Mike Pickton Meeting 4 - Time Splitting

In this weeks meeting with Mike I showed him my progress with my Game A Week and my learning contract stuff. Not as much this week in terms of a agenda apart from updating Mike with my progress but we did have a conversation about where I'm going, and I seem to be on track.

The main thing which was suggested was that I need a plan more than ever of what I'll be doing at what stage throughout the year, so I have my own deadlines which I would follow to avoid spending too much time on a particular module. I have started adapting a timetable spreadsheet by adding the academic weeks as well as putting all deadline dates in. However I can't add in my own module time-spans until next week when we have a meeting with the course leader to iron out some issues with the structure of the modules, so once that is cleared up then I should be able to plan the rest of the year how I want it.

Until then I have been trying to better define what I would be doing in each project so I can understand things better without looking at the learning contract structure. This overview underneath is what I have at the moment, and then I can adapt this for multiple uses and use this as a point of reference to check everything else against.

How can I create an independent game using experimental gameplay and then use this as a point to start an indie studio?

5002 Negotiated Module – Experimental Prototyping

• Free flowing practical experimentation with game design, technical processes and ways of improving workflow and output.
• Will take form in a series of short prototypes and experiments in the format of ‘A Game a Week’ Some including attempts at replicating certain types of gameplay or designs as well as my own planned short game concepts.
• I will gain a more solid practice in the process of actually creating and releasing games, which is one of the main focuses of this module.
• All of these prototypes will be accompanied with a detailed post mortem post, containing a breakdown of what I was attempting and any solutions for problems I come across. I will also be linking a download to the experiment so each one can be played/used.

5005 Negotiated Module – Experimental Prototyping II

• A continuation of the prototyping module, but more developed and with a focus on streamlining certain processes for easier prototyping.
• Again, a series of short prototypes and experimentations will be developed, but these will make more use of reusable elements and other assets to speed up development. Also these won’t be strictly ‘Game A Week’ like the last project as if a concept shows promise after a week I may continue it for another week to experiment with the design.
• Most of these will probably follow more of a common theme, in order to explore a certain kind of narrative driven gameplay, diving deeper into game design principles.
• I will gain a deeper understanding of how to create a structure for a narrative based game.
• Myself and Amber Jamieson will share the continued direction of our research in order to keep our development in line with what we want to create as a company, this will involve feedback on each other’s progress.

5006 Negotiated Module – Game Concept Development

• In this module I will adapt a prototype into a workable game concept using everything I have used previously, this will eventually become the basis of the game worked on for the Major Practical Project.
• Before this point the prototype should have already showed promise, just more tests need to be made to expand the concept further into a full playable game.
• This will involve deep design work and planning of the game’s structure as well as playtesting to get the feel of the game right.
• Essentially, the barebones for the final game will be created here, which can be played start to finish.

5008 Major Practical Project – Commercial Game Development

• In this final project I will be working with Amber Jamieson to create a small narrative-driven game under our Indie Studio ‘I_DO_TRI’
• For this project I will be responsible for the technical aspects of the project
• The core of the game structure should already be created, with most of the effort being put into fleshing out the game details, playtesting, refinement and the games look and feel.
• Marketing will also factor into this project, as we use this game as our first proper commercially released title as I_DO_TRI
• During this process a development blog will track progress of the game.
• A game design document will be created and will have contributions from all team members: Detailing the games high level concept and all supplementary materials (For example, Art/Concepts, Screenplay, Sound Concepts, etc.) This is for the purpose of showing the game to potential publishers afterwards and to demonstrate a clear vision of the game.

-James