30/05/16 Blog Entry

This is my final blog post for this module, and the main tasks I worked towards today was finishing my digital demonstration, as well as my 20 minute presentation/ evaluation. I’ve worked to plan following my sprints and burndown chart, and have finished all of my musts and some of my shoulds which I listed at the start of this project. So this last entry will focus on me evaluating what I’ve produced rather than developing it,

I finished my digital demonstration this week, using my previously created rulebook as a form of reference for the video, with it acting as a basic ‘tutorial’ for the game. It clocks in at around 1 minute 40 seconds long, which allows it to fit into my project presentation as an extra to help keep the audience’s attention on me, without it dragging out for too long and becoming monotonous and/or tedious. The video also contains very cartoony and goofy sound effects, which enforce the family friendly target audience of the game and really embodies the weird and wacky character designs. As explained by (Harrell, 2014), the audio is a commonly overlooked element when watching videos, and can really make or break a viewing experience as it can completely break the immersion of a video if done incorrectly. Because of this however I spent a great deal of time getting it just right to really make the experience that more memorable to the viewer.

I feel the main advantage of me doing the digital demonstration instead of the game, is that the video will be able to more closely resemble the board game. Compared to me programming in all of these functions that the real game has into software like Unity or Unreal 4, instead I can make a video showcasing how to play the game, in a much more interactive and engaging way (using text boxes and animation frames/ tweens to move my digital images), allowing me to explain the fundamental purpose of my game in a more entertaining and snappy way, than actually getting people to gather round to play it in my presentation. Here’s a screenshot of my video below:

I also created my presentation in PowerPoint, which functions as my evaluation. In this I covered every topic I covered during the project listed in the assignment brief (such as my planning, proposal and research), as well as the development my game (and the other games I gained inspiration from in my gameplay journal). I ended the presentation with what I feel did and didn’t go well, evaluating all of my points instead of just describing them, in order to take my presentation to a university level.

Now my production has come to a close, I finished and wrapped-up all of my project planning and management tools to reflect my current progress. I added the remaining points to my burndown charts (meaning that I’ve finished all of my musts and some of my shoulds), and also my sprint backlogs. I’ve also updated my task board (available online at https://trello.com/b/dgVnY8JY/adam-b-s-project-task-board ) with the objectives I’ve completed for the project, and lastly I updated my risk management plan with all of the actions taken (like dated examples of my regular file backups). This means all of my project management tools are finished and reflecting my current progress, and I’ve managed to complete my project on-time with the help of all these resources. The various dates listed on my sprints, as well as having the whole project broken down into separate tasks meant that I could plan out the various job I would do each week, without overwhelming myself or leaving it to the last minute. My burndown chart in particular still has 100 remaining points for the ‘everything’ section, however I’m fully up-to date with my musts and should one (both shown below).

Overall though I feel the project went well and I’m very proud of what I’ve created in this relatively short time-span, as also evaluated inside my presentation. There were a few issues here and there, such as me having to learn how to use software like Illustrator from a very basic level and also having my game rules constantly be changing, but overall I managed to overcome them using my preparation/ planning tools, as well as using methods I learned in the professional practises assignment. If I could do the project again I’d like to focus my time into improving my character artwork, as with some more personal development into my skills they could have looked even better. Likewise if we had more time for this project I would have programmed a digital game too which I was unable to achieve for these last 4 weeks, in order to branch out my learnt skills further and to a higher level too.