This is an evaluation of my work and will be the last post on this blog. At the start of the project I had high ambitions so when I filled out my learning agreement for FGA6 I did have doubts as to whether I would be able to meet my personal targets. A little way into the project, I quickly realised that the assessment requirements that I had written were almost impossible for me to achieve given my skill level and the remaining amount of time available. I set myself aims to produce a large amount of high quality visual content for my game concept including an animated cut scene and a playable level. Realising that this would be near impossible to achieve I decided to rewrite my assessment requirements in order to make my goals more attainable.
Due to various life problems, I found it very difficult to get started on the project. This greatly affected my decision to cut down my assessment requirements. Half way through the project, I reached a point where my personal life problems were holding me back from producing work for the project and this amounted to myself feeling a great deal of stress. After being given a one week extension for the project, I felt more relaxed and so was able to continue my work and really get going on my game level.
I decided to abandon my original aim of creating a fully playable level for my game using the Unreal Editor 3. Instead I used a simple combination of Silo, Maya and Photoshop to create my game level. It was aim, once the level was set up, to have a camera moving through the level to record a virtual tour style movie for my exhibition show reel.
The biggest problem I had encountered was learning various tricks in Maya but it was in the end a rewarding learning process. The second big problem which greatly affected the direction my work was my home computer’s lack of memory and processing power. My PC could not handle the whole level in Maya so I had to break the level down into four separate sections. This I felt, was the logical way around this problem.
I greatly enjoyed making structures for my game level. Although they were very basic and quick to produce, I had fun texturing them. Some of the texturing work took quite a while and it was sometimes a struggle to get the right look but near enough every time the end result was well worth it. I applied all of the textures to my models using the UV mapping process as it was the method that I understood the most. Perhaps the hardest struggle was creating the UV map for my Finn Newton character model, which due to its complexity, took nearly a whole day to complete.
I must admit that when I first got started with producing my level, it seemed as if I was putting in a lot of effort but was unsure of the final outcome. However, when I started to put bits of the level together and added lighting, my work started to come alive. This had a very positive effect on my motivation and so I was able to easily continue towards my final goal.
Although I contemplated putting together a research portfolio like I had done for FGA4 and FGA5, I decided that it wasn’t really necessary as I did not undertake much further research. Most of the time where before I would have been researching, I spent learning new skills in Maya and this is evident in the screenshots of my finished game level.
FGA6, for me, was hard to get started on due to my current life circumstances but once I got the ball rolling I found it hard at time to stop working on my game level. I do feel that I should have made use of the powerful computers available in the 3D studio but I personally found it a more comfortable experience to work from home. I do feel that given more time, I could have produced a stronger looking level but I am very pleased with the end result of my efforts.
I have, yet again, ambitious plans for the final year of my degree. During FGA6, I discovered the capabilities of the Source game engine. I realised that although I wasn’t aware I actually have had the Source SDK and Valve’s Hammer Editor installed on my computer for a few years now. Over summer I am going to teach myself everything I can learn about modding Valve’s Half Life 2. I am most likely going to continue with my ‘Life after Earth’ idea that I have been working on for the duration of this year. I feel that, going out into the industry, it is better to have just one idea that you are fully confident about and know inside out rather than a few half hearted concepts. I am ideally going to make ‘Life after Earth’ playable as a mod of Half Life 2. This may well mean changing the gameplay of the game a lot considering it was originally intended as a third person action adventure. I am definitely looking into making it into an FPS game and I am also contemplating a huge story rewrite. It will be necessary to produce a new improved game design document over the summer to work from and refer to. I am not sure how much of the game I will be able to make but I will be aiming for at least three playable levels.
I feel that once I got started on FGA6, I ended up producing some of my highest quality work and this is evident through the creation of my digital portfolio and also most of the recent work posted on this progression blog. I feel that with every project, I am learning new skills about organisation and time management. I am also learning more about my personal capabilities and I have a desire to constantly improve the quality of my work. I am looking forward to next year as I am really going to grab the bull by the horns and ultimately create some quality playable content and hopefully receive positive feedback for it, along the way building up a strong portfolio of work to impress interviewers when applying for potential jobs in the games industry.
