This page will be my Reflective Journal. Where I note down my long going progression through this whole Unit. This will go from the thought process, feelings leading to evidencing of the many things I will be doing to contribute to my final product.
Week 0
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Game Analysis 1
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Last year, I managed to make a game for my FMP but however, I was not impressed with the outcome I produced and I realised the flaw I had that prevented me from having a satisfying result was that I neglected how important preparation and planning was, along with not making a clear narrative quick enough. Thus, I decided to make sure I don't make the same mistakes. Over the half term, I conducted some self-analysis on different games I played in order to get ideas from them to assist me on my game concept to give me a headstart before the term begins. I chose these games as I've heard about how good they are multiple times and I heard they were made by developers I've previously analysed.
Ico-Shadow of The Colossus
These games were made by a developer I did research on in unit 12 called Fumito Ueda. Both Ico and Shadow Colossus are known for their distinctive themes and notable traits. That being the exploration of the concept of companionship. Both games get the player to work with two characters at once, as opposed to the standard one, but do explore it in slightly different ways.
Ico
Ico has you play as a young boy who has to escape a castle with the aid of a mysterious woman called Yorda, who is presented as frail as she isn't as athletic as he is, nor can she traverse the map as proficiently as he can. However, shes poses powers beyond the capabilities of his physical ability. This relationship is integrated seamlessly within the gameplay;
You can call for her to come to your location if you have driven from her
You can press and hold a trigger to simulate holding her hand, thus allowing her to walk right with you
This approach is quite unique. Most 3D multi-character games would have some sort of boundary that they can be a distance from to keep them in the same place. However, this games does not do that and the mechanics mentioned above are what keep both characters travelling from location to location at the same pace. The other features of the game are what really pin the concept of relying on one another;
There are doors that only she can open, however, if you left her at any previous part without making sure she can follow, you won't be able to proceed.
Some sections cant be reached by Yorda and the player has to find ways of getting her to them or otherwise she will be stuck.
At certain points of the game, creatures will appear from the ground and attempt to snatch Yorda, if you don't stop them, you get turned into stone.
Altogether, this drills in the point of how important it is to work with others, adapt different skills to assist with one thing and to always help each other out in need. Both characters in this game need each other and the player needs both in order to complete the game. This is what I admire from this game as its theme and message are heavily integrated with the game in a way that means you will experience companionship.
Shadow of The Colossus
This game has you play as a hero who tries to rescue the soul of a fallen woman by doing tasks from a non-physical being. From what I played, this game's rendition on companionships doesn't appear to be as prominent as it is in Ico. The player has a horse called Argo, which follows them everywhere and that they can call and ride on for traversal. He's also the only other character you interact within the game.
What encourages the companionship here is the fact that this game has large maps and locations. Walking through this vast amount of land on your own proves to be an extensive task which is why you need Argo to ride to speed up travel.
Argo can also assist you with combat via the many tricks you can do with him, such as standing/hanging on him whiles he moving. This allows the players to attack the move and allows for more tack ticks in a battle.Overall, this game is very similar to Ico and both approach the same theme in similar ways. Although, I knew that there was one key thing that was different about its approach, and upon spending some time really think and dissecting it, I discovered what it was;
Ico more or less forces the player to have a connection with Yorda, not being able to complete the game if you don't. But as I played Shadow of The Colossus, I could run around and nothing really implied that having Argo was completely necessary. But despite that, I still found myself drawn to him but not just because of the increased speed in traversal he provides but also how he is one of the only life you see in the vast and empty world. Shadow of The Colossus' environment is extremely large like previously stated, but there is not much life anywhere, spar from some birds and lizards. Thus it makes it satisfying when you interact with him, and seeing his AI being smart to the point where Argo will be moving around and doing actions on his own, really bringing life to him and this is extensive in how you can interact with him like petting him.
This all means that with Ico, the game itself is what encourages the companionship, but Colossus, its the mire atmosphere, a vibe that eventually leads you to it. Both are effective and great methods but I do prefer the one in Shadow Colossus as it felt more natural and I admire the idea that companionship is a choice but that choice can lead to benefits or inconveniences, much like in real life.
Overall Verdict
Both of these are great games in my view. They have a unique style to them and admirable messages that are explicitly expressed through not only the stories but the gameplay itself. This is definitely something that I will adapt to my game, ensuring any mechanics and features I add all cater and complement the theme and message of it, while also following Fumito Ueda's principle "Design by Subtraction".
They didn't manage to spark a possible narrative for me, but did allow me to understand Fumito Ueda's principle more and how I can use it effectively.
Ecco The Dolphin
This game is about a dolphin called Ecco (pronounced Echo) who tries to find out what happened to the creatures in his pond, who were sucked into a machine above.
Playing this game, it showed that it was less focused on complementing a theme like Ico and Shadow of The Colossus, but what it does do is adapt the mechanics of the game to match the physiology and actions of a dolphin. The controls are very basic but lead to versatile outcomes that also create an interaction with the world itself.;
You can press O to use Ecco's sonar ability, with which you can not only see all the obstacles that you may not see initially in the immediate area but also communicate with other dolphins and life you find.
The game also has a vast map with it being mostly a mission-based game rather than level to level. This encourages the player to travel through the world and its many different locations. What you actually do in the game is different from most others where there is a heavy focus to go around and kill enemies. Here, you just go to the locations you have to go and the enemies in here are more subtle and are just mire obstacles, like jellyfish which you can kill by dashing into them simply to get them out the way.
These all help to make the player feel like they are a part of a larger world, rather than just a place they have been put on. All the controls are simple and justify the fact that Ecco is a dolphin due to the things he can do, rather than he just being one for the sake of it. And the simple gameplay allows for more attention to the calming aspect to the game that I found. Simply swimming around, seeing what else is in it and just playing about with Eccos fun controls is what kept me interested.
This gameplay style reminds me of the principle that the developer Hidetaka Miyazaki follows which is where he designs the difficulty of his games based on its theme/narrative. As Ecco The Dolphin is a friendly tale with a simple plot for kids, its gameplay is also simple thus it never overstays its welcome, nor does it take itself too seriously. Simplicity can be more effective than having complexity.
Overall Verdict
I enjoyed playing it most out of these games. I got a lot of enjoyment swimming around, diving, finding other life and communicating with them. And I admire its world and how there's a lot to explore.
The game reminds me of the first Jak and Daxter game, where it's one pre-rendered world with no load times or "levels" and you just travel to and from each location. Any changes made to the world, such as a building being damaged will remain throughout the rest of the game. This is something I would like to try out myself, making one immersive map that the player has to explore.
I also admire the calming aspect of the game, as like I stated before what I enjoyed doing, you do have to play through the events of the game to have fun as you can just play about with the controls and everything else.
Week Evaluation
Despite the fact that the official project date hasn't begun, I still managed to generate ideas. While I haven't gotten much or narrative idea from the games, I do have an idea of what kind of gameplay I would want, which would be a free roam/calm type of game just like Ecco with some kind of gimmick like Ico.
Through my idea development, I will be referring back to these and describing how my mild idea now sprouts out more.
Week 1
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Course Review
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When first coming to this course, I merely had knowledge of Graphic Design and not much else. But right off the bat, I began learning the principles of 2D animation and was able to apply them in the animation projects I took part in for Units 1 & 2 - Animation Projects. Later on, my most prominent skill came to be. I began my learning of the art of 2D Game creation, where I learned how to make 2D games using the application Construct 2. This skill has developed through the course and now it’s one of my most proficient skills.
Over this academic year, I have taken part in and completed multiple different units and projects. In the beginning, I merely had experience with making 2D games, but the different units have allowed me to develop and experience new skills, such as Unit 9, Characteristicteristics and Context In Media Production where I was able to learn how to 3D model using the application Blender. It was something that I picked up fast and showed me I was starting to be able to adapt to different applications quite fast. And then the final thing we started to learn was Unity, making 3D games. It was much harder to pick up than the rest but was achievable nevertheless.
Out of the multiple projects I have been a part of so far, the ones I have had the most issues with where:
In the first year where we had to create a game in a group. As a lot of bugs came to be, organizing between different projects was difficult and sometimes it was hard to assign specific roles to everyone. This could have been helped with extra planning and preparation, extra time spent testing/researching and proofing along with having more team meetings.
In the second year, where I had to learn Unity, as previously stated, it was harder to pick up than the others as we not only had to learn the program, but also the coding language linked with it. Which lead to why Unit 10- Engaging An Audience In Creative Media Production had difficulty when creating a class game project together as part of the engine team, I needed to code. But I managed to do the correct thing and teach myself. This managed to give me a greater understanding of it to where I was and still have very confidence with it. Further showing me how important self-research even during a project can be a big difference.
Now that the FMP has begun, this is a big opportunity to practice, develop and execute many different skills. Technical and Soft Skills that I would like to develop areas such;
• Developing more on my coding ability. Being able to learn more of the term and off by heart thus being able to me complex scripts from scratch and thus improving my workflow
• Developing it my skills with Unity, as I plan to make a 2D game with it and I have never attempted that so it will be a unique challenge.
• Further enhance my idea generation, being able to make good concepts for future projects at a faster pace.
• Increase how I can adapt to strict time constraints on work
But overall, the most important skills I will need for my current plans for Unit are my coding as I’m aspiring to be a game developer and that would be a fundamental assent they would need to know.
Theme Mindmap
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Within these first few weeks, I intend to have generated a proper narrative/story that will allow me to start with making my concept with the art and code. Seeking to help refine my ideas and to possibly adopt new ones, I gave in a group with my pier, Gabs, where we both noted down all our current ides for what our FMP might be. His idea is to create an Animation on the topic of overpopulation/determent of the environment. I believe this is an interesting theme and one I'll be keeping on the back of my mind as it makes spark more ideas that I can integrate, but I will be careful to regulate all the future ideas I rake in to not get too ahead of myself like last year.
I wrote down the idea that I got from my analysis that I did one the games like Echo the Dolphin but it was hard to write it down at first as I didn't really know how it would direct the idea into a proper game format. Then after a suggestion from Gabs, I thought more about the theme and course face of it rather than the concept itself and then I was able to make it more concise. Thinking under the broad theme of exploration, I realise the course feature of Echo the Dolphin that I admired was how it created a whole ecosystem. How a whole different world is created with mechanics that are attributed to all creatures, such as communicating with other life and the physiology of the different creatures such as Echo's limited air supply.
I presented this idea to the rest of my class and they seem pretty interested with it but just shy on what kind of story it would branch. After the feedback, a game called Spore, made in 2008, where the player can create their own creates/environments. As this one definitely links to my current idea, I will definitely attempt to play this game and see what I can draw from it.
This was all quite helpful, and now my concept is more direct which allows it to be developed much more effectively. Even if I don't use this one in the long run, it's definitely an idea I would like to use someday.
Game Concept Idea 1
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A current concept that I have is something like showing the life of a fish in a small fish tank. It would be able to swim around, interact with the other fish and objects in the tank. However, I haven't managed to think of what kind of narrative I can make from this so I will need to develop this more but it is my first concept.
Theme Development: Contextual Analysis 1
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Now I have a concept of my game and the core feature that it will include. Since the idea mostly spawned from the game Ecco The Dolphin, I thought it would be a good idea to do some research in the makings of it to see if there are things that I can adapt from not only the game itself but from its production process. I watched a Youtube video that explained the whole journey of the creation of this game, from when it was just an idea to where it became the physical product today. (Bibliography Page 2CA)The 2 key things that I got from the video is first; Ed Annunziata, the man who came up with the idea based his research and fascination with dolphins and aquatic life into the project, first beginning with embedding at research into creating a test game mechanic and when it was accepted, it was then made into a game, The other things was the suggestion of another game, as the person in the video talked about one called Kolibri which was made by the same people who made Ecco and thus it has very similar properties. So I thought to contextually analyse it to see what it can do with the concept I have now. (Contextual Analysis Page)
I didn't get to play the game as it's from a very old console system that I don't have, but I did manage to see a full playthrough of the entire game that allowed me to see everything that it entails (Bibliography Page 2CA). As I stated there, Kolibri is very similar to Ecco but it has a few disparities that have breached different thoughts around my concept.
Storyplay
Kolibri has a very similar but still different storyplay( a term I made up that describes the way a game's story is embedded in). While Ecco has scripted events and NPC's you can talk to for directions, Kolibri has the player to work out everything they have to do on their own through. This was very apparent when watching the gameplay.
This made me think of what kind of storyplay I should have in my game. I could either have a story-heavy one where the narrative is more intertwined with the gameplay through the use of cutscenes or scripted events. Or I can have a very light story where, like Kolibri, the player will simply play through the game with juxtaposed objectives leading to a final goal.
Personally, I believe the latter is the better option for this project for three reasons, a story-heavy game will have more responsibilities in terms of how the games present it will speed up the prosses when doing focus/QA testing and I see that putting an immense amount of focus on the story can detract from the feeling of having the player explore and adopt the environment. So this the route I will go in terms of Storyplay.
Interactivity
In Kolibri, to gain his powers you have to suck the nectar from a plant. After that, you use the powers to allow the NPCs (main the other birds) to also suck in nectar by killing the bugs preventing them. This is an interesting concept as getting the player and background character to interact with the world itself makes it feel more alive and physical as it's not just there for show. This got me to think that I can come up with a way of allowing the player to interact with the world.
This will heavily depend on what kind of environment I come up with, but in terms with my first idea of playing as a fish in a fish tank, there are many ways I can embed interactivity. Such as tank pumps, decorative prompts and even food dispensers.
Ed Annunziata's team designed the mechanics of the game before actually designing it. Since it appears I will have quite a few mechanics myself, I believe this would be a good approach at the start of my production and then put it in a game world. This would have possibly made my outcome last year more successful.
Mood
Kolibri's gameplay is very exaggerated compared to Ecco's as it doesn't fully represent the physiology of the playable animal like the latter does. This gave more a more abstract idea for a game concept.
Kolibri has a very similar but still different storyplay( a term I made up that describes the way a game's story is embedded in). While Ecco has scripted events and NPC's you can talk to for directions, Kolibri has the player to work out everything they have to do on their own through. This was very apparent when watching the gameplay.
This made me think of what kind of storyplay I should have in my game. I could either have a story-heavy one where the narrative is more intertwined with the gameplay through the use of cutscenes or scripted events. Or I can have a very light story where, like Kolibri, the player will simply play through the game with juxtaposed objectives leading to a final goal.
Personally, I believe the latter is the better option for this project for three reasons, a story-heavy game will have more responsibilities in terms of how the games present it will speed up the prosses when doing focus/QA testing and I see that putting an immense amount of focus on the story can detract from the feeling of having the player explore and adopt the environment. So this the route I will go in terms of Storyplay.
Interactivity
In Kolibri, to gain his powers you have to suck the nectar from a plant. After that, you use the powers to allow the NPCs (main the other birds) to also suck in nectar by killing the bugs preventing them. This is an interesting concept as getting the player and background character to interact with the world itself makes it feel more alive and physical as it's not just there for show. This got me to think that I can come up with a way of allowing the player to interact with the world.
This will heavily depend on what kind of environment I come up with, but in terms with my first idea of playing as a fish in a fish tank, there are many ways I can embed interactivity. Such as tank pumps, decorative prompts and even food dispensers.
Ed Annunziata's team designed the mechanics of the game before actually designing it. Since it appears I will have quite a few mechanics myself, I believe this would be a good approach at the start of my production and then put it in a game world. This would have possibly made my outcome last year more successful.
Mood
Kolibri's gameplay is very exaggerated compared to Ecco's as it doesn't fully represent the physiology of the playable animal like the latter does. This gave more a more abstract idea for a game concept.
Game Concept Idea 2
Instead of being set in a realistic world like a fish tank, It can be an abstract made-up world with made-up creatures. A narrative idea I made is to set the story in space were a race of animalistic creatures get separated and scattered through space and the main protagonists have to find his friends and then find a way back home.
A more abstract concept like this would allow for more I can do with characters and environments, but a more realistic approach would be more grounded and assign limitations that may prevent me from going overboard. Ultimately, I will base this decision on what my chosen audience and either idea cater to another.
Overall, Kolibri has assisted with the different things I have to take into an account and I will refer back to this when my idea becomes more refined.
Instead of being set in a realistic world like a fish tank, It can be an abstract made-up world with made-up creatures. A narrative idea I made is to set the story in space were a race of animalistic creatures get separated and scattered through space and the main protagonists have to find his friends and then find a way back home.
A more abstract concept like this would allow for more I can do with characters and environments, but a more realistic approach would be more grounded and assign limitations that may prevent me from going overboard. Ultimately, I will base this decision on what my chosen audience and either idea cater to another.
Overall, Kolibri has assisted with the different things I have to take into an account and I will refer back to this when my idea becomes more refined.
Production Research 1: Trip
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A while ago, people from King studio came to visit us for a talk. Afterwards, I got into contact with one of the developers, called Oliver, that came in order to arrange a time where I could get a tour of the studio. I also used this as an opportunity in order to get professional advice, idea and any suggested resources. When I told him my concepts, he appeared to admire them, stating that it was a good starting point and that exploration and being in a vast world, which is my theme, is one of the interesting parts of games. Then he games me pointers of things to not only help concise my idea but also to help with production.
Production Advice
I'm pretty confident with my processes of production as I'm focused and do what I can to complete tasks as soon as I can. However, something I've stated before, one thing that has held me back is poor planning. His advice to me was;
Don't Make Rigid Plans, Make Them Weekly
Before, any plans I would make would be trying to think about what I would do/complete each day of each week and in essence trying to be very specific. This is possibly what shied me away from spending extra time writing out a plan as being too specific is what leads to it changing all the time.
However, making plans for each week makes things more concise as I can base each week on the tasks that cater to specific parts of the project, such as making tasks for one week for gameplay and another for artwork.
Make A List
To complement my plan, he suggested making a list of the tasks to complete each week. He said that they used Task Management software for this purpose as when they log in the computer, they can check and review what they have to do with ease.
Assin Limitations Princable
Oliver stated that a principle they abide by is assigning a limit to every task they have and not being vague in what they aim to produce. This can be labelling the limit of characters you will add, events that will append ext.
Concept Boost
Narrative Ideas
Oliver assisted me with possible features that I could add to my narrative;
1. Survival Mechanic
A narrative where you play as a creature who has to survive in a harsh environment, having to find food and avoid predators until you grow into predators yourself. The AI
2. Finding Nemo Style
He suggested drawing inspiration from the Disney movie Finding Nemo. Having the protagonist go through a journey to achieve something
Overview
This meeting with Oliver was quite useful and I have taken quite a lot from it that I will adapt to myself for this project.
In terms of production, I will definitely take his advice on planning. I will try to find an application or site that acts as a Task Manager and I will use it to make weekly tasks for myself and each will represent different parts of the project. I believe that this would be a much more successful system than the one I had last year.
To Assis with my planning stage when it comes, I will be combining the principles from Oliver for limitations and the one I mentioned before, Desing by subtraction. Using them, I can make sure all my goals for each week are realistic and consistently review if that everything I'm doing can be finished within the timeframe and if they all help compliment my theme.
In terms of narrative ideas, he gives more things to go off. A survival type of game is a good idea as that kind of mechanic wouldn't need much of a deep story and it would be more mechanic based thus making it easier for it to be non-linear.
With Oliver's suggestion with Finding Nemo, it gave me the idea of possibly re-watching the movie and possibly other animals/creature related films to analyse how they integrate the creature and ecosystem in their narratives so I could make a clear pathway of how I want it in mine as I want a proper one by the end of the week. This is what I'll do during the week. Along with the games he suggested which were, Breath Of The Wild, Red Dead Redemption, Aquatica, Subotica and Outer Wilds.
Production Advice
I'm pretty confident with my processes of production as I'm focused and do what I can to complete tasks as soon as I can. However, something I've stated before, one thing that has held me back is poor planning. His advice to me was;
Don't Make Rigid Plans, Make Them Weekly
Before, any plans I would make would be trying to think about what I would do/complete each day of each week and in essence trying to be very specific. This is possibly what shied me away from spending extra time writing out a plan as being too specific is what leads to it changing all the time.
However, making plans for each week makes things more concise as I can base each week on the tasks that cater to specific parts of the project, such as making tasks for one week for gameplay and another for artwork.
Make A List
To complement my plan, he suggested making a list of the tasks to complete each week. He said that they used Task Management software for this purpose as when they log in the computer, they can check and review what they have to do with ease.
Assin Limitations Princable
Oliver stated that a principle they abide by is assigning a limit to every task they have and not being vague in what they aim to produce. This can be labelling the limit of characters you will add, events that will append ext.
Concept Boost
Narrative Ideas
Oliver assisted me with possible features that I could add to my narrative;
1. Survival Mechanic
A narrative where you play as a creature who has to survive in a harsh environment, having to find food and avoid predators until you grow into predators yourself. The AI
2. Finding Nemo Style
He suggested drawing inspiration from the Disney movie Finding Nemo. Having the protagonist go through a journey to achieve something
Overview
This meeting with Oliver was quite useful and I have taken quite a lot from it that I will adapt to myself for this project.
In terms of production, I will definitely take his advice on planning. I will try to find an application or site that acts as a Task Manager and I will use it to make weekly tasks for myself and each will represent different parts of the project. I believe that this would be a much more successful system than the one I had last year.
To Assis with my planning stage when it comes, I will be combining the principles from Oliver for limitations and the one I mentioned before, Desing by subtraction. Using them, I can make sure all my goals for each week are realistic and consistently review if that everything I'm doing can be finished within the timeframe and if they all help compliment my theme.
In terms of narrative ideas, he gives more things to go off. A survival type of game is a good idea as that kind of mechanic wouldn't need much of a deep story and it would be more mechanic based thus making it easier for it to be non-linear.
With Oliver's suggestion with Finding Nemo, it gave me the idea of possibly re-watching the movie and possibly other animals/creature related films to analyse how they integrate the creature and ecosystem in their narratives so I could make a clear pathway of how I want it in mine as I want a proper one by the end of the week. This is what I'll do during the week. Along with the games he suggested which were, Breath Of The Wild, Red Dead Redemption, Aquatica, Subotica and Outer Wilds.
Week Evaluation
With the many tasks I've done this week, this week has been very productive; I managed to define what my core theme is while using what I got from my game analysis in the previous week. Now that I know that I want my game to perdure the idea of an ecosystem, I can now build upon my ideas more confidently with a now more clear idea. This idea developed even further from my start on contextual analysis, with Kolibri. It was quite insightful, giving me a good direction how the game should go and different aspects that I should think about while continuing in the project. I even managed to produce a second idea from my visit to King Studio, also managing to gain more understanding of the professional and advice on how to assist with my production. Overall, it has been a successful week. Now I need to do more analysis to develop my idea further so I can eventually have a pinpoint final goal.
Week 2
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Experimentation 1
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Experimentation 1
Since last week I focused on research and analysis, I decided to post some focus on experimentation, as before you start a big project like this, it's very useful to practise/learn the different skills and utilities you will have to use.
For my first bit of experimentation, learning the basics with working on a 2D canvas was my aim as I've only worked on one when importing UI on 3D projects. My first experience with this is shown on my Research and Experimentation page.
This experimentation ended up being quite successful and insightful. I managed to learn quite a few useful things such as: How importing assets for 2D works, mostly constituting flat sprites in which you use to import images, What Sorting Layers are that grants control of the layer placement of sprites and even how to make an 8 Direction control that's appliable to any object.
As I described briefly on my Research and Experimentation page, I was initially quite confused when I crated the 2D project file as I expected a different interface as it had its own selection on the Unity Hub though it is the same makes it much more managed to get used to. I'm now pretty confident that I can make a 2D game using Unity. I also used this experiment to decide if its worth using Unity over Construct 2 in which I am more experienced, and with everything I learned about Unity itself so far I believe it is so. Unity scripting may require more workmanship, but it also adds more sense of control in what happens in a project with you being able to script anything and now confined by assigned terms in the program.
One factor that I desire to explore more is the physics-based movement controls. When playing Ecco The Dolphin, swimming, dashing and diving around felt fluid and natural because it was realistic. Having Ecco still move forwards after swimming fast due to momentum, having the distance/hight of his dives be based on his speed and so on. As I'm planning on having my games environment being something like underwater or space, locations that should have different physics applied to the characters, learning more about how to manipulate forces like gravity and velocity more so the controls and natural feel for my character match the setting.
However, I did arrive at an issue during the experiment. Which is where I failed to successfully apply collisions to one of the sprites I added and couldn't figure out what was the issue. This will obviously be something I will test further and figure out, but this shows that there will be quite a few things that will be different with working on a 2D canvas and it can lead to things that were simple with 3D to be more complicated. This is why this experiment was very insightful and from now, I will be looking for the many different assets and components that I aim to use that may require a different method for 2D. As when I officially start my project, dealing with issues like I did this time can be an effective setback
Theme Development: Contextual Analysis 2
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I've always been interested with nature documentaries and learning more about wildlife, but this one, in particular, was very intriguing and I believe it has helped somewhat refined my ideas more than it was before and given me more concepts I can possibly develop on.
Environment
My current concept would mostly be a freedom game, where the player can explore and interact with the environment at their whim without many constrictions. For this to be effective, the environment needs to be about to interest the player and encourage them to do so, so this is an important factor of my game that I have to develop on.
From watching the video, I can say the environment under the sea is a beautiful sight, mostly being made from mesmerizing plants and sea beds. They were all different in shape and sizes and most of them never looked the same.
Two plants I was particularly intrigued by were the Anemone and Alge.
Anemon for its hazardous properties, with it being protected with tentacles that would paralyse most fish besides one who may have a resistance to it. This can be a great example of how I can add interactivity to the world of my game which I desired to have from the last product I contextually analysed. Having plants that are not only a part of the background but also have ones that the player and other characters can interact with. It could be for the case of hazards like the Anemone is in real life, it can be used to hide from predators or I can have it affect the character is multiple types of ways. There are many different things I can do with this concept.
Alge is a unique type of plant that converts the sunlight it absorbs into edible sugar for the other fish to eat, which also provides extra nutrients to the creatures that eat them, making the area with the Alge almost as a solar-powered factory and extra nutrients are provided to everyone through a renewable source. Having a feature like this in my game not only can bring the world to life more effectively, but also can add a lot of worldbuilding to the game. Having rules and mechanics with the world itself like having a solar-powered nutrient system is a great example of assisting with there immurement of the product and increases the chance of players in identifying with the world more.
Life
Before this, I had almost no idea of what kind of designs I would make for my characters and all I had to base off were the ones in Ecco and Kolibri. But I knew I wanted my designs to be simple but memorable, having features that the player can admire and use to always notice them.
There were many different creates and animals in the documentary, all of which differed in shape, size and structure with the multiple species. What was also interesting that I described on my Contextual Alisis Page, the different creatures has their own properties and unique features like the plants. Some being immune to the paralysing ability of the Anemone and sea snakes with one of the most potent venoms but only for protection.
One thing I took note of from the life in the see that I thought was very fascinating, was seeing how the creatures interested with each other. Some of them engage in double benefit cycles, where a creature would assist another creature with something like grooming, and intern, they get a meal and thus more nutrients. This is also something that can greatly help with the worldbuilding within my project, as if the NPCs can not only interact with the environment but also each other in ways that affect others, they would feel less like computers and more like actually lifeforms.
Overall Verdict
Through the features and mechanics I've thought about implementing this past couple of weeks, this analysis has given me a lot of inspiration of I can go about them and now I know what I can do from now to make sure they develop well.
In terms of art, Ill explore more of the copious amount of plants and creatures to base the visual assets, taking features from each and use to create my own. I intend to use multiple forms of media to assist with this.
In terms of mechanics, I will research and respect the different characteristics and properties these plant and animals have to help inform what kind of script I would make for them. Such as making a script for an Anemon like a plant (if I include it) that parties the player if they touch it.
It's very good that I have these more refined ideas now, and I felt it was very useful. Now, this is the stage where I will need to be setting my limitations and clear goals. Last year, this is where I would be getting too into the multiple ideas and eventually get lost into them all. This time, as I do my research and concept work, I will have to define what is the core goal, the absolute minimum of what must be added in order to not go overboard and repeat my previous mistake. I'll be sure to take this into an account when I going through my further development.
Week Evaluation
As I stated last week, I needed to develop my early ideas further as the sooner I come up with my final idea, the better I will be for the production process as I will already know what I'll need to do.
From doing my Contextual Analysis on the nature documentary, my idea has become much more clear. Now I'm sure that I will like for my game to be a free roam type, where the player will freely be able to explore around the world at their own discretion. The span of secondary research I will do has now has expanded and thus I now have a lot more things to go off. My idea was definitely developed much more than before and I'm a bit more confident with it. But at the same time, I still do fear if I'll make a complete outcome, I'm not entirely sure if this is just my natural fear or if maybe there's something else I may need to take into account that I notice subconsciously. So I will always try to be cautious and aware through the project.
My experimentation has definitely gotten me to understand the basics of working with a 2D canvas. In the end, I'm happy I at least made a basic script for my player's movement and it works as I imagined, going smoothly in any direction I want it to and I have full control over its speed. The only thing I do concern about it is how I can make the character angle itself in the direction it's going as it isn't as simple as a 4 direction movement where all would need is rotating the image. But with 8 direction, It will either require altered animations or manipulating the angles of the player. This will also will be something I'll have to test later and could affect if I'll continue to use this control. But as it stands right now, it's appropriate for what I'm doing.
Week 3
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Audience Research 1
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I began this week by conducting secondary research to determine two of the categories of my audience, being the age rating and the player type.
In terms of the age rating, I went through all of the specifications for the rating Classification Bodies, PEGI and BBFC. My results ended up finding that the ratings I found the one that suits the most are PEGI 7 and PG. Both of them are used for media that hold very mild violence, graphic nature and subject matter that may affect very small children but other than that would be suitable for all ages. This matches with the current concept of my game.
In terms of player types, I saw my game would fit the Exploration, Persevere, Hermit, Mechanics and Context due to the nature and core theme of my game.
Audience Research 1
I began this week by conducting secondary research to determine two of the categories of my audience, being the age rating and the player type.
In terms of the age rating, I went through all of the specifications for the rating Classification Bodies, PEGI and BBFC. My results ended up finding that the ratings I found the one that suits the most are PEGI 7 and PG. Both of them are used for media that hold very mild violence, graphic nature and subject matter that may affect very small children but other than that would be suitable for all ages. This matches with the current concept of my game.
In terms of player types, I saw my game would fit the Exploration, Persevere, Hermit, Mechanics and Context due to the nature and core theme of my game.
Theme Development: Contextual Analysis 3/4/5
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From doing two Contextual Analisis already, focusing on how ecosystems work in the different media. This time I wanted to focus on how animals and creatures were designed themselves to match and create the ecosystems they're in using 3 different books that contain fantasy style art. Each had their own patterns and styles that I described in detail on my Contextual Analysis page, and each gave me a lot of insight into how my creatures can be designed in conjunction with the habitat.
Fantasy World
From this book, the pattern was that the creatures in the illustrations were extraction of the background used to boot the atmosphere and vibe of the scene. In doing so, it allows for aesthetes to analyse the creatures and the background individually to help emote hidden connotations.
This method got me thinking if I could embed this style to my idea. Then I remembered what I learned about deep-sea creatures a while ago and how they live in pitch-black parts of the water and that they use their natural ability to produce light for different purposes. If I had a section like this in my game where the player can enter a very dark part of the area but have lifeforms around that are alit, this would help extend the impact of the darkness as it the effectiveness of the player will be more potent when they subconsciously compare how it's like with and without these bright animals.
Fantasy+
This book ad a collection of art from many different artists. The pattern I found in this book was that the creatures were designed specifically to perfectly match the environment to show how they fit in the scene.
My game will most probably begin with the main character being in their home located within the water. The area can be designed to perfectly match with them in order to increase the distinction for when they enter areas where they don't match. Such as having the main one entail plants and food that sustain the protagonist, but another location can have ones that harm them with poisonous food.
OAO
From this book, the pattern was that the creatures in the illustrations were extraction of the background used to boot the atmosphere and vibe of the scene. In doing so, it allows for aesthetes to analyse the creatures and the background individually to help emote hidden connotations.
This method got me thinking if I could embed this style to my idea. Then I remembered what I learned about deep-sea creatures a while ago and how they live in pitch-black parts of the water and that they use their natural ability to produce light for different purposes. If I had a section like this in my game where the player can enter a very dark part of the area but have lifeforms around that are alit, this would help extend the impact of the darkness as it the effectiveness of the player will be more potent when they subconsciously compare how it's like with and without these bright animals.
Fantasy+
This book ad a collection of art from many different artists. The pattern I found in this book was that the creatures were designed specifically to perfectly match the environment to show how they fit in the scene.
My game will most probably begin with the main character being in their home located within the water. The area can be designed to perfectly match with them in order to increase the distinction for when they enter areas where they don't match. Such as having the main one entail plants and food that sustain the protagonist, but another location can have ones that harm them with poisonous food.
OAO
The encyclopedia of the Oddworld series displayed how heart, designs and physiology for the creatures are made to compliment the theme of the products. Having factors about them that link with it, a method that's almost a combination with the previous.
This method would be the most useful to use when designs of my characters, as (as stated before) I want the controls and feel of my character to reflect upon its physiology and the theme of the game. As the main theme is being able to interact in an ecosystem, the design of the character can be reflected upon features that would aid this feature. Such as limbs that can be used to communicate with the other creatures. A thing that I took a lot of interest in, was how Abe had markings on his chest that represent different things. This makes for more worldbuilding as hidden messages can be hidden through the game and it takes for a person to go back and analyse it. The way I could Use this has some kind of designs with hidden meanings within different parts of the background and somehow link it to my character, giving it more replayability and attracts more focus from the player.
Week Evaluation
Now, I have defined my initial audience in both age and player type. With knowing the age range to look at, I can do further research to define how to cater to them more effectively. With primary research, I can do surveys and interviews to dissect what factors and assets attract different people from different ages and then see how I could embed it in my game. Knowing the player types can spark a lot more primary research. For instance, I aim to revisit the 4 domains of play (as I did in Unit 4 last year) and check what my current player empath is. Once that's done, I can do some more player acting to boot my knowledge of what attracts certain players to a certain type of games and see how mine can adapt to many of them.
My analysis this week has helped improved my insight on how I can enhance my ecosystem theme, but this time mostly for the design side. They all link to my theme as they all consist of using the design of the creatures for different purposes. Since my theme is about a society of animals, analysing how the creatures themselves can be effectively be integrated with the environment not only links but also helps to boost its effectiveness. I never thought about possibly having sections like where deep-sea animals would live, and thus making a variety of areas and locations that would help with the immersion as it would show the world is vast. I will develop these aides more through my future concept art, and I will conduct more research to reinstate my knowledge of deep-sea creatures.
Week 4
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From conducting game analyses, research and five different contextual analyses, I began working on my Pecha Kucha was I will visually explain my journey through the project up to this point. I wanted to make sure that the presentation is highly personalised and unique, and I already had ideas on how to construct it.
The format I came up with was to have fish and creatures swimming in the background to help promote my theme of an ecosystem. To do this, I obtained free stock footage of water and edited it on Photoshop to fit the presentation. What I did was make a background for it, then I used the stock footage of the water by lowering its opacity and putting it on the top. Not only would this act as a screensaver, but can also allow me to exploit it by putting creatures behind it.
This was the result
I was impressed with how well it looked and decided that this would be the base background for my slides.
Then I got started with constructing the PowerPoint. I already had a plan in how most slides would play out in unique and creative ways. Such as the first slide where I wanted multiple fish to swim through the screen while one of them carries the title of the slide. Having this under the video of the after which would be transparent to make it appear that it's all happening in the water. This would not only draw peoples interest when presenting it but also effectively express what my overall theme is, latest in terms of the setting. Unfortunately, while attempting this I saw that it was too much for PowerPoint and would repetitively freeze and glitch upon trying to preview it. So I would seem that my plans would not work in this instance.
Then I had the idea of using the application Construct 2 to construct the Pecha Kucha. Its something used for 2D games but with the utilities it has it can easily be made into a presentation. So to test it, I attempted to implement the same slide I did with PowerPoint with having fish swim across. This turned out successful and didn't cause any problems with Construct.
As it appeared that Construct could handle what I was attempting, I decided that this is what I would use for my Pecha Kucha. Once I completed it, I was very happy with how it turned out, I managed to design is filled with movement, animations and designs that all helped to create an atmosphere that accurately portrays what it will be like form my final outcome. The only issue I had was that whenever starting the presentation, a lot of the time it would ever take a long time to load or cerin assets (like the water screensaver) would appear latter than it supposed to. But regardless, it was successful. You can see the result on my Pecha Kucha Page, but disclaimer, it can possibly be slow or buggy.
Week Evaluation
I managed to complete the slides of my Pecha Kucha with a detailed and interactive presentation. While doing so, I generated a design idea. This being how I used a video of water flowing and altered it opacity to act as not only a kind of screensaver, but also makes it appear as everything under it is in water. This was successful on the slides, so this is definitely something I can adapt to my project. This can either be to add some kind of filter to the game or I can simply use this to represent the water. This would be much more effective than simply showing blue as displaying moving water helps the brain recognise the setting better and further immerse then in the world.
With the Pecha Kucha done, I will now begin with my primary research by doing some Player Acting to improve my player empathy.
However, a change of events has promoted extra things needed to be thought about snd reviewed. Currently, a new illness called Coronavirus (or COVID-19) appeared and the people affected by it was increasing each day which has lead to schools and colleges around the world to come to closure, and my college was one of them. This means for an indefinite amount of time, I will have to work from home rather than on campus. Luckily, I happen to have a computer at home with the applications I will need at the moment. Howbeit, this will still have an effect on the process of my work. Having to work in an environment I'm more comfortable in can be positive, but at the same time, not being in a professional workspace makes it more prone to getting too comfortable and thus can decrease the pace of work.
Originally, I was going to set making my plan sheets at the end of pre-production But because of this change, I believe I may have to start writing out my plan from much more earlier, as setting and recoding clear goals and aims will assist in making sure my work doesn't diminish and so I can better reflect on the work I produce on this break from college. I believe that this will be a very effective method in adapting at this inconvenient time and for however long this will last, I will still continue to make sure my work isn't negatively affected. To further assist with this, I will conduct more production research as my pre-production is very close to starting.
Pecha Kucha
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From conducting game analyses, research and five different contextual analyses, I began working on my Pecha Kucha was I will visually explain my journey through the project up to this point. I wanted to make sure that the presentation is highly personalised and unique, and I already had ideas on how to construct it.
The format I came up with was to have fish and creatures swimming in the background to help promote my theme of an ecosystem. To do this, I obtained free stock footage of water and edited it on Photoshop to fit the presentation. What I did was make a background for it, then I used the stock footage of the water by lowering its opacity and putting it on the top. Not only would this act as a screensaver, but can also allow me to exploit it by putting creatures behind it.
This was the result
I was impressed with how well it looked and decided that this would be the base background for my slides.
Then I got started with constructing the PowerPoint. I already had a plan in how most slides would play out in unique and creative ways. Such as the first slide where I wanted multiple fish to swim through the screen while one of them carries the title of the slide. Having this under the video of the after which would be transparent to make it appear that it's all happening in the water. This would not only draw peoples interest when presenting it but also effectively express what my overall theme is, latest in terms of the setting. Unfortunately, while attempting this I saw that it was too much for PowerPoint and would repetitively freeze and glitch upon trying to preview it. So I would seem that my plans would not work in this instance.
Then I had the idea of using the application Construct 2 to construct the Pecha Kucha. Its something used for 2D games but with the utilities it has it can easily be made into a presentation. So to test it, I attempted to implement the same slide I did with PowerPoint with having fish swim across. This turned out successful and didn't cause any problems with Construct.
As it appeared that Construct could handle what I was attempting, I decided that this is what I would use for my Pecha Kucha. Once I completed it, I was very happy with how it turned out, I managed to design is filled with movement, animations and designs that all helped to create an atmosphere that accurately portrays what it will be like form my final outcome. The only issue I had was that whenever starting the presentation, a lot of the time it would ever take a long time to load or cerin assets (like the water screensaver) would appear latter than it supposed to. But regardless, it was successful. You can see the result on my Pecha Kucha Page, but disclaimer, it can possibly be slow or buggy.
Week Evaluation
I managed to complete the slides of my Pecha Kucha with a detailed and interactive presentation. While doing so, I generated a design idea. This being how I used a video of water flowing and altered it opacity to act as not only a kind of screensaver, but also makes it appear as everything under it is in water. This was successful on the slides, so this is definitely something I can adapt to my project. This can either be to add some kind of filter to the game or I can simply use this to represent the water. This would be much more effective than simply showing blue as displaying moving water helps the brain recognise the setting better and further immerse then in the world.
With the Pecha Kucha done, I will now begin with my primary research by doing some Player Acting to improve my player empathy.
However, a change of events has promoted extra things needed to be thought about snd reviewed. Currently, a new illness called Coronavirus (or COVID-19) appeared and the people affected by it was increasing each day which has lead to schools and colleges around the world to come to closure, and my college was one of them. This means for an indefinite amount of time, I will have to work from home rather than on campus. Luckily, I happen to have a computer at home with the applications I will need at the moment. Howbeit, this will still have an effect on the process of my work. Having to work in an environment I'm more comfortable in can be positive, but at the same time, not being in a professional workspace makes it more prone to getting too comfortable and thus can decrease the pace of work.
Originally, I was going to set making my plan sheets at the end of pre-production But because of this change, I believe I may have to start writing out my plan from much more earlier, as setting and recoding clear goals and aims will assist in making sure my work doesn't diminish and so I can better reflect on the work I produce on this break from college. I believe that this will be a very effective method in adapting at this inconvenient time and for however long this will last, I will still continue to make sure my work isn't negatively affected. To further assist with this, I will conduct more production research as my pre-production is very close to starting.
Week 5
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As I stated last week, with the recent change of conditions at the current time, it's important for me to start writing out my plants from now to ensure I'm being clear and objective with the work I do. I was given a template to work off to generate my plants for the coming weeks. However, I wasn't too much of a fan of the format and I wanted to be more independent when creating it.
So I decided to conduct some Production Research. I thought back all the way from Week One where I went on a trip at King Studio. The person who I met there, Oliver, advised me that there are applications that you can use to help manage different tasks and goals. One he suggested was called Todoist. However, I didn't really like the interface, in how squished it is with tabs on the side that I don't seem to be able to get rid of.
Production Research 2 : Applicaton
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As I stated last week, with the recent change of conditions at the current time, it's important for me to start writing out my plants from now to ensure I'm being clear and objective with the work I do. I was given a template to work off to generate my plants for the coming weeks. However, I wasn't too much of a fan of the format and I wanted to be more independent when creating it.
So I decided to conduct some Production Research. I thought back all the way from Week One where I went on a trip at King Studio. The person who I met there, Oliver, advised me that there are applications that you can use to help manage different tasks and goals. One he suggested was called Todoist. However, I didn't really like the interface, in how squished it is with tabs on the side that I don't seem to be able to get rid of.
So I got to search for alternatives, and eventually, I came across one that caught my eye. It is called Microsoft To-Do. I noted down my research of it on my Research and Experimentation Page.
From the start, I found this application to be far better than the previous. Its user interface was far neater and visually appealing, and there weren't numerous tabs that I couldn't remove. Then I went on testing its features, and see how useful they all are. In To Do, I make tabs called Lists and I note my tasks on each. This is a very neat and organised method of doing so, as it makes it easier to differentiate the different tasks by the different weeks.
On each task, I'm given the ability to do things like set reminders and due dates to each. Setting date goals for tasks is an important part of planning as it helps prevent spending too long on them and thus using up time that should be catered to other aspects of the project. Not only being able to set due dates on the app itself useful for me constantly visually reviewing it but also being able to set reminders boots the effectiveness of the app in how it assists in maintaining a productive and consistent schedule. You can even add notes to each of them to add any specifications to each task which is also an interesting feature.
One of the most interesting and possibly useful things you can do is upload files to To Do and attach them to individual tasks. This can be used for things such as uploading different projectiles of anything you may be working on. It allows for you to download your attached files on any other device, meaning it a place where you can not only maintain a steady production of a project but also have it within the project and be able to access it anywhere. This feature is something I can definitely use, mainly for when I start working on my game on Unity again. Since Unity works from working from a folder, its something that isn't as simple to save different versions through time, which is an important practice to avoid data loss or corruption if anything goes wrong. Using To Do, I can upload my Unity project file possibly once a week and I can label the date I put it in. This way, if my project should ever face any issues related to corruption or data loss, I can simply use any of my past uploaded versions and thus be in a much better position than I would be in that scenario.
Everything I have already stated that makes this application great is intensified by one of its most useful assets, which is its high cross-platform capabilities. The app as a version just for the phone, meaning I can review and edit my tasks at any time without even having to access my computer. This also makes set reminders more effective and it will pop up as a notification on my phone, which is more reliable than one on my computer. Everything I have said up to this point as cemented how Microsoft To-Do is an excellent application for managing tasks. I believe I would benefit a lot more by using this to write out my plans for the rest of production, its interface and features designed around the things that assist with planning, in my opinion, makes it far superior than using a sheet or table on a document. So I will be using To-Do for when I write out my plans.
Primary Research
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Covid 19 situation as increased in its seriousness. Currently, not only almost all education systems are closed, but now the UK has now entered full lockdown. This means everyone has to remain in their household unless for a good reason. The consequence to all of this is that it makes it much more difficult to conduct primary research, as I'm not able to meet and talk with people to gain more authentic and personalised results to collate with my ideas. For this reason, it's imperative that I begin my player acting now as its one of the only forms of primary research I can do and it's important to get that type of research before I go in pre-production as it will be a large part of my decision making. Thus I began the process of player acting that I learnt last year.
The first step is to take The Big Five Personality Test. This test is a derivative of something called the Four Domains of Play, studied by Jason Vandenburg. It asks a series of questions that it will use to tally your presence in the realms of 5 different personality traits. They are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness. I compleated the test and then I received my results.
I gathered the results together and then referenced them within the Four Domains Of Play. I made this graph to present it.
With both results, I got started in identifying what media I can possibly Player Act based on my blindspot. However, I then remembered because we have to stay at home, it makes it extremely difficult for me to get a hold of games in the realms of my empathy blindspots. So to adapt to this, I decided to reverse the general concept of player actions. Instead of playing a game for player types that are opposed to mine, I figured that I could use the four domains of play to find a game that aligns with the player types that fits my audience. This can be used this to analyse how other games adhere to those players and thus I can determine how it can be applied to mines.
After scooping through most of the games I had at home, I stopped when I came to the game Spyro Reignited Trilogy as its a remake of its original that I played as a child. Remembering its content, I knew it would be a very suitable game to player-act. My analysis can be seen on my Research and Experimentation page. I explained how Spyro fitted all of the different player types I defined for my games audience and why each is effective at it. After beaking each type down and stating how it adheres to them, I saw that there's was something to take out from all of them.
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I noted that the way Spyro handles its mechanics is very similar to how it is on Ecco The Dolphin and in the concept I have, where the things the player can do are linked with the physiology of the character. Playing Spyro really showed me how effective this kind of design is when playing any type of creature in a game so its definitely helped cement that idea more. One specific thing I liked about the controls, is how they are all very simple and only a very few of them, yet they can be used in different ways to achieve different purposes. One of the ways it does this is how Spyro can use its horns and speed to start to charge forwards and a fast pace. This can be used as a ramming attack for when enemies are in your way, and it can also be used simply as a sprint in order to traverse the map faster. I like to call this a Flexible Verb, an action the player can do that can be used for different purposes. With verbs themselves being action a player can do in a game.
Spyro also uses some Versatile Verbs, something that I learnt about in Unit 4 last year. Versatile Verbs are where the button for a verb is either pressed differently or combined with another button to make a different action happen. This can be seen in one of Spyros movies where he can jump both normally, and while he's charging. Doing it in the latter way will result in a further reach jump.
I commend both types of verbs and how they were implemented in Spyro. I also hope to possible used both for different reasons. Using Versatile Verbs is an effective method to adhere to the Mechanic player type as it can allow for a moveset to be basic on its base level but implement a variety of other controls that makes it complex when to break it all down. This would satisfy both people who prefer simple and complex controls as they get to decide what they want to use. Flexible Verbs allow for the controls to be as simple as I wish to be as having them being able to serve multiple purposes still technically make the moveset somewhat more complex as you can use the controls for multiple outcomes but at the same time it still maintains its simplicity as it still using the same couple of moves. Ultimately, I believe the type of verb I should focus on implementing more is the Flexible Verb. As I stated before, I attempting to not have my ideas go overboard and attempting to make multiple of verbs would constitute more scripts, testing and can result in more issues than needed. However, Flexible Verbs can help keep the project grounded while still providing something that Mechanic players can admire and adhere to them. Most of all, the fewer controls I have to focus on, the more time I get to refine reach and making them the most fluid they can be.
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In terms of the tone in Spyro, it uses aspects that cater to the Hermit and Persevere player types to assist in presenting it. Examples of this are shown through the AI of most enemies. For instance, some enemies display a fear of Spyro, running away when he approaches them and go down in one hit. This is normally for enemies that don't appear to have any abilities to defend themselves against Spyro. Other enemies who seem more equip like the bull-like creatures are or offensive. This feature caters to Hermits as it keeps a calming and simple tone while also giving the player an easy gameplay that requires a minimum amount of work put in.
The idea of having the tone of a game not only being carried out through the narrative but also the gameplay itself is a very interesting idea. I especially admire the concept of adding different personalities to certain creatures, like making some afraid of the protagonist and other aggressive. This kind of features gives them more life as it would add a distinction between all the different enemies apart from their design. I can adapt this into my concept as there will be different creatures that may hold different characteristics and there's no better way to express it then their actions within it. I will definitely look into this idea more when I start to design my characters, as I believe it would attract those two-player types to my game as it can give me more control over the games difficulty and the tone can be altered throughout depending on the AI they encounter.
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Spyro uses multiple methods to create effective and immersive worldbuilding within the maps. Apart from the highly detailed and massive quality in the designs, the way they are constructed effectively promotes exploration and fully venturing what each map has to offer.
Spyro's currency items are spread throughout the world in different platforms and locations. Collecting currency is valuable in the game as it gives the player more features and extras they can obtain which is what provides the incentive to get them. It would be useful to have some sort of collection system in my game, as I will be doing concept art very soon which may result in multiple unused designs. This kind of thing is generally used as extra content in most games. Having that in my game can not only be used to provide an incentive to explore more but also would add more authenticity to my game if I used the idea of providing extra content the player can obtain as it's used on many other professional pieces of media.
The game also consists of secret areas, which are specific areas that are placed to generally not be noticed upon a first glaze. Much like currency, it entices the player to try to explore more of the maps as secrete areas can lead to rewards such as more currency or anything other inventory that the game provides. One secret area in Spyro that I specifically admired was where you had to jump on cerin platforms in a specific order in order to open a door to the secret. Something like this not only can provide replayability if the player doesn't notice it on their first playthrough, but also helps the world to feel more like its own actual universe with things being connected rather than just a sandbox filled with assets.
Lastly, many locations have different architectures that present some kind of culture within the Universe. For the player type that prefers the Context of games, it is an admirable addition. This is similar to my Contexyal Analisis on Oddworld Abe's Origins where I described how Abe had markings on his body that represent different meanings. I stated I could use this idea for my character designs, but Spyro showed me how effective it can be if it also adapted to the environment. Since my theme is based on an ecosystem, something like this would definitely also enhance it while not only satisfying the Context player. As having things that hold a deeper meaning creates lore within the Universe that the player will have to learn to understand it all. Thus, this would be a feature to consider for the art in my game.
Overall, I'm very glad I chose this game to Contexualy analysed as by the end I realised how much it perfectly matches the tone and target audience I plan for my game. As I've shown through all of this writeup, I have gained a lot more ideas of how my game can better adhere to my target audience in terms of player types. When I begin pre-production, I will be referring back to this when I'm finalising my ideas. Now with this done, I have a constructive result for Primary Research.
Week Evaluation
This week has been quite productive. I have been able to start practising that advice I got from my trip to King Studio, with now using a task manager application rather than what I did last year with using a simple Google Doc document. As I explained, Microsoft To-Do will be very useful for planning out my tasks for the weeks with all of its versatile features. I've also conducted my player-acting which has given me my different aspects to take from that I will adapt to my games world.
This week has also shown me the benefits of working from home, while it is an inconvenience, conducting things such a player-acting are more effective as being in a more comfortable environment where I already hame my own equipment and consoles set out so there are no limitations with the things I use. My successful player-acting has further increased my confidence in working at home.
With everything I, ve done so far, I'm on way to beginning Pre-Production.
Week 6
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Usually, any presentation we make, we would present it to a class to obtain feedback and second-handed viewpoints and perspectives of the ideas as a whole. As we have to stay home, I decided it would be useful to use a pallet for people to comment on how they thought my presentation and script was, and also to individually ask one of my classmates to give one-one personal feedback.
With the feedback I got on the palate, it appeared that they admired my presentation, one of them sating it was "above and beyond". The second person believed I got my point across and that they found the idea itself interesting. They also admired the detail and customisation that I put in.
After that, I got one of my classmates to give one-one feedback through our blogs and he gave his constructive thoughts. He " like the previous feedback" believed that I clearly went through efforts to make my presentation very personalised, superficially particular features I added to them such as having a working timer for each. He also admires how I took the initiative to venture out and conduct my own research. His rooms of improvement are how cerin slides are a bit difficult to understand by themselves with the number of things going on in them, and that some pictures opacity needed increasing.
It appeared people saw how much work I put into it as I did try my best to make sure it was perfected and I kept even adding minor details that I didn't have to (like a custom cursor) all just to improve all of the viers experience and to maintain an aesthetic throughout. With the concerns like some slides not being that understandable, I can agree on. They didn't specify, but the ones I believed he may have been talking about are the ones where I had many fish swimming across the screen. After watching them again, I can see why I would be difficult for someone to know what I would say based on the slide, this is because I designed them specifically to display the kind of atmosphere and look of what my game might be to fully immerse them in it. I understand now that I should have also thought about the clarity of each as a Pecha Kucha that can tell your story without words, it en excellent one. Similarly, with the comment about the opacity of my images, it was a design choice as I wanted to make them look as if they are in a bubble to keep up that underwater vibe. However, since viewers would be needing to see the pictures clearly, this is also something I should have taken into account. Overall, I'm happy with how people responded to my Pecha Kucha and I now understand how important it is to always take the perspective of the audience into account when constructing a presentation, rather than what I belives looks good.
Now having done multiple contextual analysis, primary/secondary research and experimentation, its now time for me to begin with the Pre-Production stage of this project.
After I compleated a few, I began digitising them so I can decide on their colours for when I use them. I worked on my first design on photoshop and this is what I came out with first. I wasn't really happy with it as I didn't,t feel as if the skin looked organic enough which I believe can make it appear flat and immerse people out the game more.
It ended up working perfectly, and the pact of brushes appeared to be quite interesting. The multiple brushes in it had unique properties and I believe some of them may be good to use, especially for my environment.
After scouring online, I found multiple brushes that will be useful for when painting my creatures. I found some that are good for fur and hair and even for fish scales. Now this, I can continue with painting.
Week Evaluation
It's good that I've now gotten back to work and now starting to learn new skills and starting to get my creatures done. Learning about the brushes specifically was very intriguing as I can use that to assist in all my art for the game as for anything I need to paint I can just find a brush that suits it and thus not only make it easier to pain but may also make its design look more effective and realistic. My confidence with the work has severely decreased as my setback and greatly affected the schedule that I planed from before. Next week I will have to assess what I'll have to do and whats the best decision for the position I'm in.
Pecha Kucha Feedback
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Usually, any presentation we make, we would present it to a class to obtain feedback and second-handed viewpoints and perspectives of the ideas as a whole. As we have to stay home, I decided it would be useful to use a pallet for people to comment on how they thought my presentation and script was, and also to individually ask one of my classmates to give one-one personal feedback.
With the feedback I got on the palate, it appeared that they admired my presentation, one of them sating it was "above and beyond". The second person believed I got my point across and that they found the idea itself interesting. They also admired the detail and customisation that I put in.
After that, I got one of my classmates to give one-one feedback through our blogs and he gave his constructive thoughts. He " like the previous feedback" believed that I clearly went through efforts to make my presentation very personalised, superficially particular features I added to them such as having a working timer for each. He also admires how I took the initiative to venture out and conduct my own research. His rooms of improvement are how cerin slides are a bit difficult to understand by themselves with the number of things going on in them, and that some pictures opacity needed increasing.
It appeared people saw how much work I put into it as I did try my best to make sure it was perfected and I kept even adding minor details that I didn't have to (like a custom cursor) all just to improve all of the viers experience and to maintain an aesthetic throughout. With the concerns like some slides not being that understandable, I can agree on. They didn't specify, but the ones I believed he may have been talking about are the ones where I had many fish swimming across the screen. After watching them again, I can see why I would be difficult for someone to know what I would say based on the slide, this is because I designed them specifically to display the kind of atmosphere and look of what my game might be to fully immerse them in it. I understand now that I should have also thought about the clarity of each as a Pecha Kucha that can tell your story without words, it en excellent one. Similarly, with the comment about the opacity of my images, it was a design choice as I wanted to make them look as if they are in a bubble to keep up that underwater vibe. However, since viewers would be needing to see the pictures clearly, this is also something I should have taken into account. Overall, I'm happy with how people responded to my Pecha Kucha and I now understand how important it is to always take the perspective of the audience into account when constructing a presentation, rather than what I belives looks good.
Now having done multiple contextual analysis, primary/secondary research and experimentation, its now time for me to begin with the Pre-Production stage of this project.
Week 7-10
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From Week 7, I was planning on starting Pre-Production, however, on that week I started to become quite Ill. It started off with a slight shortage of breath, to some drowsiness to the point where my eyes looked bloodshot. I was quite nervous as I wasn't sure if I managed to contract COVID-19. My condition started to get worse through the weeks, with some days feeling like I had to put a lot of effort into breathing and I eventually started to have minor panic attacks multiple times. This completely cut my ability to do any sort of work as it felt like each day something new would be wrong and each day my panicking got worse.
After talking to a nurse and telling them my symptoms, they believed it was most likely down to anxiety that may have been triggered from the worldwide lockdown as being suddenly cooped up inside the house may have triggered something in me. This may have extended to me worrying about what my condition possibly was. This prevented me from doing much work at all which is a large shame since I wanted to work through the whole holiday. Even after my anxiety started to decrease, I started to experience quite annoying headaches and this also affected the work I could produce for many weeks.
I'm now well enough to go back to work, however this anxiety I'm having still persists and is having an effect on my mood and focus. It will be very difficult to get back to my work schedule and maintain all my motivation but I will still try my best so. Since I started to become unwell just as I was starting pre-production, my pre-production is nowhere near finished which isn't a very good place at this stage of the Unit. Because of this, I have to make some decisions about how I will change my approach to my production in general. What I believe is best to do right now, is to combine my pre-production with my production. This can be done by me working on concepts on some days of the week, and the rest can be dedicated to building the base of the project. This will allow me to divert my time to the most important aspects rather than leaving them till late, and this way I can change things about the project in realtime as I would be working on them as I work on the game. So this is the method I'm going to work by.
Now that I'm getting back to work, I started with working on the artistic research that I conducted weeks ago.
With Avatar, I saw the method for it was to make the base of the creature resemble one animal, then add features of another, normally in a way that grants it abilities and traits it wouldn't normally have. So I decided for my concept art using this kind of style, I would also fist define the main body, then build off of that using another animal.
After looking up multiple animals and gaining inspiration, I got started off designing some abstract hybrids.
Week 11
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As a beginning to my Pre-Production stage, I conducted some Artistic Research on two different forms of, media to help make a starting point for when I begin concept art. This research was very insightful as I got to see how other artists use the idea of combining different animals together to create one new creature ( which is what I plan to do). My analyses of them are on my Research and Experimentation Page.
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Pre-Preoduction Stage
As a beginning to my Pre-Production stage, I conducted some Artistic Research on two different forms of, media to help make a starting point for when I begin concept art. This research was very insightful as I got to see how other artists use the idea of combining different animals together to create one new creature ( which is what I plan to do). My analyses of them are on my Research and Experimentation Page.
I'm now well enough to go back to work, however this anxiety I'm having still persists and is having an effect on my mood and focus. It will be very difficult to get back to my work schedule and maintain all my motivation but I will still try my best so. Since I started to become unwell just as I was starting pre-production, my pre-production is nowhere near finished which isn't a very good place at this stage of the Unit. Because of this, I have to make some decisions about how I will change my approach to my production in general. What I believe is best to do right now, is to combine my pre-production with my production. This can be done by me working on concepts on some days of the week, and the rest can be dedicated to building the base of the project. This will allow me to divert my time to the most important aspects rather than leaving them till late, and this way I can change things about the project in realtime as I would be working on them as I work on the game. So this is the method I'm going to work by.
Now that I'm getting back to work, I started with working on the artistic research that I conducted weeks ago.
Art Research Outcome
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With Avatar, I saw the method for it was to make the base of the creature resemble one animal, then add features of another, normally in a way that grants it abilities and traits it wouldn't normally have. So I decided for my concept art using this kind of style, I would also fist define the main body, then build off of that using another animal.
After looking up multiple animals and gaining inspiration, I got started off designing some abstract hybrids.
After I compleated a few, I began digitising them so I can decide on their colours for when I use them. I worked on my first design on photoshop and this is what I came out with first. I wasn't really happy with it as I didn't,t feel as if the skin looked organic enough which I believe can make it appear flat and immerse people out the game more.
I tried to look through the different brushes types to see if any suited, however, none of them seemed much different from other brushes. Upon doing a bit of research on the best brushes to use, I discovered that Photoshop allows for people to download and add new brushes that other people have made, similar to how people make add-ons for blender and Unity. Instantly after I tested this by experimenting implementing a custom brush that I got from a recommendation site ( ).
After scouring online, I found multiple brushes that will be useful for when painting my creatures. I found some that are good for fur and hair and even for fish scales. Now this, I can continue with painting.
Week Evaluation
It's good that I've now gotten back to work and now starting to learn new skills and starting to get my creatures done. Learning about the brushes specifically was very intriguing as I can use that to assist in all my art for the game as for anything I need to paint I can just find a brush that suits it and thus not only make it easier to pain but may also make its design look more effective and realistic. My confidence with the work has severely decreased as my setback and greatly affected the schedule that I planed from before. Next week I will have to assess what I'll have to do and whats the best decision for the position I'm in.
Week 12
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Originally I was going to finish off the character designs this week, but unfortunately, I was reminded that the deadline was very soon which was something I wasn't thinking about as time went by differently during quarantine so it felt like it was all ending much more sooner than it was. Spending time on the concepts now will definitely stop me from even working on Unity before the deadline. So as disheartening as it is, I believe that instead of aiming to make a full game, I should aim to maybe create a small demo or at least refine a base mechanic of what my game would be. This can at least be a more achievable and realistic outcome to go for and also can assist if I decide to complete to project later. So this will be my goal for now. With very limited time, the planning of my work needs to be a lot more calculated and prudent. To make sure I work cohesively enough with my planning, I began to take my progress step up until the deadline.
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Step 1: Create a Game Document
Time Limit: One day
A GDD wouldn't be fully applicable for a demo as a majority of the assets I'd add to it most probably won't be added in time, Thus I decided to make a quick streamline version of it that will describe what I'll have in this demo and what I'll need for them ( A bigger view of this graph can be seen on my Pre-Production/Planning Page). I believe that these basic elements are quite suitable for a demo of the game I do believe it's manageable in the time I have with my more proficient knowledge of Unity. This graph will be useful as it will help assist me on focusing only on the specific elements that I want for this demo and now to go on a tangent by forgetting that this won't be the full game. It took a bit of forethought to determine what were the elements that I should keep and which to leave out, but I eventually managed to pinpoint them and finished the document off quite fast.
Step 2: Create a Main Menu
Time Limit: Two- Three Days
Since I have already technically started the controls for the character when I was doing my experimentation, I thought it would make more sense to start off with constructing the main menu first, along with the fact that I've never attempted to make one before so it's important I make sure I have more time to work on assets like that in case learning how to make it takes a while.
Having not done it before, I was going to work off a video or forum online to assist me in creating the properties of the main menu. However, on the day I was planning to do so, my internet started to cut out and was taking a very long time to retrieve connection. This prevented me from being able to access any video to help.
I did not want to wait for the internet to retrieve connection as I did not want any time to be wasted at this stage. After some thought, I decided that to problem solve through this issue, I would have to work it out myself using deductive reasoning with the knowledge I had with Unity. I brought my thoughts back to Construct 2, were making a main menu can be as simple as placing the UI assets and then coding for what the different buttons do. I figured that in Unity it would most probably be no different.
Getting straight in it, I added some placeholder visual assets, with the background being from my Pecha Kucha and two different texts that I made separately. Adding the text, however, proved to be a bit more difficult then I thought as I needed to create a canvas to create any UI objects. But The canvas in the edit mode cant be scaled on normal terms so if it ends up looking bigger than the camera view it can make it quite confusing to work with them in conjunction
I had to fool around with some of the properties to see if there was anything to make this easier. Lucky enough, I found one property that I could change that managed to scale the canvas relative to the size of the camera, much like it does when the game preview is active. This is quite useful as now I can place objects where I want to without worrying about how it would scale in-game. However, I still didn't fully understand this change so I have to keep ensuring that this is working.
After that, I accidentally but conveniently typed "bu" on the components menu on one of the texts I had. This leads to me finding the Button Component. After looking through it, It appeared that this component is specifically for any object that you intend to be a button and it can be used to for things like adding a tit to indicate when they are selected or pressed. There is even a section on it where you can quickly add scripts for them. This is good as this component can limit the amount of scripting that would have to be done for it at least for the visual side as that can be handled through the component itself.
Now with all of that done, the last part is to give the Begin button the ability to start up the game. Luckily at this stage, my internet started to work again and it got straight to learning how to make a script that allows switching to different scenes as I've never done it before. I managed to find a tutorial that not only taught me to do so but also showed how to make transition effects. The coding was much simple then I thought. It consists of telling Unity to begin the transition effect and after a set amount of time, go to the specified scene. I decided to keep it simple and just use a basic fade in and out effect.
It took a while to fully perfect it as I made a few minor mistakes when following the whole video but in the end, I managed to complete it and it works perfectly fine. As I'm trying to use my time well, I'm not going to make an Extras Menu right now. I managed to complete and understand it within 3 days which was my time limit so so far I'm on schedule.
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Demo Production Plan
Step 1: Create a Game Document
Time Limit: One day
A GDD wouldn't be fully applicable for a demo as a majority of the assets I'd add to it most probably won't be added in time, Thus I decided to make a quick streamline version of it that will describe what I'll have in this demo and what I'll need for them ( A bigger view of this graph can be seen on my Pre-Production/Planning Page). I believe that these basic elements are quite suitable for a demo of the game I do believe it's manageable in the time I have with my more proficient knowledge of Unity. This graph will be useful as it will help assist me on focusing only on the specific elements that I want for this demo and now to go on a tangent by forgetting that this won't be the full game. It took a bit of forethought to determine what were the elements that I should keep and which to leave out, but I eventually managed to pinpoint them and finished the document off quite fast.
So that's the first task done.
Step 2: Create a Main Menu
Time Limit: Two- Three Days
Since I have already technically started the controls for the character when I was doing my experimentation, I thought it would make more sense to start off with constructing the main menu first, along with the fact that I've never attempted to make one before so it's important I make sure I have more time to work on assets like that in case learning how to make it takes a while.
Having not done it before, I was going to work off a video or forum online to assist me in creating the properties of the main menu. However, on the day I was planning to do so, my internet started to cut out and was taking a very long time to retrieve connection. This prevented me from being able to access any video to help.
I did not want to wait for the internet to retrieve connection as I did not want any time to be wasted at this stage. After some thought, I decided that to problem solve through this issue, I would have to work it out myself using deductive reasoning with the knowledge I had with Unity. I brought my thoughts back to Construct 2, were making a main menu can be as simple as placing the UI assets and then coding for what the different buttons do. I figured that in Unity it would most probably be no different.
Getting straight in it, I added some placeholder visual assets, with the background being from my Pecha Kucha and two different texts that I made separately. Adding the text, however, proved to be a bit more difficult then I thought as I needed to create a canvas to create any UI objects. But The canvas in the edit mode cant be scaled on normal terms so if it ends up looking bigger than the camera view it can make it quite confusing to work with them in conjunction
I had to fool around with some of the properties to see if there was anything to make this easier. Lucky enough, I found one property that I could change that managed to scale the canvas relative to the size of the camera, much like it does when the game preview is active. This is quite useful as now I can place objects where I want to without worrying about how it would scale in-game. However, I still didn't fully understand this change so I have to keep ensuring that this is working.
After that, I accidentally but conveniently typed "bu" on the components menu on one of the texts I had. This leads to me finding the Button Component. After looking through it, It appeared that this component is specifically for any object that you intend to be a button and it can be used to for things like adding a tit to indicate when they are selected or pressed. There is even a section on it where you can quickly add scripts for them. This is good as this component can limit the amount of scripting that would have to be done for it at least for the visual side as that can be handled through the component itself.
Now with all of that done, the last part is to give the Begin button the ability to start up the game. Luckily at this stage, my internet started to work again and it got straight to learning how to make a script that allows switching to different scenes as I've never done it before. I managed to find a tutorial that not only taught me to do so but also showed how to make transition effects. The coding was much simple then I thought. It consists of telling Unity to begin the transition effect and after a set amount of time, go to the specified scene. I decided to keep it simple and just use a basic fade in and out effect.
It took a while to fully perfect it as I made a few minor mistakes when following the whole video but in the end, I managed to complete it and it works perfectly fine. As I'm trying to use my time well, I'm not going to make an Extras Menu right now. I managed to complete and understand it within 3 days which was my time limit so so far I'm on schedule.
That's now the second task complete.
Week Evaluation
With my new plan set in motion, I'm starting to become a lot more confident with my work at the current moment. While it is very disappointing my sick period and the lockdown in generally has caused me to lose so much time I could have used to make a complete game, doing what I'm doing now can at least help ensure I produce something by the end of the unit and also giving me something to work off if I chose to continue it in the future.
At this point, I just have to continue with the plan and ensuring I stick with all my time limits. If dome successfully, I will have at least a demo for my game or at least a template for it. Next week will be the last week I get to work on it so I will have to put all my effort into the final days I have left.
Overall, I feel much better with things, however still disappointed that it ended up this way.
Week 13
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Getting straight to continuing my production plan.
Step 3: Create a Pause Menu
Time Limit: Two Days
For the pause menu, I tried to look for tutorials on how to make one as this is also something I haven't done before, but most of them the video was either too long or the way they approached their coding was much different to what would work for my game. So I decided to work it out for myself, especially since I already had an idea of how to make it.
I created some assets on Photoshop and placed them in Unity.
Then I go to the coding side of it, beginning with telling when the pause menu comes up or not and for to stop the player's movements while it's active. The issue I came across was that when I caused while the player was moving, they continued to move despite its controls being turned off.
It took a while to work out why, but eventually, I clocked on that it was due to the fact that when the script for the player's movement is turned off when the pause is active, the script isn't active to tell the velocity of the character to be set back to 0. So I had to learn how to reference variables in other scripts to tell the pause to cancel the velocity. This indeed worked perfectly and now the player actually pauses when you pause the game.
After that, it was just a matter of scripting the selection icon to work with the keypad so a person can use it to select each button. This was pretty easy, just consisting of animation for the object and setting it when to trigger. Once this was done, I had a fully working base for the controls for my pause and everything appeared to work.
This came out very well and I'm happy I was able to work it out all by myself without needed a tutorial on how to make it. It took a bit longer than expected due to working out the issue I had at the start, but it worked out in the end.
Getting straight to continuing my production plan.
Step 3: Create a Pause Menu
Time Limit: Two Days
For the pause menu, I tried to look for tutorials on how to make one as this is also something I haven't done before, but most of them the video was either too long or the way they approached their coding was much different to what would work for my game. So I decided to work it out for myself, especially since I already had an idea of how to make it.
I created some assets on Photoshop and placed them in Unity.
Then I go to the coding side of it, beginning with telling when the pause menu comes up or not and for to stop the player's movements while it's active. The issue I came across was that when I caused while the player was moving, they continued to move despite its controls being turned off.
It took a while to work out why, but eventually, I clocked on that it was due to the fact that when the script for the player's movement is turned off when the pause is active, the script isn't active to tell the velocity of the character to be set back to 0. So I had to learn how to reference variables in other scripts to tell the pause to cancel the velocity. This indeed worked perfectly and now the player actually pauses when you pause the game.
After that, it was just a matter of scripting the selection icon to work with the keypad so a person can use it to select each button. This was pretty easy, just consisting of animation for the object and setting it when to trigger. Once this was done, I had a fully working base for the controls for my pause and everything appeared to work.
This came out very well and I'm happy I was able to work it out all by myself without needed a tutorial on how to make it. It took a bit longer than expected due to working out the issue I had at the start, but it worked out in the end.
This is now the third task finished.
At the last few days of this week, I had to divert my attention to different parts of my blog, and due to my slow internet and level of detail I put in, it took a while to finish. I didn't manage to complete the two last tasks which is a shame. However, this isn't so bad as I at least go the two main things that I've never attempted before done. The last couple tasks ( refining the controls and creating an area in the game) were things I've technically already started so this isn't too much of a loss. Either way, for only getting back to work with just over a week left, I believe I've done pretty well and learned more about C#. I've enjoyed this unit and I have developed a lot from it and got to even visit an actual game development studio. Things did not go as planned at all due to my condition that I went through at the beginning of this lockdown, which I believed what ruined my workflow and the sole reason why I didn't result in a proper game. I will most definitely still work on this project but in my own time. At least this way I can put all focus on it without any other burden taking attention away from it. It's now come to the end to this long journey through this last unit and you can see me an overarching overview of the whole project on my Evaluation Page.