PDP project May 2010

Work done in the Design Document

Description of Work Done.

The Assignment for the Design Document was to create an idea for a game. We worked in a team of four we first planned what was needed and what was wanted in the game. Next we each took parts of the design document to do and complete individually. The work which I did for this assignment was to create Mechanics for disarming of enemies, moving through the level and combat. I also found some pictures for non lethal weapon ideas and referenced them.

Disarm Mechanic
This shows the many various ways in which the player will disarm an enemy AI. The AI could have a weapon like gun or any other so there can be many ways to disarm. The disarm mechanic was made because if a person has a gun a quick way was made get rid of it as it could cops or the enemy. It was mostly because the plot of the game was meant to portray the player as a good person and would not kill another so would have to disarm instead.

Moving Mechanic
The plot of the game has the player being a free runner who can use the environment to get places quicker. Some of the moves were to wall run or jumping over objects.

Combat Mechanic
A Combat system was placed in game and this showed how the moves work and the button combinations given to do the move. This was placed in the game so that the player could get into buildings with people in the way or after a person has been disarmed of a weapon.


Reflection and Issues Identified (SWOT)

Some issues to be identified are that

The Mechanics were not detailed enough on every aspect of the game so that every type of movement or fighting combination for the game could be included. The Mechanics are short and are not totally complete to the extent of covering the whole game as these cannot be planned. It may also be because not a lot of research was done.

I also did not plan through everything and may have missed some crucial mechanics to show to another person how the game comes together what the player will be capable of doing.

Organisation of my time was poor and I did not start the project till very late and I was spend time over weekends and also late at night making sure parts were completed.

Also a lot more extra work on my part could have been made by doing more things.

Plan of Action (SMART)

Next time I will plan the section I am going to do before starting this will help me understand what it is from the outset what I need to work towards. Also this will make sure that everything that is needed to be included is not missed.

Organisation of my time will help me only do work in classes and in the morning I should go into university and spend time doing work so less time is spent at nights and over weekends.

If I also started the Assignment as soon as it was given I would have had less pressure when it came up to the deadline.





Completion / Review / Conclusion
I think the work I did in the mechanics was explained in enough detail and will be understood if anyone tried to get a view on what happens when the player moves, fights or uses a weapon. My organisation will be improved for any future assignments so I will need to make sure that plan each section to make sure that everything completed. Start as soon as I receive the assignment and manage my time so that everything done on time. I will also do more research and this will give me more to write about. I thought this assignment was good thing to do as I thought that coming up with a game idea was a nice thing to do. I believe with more time a lot more could have been covered but in the space of time we had I could have done more.

Reflection on the Assignment

“Are sequels ruining the games industry

Description of Work Done.

I did an assignment that was on the a chosen subject which is “Are sequels ruining the games industry”. I started this assignment by first planning what I wanted to write in assignment. Introduction then the main content split into two sections which were “what makes a good sequel from a bad one” and How does a good sequel and a bad one affect Games industries. Lastly conclusion and bibliography. After planning I looked for references in what makes a good sequel from a bad finding a book about the games industry and some articles on the internet. Also I looked for reviews on games from a website called Meta score which help prove sequels do better than the original. After this the report was written with the references. Next the bibliography was made sure that it was in the Harvard style and that it was correct. After that a conclusion was formed from the report saying that sequels are not ruining the games industry in fact it may help improve companies by out doing the original and improving technology.

Reflection and Issues Identified (SWOT)

Some positive remarks about what I did for my assignment would be that I plan the assignment a month before the actual due date. This gave me time to research and write the project as well having time to keep all other assignments on course for finishing. Planning out my assignment help gave me something to aim for and help structure an argument with research so that in the conclusion it can help with making an opinion from facts whether sequels are ruining the games industry.

Research was done through the internet and the library at Bolton university this insured that a lot of different sources would be used. For making sure my Harvard referencing I got a website called bisto where a link has been placed on Bolton website. I followed the examples of this website to create the references

Issues concerning with creating the assignment were that my planning for the assignment should have come after my research as it should have been planned around the research I did. This would have also helped with the planning and also I wouldn't have got stuck on what to write in sections just I couldn't find research about a particular sections.

Also for referencing I could have made it so it was correct format instead of as a link as soon as I found it as for some links I found it hard to go back and find the exact place in the content where I was going to reference from.

Plan of Action (SMART)

Some goals to try and do for later assignments or anything related would be to:

Keep on track with doing assignments a long time before due date it will help manage time with other assignments and work.

Research should be done at the start and the planning should try followed the research as its important to have assignment on research than on my opinion.

Every time plan out what it is that I want to say before starting to write anything down.

For references as soon as I have content I want to add to the assignment I should write it in the Harvard style referencing. Making sure that I don't have to come back and try and find the exact section.

Also I should make sure to proof read everything to make sure it's correct and also someone else. This should be done more for references that are done to make sure there in correct format as they can be tricky to structure as I found out. From using examples from the website bisto it looked correct but should have someone chack before due dates.

Completion / Review / Conclusion.

Having completing my assignment I found out how to research and reference better. As well as that the planning and structure was also ok and I was able to come into the end with an conclusion where I thought from the research that sequels are not ruining the games industry. Also in the assignment I came up with the idea of using reviews to show if people liked sequels better than original. I used a site called meta score which takes the reviews of a game from loads of sites to give a better overview of what people like more.

I believe that It would be helpful to take on board the smart goals above and use them for other assignments. Overall the work that I put in for this assignment was very good and a lot more work was put into it than other assignments this may be mostly because this assignment was all individual work most others were grouped orientated.

Reflection on playability assignment

Description of work done

When doing the assignment of a usability test the whole group approached it by first planning every aspect out first. The group planned on what game was going to tested and where the testing will be done. Also what information was needed to come out of the test this would help for later when doing questionnaires and observing the player. The next part was getting all our plans into action and find a suitable place to have people play. The student union bar was chosen as it is where most student might visit on free times. The game that was chosen was the trial version of trials HD which is available for free on Xbox Live . The group got together and decided on what questions should go onto the entry and exit questionnaires we mostly chose questions about how skilled enough gamer they think they are and how easy was it to complete.

When everything was planned and sorted the actual doing of the usability test was decided to be done. In the group it was decided to split up jobs so the whole process of finding, setting up and playing would be more time efficient. In the end fourteen people were found to play the game this gave us the data we needed. After that we started creating a presentation and the report on the findings. The report was done by some people doing there own section of the report and some doing the presentation. Together the whole document was read by all the group to make sure that we had included everything that we needed. The references that were collected were also looked at to make sure that they fit in with the page.

Reflection and issues identified

Some concerns

The report structure was poorly thought through as we only did the sections we could think of at the time and not doing any section that was missed like some explanation on the results collected not just in the conclusion. But the group was very confident that it was all completed. Planning of the report would have made sure that nothing was missed

The content of the report which was more focused on what was done to get the results which was the planning, the setting up and playing of the game than the actual results that were collected.

Also the content of the report should have been proof read so that spelling and punctuation was made sure was at the standard which is a formal report not informal.

The presentation was not thought through as the whole group did not plan to talk before hand in a room to practice all was done was the reading of the script that was written together.

Some positive points

Was the planning before the assignment was started. It helped organize a structure on how to complete each task like the entry and exit questionnaire knowing what information we needed helped us complete it. This all helped to work towards the goal of completion of the report.

Using references we came up with ideas to do the playability test in a relaxing area and a place where people can be found. Fourteen people were found in the end four more than we expected

Plan of Action

Actions to be taken to help improve on how the assignment was tackled.

1. Planning everything would be the best help it helps structure every part and make sure nothing is missed out.

• The report could have had a bit more planning in making sure nothing was missed out than having to read the whole report itself to find any mistakes as it can be very easy to miss something.

2. Proof reading would and make sure it meets the standards of a report on playability(formal).

3. Practice of the presentation would have helped us all understand what was going to be said.

4. Have a look at what has been done so far at stages and see if any improvements that can be made than looking at everything at the end which was mainly what was done all the work was just done and then everything was then checked over.

5. Keeping track of time to complete each task could have gone under time management. This could of kept the times on completing each section and also kept track everything on track to complete the whole assignment well before the deadline. This would help in that there is a little bit of time in handing anything unexpected that gets in the way like a missed team member or date for testing has to be cancelled.

Conclusion

Overall the assignment was well thought through and in the end the assignment was done. Also the playability test was done and the group got some valuable information on the playability of the game. It may be said that if more people would do the playability test the results would give a better picture of the ease of use and ease of learning of the trial version of trials HD . But for any future assignment it may help to do the little points under plan of action as they are only small points of action but could help improve the assignment

Learning Styles

I am going to be looking at two different learning styles the Kolb, David A. (1984) and the VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire. This is to see what kind of learner I am and how to find out the most effective means of understanding topics throughout the course.

Kolb’s, David A.(1984) learning styles are split into four types of learners. There is an activist type of learner who might focus on involvement in experience and personal response to real situations. A reflector focuses on understanding the meaning of situations and ideas by careful observation and description. A Theorist may focus on logic, ideas and concepts. A Pragmatist is the last learner type who focuses on actively influencing people and changing situations.

From doing the questionnaire I found out that the type of learner that I am is a reflector. This means that I am the type of learner who seeks understanding as opposed to practical application and approaches learning in an impartial and tentative way.

My strengths are that I learn best alone and thinking things through step by step. My Weaknesses are that I don't like practical things which means making or creating. Some Improvements I could make are taking a step back from task involvement and reviewing what has been done and experienced, also to keep a diary where you reference lectures on the day's events and what you have learned from them.

Learning style two is the VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire which has three learning styles. A visual learner is a person who learns best by observing thing like pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films or reading. An auditory learner learns best by listening to others speak hearing sounds and noises or talking with someone. Lastly there is the kinesthetic learner who learns best by doing, creating things with there hands touching, feeling and holding.

I completed this questionnaire as well and have found that I scored highest and equal for being a visual and auditory learner this means that I learn best by listening and seeing.

The Strengths in being this type of learner is that in lectures I will learn best with information being spoken out aloud and having visual examples. I will also be able to understand topics better by reading or by audio tape.The weaknesses in being this type of learner are note taking which might not be done very well to reuse later for revision. I would not learn very well in very lively tasks like presentations.

Some areas that I could improve on are to read notes that come from the teacher or write more effective notes. Other ways would be to record lectures and to create notes on key points of the lectures.i could also read books more often to try to understand topics. For presentations practice would help me be more prepared.

In conclusion I have found from the Kolb questionnaire that I am a reflector and from the Vak questionnaire I have found that I am visual and auditory learner. By doing this I have found the best ways that I can learn and also my weaknesses and by knowing my weaknesses I have also thought of ways to get around them by learning information in my types of learning styles. At the end of doing these questionnaires and finding my learning styles I didn't totally believe that I was this type of learner sometimes I do like to be more practical in the work that I am doing for my type of course.