the fact that the animation of my game was sacrificed due to time and given the opportunity of more time I would round my animation style and make it more smooth. • What do you disagree with from your peer feedback? - None, I think all my peer feedback was very accurate.
- 14. Peer Feedback Summary Based on my peer feedback I would firstly spend more time animating the movement of my characters to make them move smoother to give my game a more clean polished off look, I would do this by either just spending more time in photoshop doing this or finding a whole new way of animating as I did not use my time doing my research to find any other ways to animate my game and my characters. Another improvement I could have made from my peer feedback is to give my characters more live and interaction as they were quite limited in the end of my game making the overall quality of the game suffer for it, to do this I would add some special moves or powers for each individual character to make them more unique and to intrigue the player more. One more improvement I could have made to my game based on my peers feedback is to add more aesthetic designs to the game even simplistic things such as the characters name above their health bar or the name of the current location the fight is taking place in, this would help boost my games graphics and overall quality making more people want to participate in playing it .
Editor's Notes
- #4: 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?
- #5: 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?
- #6: 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?
- #7: 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
- #8: 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
- #9: 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
- #15: What changes would you make to your product based upon your peer feedback and why?