Sunday, 16 December 2007

Project Journal Week 12

This week was focused on content creation for the Milestone Two Presentation. Over the weekend each member was given a specific part of the artefact to write up. I was given the tasks of writing the Audio and Level Description. Both these areas took a great deal of research to ensure they were as correct as possible. For example, although our artefact will only have ambient sounds, to ensure I had listed all the options I needed to open the hammer engine and thoroughly analyze all the sounds available as well as play the game to make sure I had not missed anything out.

For the Level Description, I had to describe the artefact in a visual sense. This was done describing what the player would see and was completed in a style similar to how walkthroughs are written.

Team meeting Monday 10th

There were some major changes to our investigation this week. On Monday, the team discussed with Phil Carlisle about perhaps changing our investigation title, after both the team and the supervisors were worried of how effective the colour change would be, in terms of eliciting an emotion. It was concluded that a better investigation would be to elicit fear.

Supervisor meeting Wednesday

In the supervisors meeting, they agreed with our amendment to our title and there were many points highlighted in the meeting. Mainly it involved a discussion around our actual level, but this is going to be discussed thoroughly in our Milestone Two Presentation. They suggested a variety of things for our final artefact; game music, back-story and level layout. What was suggested by level layout was the fact that we should keep our artefact claustrophobic.

The supervisors also highlighted that we should do some research into the conventions of horror/thriller in films, and implement these techniques into our artefact with a reference. The plan for the weekend now is to ensure the design document is fully completed, and for the presenting group members to complete their speeches and content, whilst also thoroughly practicing them.

On a final note I would like to add my disappointment on receiving a B for our Milestone One presentation. First of all it wasn’t made clear that this mark was allocated just for the presentation, as the team thought it was an overall grade for the whole of Milestone, which at first had upset some of the group members, particularly because the team had put a considerable amount of time into ensuring we kept on track and made sure our work was of high standard. Although the B is still very good I felt that our presentation was deliverd in a manner that beffited its subject matter, and I feel we should have been graded an A

Friday, 7 December 2007

Project Journal Week 11

The week began with brainstorming ideas for the level and themes for the artefact creation. The plan was for each individual member to have a rough draft of the level layout for Tuesday. A level layout was produced and an office scene was agreed. The reason why an office theme was chosen was due to offices being of a neutral décor, so it would be the variable that changed the physiological state of the player rather than the actual environment.
The next plan of action was to produce a professional layout using Microsoft Visio, which was completed on Wednesday, with each member of the team creating a specific floor of the office level. Additionally to this, a flow of the level layout was produced.

The meeting with the supervisors was very important. They questioned whether the difference in a colour/ hue of lighting, would be enough to elicit a specific emotion in the player. They suggested running a preliminary test to find this out. If the results showed no change then adjustments to our investigation would be needed e.g. can an increase of colour heighten a specific emotion.
Later that day, each section of the artefact creation was handed to each member of the team, with the aim of completing it over the weekend. I was handed with the task of level description and the audio elements of the game.

Sunday, 2 December 2007

Project Journal Week 10

This week was focused on the Milestone presentation for the supervisors. It had been suggested that only two members should do the presentation. It was decided that I would be helping Phil with the presentation. My first role during the week was to go through with the MM(Milestone Manager) and pick key areas that needed to be presented to the supervisors. From here, the team adjusted these notes and then a script was created for me and Phil to learn.

Nick and Matt refined the presentation and helped create a uniformed style for it. The remainder of the week was spent practicing the presentation many times, with Nick and Matt helping refine the presentation after each practice. It was a particular struggle for me personally, because I not only had to cover the sections that I had done e.g. film analysis, but present other large topics as well, in particular, the Testing Phase, which resulted in practicing the presentation many times.

The team was happy with the resulted presentation on Thursday, producing a professional quality and making sure all the points came across in a clear manner. The only points that were highlighted by the supervisors for problem areas were topics going to be discussed in the next Milestone Presentation.
The concluded Milestone one, which means Matt, will be taking over as MM. The plan next week is to begin work for the next presentation.