PDP 2

Description of work done

The assignment required me to use Unreal Tournament 3 (UnrealEd 3.0) to build half of a level, leaving the other part for the person that I was paired with. I went for oriental, Japanese themed layout and environment. Finally, I ended up creating all of the exterior, and the other person did the interiors of a building. The level was finalised, it looked pretty good. The level is fully playable (deathmatch-styled) and only has some minor "bugs". I implemented 3 custom textures to the level as well. 

Reflection and Issues Identified (SWOT)

Strenghts: I really filled out the Japanese theme, the level is fully playable, weapons, powerups and health packs are pretty strategically placed. The terrain and environment overall are not boring, lots of changes to the simple "plane" type of terrain, a little forest-like pass, so that the level would look interesting while walking around, and fun to fight in.

Weaknesses: I procrastinated and did my work late, because of bad planning. There are no shadows to be seen in the level after cooking it. I intended putting vehicles inside the level as well, but something was wrong with the terrain. Also, I tried my best to make the lighting look good, but its not nearly as perfect as I hoped it would be.

Opportunities: The level can be made bigger, the terrain fixed. It would really make more sense if the whole building was to be removed, and instead, the rest of the map extended, copied and flipped. It would  guarantee equality for both sides, strategy-wise. If the vehicles would work on the level, it could be more interesting and challenging to play. Also, better custom textures could be implemented.

Threats: I could ruin the lighting, and a bigger level means more load on the computer, so I might have to remove numerous static meshes from the level, which would destroy the whole environment that I was trying to achieve. I would say I could corrupt the .ut3 file if i save over a bad action, but since I'm saving the level pretty often and in different files, that is not very likely to happen.

Plan of Action (SMART)

My plan of action would be improving the balance and overall design of the level, which means: 1 - make half of the level and mirror it to guarantee balance for both sides. 2 - extend the map, recreate the terrain so that vehicles can be used in-game. 3 - Implement custom static meshes, to make the environment look as good as possible. 4 - hammer out the lighting. 5 - improve placement of weapons, powerups and health packs.

This is really achievable, and comparing new results with the old ones would take 1 - letting people play for extended durations of time and check if the balance is good, and 2 - try running the first, then the other level and walking around inside them to see if it decreases framerate a lot or not, and of course - looking which level looks better.

The plan is relevant, because it adresses all of the issues identified in the SWOT reflection. All of the problems would be tackled and fixed if I was to create a second version of the level.

This plan could be completed within two weeks at most, if supported by good time planning and no other issues would occur.

Completion/Review/Conclusion

The conclusion is, for the first attempt, I really like what I built. It cost me a lot of time, and most of that time was used not to create the level, but make it work - lots of problems occured with the terrain, cooking of the level, and mostly, shadows. The plan is realistic, and I am sure that acting by it would seriously improve the quality of the finalised product. Basically, it helped me lay down the problems that I have, including a way to solve them, and look at the project from perspective, which makes it easier to understand what's wrong and what's right in the current level.

PDP assignment

Description of work done

One morning, I found myself in England, in the accommodation of the University of Bolton. No relatives, no friends, no one and nothing familiar. Pretty soon after that, we jumped straight into the course – everyone has been given an assignment to create an idea of a game, and we had to do it in separate little groups. I don’t like trusting people with my future (university grades in this situation), so I thought that suddenly starting to work on my grades with people that don’t even know where my country is was a bit hard, dangerous perhaps.

During this assignment I obtained an understanding how these students work, why they do what they do and when. We have finished the assignment at the last minute, but I know that if we would have started working earlier and more, this “Blade of the Immortals” idea would have been perfected and kept for future reference for when we start working in the industry. We’ve build the monster hierarchy, story of the game, figured out the combat system, mechanics and even a bit of DLC’s. We used “Prezi” for the presentation and pictures from the internet in the presentation. The main idea was not stolen, we did not try to copy anything from other games (except the genre, you can’t reinvent the wheel, can you?).

In the end, I was really happy with the work we have done. It was a complete presentation, longer than any other groups’, interesting, a bit different. Unique.

Reflection and Issues Identified (SWOT)

The presentation looked good, informative, complete. We even managed to find out the PEGI and ESRB ratings for it. The combat system, story, visuals, monster hierarchy, travelling, character personalities etc. were hammered out nearly perfectly. It was good teamwork, except that one of our team members fell out at the end.

Our worst part was procrastination, which made us turn in the work we had on our hands, instead of the one we had in our heads and imaginations. A couple of times our organisation between each other was really bad. I might have been responsible for that, because I am foreign, and sometimes it’s difficult to understand the people I work with.

Positive opportunities would be sticking together and having more and more contact with each other, starting to do the work on time (planning our workload and the time that we have to squeeze that in accurately), I know I will get used to the language over time anyway, that is a more practical thing than theoretical. The work could have been finished earlier and better, like the actual presentation for example. We didn’t bother practicing the presentation, which took some impact on our mark.

The threats would be that each of us has the game differently in our imaginations, so if we would start putting everything we have in, the game idea may become imbalanced, with parts not agreeing with each other, edgy and overall, impossible to understand.

Plan of Action (SMART)

The best plan of action would be reconsidering every idea, every aspect of the game, from the basics, and only start serious work on it when the foundations are rock-solid. We should also start doing a lot of practice before any kind of presentation, and not just jump in at the last minute, because this way we simply mess everything up in our heads and get lost between our own ideas.

The only way evaluating it would be comparing to the idea we had before, and maybe comparing certain digits to other games’.

It’s realistic, the only thing we actually would need to do is get a grip of ourselves and start putting a lot of work into it.

Most (if not every) weaknesses would be defeated by this plan, and would make the game a lot better I think.

The game idea could be perfected in one month’s time, if not taking part in any other activities.

Completion/Review/Conclusion

This planning, even if not the best at the moment, is showing its potential to me. When games are created, I truly believe that these plans really help make them better than before. Writing these is difficult, for me personally it is difficult to understand some parts of this planning and why some parts are there, but I am positive that after a couple uses, the PDP will help me achieve better results.