23/05/16 Blog Entry:

I began this week by amending my quality plan to be more specific, detailed and measurable, and by including various instances of how I know my game’s of a good quality if I follow the steps I have set out. Previously my quality plan wasn’t very specific with the goals I needed to achieve in order to make a quality product, so now my game is nearing the end of the main production stage I can compare it to the quality plan and physically see if my game is of a good quality.

In this entry I also drafted the remaining characters for the dinosaur team (shown below), and finished the ten character designs by fully colouring them in Photoshop. From there they were ready to print out into cardboard and be professionally laminated (to avoid creasing, thus allowing them to last longer after multiple playthroughs), which I then stuck onto colour-coordinated counters (blue counters for birds, and red for dinos). I also conducted some research prior to this into the advantages of lamination (essentially putting my print outs between some thin, transparent casing) to see if it was worth laminating my materials, and according to (Digital Printing, 2014) it adds an extra layer of protection to your content, as well as giving them an overall professional feel. Laminated materials last a lot longer than basic print-outs do, and can withstand the test of time much longer considering they’re more resistant to bending and tearing.

Because the character designs are now finished, I adjusted the game’s official rules to include these various abilities for the 5 different character classes on each side, as well as the extra rules mentioned in the previous feedback sections. I also made the document a lot more appealing to read, using bright colours and text bubbles, which adds to the game’s family friendly target audience. I even added an additional game rule for more experienced players, it aims to add more variety to the game, shaking up the game’s entire formula completely (by focusing on getting every player inside one area at once instead of five, with different ‘walls’ that pop up each turn), and thus enhancing the game’s replay value and increasing the game’s flow channel for experience players who want more of a challenge. Since if players get bored of playing the usual rules every time, there’s an additional bonus that makes things a lot more challenging and interesting, while still keeping the game balanced with an efficient use of the flow channel (having a constant case of action without the game ever getting too boring or frustrating). My research into Settlers of Catan helped for this with its randomised board layout, as it gave me an insight into how variety may be achieved in a board game, and how variety is key.

Following the previous feedback, I also printed out more health tokens for the game since in the last playtest we ran out. To also follow these professional practises, I laminated every card, token and character piece in order to increase the longevity of the items. Pieces like the board are already showing signs of bending, so casing them in laminate will mean that it’s much harder to damage them during gameplay. The character pieces in particular are much better off being laminated, since it allows the material to be a lot more firm when standing up and being moved around. Here are the finished character designs, and also the printed and laminated character pieces:

Now my game has been updated following the peer feedback I received, the physical board game is now complete! This means tomorrow I will do my final case of peer testing and feedback to see how people like my finished product (which can be included in my evaluation). Then for the final week of my project I will focus on producing the digital demonstration of the game, as well as the evaluation and final pitch presentation ready to be handed in and presented the following week. I’m am very much on schedule this week following the dates for the backlog sprints, and due to complete the project while including all of my musts and a few should from my sprints. I also updated some of the dates in my risk management document, as I continue to make backups of my work. Lastly I also updated my project task board with the different elements of the game being finished, with just the digital demonstration being left in process. This means I’ve completely the majority of my physical practical tasks with the digital content left to complete!