Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Reflective Essay

I feel as if this unit has went very well.

First of all, the research section of this unit was very easy to do as there is a wealth of information on what makes an iconic videogame character available on the internet.  All it really took was a quick Google search in order to get the information that I needed. Most of the information was about cartoony mascots, but thankfully I was able to find information on more realistic characters too, proving that you don’t need to go through the ‘cartoon mascot’ route in order to create a character that is memorable and iconic in their own right. I am rather happy with the characters I had picked because they are some of the most iconic characters that gaming has to over, and Solid Snake even fits the sneaking and stealth element that Shiny Money requested for their game. Not only that, but I am rather proud that I was able to find out what made a bad iconic character; being able to describe what elements can lead to a character to being irritating and disliked, or even ironically being an ‘icon’ of bad characters. This is an aspect that I think many others would over look, so I’m proud that I was able to discuss it.

I think that my research on the videogame companies was serviceable. Though I struggled while into smaller game companies within the UK that were notable enough to mention, I decided that it would be satisfactory enough to just mention “Team Meat” because they’re an indie company consisting of two people who still managed to create a very successful. But of course I had to mention Sega and Nintendo as they have what many consider the most iconic game characters of all: Sonic and Mario. Overall I am very pleased with this section; I believe that I was able to keep bringing it back to iconic characters rather than just giving you a basic history of the companies. If I could change anything about this, I would’ve made sure to start my research earlier in order to make it more detailed and maybe write about more companies.

When it came to what sort of characters we should make and what sort of gameplay the game should have, me and my teammate (Eamon) decided that the game should be a platformer. Not only due to its high popularity. But because we felt as if it would best be suited to the games universe and we felt as if we could fit in the requested stealth mechanic that way.

Not only did we manage to meet all deadlines that were set, but we were also able to create not only a detailed proposal that explained the characters, their selling points, what sort of world the game took place in and what genre it fell under. The pitch also went well I think, we both read out the slides, keeping them short, precise and to the point.  When we spoke we were both very clear, taking turns in which slides we read out aloud. However when asked questions, I found that I tended to answer them even when Eamon was doing his slides, but I did this because I wrote the PowerPoint so I had a clearer idea of what the answer was. This pitch made me realize how important time management is. Some pitches are supposed to only be 1 minute long, while others can be up to 5 or even 10 minutes. I think that our pitch was a good enough length, though I struggled to ensure that it wasn't either too long or too short. Now I know now important time managing is.

As for how my illustrated synopsis went, I feel as its fit for the purpose. I felt a little uncomfortable with how similar it was to the power point that was created, however it does fit the needed criteria. Overall I am very pleased with it. 

However, if I could change anything I would’ve gotten all the characters planned out from the beginning. We had a little bit of trouble at times coming up with characters, their backstories etc. I should have gotten those all sorted out at the beginning rather than just work them out as we go along. But still, I am pleased with the characters that we created.

In conclusion, I feel as if we did very well in this unit. I hit all the targets I felt as if I was required to hit, and I met all criteria that I needed to meet.

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