Chapter 1



Peter HainsworthUAL Level 3 Extended Diploma Games development UAL Extended Diploma: Creative Media Production and TechnologyUnit 12 Specialist Study in Creative Media Production(graphics cave, 2017)Figure 1 Gaming buttonCONTENTS TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Chapter 1 - Who am I? PAGEREF _Toc504754076 \h 4Chapter 3 - Experimentation and Skills PAGEREF _Toc504754077 \h 8I could improve this by expanding the rooms’ width and then adding out of bounds areas filled with asteroids and other space debris. I would block the player off with solid lines the exact height and width of the room and then make the player bounce off them when they come in contact with them. I have done this at the edges and top of my rooms and made the blockades black so the player cannot see them, this stopped both enemies and player from exiting the screen bounds. PAGEREF _Toc504754078 \h 11Chapter 4 - Unit 12 Presentation and Plans for Unit 13 PAGEREF _Toc504754079 \h 22During my analysis of Peter’s work I found myself agreeing with the statements and findings presented in his review on the indie Literature review I couldn’t find anything wrong with the work presented to me and it is structured to a satisfactory way. PAGEREF _Toc504754080 \h 22The only grips I have is the lack of imaginary which I feel would allow the reader to have a break from all the text perhaps more quotes from both indie and triple A developers. PAGEREF _Toc504754081 \h 22Chapter 5 - Weekly Schedule of Work PAGEREF _Toc504754082 \h 23Chapter 6 – Peer Reviews PAGEREF _Toc504754083 \h 28During my analysis of Peter’s work I found myself agreeing with the statements and findings presented in his review on the indie Literature review I couldn’t find anything wrong with the work presented to me and it is structured to a satisfactory way. PAGEREF _Toc504754084 \h 28The only grips I have is the lack of imaginary which I feel would allow the reader to have a break from all the text perhaps more quotes from both indie and triple A developers. PAGEREF _Toc504754085 \h 28Chapter 7– Weekly Progress Tracker PAGEREF _Toc504754086 \h 29Appendix PAGEREF _Toc504754087 \h 35Appendices 1 – Unit 12 Criteria and Work to be Produced PAGEREF _Toc504754088 \h 35Appendix 2 – Students Calendar, Checklist and Scheme of Work PAGEREF _Toc504754089 \h 35Appendix 3 – Chapter Bibliographies PAGEREF _Toc504754090 \h 38Chapter 1 PAGEREF _Toc504754091 \h 38Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc504754092 \h 38Chapter 2 PAGEREF _Toc504754093 \h 38Chapter 3 PAGEREF _Toc504754094 \h 39Table of Figures TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1 Gaming button PAGEREF _Toc504754020 \h 1Figure 1 room PAGEREF _Toc504754021 \h 8Figure 2 Sprite and object list PAGEREF _Toc504754022 \h 8Figure 1 galaga PAGEREF _Toc504754023 \h 10Figure 2 Space Invaders PAGEREF _Toc504754024 \h 10Figure 3 Star Background PAGEREF _Toc504754025 \h 11Figure 4 Spaceship PAGEREF _Toc504754026 \h 12Figure 5 Ship tilt left and right PAGEREF _Toc504754027 \h 13Figure 6 Test instance box PAGEREF _Toc504754028 \h 14Figure 7 Friendly Projectile PAGEREF _Toc504754029 \h 14Figure 8 Test instance PAGEREF _Toc504754030 \h 14Figure 9 Damaged ship PAGEREF _Toc504754031 \h 14Figure 10 Oxygen tank PAGEREF _Toc504754032 \h 15Figure 11 Lives sprite PAGEREF _Toc504754033 \h 15Figure 12 Pink ship PAGEREF _Toc504754034 \h 16Figure 13 Pink ship death sprite PAGEREF _Toc504754035 \h 16Figure 14 Room 1 PAGEREF _Toc504754036 \h 17Figure 15 Yellow ship PAGEREF _Toc504754037 \h 18Figure 16 Blue ship PAGEREF _Toc504754038 \h 18Figure 17 Yellow ship destroyed PAGEREF _Toc504754039 \h 18Figure 18 Blue ship destroyed PAGEREF _Toc504754040 \h 18Figure 19 Room 2 PAGEREF _Toc504754041 \h 19Figure 20 Boss ship PAGEREF _Toc504754042 \h 20Figure 21 Boss ship end PAGEREF _Toc504754043 \h 20Figure 22 Boss ship middle PAGEREF _Toc504754044 \h 20Figure 23 Boss ship start PAGEREF _Toc504754045 \h 20Chapter 1 - Who am I?-48196564960500Introduction: This who am I task is a way to help me find out what I want to pursue for my extended project and what I want to specialise in, I’ve done this in the form of a mind map. A mind map is a way to follow each section and see how everything flows and connects.-488315-39751000Evaluation: Doing this task helped me find out what I want to focus my research on for my literature review, it also brought up a connection between my family and the type of things I like which I had never thought about before. Chapter 2 – The ReportLiterature review What is an indie game?In this literature review I will cover the question “what is an indie game?” and explain the differences between triple A companies and indie companies, then give my personal reflection after looking at multiple sources at what an indie game is.The comparison between triple A and Independent companies is great, it can be broken down in many ways but as in an article written on Quora it is broken down into three sections. The first section is management, the second is creativity and finally finances, I think these are good sections to break down into as they are key areas of games development and vastly different between AAA and indie. ManagementAAA - Management in a triple A company is a lot like a hierarchy where there is the top boss CEO and then under them there are middle managers and so on until the lowest level of workers, everything must be passed up the chain before given the go ahead and everything is done by their word. Instead of the top boss’s being lead developers they are more “wall street watchers” (Quora, 2014) making sure they are on track for the quarterly reports and will do anything to make them meet their quota.Independent – The indie companies tend to have a more fluent and free structure rather than a hierarchy and are usually in small teams than big companies. The games developer is most likely to be more open creative ideas from other team members as their isn’t a specific chain of command but the go ahead will still be up to the developer. The developers that hired you will probably be working alongside with you and there are no specific jobs for one person, there is freedom to do what you feel like doing as you can take on multiple roles. Creativity AAA – The Triple A teams make high risk investments with millions of pounds and the teams are made of qualified well experienced people who specialized in that specific role, they stick to their roles and will most likely not take any creative ideas from people in other specializations like programming or art. Independent – Due to small teams in independent companies there is a lot more creativity freedom because there is quick communication between the group, some people are open to ideas from others in the group but sometimes people can be set on one idea and vision. Generally there is more of a chance to get an idea out into a game through the indie business than AAA. FinancesAAA – Triple A companies have a lot of funds to spend, they can support a big team, afford a legal team, and they have policies for bonuses and raises. This is a lot different to an indie company, Triple A have a sense of security when the funds are being used but when they stop coming the entire studio could be closed without warning even if the studio has just released a successful game. Independent – Indie companies do not have the security that triple A companies have, the funds they use are from many different sources like family who are willing to help, Kickstarter, a loan, credit cards, personal savings or many other ways. All of these sources carry risks of putting the developer in debt or losing personal connections due to not being able to pay back the money they own and is a very high risk thing to do.Reflection My reflection on the sources I have viewed is that to begin with, “indie” is a very fluid term and its definition varies between each person’s personal opinions. There’s a great analogy in the YouTube video “What is an indie game?” (Youtube, 2016) And it describes old school garage music as raw, emotional music that’s created with anything you have at your disposal and now that garage music has been changed into a computer, and indie games are now the music. Indie games are people’s raw creativity with no hold backs of triple A companies and they can express themselves however they want with whatever materials they have at their disposal. The size of an indie team doesn’t depict whether they are indie or not, many different factors depict that, if they are completely independent financially whether a small team pooling their resources or a lone programmer throwing his life profits into a game that is classed as indie. The games they create are personal, unique, and it’s something a triple A company wouldn’t produce, the creation process is different for indie because there is more freedom for your creativity. Some indie companies are now producing 3D high quality graphic games that are on par with Triple A titles so the term “indie” is slowly starting to become more and more irrelevant, if you look at it from the perspective that “indie” is a certain type of game. In conclusion the term indie has many different meanings, it can mean freedom of creativity and unlimited potential, and it isn’t determined by any action, word or phrase and can be used in any way that suits people. If people want to be indie then that gives them power beyond their knowledge to do what they want and express their emotions in a raw uncut way through the power of video games.Chapter 3 - Experimentation and SkillsGameMaker Experimentation Is it possible to create the basic mechanics of a wave defence game using drag and drop in GameMaker? In this experimentation I will be looking into wave defence games such as let them come (2017) and their basic mechanics to try and replicate them in my own version on GameMaker using drag and drop. I will produce a very basic prototype to see if I am able to create the basic mechanics and then do more experiments to push the limits of what I can do. 02406015Figure 1 roomFigure 1 roomleft82867500I started this experiment by setting GameMaker up and adding in the components of a wave defence game. I set up a basic room with the dimensions of 128 x 64 and then created a background with basic detail to outline what area the player would play in and the enemies would spawn. 35726723038475Figure 2 Sprite and object listFigure 2 Sprite and object listright1079500I then went and created a basic character shape so that I could start setting up another feature of the game which was shooting. The shooting I wanted to have was a full auto machine gun fire rate but as I started to set it up I realised that there was no option for pressing down and holding the mouse button in order to get a constant fire rate. This hindered my experiment a bit as without a full auto fire rate the game would be harder to balance the enemies’ health along with the damage of the bullets. I settled in the end with a burst fire rate that shot five bullets that then destroyed when they went out of the screen bounds. As this was a prototype everything is just a simple design to just test the actual mechanics of the game, so the bullets were just solid yellow blocks, the enemies were red blocks, and the lives were green blocks. With the gun firing I set up the lives by adding in a player object and then set the player lives to 5, this seemed like a good amount to have and the plan was to have the wave of enemies reset when the player died. I then needed a blank object to put into the room which allowed the player to take damage, the sprite is a green box that just gave it a simple look for the prototype so I could get it done quickly. Now there was only one thing left to do and that was to set up the enemies, this was where the most of my time went, to fit the game style the enemies needed to start and the player kill them then the next wave with different enemies would spawn, this was easier said than done. At first I had issues just trying to get the enemies to spawn and head from the right side of the screen to the left, I could get them to spawn in but then I couldn’t find the right positioning in the room for them to appear fully in the screen. Eventually I found the coordinates so that the enemies spawned in screen and I changed the direction to the correct direction by adding in horizontal speed to them and giving them a minus speed which made them move left across the screen. The other problem I was having is that I couldn’t get the waves of enemies to work, there might have been a way to make it work by adding in a next wave button which would spawn enemies when pressed by checking the player has killed all of the previous wave, this would work in theory but another problem got in the way of me experimenting with it. This issue was based around the enemies health and how it would be set up, now because I limited myself to use drag and drop the health bar system and lives have trouble working in sync, I know this because I had this exact issue in a previous project and if I shot enemies with a health bar then my health would deplete also. Overall this experimentation was good to do and brought to light, things that would’ve hindered my progress in my extended project. I think the wave defence game would’ve been a great idea if I was not limited by using drag and drop and if I learned a bit of HTML coding I would be able to accomplish what this experimentation set out to do, but this made it a less viable option because I do not have time to learn and apply HTML. My next experimentation will be another prototype of a different styled game. 2D space shooter experimentation This experiment was about what can I achieve trying to recreate the base mechanics needed for a 2D space shooter with drag and drop? The base mechanics needed for a space shooter from what I determined are as listed, side to side movement, shooting, lives, enemies that shoot and move around the screen. I used the game Galaga (1981) and space invaders (1978) as influences for this as they have the same base mechanics and they are both the same genre of game. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1 Galaga CITATION fpg15 \l 2057 (FPGaarcade, 2015)Figure 2 Space Invaders CITATION mur18 \l 2057 (murals wallpaper, 2018)To kick start this experimentation I created a room with a thin width but then a long length so the player would be at the bottom of the screen and the enemies would have the top of the screen to move around. The background I chose to do was a basic star pattern with bright stars and slightly dimmer stars in the background to give the effect of depth, and then I made the screen scroll down so that it looks like the player is flying through space. 04884420Figure 3 Star BackgroundFigure 3 Star Background025100I could improve this by expanding the rooms’ width and then adding out of bounds areas filled with asteroids and other space debris. I would block the player off with solid lines the exact height and width of the room and then make the player bounce off them when they come in contact with them. I have done this at the edges and top of my rooms and made the blockades black so the player cannot see them, this stopped both enemies and player from exiting the screen bounds. My next part in the experiment was to create a ship with player controls that allowed them to move side to side, for this I decided to use the arrow key as the space bar would be the fire button and this is a more comfortable position to play with rather than the A and D keys for movement. 03214370Figure 4 SpaceshipFigure 4 Spaceship0-110800For the space ship design I just went with what I pictured in my head, I carved a basic shape out then made sure that both side were identical so that nothing would be out of place. I added in a grey box at the back so it looks like an engine and then added in the grey line on top of the shape to make it look like there is a cab on top and the sides are the wings. The guns I added on a red tip on the end of the barrels to show the player where they are and give it a bit of colour variation, the blue near the tip of the ship I added in to make look like there is a cockpit.138223140589000I made the ship able to move by creating an object for it and then assigning the ship sprite to it and creating two events for the left and right arrow keys, in both of them I added in vertical speed at the value of 6 for the right key and -6 for the left key as it has to be the opposite of the right key, this allowed the ship to move left and right when placed into the room. To add more detail I made two more sprites of the ship and assigned them to the movement keys and on these sprites I had darkened the sides of the ship and moved the guns so that it looks like the ship is tilting as the player flies left and right. 2286000140589000Figure 5 Ship tilt left and right Now I need to enable the ship to shoot, for this I created an 8x8 projectile and then created a press spacebar even on my ships object so every time it is pressed a projectile comes out. 0-319000I needed to limit the amount of projectiles the player can fire so they didn’t spam out projectiles and clear the level quickly. I chose to limit the projectiles to 3 at a time and they delete themselves when hitting enemies and leaving the room limits. This was achieved by adding in a test variable action, this action tests if there is a certain amount of objects in the room and then lets you chose what to do next. So in this case if there are less than 3 of then friendly projectiles in the room it will create a bullet when the space bar is pressed. 33375603368675Figure 6 Test instance boxFigure 6 Test instance box3337914-593600center-127000Figure 7 Friendly Projectile2306320596265Figure 8 Test instanceFigure 8 Test instance230632018504I also added in an effect when the enemy shoots the ship it would flash red so you could see when you take damage. To do this, on collision with enemy bullet it changes into the damage reaction sprite, the issue I had was that it wouldn’t go back into the normal ship after taking damage so I added a chance of 1 in 15 in that it would change back into the normal ship. Figure 9 Damaged ship-749303533775Figure 10 Oxygen tankFigure 10 Oxygen tank-7534481870700With the ship built and functional I decided to add another key feature which is lives, I decided on three lives for the player and when they lose all their lives it restarts that current room. I designed a sprite in the theme of space and made them look like o2 canisters with a red cross on them. 275898716936800 CITATION Nur12 \l 2057 (Nursing home law centre , 2012)2806183125065Figure 11 Lives spriteFigure 11 Lives spriteI had one problem with sorting the lives out and that was the size comparison in the room compared to everything else, I had to resize my sprite 3 times to get it the right size and in the end I used a 32 x 32 canvas to create my sprite. I placed the lives down the bottom left of the screen beside the ship so they are visible to the player but not in the way. My next big step is to create my first set of enemies, I chose a simple circular design as to make it easy and quick because this is a prototype and gave them bright colours so they stood out in the space themed background. 02719070Figure 12 Pink shipFigure 12 Pink ship0372100I had a hard time trying to add movement onto my enemies because I wanted them to move randomly, I tried different ways like adding vertical and horizontal speed to them and then trying to get them to bounce off the walls like rubber balls but this idea didn’t work. They would move but only in one direction and they wouldn’t bounce off the walls, in the end I made a path for them to follow and made three separate pink ships and different objects for them so I could set them at different speeds along the same path. Next I needed them to fire, I copied my friendly projectile and changed the colours of it to blue and yellow and then set up an alarm with an infinite loop which allows the ship to fire the projectile randomly every 1 in 2 chances with a chance action. I then went to set up so when the pink ships take damage they take damage and explode into pieces by changing into a sprite that makes the ship look exploded and have particles flickering around it, this worked extremely well and looks very good in-game.02255520Figure 13 Pink ship death spriteFigure 13 Pink ship death sprite0497700 For the game to proceed to the next room I needed to create what I called a “ship log” this is basically an invisible object that runs in the background to check the total amount of enemy ships and when the enemy ships have been wiped out it proceeds to the next room. After adding in all of the objects into room one that was the first level complete, the room consists of my ship, 3 enemy ships, an invisible object for my lives and ship log.Figure 14 Room 1For the next level I copied room 1 so that it saved me time instead of setting one up from scratch and deleted the pink enemy ships. I created new enemy ship types that are copied from the pink ships but they are changed to blue and yellow, I wanted these ships to have two lives as to make the level harder than level 1. Now, because I have added lives onto the players’ ship I realised I couldn’t have lives on the enemies as well as they would be linked together, so my solution to this was to create a second version of the blue ship by changing it to yellow so when the player hits the blue ship it would destroy and spawn a yellow ship. Doing this gives the illusion of having lives without actually using them. 23387052078355Figure 15 Yellow shipFigure 15 Yellow ship23391633621000Figure 16 Blue ship337967699934300I had to make 5 versions for both blue and yellow ships each with different objects so that when the player destroyed a blue ship it wouldn’t change all of the blue ships at once, this was a big issue I had during the process of creating this. With each object created I set up so that when the blue enemy ship was destroyed it done the destroyed animation then spawned in the yellow ship, when the yellow ship was destroyed it also done the destroyed animation. 35179001910715Figure 17 Yellow ship destroyedFigure 17 Yellow ship destroyed0-34000Figure 18 Blue ship destroyedDue to this being level 2 I didn’t want to set the enemies to a path because it was too easy to predict and complete the level. After experimenting with a few moving actions I consulted with a peer for feedback on movement and he came up with the idea for using the chance action and start moving in direction action. What this means is that I set an infinite alarm up which checks every second and then make it so there is a 1 in 3 chance to move in the directions left, right, and up. I made it a chance of 1 in 4 to move down as with the 1 in 3 chance I found it moving down the screen too often. Level 2 was now complete and I was ready to create a ship log to make it so the player would move into the next room when all the enemies were destroyed. I followed the same technique as for the room 1 ship log and made it check for every yellow ship to be equal to 0 before moving to the next yellow, now my thought process had actually hindered me because I forgot that when the player would move into room 2 there wouldn’t be any yellow ships only blue. This in turn made it skip to the boss room immediately and caused it to skip room 2. I was confused by this and ended up finding out the solution after attempting to fix it repeatedly by removing certain actions and objects from the room, using the process of elimination to find out the source of the problem. I fixed it by adding into the list for it to check if there were blue ships AND yellow ships in the room equal to 0 before moving into the next room. Fixing this bug was the end of room 2 as it was now complete.Figure 19 Room 2My final room is for the boss, the boss is where I had the most issues with trying to get my ideas to work. I started by designing the boss’s shape which I kept the same as the other enemies but enlarged it and designed it with different patterns to make it look separate from the other enemies. 02386965Figure 20 Boss shipFigure 20 Boss ship0-482900The boss shoots a blue projectile like the other enemy ships but also has a special attack which happens on a chance action again. The special is a laser beam that shoots out the centre of the ship for about 5 seconds and if the player comes in contact with it then they lose a life, the boss cannot take damage while shooting the laser. I had two attempts at creating the laser and only the second attempt worked. My first attempt was to create a moving instance and have the laser shoot out of the ship, I was hoping that if I could fix it to the ships centre it would stay there and be a constant beam out the front of the ship. Unfortunately this didn’t work, I couldn’t find a way to attach the laser to the ship and every time it shot it just moved down the screen. The second attempt way to create a second sprite with the laser drawn and animated on it and then have it on a chance roll to change into that sprite which looks like the laser is shooting. The boss moves around using the same system as the blue enemies with a random chance to go in a certain direction.51562002783840Figure 21 Boss ship endFigure 21 Boss ship end515640716303000235866002147570190500Figure 22 Boss ship middleFigure 23 Boss ship startChapter 4 - Unit 12 Presentation and Plans for Unit 13This chapter will include your presentation that you have given to the class and lecturers detailing the work and research you have produced, and your analysis of how that work, research and experimentation have informed your plans for Unit 13.During my analysis of Peter’s work I found myself agreeing with the statements and findings presented in his review on the indie Literature review I couldn’t find anything wrong with the work presented to me and it is structured to a satisfactory way. The only grips I have is the lack of imaginary which I feel would allow the reader to have a break from all the text perhaps more quotes from both indie and triple A developers. Marcus Chapter 5 - Weekly Schedule of Work Week 1 w/c January 1st2018Introduction to Unit 12PowerPointTasks to be undertaken this weekWho am I for chapter 1 of portfolio ApprovedMonday am x 3 A’s not inWednesday am x 3Monday pm x 2A’s not inThursday am x 3Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Start work on my who am I taskTuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Continue working on my who am I task and add pictures.Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Finish my who am I task and fill out my portfolio and peer review sections. Week 2w/c January 8th 2018The Report PowerPointMain Research Question: - What is an indie game?ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Receive input session and start undertaking research for my main question what is an indie game?Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Look at sources on the internet to find evidence on the term indie and take notes on what I find.Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Start compiling my notes and piecing them together for the start of my report.Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Extend my report and conclude it, then Harvard reference all my sourcesWednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Complete my portfolio tracker and feedback And double check my report to see if I have added everything I can. Add work into portfolio. Week 3w/c 15th January 2018Experimentation and Skills PowerPointMain Research Question: - Can I recreate 3 different genres of games in GameMaker, replicating the mechanics? ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Research let them come video game and start working on wave defence prototype.Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Work on prototype trying to replicate wave based enemies and full auto gunfire. Adding in more mechanics afterwards.Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Write my review on my wave based prototype and start looking into my galaga styled prototype. Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Begin working on galaga type prototype and add in basic mechanics, add more in if it goes well. Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Work on galaga prototype and finish it, then start write up of prototype. Week 4w/c 22nd January 2018Main Research Question: - what can I achieve trying to recreate the base mechanics needed for a 2D space shooter with drag and drop?ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Complete my galaga experiment and start undertaking the write up explaining the process and problems I occurred giving my final evaluation on the viability of this type of game for my EP.Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Continue working on my galaga experiment write up. Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Finish Galaga experiment write up and then start on my tower defence experiment.Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Continue working on my tower defence experiment Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Finish up my tower defence experiment and start write up for it. Week 5w/c 29th January 2018Main Research Question: -ApprovedTasks to be undertaken this weekMonday am x 3Wednesday am x 3Monday pm x 2Thursday am x 3Tuesday am x 2Thursday pm x 1Tuesday pm x 2Friday am x 3Wednesday am x 2Friday pm x 1Chapter 6 – Peer ReviewsWeek 1Reviewed by:- Zak ButcherZak suggested I add more pictures into the document to balance it out so there isn’t blank space on the page, he also suggested talking about how my mother influenced my early game choices by her lifestyle, a link I had never seen before. Week 2Reviewed by:- Marcus HowardDuring my analysis of Peter’s work I found myself agreeing with the statements and findings presented in his review on the indie Literature review I couldn’t find anything wrong with the work presented to me and it is structured to a satisfactory way. The only grips I have is the lack of imaginary which I feel would allow the reader to have a break from all the text perhaps more quotes from both indie and triple A developers. Week 3Reviewed by:-Jack Simpson I showed jack my game and told him about why I am creating three mini prototypes and he suggested for my final prototype which is tower defence, that I research games such as balloons tower defence, plants VS zombies, and kingdom rush. He also suggested looking into the effects of ragdoll and seeing if I can test it in my prototypes. Week 4Reviewed by:- Wesley Habbershaw, Jack Simpson, Ben Hills, Cameron Johnson I showed my 2D space shooter game to the group and talked them through how I done certain mechanics in the game, I specifically focused on the boss level as jack had not seen that before. I explained how I had to work around getting the laser to work and they suggested I make the laser bigger by extending the sprite excessively so that it goes outside the screen bounds and blocks the player, at the moment the laser is short and if the boss is at the top of the room it doen not reach the player. Week 5Reviewed by:-Chapter 7– Weekly Progress TrackerProgress Tracker - Week 1Reflection on the work you have produced this weekThis week I produced a map of my skills and influences to help find out what I’d like to specialise in for my future. I found out that I would like to pursue a career in the indie side of the game industry and do this by going to a university which will help me on that path. Problems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedYESYESYESYESYESYESYESLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 2Reflection on the work you have produced this weekThis week I produced a literature review based on the question “What is an indie game?” In this review I found various sources to do with indie companies and games to build my research up and reflect on it to give my personal opinion on what I think an indie game is. I enjoyed coming up with the question what is an indie game? Because it seems like a very simple question but then if you start researching, straight away there’s so many different opinions on what an indie game is and it can mean so many things to different people. Problems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionAdding my “who am I” work into my portfolio, it wouldn’t fit into the document.I resolved this by taking snipping tool screenshots of my work and then adding them in as different blocks.Notes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedYESYESYESYESYESYESYESLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 3Reflection on the work you have produced this weekThis week I have experimented in Gamemaker and attempted to recreate 2 out of 3 genres of games using the basic mechanics and replicating them to try and see if it was possible using the drag and drop commands. The first prototype, wave defence, was a struggle to complete as the mechanics were very hard to replicate using drag and drop, I done what I could, to the best of my ability to try and replicate them but in the end I called it to an end and then reflected on the experiment. My next prototype is going extremely well, it is influenced by galaga and space invaders and the mechanics transitioned very well into drag and drop commands. I have had to be creative and find work a rounds for some aspects of the prototype such as the enemies lives but that is exactly why I limited myself to using drag and drop, I love finding the work a rounds and being creative. Problems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionEnemies lives not working alongside mine.Creating different variants of enemies then having them switch to that variant when they take damage then they die after killing the variant. Notes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postYoutubeGooglePeersChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedYESYESYESYESYESYESYESLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 4Reflection on the work you have produced this weekProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)Progress Tracker - Week 5Reflection on the work you have produced this weekProblems/situations you encountered this week and how you resolved themProblemResolutionNotes on Resources and Sources used in the production of this week’s postChecklistSpellcheckedProofreadIntroductionConclusionHarvardPresentationPublishedLecturers Feedback, detailing further actions you need to take (student to complete)AppendixAppendices 1 – Unit 12 Criteria and Work to be ProducedUNIT 12- SPECIALIST STUDY IN CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTIONLearning Outcomes Assessment CriteriaWork to be producedAIM: Research and critically examine the influence of historical and contemporary contexts on their own practice.Understand the principles and practices of a chosen discipline in creative media production.1.1 Critically describe a range of contextual perspectives influencing a chosen discipline in creative media production.The Report Practioners ReportProduct Report1.2Apply knowledge of critical perspectives to inform own practice.Unit Portfolio and PresentationBe able to locate and evaluate information form a range of sources 2.1Identify a range of relevant academic and cultural sources for a personal research project.The ReportExperimentation and Skills2.2Critically evaluate information from a range of sources to inform ideas.Unit Portfolio and PresentationBe able to communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of forms. 3.1Apply academic conventions in the production and presentation of ideas.Unit Portfolio and Presentation3.2Effectively communicate ideas in appropriate formats.Unit Portfolio and PresentationAppendix 2 – Students Calendar, Checklist and Scheme of WorkWEEK 1 – w/c 1st January 2018Tuesday amRemainder of the weekCollege not open MonIntroduction to Unit 12Power Point 1 – Introduction to Unit 12What is expected i.e. Portfolios etcHow it works – Personal ScheduleStudy GroupsPeer ReviewCritiquesWhy – Unit 13WHO AM I?Objective for session: - Schedule Week 1 producedWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWed pm (x3)Tues pm (a’s) Thurs am (x3)Introduction to Unit 12Power Point 1 Introduction to Unit 12What is expected i.e. Portfolios etcHow it works – Personal ScheduleStudy GroupsPeer ReviewCritiquesWhy – Unit 13WHO AM I?Objective for session: - Schedule Week 1 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -Produce Timeline for skills development to dateMind Map on Who am I? – my favourite media products, my inspirational media producerMy skills focusWEEK 2 – w/c 8th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Power Point 2 – The ReportHow to undertake a Literature Review, both generally and specifically for The Report, based on weeks 1 tasks – favourite media Practioners, and favourite Media Product and should tie in with skills focus.Objective for session: - Schedule Week 2 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -The ReportWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWEEK 3 – w/c 15th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Power Point 3Experimentation and SkillsHow to structure an experiment – what is the research question and what is the research plan to find the answer to that question.Based on weeks 1 tasks – when you looked at your skills, and what you want to focus on.If you are unsure of what to do, then use the FEAR project to get you focused and doingSchedule Week 3 producedSchedule agreed with LecturerAdvisory Schedule: -Detail planed experimentation and skills task What is their research question and what is their research plan to answer that question? You can leave college if necessary and relevant.OrFEAR ProjectWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWeek 4 and Week 5 w/c 22nd and 29th January 2018Mon am (x3)Mon pm (x2)Remainder of the weekWed pm (x3)Thurs am (x3)Independent Study now….Schedule Week 4 and 5 produced and approvedWork on Schedule – With constant checking by staffWork on your scheduleLast lesson of the week: -Peer ReviewCritiqueReflective LogWeek 6 – 5th February 2018Presentation and Progress Review Week – All students present their findings and possible thoughts on Unit 13. Portfolio made perfect!Self-Directed Study Week Appendix 3 – Chapter BibliographiesChapter 1BibliographyDeviant Art, 2018. Deviant Art. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].graphics cave, 2017. graphics cave. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 3 january 2018].pngall, 2017. pngall. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].Wikipedia, 2010. Wikipedia. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].Chapter 2digitaltrends, 2013. The rise, and completely predictable fall of game developer Phil Fish. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].envantotuts+, 2014. How to Fund Your Indie Game. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].Quora, 2014. What is the difference between working for an indie gaming studio and working for an AAA gaming company?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 January 2018].Quora, 2014. What's the definition of "indie developer"?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].VB, 2010. What Makes an Indie Game…Indie?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].Youtube, 2016. What is an indie game?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].Chapter 3Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Anon., 2017. BBC News. [Online] Available at: Art, 2018. Deviant Art. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].digitaltrends, 2013. The rise, and completely predictable fall of game developer Phil Fish. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].envantotuts+, 2014. How to Fund Your Indie Game. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].fpgaarcade, 2015. Galaga. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 January 2018].graphics cave, 2017. graphics cave. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 3 january 2018].modley, a., 2017. fun with face. 5 ed. canter: zoran .murals wallpaper, 2018. Space Invaders Mural Wallpaper. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 January 2018].Nursing home law centre , 2012. Failure To Detect Problems With Oxygen Tank Results In Lawsuit Against Nursing Home. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 23 January 2018].pngall, 2017. pngall. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].Quora, 2014. What is the difference between working for an indie gaming studio and working for an AAA gaming company?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 January 2018].Quora, 2014. What's the definition of "indie developer"?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].Smith, c., 2017. Fun with Flags. 5 ed. canterbury: media.VB, 2010. What Makes an Indie Game…Indie?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018].Wikipedia, 2010. Wikipedia. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2018].Youtube, 2016. What is an indie game?. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 09 January 2018]. ................
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