Task 7
Using a range of web 2.0
technologies, evaluate your success in responding to your Final Major Project
brief.
You must first gather audience
feedback through online exhibition and the collation of questionnaire and focus
group audience feedback. This feedback must be compiled and analysed prior to
producing your evaluation.
Your evaluation must contain detailed
information that is specific to the following areas of your Final Major
Project:
1. Technical quality of final product (images, footage, use of sound,
editing, layout, composition)
2. Production skills you have newly acquired and existing skills you have
further developed
3. How closely your final product matches your original intentions (outlined
in your Final Major Project proposal)
4. Time management and problem solving (scheduling, practical constraints
and strategies you used to overcome constraints)
5. Reaching your target audience (audience response, your reactions to
positive and negative criticism with reference to audience feedback you have
gathered)
_________________________________________________________________________________
1. Technical quality of final product
My final products are of the highest quality I could have possibly made in the time that I had to complete them, my personal favourites being the character designs for Daryl and the Catgirl. Other factors that would have determined the quality the products (be it the character designs or the background tiles) was the time I spent on each piece. I spent more time on the character designs, so much so that I felt the need to rush the last few and then do the same with the background tiles. In the end; my products are at a great level of quality, but they may not look as good in the game Daryl, Brandon, Josh and myself are making, particularly the backgrounds as they won't contrast with the foreground tiles which weren't made by me.
2. Production skills
Throughout my development of these character designs I slowly improved certain production skills, such as my ability to use software like Adobe Illustrator as I was able to use it faster with each design I made. I also feel like I improved my skills at pixel art, just not as much as I still had a bit more trouble using that kind of art style. My character designs come very close to how I wanted them to look, however I feel like I could still improve them, some more than others. This wasn't the same case for the pixel art background tiles I made, I feel as if they could all be vastly improved.
3. How closely your final product matches your original intentions
I don't think the overall final product that I and my group made matches what we intended it to be. Other than the fact that there is only one level, the game is unfinished with several bugs. The background sprites I made don't look as good as I intended them to in the game, they don't give the level of depth to the backgrounds that I wanted. Of all of the character designs I made, only one was actually used, and only for one line. I think that, given more time, this game could have been vastly improved and maybe come to match our intentions for it as a group.
4. Time management and problem solving
Through the entire development process I managed my time quite well, besides taking slightly too long making the first couple of character designs. The only time I could work on this product was when I was in college as I didn't have a working computer at home, there wasn't much I could do about this so I would try and get work done whenever I could while in college. This led to me being unable to finish the background sprites for all of the levels as I ran out of time before I could do so. I used my schedule and production diary to plan what I would do for the next task and onward every time I finished a task as well as helping me remember exactly where I was up to with my current task, I would also use the schedule to update the group I'm working with on my progress and keep tabs on where they are up to with thier own work.
5. Reaching your target audience
I got various people from my class to look at the artwork I had made and these are the following responses.
"I thought the artwork was very well made and I could tell it was made at a very high standard. My only negative is that there could possibly be a bit more detail on some of the backgrounds." - Callum Deighton
"The artwork was very visually appealing and was to a high quality. I can only really fault it on one thing, nothing major; more of a nit pick but. Some of the sprites needed more detail because of how plain they looked. Other than that, I'm very impressed with the work overall." - Daryl Bates
"I thought the character design was of an excellent quality as the cartoon effect for the characters seemed to wok really well.Furthermore, the textures created for the tree's, water etc looked good; and I can understand why and how they will be used in the. game. However, the backgrounds were also plain and didn't look as professional as the characters. Maybe more time could be spent on the textures of the water, trees and grass. Overall, the work done is really professional like and at a good standard" - Terence Byrne
I agree with everything that was said about both my character designs and my background sprites. I'm especially happy that my character designs received good criticism, though I still think some of them could use more work. I agree completely with the negative criticism I got for my background sprites, they need more work and, if I had the time, I would do my best to improve them so that they don't look out of place in our game.
Conclusion
Overall; I believe my character designs meet a professional standard but my background sprites don't meet the same level of quality and could use some work to improve them so that they don't look plain and boring. If I were to take on this project brief again I would manage my time better than before. I would probably decide against the background tile part completely and allow someone with more experience in that field in my group to take over so that I can focus on the quality of the character designs.