Project Pitch
A project pitch is to take an in-depth look at how a product will preform and what customers will benefit from it. It covers a wide range of how it works, why it is useful now as well as who it is made for. It is a quick way to get constructive feedback for your idea and which areas need more thought put into and if the product is good or not.
After a successful project pitch I have been given useful feedback as to which areas I should cover and what to develop on. For the start I should have a clear outline for the PEGI Rating I hope to achieve for my product. I believe a PEGI rating of 16 is suitable for my product and goes hand in hand with the age range I aim the product at.
Another point of feedback given was a proper workflow made, I plan on spending the majority of the weeks creating models for my level and texturing them using the software, "Maya" and "Substance Painter". Before this however, I will work on a Games Development Document for my level to create a clear understanding of how the player will traverse the environment and a 2D top view of my level using "Dungeon Scrawl".
I plan on working for a week on the planning of my level conducting primary research into ideas I have considered and making concept art for it. After this I will begin with model creation and texturing for 5 weeks whilst making a block-out of my level.
For the art style I want it to resemble that of Valve's source engine models, not being photo-realistic whilst still maintaining some realism aspects in design.
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One thing to include is that in the product, the player will be walking through the opening chapter of this narrative.
The player opens the level to discover that all that remains is an empty facility and as he goes through each office he finds clues as to what happened leading to the reveal that an artificial intelligence has taken over and taken the lives of all that worked there. Later into the story the protagonist will uncover why they are the only one alive and how to defeat the evil AI.
I will conduct my own primary research into who would play the game, if they like the idea and how much they would pay for to see a full release of it, games I play on my own etc.
Overall I am proud of my work I have done in the project pitch and will begin carrying out research to further my idea, before beginning production.
Final Product
I am very happy with how the scene turned out. I really enjoyed creating this and I am happy with the detail I put in. I created a survey to see what people had to say for the final product.
People clearly identified the Mystery genre which is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Given more time I would love to look into more of the feedback I received and see if I can make changes where necessary, especially adding glass in and assigned keys to my keyboard.
Evaluation
What happened?
In the beginning set off to create a walking simulator office space, in what would of been a Sci-Fi genre, however upon viewing the results of my survey I had made, I made the decision to make it a mystery genre instead. I had a highly ambitious task of making the player traverse an entire level as appose to the scene that I had made in the end, it was nearing the end of my pre-production that I knew I had to significantly reduce the size of this area due to the time that I had left, so I opted on creating a small scale scene to serve as a showcase of the level of detail I would want in my game.
What were you thinking and feeling?
I'm disappointed that, even when identifying the problem in my SWOT analysis at the very beginning, I still failed to balance out the practical side of the project and the theory. It is very disheartening that I couldn't deliver my best in the time that I had to do it. I enjoyed making the practical too much and constantly worked more and more to make it look as good as I could, not taking the time to step back and document all of the work I had done. Another thing I am unsatisfied about is my failure to follow the schedule I made, though I am not surprised given this was my first time making one for a project like this. It's a shame that some of the issues I have is my inability to work quite so much as I want at home due to the limited resources I have access to. Given better conditions as well as better time management, in addition to not having to change up the idea quite so much - without a doubt I could've delivered far better than what I did and knowing what I know now, I will not make the same mistake as to design a project which is too ambitious as this originally was.
What was good and bad about the experience?
This project taught me so much, I witnessed first-hand by strengths and weaknesses. I learned a lot in modelling, in texturing and in level creation. There are many tricks that I gained in Maya, Adobe Substance Painter and in Unreal Engine. I also learned not what to do, overestimating my own capabilities and the pure size of the project. The knowing what I know now, I am very excited for my next project and I cannot wait to demonstrate to both myself and others how much of a learning experience this has been. Chances are for anyone, deadlines may cause concern and stress and that is no different to me, there were times I could and should of been working, yet due to my own slothful nature I failed to which in inexcusable. I put this off and procrastinated which played a role in determining just how the project was going to end up, I can learn from this however something like it should never have happened and it's disappointing for myself and likely others.
What sense can you make of the situation?
The practical went well because I was passionate about what I was doing, and genuinely enjoyed it. The theory to me is a chore and putting it off as much as I can is what I want to do - which is unfortunately my downfall. It makes sense that someone may restrict themselves of their best when it's doing something they have no interest in, I don't believe I'm any exception to this. I had 70 days to prepare and produce a product - I don't think anyone would enjoy writing about how they made it, as appose to actually making it. I think the best way I can improve is train myself until it's muscle memory to always take pictures, always note down what I did because at least then I'll have information I can solemnly swear by.
What else could you have done?
Over the course of my 2 week break I contributed no work towards this project. This is left me stressed, worried and nervous of the coming deadline. It did me no help whatsoever and left me very demotivated feeling as though I am too far behind. If I didn't compare my project to everyone else's I wouldn't of felt dishearten by their progress and mine because we all work at different paces at the end of it all, with completely different projects entirely.
If it arose again, what would you do?
I would straight away choose a small area project, nothing too awesome just a scene to show off the skills I have gained. I am currently thinking of a moving train interior as I can reuse a lot of modular assets like the chairs and other things. I would properly manage my time and aim to achieve the best that I can offer for the project. I could also take the opportunity to refine my skills and learn more of what Unreal Engine has to offer, pushing both mine and its limits of what is capable. By then hopefully I'll be in better conditions to drive myself forward and bring a project I can proudly call mine. I will take in the feedback from the survey I gathered and know what I can and what I can't get away with, such as glass. It will be a good time to properly showcase truly everything to the best of my abilities.