Here's a link to my games design playlist on YouTube. I only save the best videos to this playlist but it should hopefully stand as evidence of the research into games design that I've been doing.
Games Design YouTube Playlist
Friday, 5 February 2016
YEAR 2 - BA2a - Evaluation
This is the term I've been waiting for. I have been looking forward to specializing in games design and I am enjoying it now I have. I certainly feel like this is the area I excel at as I have a strong background in researching games design methodologies and have a huge bank of games designers to refer to. I have been using GameMaker: Studio for a year and a half now so I have a fairly strong understanding of scripting and logic and this showed in how easily I was able to pick up UE4 and blueprinting. I am proud of some of the games I have been able to produce in this time and this is the first time I've ever collaborated on a game. I now understand how to use Slack and Discord to improve our productivity and I learned from the 1 week Game Jam how important the planing stages are to the outcome of the project. I also learned how important the communication of ideas is in a team.
I have kept my blog up to date throughout the project and used it to extensively analyze my own work. However, I was unable to shorten the writing much further than I already have without losing detail (since I have to explain logically how things work in order to explain exactly why it needs fixing and then various approaches about how to go about fixing it). Having said this, there are certainly posts in there that, with a more structured posting style would probably have lead me to summarize more.
I found the essay quite difficult to write because I kept wanting to analyze the game rather than talk about it's influences. I held back as much as possible and I was able to talk about a lot of it's mechanical influences as well as the reasoning the design choices (which were inspired by his previous games and by the design methodology he has built up over time). I also spoke about the thematic choices and referenced other games with a similar theme.
I had a lot of fun testing and iterating on the first specialism test and the design questions gave me a lot to think about. The second are test reminded me that I need to practice 3D more (although I'm happy with the in engine screenshots) and I'd like to get back into 2D art also.
Generally I am very happy that I know a 3D engine now and I'm looking forward to experimenting with more game ideas. I feel more confident creating fleshed out worlds (thematically and in making the assets) within my games now, which is something I often overlook.
I have kept my blog up to date throughout the project and used it to extensively analyze my own work. However, I was unable to shorten the writing much further than I already have without losing detail (since I have to explain logically how things work in order to explain exactly why it needs fixing and then various approaches about how to go about fixing it). Having said this, there are certainly posts in there that, with a more structured posting style would probably have lead me to summarize more.
I found the essay quite difficult to write because I kept wanting to analyze the game rather than talk about it's influences. I held back as much as possible and I was able to talk about a lot of it's mechanical influences as well as the reasoning the design choices (which were inspired by his previous games and by the design methodology he has built up over time). I also spoke about the thematic choices and referenced other games with a similar theme.
I had a lot of fun testing and iterating on the first specialism test and the design questions gave me a lot to think about. The second are test reminded me that I need to practice 3D more (although I'm happy with the in engine screenshots) and I'd like to get back into 2D art also.
Generally I am very happy that I know a 3D engine now and I'm looking forward to experimenting with more game ideas. I feel more confident creating fleshed out worlds (thematically and in making the assets) within my games now, which is something I often overlook.
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