Review Completed Work

For my Unit 4/5 i have completed and finished a Top Down Shooter game made in Unity alongside George Moore. I have gone through a few tasks and i have completed each of them

Briefs:

I have looked through many types of briefs each with their own application in the gaming industry, i completing this tasks by going through each brief and giving an example of a real work application. I have also gone over Negotiation a Brief in which the the two parties would discuss the brief and negotiate parts of it to try and get the beat deal possible, this is only possible with certain types of brief as some brief are non-negotiable which means that the brief has no discussion about changing the brief.

If i were to do this task again i would be even on more thorough with the explanation about all of the briefs and i would try and give more examples to make it easier. I would also give more detail in general.

Game Ideas:

I have come up with two game ideas each with details about the game if we were to create it. I have 2 types of shooter game idea each being drastically different, one being a top down shooter game and the other being a Boss of a Bullet Hell game. these games would play very differently as the mechanics are vastly different.

If i were to do this task again i would probably add more game ideas to broaden my range of options and i would add more details to each of the game ideas as the current ideas lack some things that would be very helpful.

Final Production:

I have created a working game using unity. It is a Top Down Shooter with level progression and Boss Levels, the player can shoot in all directions and can move in the same. The enemies track the player and shoot the player when they are in a certain range on the player. There are also civilians which roam the level and try to dodge bullets as they move. Upon reaching the end of the game there are bosses which are bigger enemies which don't move and shoot a flurry of bullets, these bosses have increased health which makes them tougher to take down. The game also has a score system, when the player shoots an enemy the score is increased but when a civilian is killed the score is decreased. When the player is killed by enemies the game restarts from the beginning level and the score is reset.

If i were to create this game again i would do the code a lot better as it took a long time to create the better mechanics with the code, i would also add more assets like art and music to make it fell like an even more full game.

Apply a Response

Managing a Project involves creating a product throughout a period of time and managing all of your resources to complete the project by a decided deadline. You would have to decide many things in order to make the project flow smoothly and so you can create the best end result possible.
The Agile Manifesto would be used in projects because this is based on software, an example of the Agile is the 1st Principle which is User Involvement, which gets the user involved into the project so the end product will be tailor made towards he target audience.

The next principle is the Small Increments principle which allows for goals to be split up into smaller parts to make everything easier to follow and complete, it also allows for the goals for each increment  to be much more in depth as there is less vagueness.

The Next Principle is the 80-20 rule, this is the principle that states that 20 percent of work you so adds up to 80 percent. ts also seen as prioritizing the best part of the project to make the best project in the shortest time.

stackboi

This stack sheet is used to evaluate the time used during a project and it allows everyone
on the project to understand what part the project is up to time wise.

The Green shapes of this stack sheet represents parts of the project that we have complete

Smart Targets are used to evaluate progress of a project throughout the day, its created during the start of the day to plan out the day. I may be planned with the client to create make it an Agile Principle. 

This is that Start of the game development, at this point we just had a "player" and some enemies, there was no code at this time so there was no gameplay. we had a basic idea that we were going to expand on.

This is the first level that was created for the game, we mad the blue blocks the civilians and the green block the enemies, we would then create code for each for the Player, Enemy and the Civilian

 this is the Movement script for the player in the game, it is the basic movement seen in any top down shooter on PC, "W,A,S,D" to move and the mouse to shoot.

 This is the Shooting script created for the player, when the mouse button 1 is pressed (Left Mouse Button) a bullet spawns and shoots towards where the mouse was at that point.

 This is the Script created to make an invisible sphere rotate towards the mouse on the player, this sphere in on the player and it acts as the Gun that shoots the bullets, this was a work around and the original idea had the bullets spawning to close to the player making the player die.

 This is the script that makes the enemy track and follow the player then fire when its within a certain distance.

 This is the bullet collision script that detects when the bullet has collided with an enemy.

 This is the script that adds the score when the player shoots an enemy, when the player shoots an enemy the score goes up by 10

 These scripts are the Game Manager, This script handles the game states such as being dead or starting or ending the game,

The next levels have increased difficulty due to the increased ammount of enemies and more bullets to dodge.

This is the boss level, this has 2 giant cubes that don't move but have really quick fire rate which makes it hard.

Develop a Planned Response

Develop a Planned Response to a brief.

Game Idea 1.

Top Down Shooter Game, Level Based shooter with the objective being to defeat the opponents in the level to advance, with the difficulty increasing with every subsequent level.

Multiple different shots for the player to choose from each with their own properties, examples being, buckshot being a wide shot but lacks in accuracy or range. Sniper shot being accurate and long range but lack in fire speed.

Many different enemies will be about starting off easy with little resistance all the way up to high level bosses with high hp ans unique fight mechanics.

The target audience for this game would be Teens or Young Children, The game would be colourful

Game Idea 2

 A game where you play as the boss of a bullet hell game. In this game you are in a stationary position and you have to spin while shooting to create the bullet patterns, the aim of this game is to destroy the ship that is trying to destroy you.

You would use a flurry of attacks to try and destroy the ship that is attacking you, you will have different options to choose from each with their own special pattern and speed. Some options are better then others and they will have a longer cooldown then the rest.

The story would be that you are the first boss of a Video Game and you have to make your way to the top by showing that you are worthy of being the final boss of a shooter hell game. As the game progresses the enemies will get more and more powerful and they will have upgrades as time goes on.

The target audience for this game would be people already familiar with the Bullet Hell Genre of games like Touhou and Ikaruga.

Understanding the Requirements

Structure of Briefs.

Formal Brief: A Formal Brief is a type of brief that takes place between two parties which discusses the content of the project, and it finalises the contract so both parties know what they are doing. This process is recorded either by Paper or recorded via camera.

A Formal brief is used when there is a lot to discuss with the parties and if the projects is big enough there needs to be a written document which tell you what to do. A formal brief is more liable in court as all the details have been recorded.

In relation to the games industry, Publishers would have Formal Briefs with studios which outlines what the publishers want and they are able to discuss everything about the project so nothing is left in the dark.

Informal Brief: An informal brief where two parties meet to discuss a projects that they want to do although this is not formal as there will be little to no recording. This would be used for smaller scale projects as there is not much on the line.

An informal brief is not liable in court as there is no recorded contract between the two parties. An informal brief would never be used in the games industry as games have to be carefully created to make a good game, they could be used for small apps as they are quick to create.

Contracted Brief: A brief between a Company and a Client where specific guidelines are structures that they have to follow as it is stated in the contract. This is used when the Contract giver wants a product that is 100% to their liking and the client has no say in the matter.

This would be good for the big media company as they know what they are getting and they could just let the client do their things as they know what they are doing as everything is stated in the contract.

This is bad for the client as they have to follow the contract and they have no creative influence so they make the game with no other influences on the end product which limits the freedom of the client.

Negotiated Brief: This is a brief that would be discussed between the Company and the Client to find equal ground between them and this creates good quality games and the client will have more freedom to create a better product. 

This is good as there is a lot more freedom for the client 

Commission Brief: A Commission brief is used when a Company employs a client to produce a piece of work. Upon the completion of the work the Company would pay the client for the work for use in their other products. Commission Briefs are not negotiable between the Company and the Client.

The client could also outsource this projects to someone else to help create a better project.

An example of this would be Activison creating a Commission Brief with another company so they create the game for Activision which allows them to avoid the game making process.

Tender Brief: This is a type a brief that is created by a Company that is advertised so companies could apply for this contract. This gives the Company many different choices so they can choose the best idea from the bunch.

This is good as the company have a big choice to choose from, and this ensures that the clients will produce high quality work.

It could backfire as the client could create a great idea which lures the company into hiring them although it was a ploy which made the company choose that client over other real clients which wastes a lot of time.

A big company like Warner Brothers will look for clients what would create a good game from them and they would choose from different clients to see which one they want to pursue further.

Competition Brief:  This is a brief in which a company would advertises in the public for a client that would work on a project. When advertising to the public a prize is introduced to lure people to it.

A game company would possibly want people to send in art to win something 

Reading a Brief

Reading a Brief:

When given a brief you will need to read it through carefully so you fully understand the information.

When reading this you have to keep in mind the different factors that are relevant in the brienf and the project such as the…

Demographics,

Geographic's,

Market Competition,

Use of the Product (Marketing/Advertising),

Style of the Product,

Technical Specifications (FPS, Aspect Ratio),

Whether it’s the games industry or the film industry you should always read the brief closely to understand everthing in the brief.

What's Crucial:

The Creator of the game has to understand all of the factors of the game and its production, it must follow the agreed contract or there would be problems either financially or legally.

Things relating to this can also be planned in terms of…

Timescales, Resources

Locations

Crew and Post Production

In games everything has to be [planned for it to work well together upon its completion.

Negotiating a Brief

Negotiating a Brief: There should always be negotiation when working on a project when it’s available as it allows the client to suggest changes and ideas to further improve the products and it give the client more freedom to create a better product. Although this is not the case with contracted briefs as they are unavailable for negotiation.

A company like Blizzard may negotiate with a client to create better work

Discretion: Discretion is used to interpret the brief as there may be times where some things are interpreted in different ways than others, this may cause problems so it’s necessary for there to be clarity between the client and the company.

Constraints: There are constraints present in briefs such as the Legal, Ethical and Regulatory. Its crucial for these to be taken into account when creating a product because products could be restricted in various countries as their constraints are different and they could see something different and take action against it.

Negotiating the fees: You have to be very specific for the money, you have to be exact when negotiating fees, you never be vague

Opportunities

Amending the Contract: this is what happens when the Company changes what they want in a project even tough it may go against the contract signed by both parties. If this were to happen the client would then produce a sign off sheet which would get the client out of this contract.

Amendments to a Budget: This Is a change to the budget that could be asked for if there are problems which would be solved by getting more money such as a new computer or having more money to create a better game

Amendments to Conditions: This is where the contract is amended to different circumstances that have come up such as the office being broken into and this delays production, this would amend the contract as there is no control over it

Opportunities for Self Development: This allows for a company to learn new skills when partnered with another company, you could lean of them.

Opportunities for Multitasking: This is where you work together with another studio which helps speed up process and it allows the studios to lean new skills.

Contributions to a Project Brief: This is where the creators of the brief has a big say in the projects so the company would work with the studio closely so they have the most input possible when creating the game. This is where you get your ideas into the project.