Production EvaluationPlease use the tables below to evaluate your practical exploration.Remember writing a description of what you did is not evaluative.

Explain how/why things happened, what you think or feel about your work.Complete all boxes in full including examples and reasoning where required.

Production Title: Bogus’s BarnStudent Name/s: Jay Klair

Please review your own work and ask 3 peers to review your work.Place a mark in the box according to your/their opinion:

Poor OK Good Excellent N/AStory 3,me 1,2Narrative 1,2,3,meCharacters 1 2,3,meVisuals 2,me 1,3Sound 1 2,3,meProduction m 1,2,3Post-production 1,2,3,meAudience 1,2,3,meOverall Rating 1,3,me 2

Peer 1 please provide constructive feedback:Overall I liked the game because it had good visuals which were very colourful I also think the interactivity was good because it was easy to understand what to do during the game. I think you could have added a backing music during the game so it would sound better.

- ANDRA

Peer 2 please provide constructive feedback:I think that the sound was one of the best things about the game because all of the sound effects were done very well and the background music set a very good atmosphere. To improve I would have added some speech into the game to explain the game in more detail.

- SAM

Peer 3 please provide constructive feedback:I liked the whole game very much as the sound and visuals made the whole game a better experience. The controls were also very intuitive and enhanced the interactivity for the player. One thing I would have improved with the controls is to make the spacebar the jump button as I was constantly pressing eh spacebar to jump since most games map the jump button onto the spacebar. The story could also of been added to the start of the game instead of mapping it to the another button because from my experience, most players will just skip the story button and go straight into the gameplay.

- mandeep

In your own words detail what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the production :

One of the strongest aspects of my production, on my opinion, is my research. I covered a wide range of media such as books, TV shows and other games. I made sure they were all relevant to the topic “2025” in some way before researching and exploring them in more detail.

Another strong point, to do with my finished game, is that It was completely made by me. Meaning I deigned the characters, drew out the sprites myself and animated them. I coded it using GML (game maker language) and didn’t made sure not to copyright any sound effects. I did this by using a website called “bfxr” to create any in game sound effects. Bfxr allowed me to use sliders to alter sound waves and create my own sound fx. It also states on their website that “You have full rights to all sounds made with bfxr”. http://www.bfxr.net/

I also created the Menu music using a program called FL studio. I downloaded a banjo sound sample and created a tune and added an upbeat drum in the background. This creates an unserious, comical, but adventurous vibe before the game has even begun.

The weakest part of my production is that I did not include any background music during gameplay. After the player starts the game from the menu the game goes silent which I regret doing and think makes “Bogus’s Barn” look a bit unprofessional. When I first tested the final game I was unaware of the lack of dynamic atmosphere created by backing music during gameplay, however it was pointed out to me by people during the peer evaluation.

Think about the planning materials you created, did you follow them? If not why? Did the production change at all while you were making it?When actually making my 2d game I followed my plans with the storyline, and characters I made a character profile to determine what the main character Bogus’s traits, skills and personality was. Although I failed to express his grumpy personality within the game I did generally give him a moody facial

expression. In the game bogus is a good shooter and can wall jump which is clearly visible within the game. One of the abilities that bogus was meant to have is the “wall jump” but, due to the way I coded his

movement and the, in game, gravity I was unable to figure out how to make him do this.

I did change the name of the game from “barn Intruders” to “Bogus’s Barn” as I think the use of harmless, but relevant alliteration in the game title makes it more memorable.

One thing I removed from the game was ladders as I could figure out an efficient way to code them into the game without causing graphical and interactivity issues. I tried several times to fix this problem, but couldn’t. soon later I came to realise that they were a bit of a useless aspect of the game that were not that useful in creating fun game play, but they were merely just a rarely used object and unneeded for fun creating a fun platforming game. After removing them from the game I replaced them with thin platforms that the player can jump through which turned out to be a much simpler concept to integrate into my game and made the game feel like more of a platforming game.

One of the main gameplay mechanics which I based a lot of my in-game puzzles around was the idea of Bogus being able to pick up farm animals and drop them. I planned to create a puzzle mechanism based around a gate being opened after a certain amount of animals had been placed in a certain place, however when trying to put this into my game I found that the player would get stuck in the floor after dropping the animal. As I was also trying to manage my time efficiently and prioritize certain things I decided to cut this element of gameplay out of my game. This also meant removing level 2 for now, as the whole level was based upon this gameplay mechanic. Unfortunately after designing the boss and level 3 I had not met my deadline and needed to evaluate my work as it was. Nevertheless I think the game has turned out better now as I had more time to focus on perfecting the player controls and shooting.

The biggest problem I faced when making my game was that when creating checkpoints the code I tried to use was incompatible with “Game Maker 8”. As a result of this the player was constantly re-spawning in the same place rather than were I wanted him to re-spawn. To overcome this issue I downloaded the newest version of game maker; “Game Maker Studio” and painstakingly transferred

all of my sprites, the code and objects to the newer software. This also meant wasting a lot of production time, however re-drawing the level layouts worked in my favour as they turned out better than the first.

Overall most of the problems occurred when actually creating my game in the software, but Look back on these problems they do not seem as major as they did at the time and most of them were stepping stones towards making

the final, finished production the best that I could make it, within the restricted time limit. All the sacrifices I made such as the ladders, and the carrying animals mechanic allowed me to polish off all other aspects of gameplay.

Think about the research you undertook, how has that influenced your production. Compare your production to the professional examples you found, use images to illustrate your points:The research highly impacted the outcome of this project, in fact without it I would not have thought of the ideas or concepts that I did.

The first thing I researched upon was the TV show “Black Mirror”. I am glad I chose this as it is one of my favourite shows and I found out some interesting things about it and managed to see that some of the concepts are just pure genius. It also turned out to be a nice introduction to this project as it was intriguing as well as being relevant to the project brief. It also opened my mind up a little bit and allowed me to come across other types of media based around similar theories about the future which included “1984”

The next thing I explored after coming across it during my “black mirror” research was George Orwell’s “1984”. Looking into this book had a similar effect as my first research. It mainly just gave me some relevant insights of the future from an author’s point of view rather than a director/ actor.

After looking at slightly more fictional insights of the future I decided to look a real events that are very likely to happen. This included many species dying out including rhinos. These facts along with the “1984” and “black mirror” research I carried out allowed me to come up with my game story concept which is based around government corporations mass producing food and killing off animals. Although it may seem like an over the top and possibly unrealistic idea it was influenced by my earlier research and still beats the cliché idea of a zombie apocalypse in the 2025.

I then researched into what humans could potentially be like in the future. I found out that due to many reasons there will be a dramatic up rise in depression and anxiety in the future. This alone later inspired me to make my main character a grumpy old farmer who dislikes people and invasion of his privacy which lead to him being called Bogus because he is a bit of “an old bogey” as I said in my character development.

At this point I decided to look at current advancements in technology and how they could influence the future. I came across an aircraft company called “Pipistrel” who have create the first fully solar powered aircraft. I then decided to look at how game companies had successfully implemented futuristic visuals into their games, but the only one I could think of was “Black Ops 2” with “Nuketown 2025” after researching into this map further I found out some things that I did not notice about it when I played it a year ago or so. This included signs that were placed around the map that

expressed Treyarch’s view of 2025. When looking at the signs I came across one to do with a solar powered cleaning robot. This backed up my research on pipistrel’s solar powered plane and showed me that solar power could be a very efficient power source in the future.

As a result of researching into “Pipistrel” and “Nuketown 2025”, I later designed a futuristic solar powered tractor as a background object for my game, however I couldn’t figure out how to symbolise the fact that it was solar powered without expanding the sprite size and making it look out of proportion.

After researching into visuals I decided to look into sound and interactivity in existing games and how they can be used to improve the game feel. I came across a technique that came in handy when working on level design called “kishotenketsu”. This technique is popular in japan and was used in storytelling, short comic strips and by a level designer of a few Mario games. The technique focuses on the idea of introducing a concept, expanding on it, creating a twist and finally a conclusion. I used this technique to my

advantage when creating my 2d game. I introduced the jumping, double jumping and shooting concepts through tutorials on sign posts in the first level, I then expanded on them by turning the first level into a playground for

testing out these concepts. For example I included a few hidden puzzles to test the player’s intuitive creativity by placing it underground. I then created a twist by creating a boss towards the end of the game. The conclusion is the wining screen where the players score is presented to them. This research turned out to be one of the most

valuable and essential pieces as without it my level design could have been a bit of a mess with no flow.

When looking at techniques to improve the gameplay and make it feel more dynamic I looked at “screen shake” (screen shakes when player shoots), “hit points” (when enemy is shot and “short pause” (before dramatic death). I didn’t include the short pause technique as slowing down the whole gameplay for a few second would be extremely challenging and may not even be possible with game

maker however I was sure to include a screen shake whenever the player shoots an enemy as well as making the enemy flash white when they are hit and create hit points. All of these things make the game feel much more professional and add a bit of environmental response to the game.

After deciding that I had enough research to start developing ideas for my game I created some mind maps. These helped me confirm characters, background objects and from these I came up with the idea of the enemies being “robotic drones”. my survey helped me to clarify what was more important “Graphics or gameplay” the majority of people voted for “Low graphics as long as the gameplay is amazing” this reassured me that I could focus more on gameplay and graphics and after researching into software was the reason why I chose to use game maker.

Another reason why I used game maker to create my game was because I had used it to create a game for my project 8 game Impossipig. I think “Bogus’s Barn” is a dramatic improvement on this and Since then I have gained more interest in the software, particularly the coding elements of it and felt that it was appropriate for the kind of game I wanted to make as well as suitable for allowing me to express my skills in GML. The only thing I should have done is when researching into software, I should have looked at different versions of game maker rather than just the software as a whole. If I had done that then I wouldn’t have had some of the problems that I had and wouldn’t have had to transfer my game over to a different software.

Overall my research all flowed nicely. One thing lead to another and I managed to explore a wide range of things in relation to 2025. The “Black Mirror” and “1984" research was a good introduction to the FMP and got me intrigued about different concepts, the “the world in 2025” and “advancements in technology” research allowed me to generate my own concepts and ideas which I would later apply to my game. The mind maps helped generate more ideas and my survey helped me settle my theory about gameplay being more important than graphics I also used secondary evidence here to confirm my survey’s results I did this by looking at online forums. My strongest research was the “successful game qualities” because a lot of what I learnt was reflected in my game such as the techniques. My least used research was my “Eutopia vs Dystopia” research however, it was interesting.

What did you learn through doing this project? Did you develop any skills? :Through doing this project I learnt:

More advanced GML coding skills and how to overcome certain problems when coding

How to create a smooth animation using sprites

What the Game feel is – essential elements that build up a good game It is important to back up your work and explore software when making

a game Don’t be too ambitious when creating a game within a limited time

scale.