2 Shots

So because we're not making a film, and need to show 2 shots, we've chosen to show several screenshots of what we feel shows the most polish, lighting and amount of work in the game. We've also chosen these because they vary in lighting and texture quality, and because it's interactive, I wanted to show a little more than a few single areas...as this had been completed a little while ago.

Reflections

For this unit we've been looking at how to maximise our marketing and reach the right kind of people we'd like to see at the degree show. We've also looked at the technical Q&A phase, possibly one of the most important phases in game creation. I've also made much more of an effort to design and make a website, business cards and boost my online presence to further reach out to people that are interested in gaming to come to the degree show.

I've really enjoyed this unit, and in preparing myself for employment, and researching how others have done so, it's made me more confident that I can compete efficiently for work. I'm now very aware of the different studios I'd like to work at, and because of the research I've completed, know what they're making and how their company operates.

For the Rave Degree Show I've invited along those on my earlier blog post and a few more from my twitter feed. Unfortunately many can't make it, but I have had a few that will be attending (work willing of course).

My organisation has been really helpful for this project, and I think it shows in the sheer amount that I've created. Being the hub of all communication is a difficult task, and one made more difficult when trying to improve skills and be artistic. I like to think it's also organised others in the same fashion and that they've got a better handle on the project from my lists and gantt charts.

Through making this project, and working as a team, it's made me realise some of my strengths and weaknesses. I've found that I'm getting better at delegating and informing, even teaching, my team members. My animation work is now less of a concern to me, as I've found modelling and texturing to be so much more joyous, and I love the constraints of the physical, and the optimisation of UVs and texture quality.

I hope people can look at this project and see the potential behind it, not just the game IP, but the speed models and textures that went into it, the mass produce from a small team, and I hope that those that worked on their specialist areas show this off proudly.
It's been a great experience to work with multi disciplined people and to learn more about the entire process. This is something I wouldn't have gotten if I was solely modelling items.

Q&A

Just to give a little background as to what we mean by Q&A:
Q&A and Alpha testing is the methodical and social testing of the game, its smaller elements and mechanisms that make up a rough reaction to the finished piece.

We've not finished the game to a standard in any area, so Beta testing is not the correct term to be using, as it's all still in Alpha stage.

We've tested the game in a few different forms. The first was a public test of the maze. This was a multi-platform test that stressed the system for possible breakages on a few different machines (other peoples laptops). The test faired quite well, though at the time wasn't using some of the optimisations that we're currently using.
The results from this were mixed, and the problems we encountered (like getting stuck in certain areas, mainly after falling) were fixed, or will be fixed.
We also, on the revelation of falling into new areas, have started a new mechanism of falling damage that will mitigate the problem. Another mechanism we may use after more testing of the maze are is the 'Death Box'. This is a non-visible box that kills the player on entering, and will be placed in areas we have tested that the player could get stuck in.

The overall tests are not near completion, as there's not enough scripts to emulate the game-play.

However the Q&A will be done over a linked download with multiple people accompanied by a questionnaire that will address some of the issues we may need to ask about.

(as we're making a game and not a film, this replaces rendering and quality - as we don't conform too much to those tools)

[edit]

I've started to really code the game together now, and I'm not 100% at the point of letting it out into the public, though am testing it myself, and trying to break lots of areas. There's unfortunately lots of areas to lock-off and protect from gamers that I'm able to get into, so it's going to be a fair while until we'll be Q&A'ing publicly.

[edit]

90% of the game's code is now written and functional, and the game can be played through completely. It's only missing a few aspects, like concepts (for a single texture) and lighting. I'm going to start sending this out soon to get an understanding of what's going wrong on a final build.

Guests

Guests I'll be aiming to invite to the degree show:


People I know:

Oliver Bermejo - Attractive games
Jamie Perrin - Sony, Cambridge
Will Goldstone - Unity3D
Tim Flett - Escape
Alexis Kennedy - Failbetter
Martin Caine - Tick tock games (indie)
Leo Michalek - Ea Games

Companies I'd like to invite:

The Third Floor
Splash Damage
Creative Assembly
Sony


Because my industry is spread about the whole of the UK, I expect any invites that are outside of London to be completely ignored. I also think I would rather apply to the companies than try and get them (eg from Nottingham) to London, for a single night event. However, I'll be mailing all of them with the new 'Game Mailout', mentioned earlier, which will mention and invite to the degree show.

My personal marketing

Most of my marketing stems from my website, though I have a few other avenues that I'll go through here:

Website:

This is my personal website. It has gone through quite a few different stages, and has been overly simplified to the point that it only shows the work. I also like the fact that it is so lightweight. All of the images making the background and buttons is made of three unique pieces, meaning loading times are minimal.

There are embedded videos, so they load quickly, and don't break or require odd plugins.










I also have a java based picture viewer on the blog to show off the pictures in a better quality, and at their true size. The blog is really easy to update and it's so simple to see the work.






There's also a contact page that briefly mentions some high profile work I've had a chance to do.








Twitter:

I promote myself through twitter, though am a slightly infrequent user, as I tend to work more than shout. However I'm going to change this, as it's a fantastic tool to getting myself noticed and promote the degree show.

Facebook:

Admittedly this is for friends, though I have a few industry contacts on there, and will be contacting them to attend the show, and later will be applying to work with/for them. It's also a good platform to get help with projects, and opinions on my marketing material.

Business Cards

I've printed off and handed out quite a few business cards that point to my website, to show potential clients or employers what I can do. The design, much like the website, has gone through many iterations in the last three years, to something that is very much stripped back and simple. I really quite like them, though aim to change a small amount of the content on them, as I don't wish to promote myself as an animator any more, nor a 'generalist'. They're also blank on the back, so I can make notes on them, which I love to do.




Events

I love going to events that are relevant to animation and games, and try and promote myself through them. I regularly go to BAFTA events and those at local (to london) venues. I've built up quite a few contacts this way, and on my latest met 4 programmers from other courses that would like to build some indie games. These are not so much a promotion of the degree show, but of my own skills.

Degree show: contacts

As a group, and individually we've been looking at multiple ways of advertising our game.

We've made a group facebook page, and have followers of this, to show updates and news about the making of the game, and it's progress.

Individually I have done quite a few things to promote the project:

I've been tweeting updates that a few people follow, I seem to have built up fellow games makers in the US and canada, and have been linking to some of my stuff online and casually mentioning updates.








I've also been working on the blog portion of my website, adding content that shows the game progressing visually.








Another, much more direct approach I've taken is to form a mailout.

I combined a lot of my own work on the game into a PDF and links to some playblasts that have been animated. This was then sent out with a covering letter explaining what I've been doing on the project and that I'd value feedback.

I've since had some great comments with constructive criticism of how I can make this project better, and have started to add that to the work I'm currently stacking on the other projects.
In the next mailout I will be able to update points of feedback that I've addressed and also to invite those mailed to the degree show, allowing them to fully play through the game and talk to me about my own work and skills.

Other websites

I've been involved in a game-making competition and have been recently looking at other's personal websites, though not in the capacity that this unit requires.
I was looking to see if they were proficient in modelling or art, rather than their skill of web design and layout. I think this was quite a good approach, and lucky for this unit. This way I started with an unbiased mindset when perusing their site.

http://www.maratsubkhankulov.co.uk/
This was the most recent I looked at, and thought that it was quite good at giving me the information I wanted at the time. I didn't in any way struggle to find the content I was looking for, neither the information about the person responsible for the work.
When viewing the site for the first time, my only thought that I remember towards the site build was the background being dark, and that perhaps putting me off a tiny amount - but it had no real relevance on whether I would contact the person or not.

http://www.scottjonescg.co.uk/
This site I found averagely awkward to use. I wanted to get a general feel for what this person can do, and what they consider to be good work. I had to click on multiple different projects to go through them, and still didn't really get anything other than crude visuals. I had no idea where it was built or how the maps were made.

http://kennethmcmorran.co.uk/
This was the most awkward site to use in checking out work. I remember being really quite irritated with getting from project to project, figuring out where everything is, and then the revelation that the projects are best accessible by using the small arrows on the right. The site was a little too stripped down for me.

Now, I wanted to look at others that are at a student level, as those who are veteran artists would all have great sites, and as much as it would be good to research these to see what's great about them, I think it's more important to look at bad ones, to see what mistakes and issues can be mitigated.

On viewing these, and noting that my site may seem similar to some of the not-so-great ones, I've started to plan editing the pages so that the user lands on the 'blog' portion, and can navigate to my contacts page when they would want to. So, in effect, taking out (or simply not landing on) the showreel. This will mean that when new users are sent to the site they see the most up to date work possible.