Week 13 Journal

Week 13

22/12/07

This week started with me reading through the design document to check for any errors. Any changes that I felt had to be made was discussed and then amended if necessary.

The rest of this week was spent concentrating on the delivery of the presentation. It was practiced many times while James and Phil gave us their opinion on how to improve the presentation.

The presentation was delivered on the Thursday. The presentation went very well and I feel that I couldn’t have gone much better. For the feedback and any questions asked see the team blog.

This ends my time as milestone manager. It has been a very hectic time as we didn’t have much time to do all the work. The work load was managed and planned well and with some good team work it was all completed within the time of the milestone. There was a bit of a push towards the end of the milestone for practicing the presentation, but I feel we did the best we could and this shown in the presentation that was delivered.

I look forward to the next milestone as this involves building the level, and I particularly like level building.

Week 12 Journal

Week 12

16/12/07

This week started with me writing up my sections for the level design chapter of the design document. The sections that I wrote were the level flow chart and the game flow and interaction.

On Monday I made sure that this work was completed and ready to be viewed by the team so it could be placed into the design document.

There was a change to the project on Monday as well. Over the last few weeks there were concerns being raised that a single change in colour would give us very little results, so it was discussed amongst the team and one of the supervisors what would be the best direction to go in from here.

It was finally decided that we would create a level which evoked the emotion of fear, after this had been suggested before in past supervisor meetings. We would then remove the colour and lighting from the level to see what response we get.

On Tuesday due to the changes in our project I started to amend the design document with the help from Nick. After the relevant changes were made, I started to prepare the plan for the presentation.

On Wednesday I continued to work on the presentation plan, while Nick prepared the content.

In the team meeting with supervisors (See team blog for more details), we discussed the change to the project and it was agreed that this was the right direction for the project to take. It was also discussed that research into lighting techniques in films and games would have to be research and prototyped before we implement them into our final level.

For this final week I will be practicing the presentation ready for delivery on Thursday.

Week 11 Journal

Week 11

8/12/07

This week saw the start of Milestone Two. The first team meeting took place on Monday. I helped the team with Brain Storming ideas for the level. It was decided after the Brain Storm that each team member should go away and draw up their own plans ready for the next team meeting on Tuesday.

During the Brain Storm it was decided by the team that the level will be set in an office block, this is so the décor can remain neutral and not have any influence over the test participants.

Over Monday night I thought up plans that could be used for the office idea. In Tuesday’s meeting I discussed my idea with the team. In the end the team decided to use a combination of two maps drawn up by team members. While these maps were refined during discussions a level flow was produced. This is so each team member has a clear understanding of how the level will be set out.

On Wednesday the team met up once again to discuss the level plans. It was decided that Microsoft Visio Plans will be drawn up of each floor of the office. Each team member drew up the plans of a floor each. I draw up the plans for the third floor with the help and input of all team members. Now these were complete we could show the Supervisors our plans on Thursday.

For the supervisors meeting on Thursday (See Team Blog for more details) we discussed the level plans and the ideas we have for our final artefact. An important point that was raised was that we would need a control group. This is to make sure that the colour change in our level is going to make a difference and give us valid results. This point is very important to the project and will be discussed by the team next week.

The final team meeting took place on Thursday afternoon. This was to discuss the level design chapter of the design document. As Milestone Manager I discussed with the team who would want to do each section and these were assigned once each team member was happy with what it was that they had to do. The Gantt chart was then updated with the help of the team.
This week I will be writing the level flow and the Gameplay elements sections of the design doc. I will also be adapting the draft questionnaires which were discussed during the Supervisors meeting.

Week 10 Journal

Week 10

1/12/07

This week, my role in the project was to make sure that the Milestone presentation was delivered to the supervisors at a high standard. From the week 9 supervisors meeting it was suggested that only two team members deliver the presentation, this is so that it is delivered in a professional manner. It was decided that the milestone manager (Phil) and James will deliver the presentation.

The first thing that I concentrated on was to help Nick with the style and content of the presentation. Once it was agreed what was going into the presentation, the presentation was built and was ready to be practiced by Phil and James.

After the weekend, James and Phil practiced the presentation many times with me and Nick giving them any help where it was needed. On Thursday the presentation was delivered to the supervisors. I believe that it was delivered successfully, and come across to the supervisors in a clear manner. The supervisors highlighted a few areas that needed to be addressed (See Team Blog) and we will go into these points in the next supervisors meeting.

With the presentation now completed, that concludes Milestone One. For Milestone Two I will be the Milestone manager, and making sure that this Milestone runs as smoothly as the Milestone One.

For the coming week I will be concentrating on working with the team to start the level design section of the design document.