Critical evaluation of me and my group. Final Post.

This is the final blog post by me this year and I am going to make a very loose sort of review of my performance within the group and the performance of my group members and how they tie in with each other. The whole review will be mostly off the top of my head and for anyone reading this, I apologise in advance if the timeline of events I am speaking of are not aligned. By the end of the assignment this year we remained with all members of our group still here and none have quit the course or decided to become impossible to work with. That in itself if great news as now I can write a small part for each member within the group from my own perspective.

There is a few things I would like to outline with each member of our group and these could be anything from performance, to attitude, to challenges they faced that I perceived to be evident.

The team I was within comprised of me and three other members. There was me, Craig, Allan and Andrew.
Our roles became evident from the very start of the assignment. I was going to be useful for picking up loose ends when it comes to things within the team and tasks to be completed. I wasn't as useful at animation, programming or even artwork. Craig was more programming savvy than us all it appeared so we chose to keep him with a role like lead programmer. Andrew was interested in creating models for the game within rich graphics applications so that is what he ended up doing. Allan was good at thinking out the scope of the game in terms of where each thing ties in, he seemed to be creative but more organised than me.

From the very beginning we all agreed what we would be doing with the project and who each task would be assigned to given their respective roles. So I ended up being a creative type as that is what I knew best and just started rapidly firing off ideas for the rest of the group to pick and choose from. I feel I was most useful when doing this.

Our method of communication was then chosen. We all exchanged email addresses, phone numbers and even skype names for to keep in touch with each other out with the university. I would say the communication set up was great and it worked. The overall interest in the group to keep in touch with each other outwith the university though was lacking. I became more dependent on it and it showed just how much use it really was trying to get into contact with the rest of my group was. I sent emails, texts, tried to call and messaged over skype and none of my group members replied in good time as they must have had a busy time at home or didn't check this all while in the university. I think we could have all done better and chose a platform of communication we all used and checked regularly.

The verbal communication within us all when we were all in the University together was great in contrast with the other forms of communication. We all talked about each subject and decision with great intent and made sure we were all listening to each other while in person. There was even times we appeared to be a professional group to me when we even talked about our work with each other while going for lunch. I feel I could have been present more for this form of communication. It would have kept me more up to date with the rest of the progress we were all making.

Each task we gave ourselves was broke down into smaller chunks and so the difficulty was very low and each thing getting done make the next thing we were going to be doing a seamless transaction. I think we all done a great job at organising the workload and distributing it evenly and with special consideration applied. The overall workload left to me was very low. The team was aware of the issues I faced and made a considerable effort to get bigger matters handled while giving me loose ends of the things they were not doing. I was very appreciative to have my group when this was happening and I could take a backseat for a bit while still being useful to my team members.

We all used the online cloud based storage location called skydrive for our work. Once we finished a bit of work we uploaded it onto there for the other group members to see and work with. I managed to get a little bit done here and there including a game design document with my ideas written down in a word document. I would have preferred to use google drive as it is better implemented onto android and iOS devices but most of the group just opted for skydrive. This caused a number of problems for me. Not only could I not see what my group had done, but I also could not upload what I had done in the early weeks of the game project. I had trouble logging into my skydrive account and just continued to work on google drive. I eventually managed to recover my password though and then was able to get into skydrive and catch up on what was available to do.

Our group's decision making was good in a sense we all put our opinions across. All things were considered on each input and the group made a group decisions as a team and not based on what one person said. The biggest decision was what engine we were all to use despite being recommended other ones. We all decided as a group to use Unity because we all wanted to use it.

The group in my opinion done much more than myself. I seen progress in things like a game map, character models made and programming done. I feel I could have done more by simply being there in University despite any unforeseen circumstances. I also feel I did my best in being helpful to the rest of the group but also I had a want to do more and to be a better team member than I was.
I plan on getting myself more 'in the game' again as soon as I can and to be a better overall student than I currently am and I had meant to be.

The things I done well are keeping myself to try to keep in touch with the other members of my group and to always get work in late or early, it didn't really matter to me, the main thing is I made sure I got it done. Unrelated to the making of the game, I would be handy to drive my group members to locations they can get their work done and thus bringing the project that step closer to completion and I believe this may be a key part to my usefulness.
I put more of my effort into this module than any other this year and even though it didn't get much produce, I hope it should be at least sufficient for some merit.
The work to be done from now one should be a bit more fruitful than it has for me, and I should be on par with the rest of my group soon enough.

My blog. It's late. Oops.

I think I am late in handing in this blog and it appears to be worthy of at least a few marks...

I better get a move on and complete it then shouldn't I!
I wonder if I have put in enough posts or if they are even relevant.
Now my final post should be a critical evaluation.
I may as well just type in "my group done way more than me!"

WHAT IF...

Just to rattle across a couple of ideas that are in my head.
I just thought of what the game we are making would have looked like if we had done it within HTML5?
Would it be a simple looking top down game similar to that of an old RPG game like Final Fantasy? or another game named Cannon Fodder?

It was our plan to try to make the game in HTML5 at first and then make it within UNITY once the HTML5 version was successful... now I am thinking, maybe a HTML5 game isn't just a fall back... I think if we done it really well, it would be just as good as a UNITY game if we were to put in the same effort.

The game we are currently creating in UNITY is a tall order and the prototype didn't have enough GAME elements in it for me. Sure it was a prototype indeed, but it looked more like a really nice tech DEMO.

Maybe next time round I will choose the easier path.

Yet again, I think I chose the right one when we voted what engine to use.
I wonder how the next bunch of developments are going to pan out.
:)

Prototype!

I am really impressed with my group and what they have come up with, they are making me look not bad, but instead I look really terrible in comparison.

So with the prototype upon completion, I can focus on something other than sound... I think it's time to get out the pencil and paper and literally get to the drawing board and start making some cool concept art pictures for the team to select from! If anything this should help in our PITCH!

That's right. The pitch is what I will be focusing on from now on.

I will enjoy this... maybe a little too much.

No band, the days are dark indeed.

OK I had very high hopes for unsettling music with metal and guitar inbetween with the band Rose Glass from Lanark. It seems they are currently on tour and unavailable for recording, yeah we made some songs... but we can't get it done in time for the prototype!
It would have been awesome to show off the music and effects we could have recorded, but nope...time and equipment is not on our side, for now.

I think recording them in future is an option for me... but I don't think it's an option for the group to be waiting on me to do this.

I guess I shall find standard sounds for the game. BORING.

The rest of us...

We as a group have now decided who is doing what for sure... as we have already done quite a bit, I just forgot to post it, since I have been so busy trying to get a band together!
Andrew - 3D modelling
Craig - Game Engine
Allan - Map
Me (Henry) - Sound

OK so I have been trying my hardest to get the band from my home town to sit down and make some noise with me. This is definitely a challenge in of itself.

3D Modelling - Andrew

I would love to have done some modelling with my friend Brett as I recently discovered there is such a thing as mirroring. Meaning only half of the model can be made... and the other half is generated!
This would have made life a lot easier if things went this way for me... but they didn't and somehow I am thankful.

So Andrew in my group is doing modelling! I wonder what I am doing... hmm, hopefully something fun. :)

Offline mode? Yes please!

I want this be to be functional...visually impressive but also very light-weight.

The reasoning behind this is to have it accessible on almost all platforms and more specifically the mobile devices!

Almost loke a flash game , I would love if it could be tried and played there and then instead of looking at a trailer for the game.

The idea is that if the user enjoys the game and chooses to buy it, the offline and full featured one would be available for download. It's making the try out instant so the user know what they are purchasing.

This is to work similar to google play music I have been toying around with, where you can "pin" music from the cloud on to the mobile device in use for when there is no data connection.

I would also hope to see this uniting more players online when they are online with their new gear and go multiplayer more.

The future of our game.

I would very much like for our game to be made available on the more open platforms in future. I aim to release a game on either the up and coming OUYA system or on the online system ONLIVE.

The fact is that these two systems are in partnership makes me very happy as not only will the game be made available for free on OUYA as a free version...BUT! If we ever go anywhere near the hardware requirements for that of what other games require...ONLIVE will cover us and will be just as widely available but with better connectivity options that we can see so far!

Design Document!

Woo! I managed to get a game design document done for the project to show my slant on the game and add in original ideas... that being said... I also made 3 scenario storylines that are in NO WAY useful to the game as we already had an outline to fill in...GREAT!

Oh well! At least I got this done and with more than 1000 words. I hope the team has a read through it on SKYDRIVE.

Blogging!

It seems that by the time I go to make a post on blogger I have forgotten what to say...
I should take clear notes every Tuesday because of this. Or just write it on the Tuesday!
Of course I can't do that, see that would make sense.

Oh well at least I made a post in the first place.

Anyhoo, I must say, I am not impressed with the kit used to make a HTML5 game... I also hear you can use flash and port it to HTML5... sounds handy. I shall run it by the team.

HTML5 it is!

Okayyyy so it is looking as if we are going to be using HTML 5.
I am both happy and sad about this decision.
Reasons!
Happy: This game is going to be a lot easier to make since we all have had experience with using flash and many game making programs that are for making games that are usually 2D!

Sad(not seasonal affective disorder): It isn't going to be made in this beautiful UNITY engine... I felt the juice was well worth the squeeze to get things done in this engine.

Yet another 2D game.
I suppose we should make it a good one. ;)

HTML5 or UNITY...or BOTH...Hmm.

Well here is another post!
We have progressed in terms of what we are using for the game and we have just decided to go with HTML 5.

This is just for the wider target audience and it's recommendation by the lecturer.
I personally would have liked to have made the game in UNITY but it doesn't look like it is going to happen at this rate.

THAT BEING SAID, we could always just make the game again, in UNITY...but I don't see that happening as well.

I am allowed to be hopeful though ;)

Week 6 or so but first post. Many posts are to follow :)

My first post into this blog for the games development year 3 project, hopefully now we have a real start on something I can write up stuff I and others will find very useful, in terms of note taking and new milestones we have made!

Now for anyone who reads this, I hope you keep following it and see where it leads!

Please leave comments and post ideas and anything we might find helpful, anything really as you would be surprised where the best of material comes from, usually out of nowhere!