Final Evaluation
In the beginning of this project I must admit I felt very lost and confused. The little feedback I received in the previous project completely contradicted everything i’d been told my lecturers leading up to the hand in deadline. I had no real direction to go in. The majority of the feedback was targeted at issues I’d spoken about in my blog and had been trying to solve from the beginning. I just felt completely lost and upside down, should I listen to the advice from my tutors just to be told the complete opposite? (not an exaggeration, this is what happened word for word contradicting what aspects of the project I was told to focus on) Either way, from there I had a very rocky start, my confidence was knocked, I was going through personal issues and I must say through out it all, Becky was amazing. We both looked back on the past projects and just, decided we didn’t want to do that again. We were not going to touch narrative but aim for a easy to digest, easy to understand experience.  Becky’s organisation and attitude really helped me to come back to myself and complete the work when I needed to. Overall, I’m proud of what Becky and I achieved. We created exactly what we set out to in the beginning. I remember being a few weeks in and panicking that I wouldn’t have enough work to show, that my art wouldn’t be good enough and that i’d disappoint Becky but I’m very happy to say, I’ve completely turned around that mentality. I look back at the work I’ve done to compile it into a PDF and I’ve made way more work than I realized. I not only have I improved so much since first year, but in the past few months alone I’ve noticed great improvement, I attribute most of that to being in an art positive environment, both inside my own head, and from the words coming from those around me.
I really enjoy the work and painting style I chose for this game. Becky was a perfect person to work along side. Becky’s constant enthusiasm and excitement for the game kept me wanting to create better and more polished work, aiming to constantly out do myself and improve. In past games it’s always felt like I was putting my energy into motivating others and getting nothing in return, but working with Becky everything was natural, the correct balance of work and joking. We’d joke to work off the pressure but it’d never hinder or get in the way of work. This is a skill i always appreciate, someone that can sense when you’re starting to get burnt out, takes a moment to re-configure things then move on positively. I very rarely felt overworked or exhausted of this game whilst working on it. The only issues we encountered were road blocks with our own work, which we fixed by talking to lecturers. I set out to try incorporate the sublime into an endless runner, to some extent I captured this, but with more time i’d know what aspects I’d push further. I’d love to have different locations to run past, like lakes and ruined castles. I’d also love to include the aging deer, from faun to dust, with difficulty changing with the age of the deer. This is an idea that i think would really solidify that feeling of flow and bring the game together as a single experience. I think if i were to reproach this, i’d put more time into considering the scenery and feel of the game rather than focusing on the characters (the deer and fire) although I still feel that the scenery captures the feeling I wanted, i know i could push this further.  Adding more aspects of the sublime, and maybe some direct references to some of my favorite works.
Throughout my time here my goal for after Uni has fluctuated with my confidence. I really would love to set up a studio to work with those I know I can get along with and create games along side, but I also didn’t want anyone to feel pressured into working with me out of “well what else would grace do” But a few days ago I Becca asked if she could join me in starting a company, this coupled with Stuart asking me prior, I realized I wasn’t bothering people by asking them if they wanted to see this as an option, it was just that, I was sharing the option with them. Everyone around me are adults and they know ultimately the path they want to go down. I know that I genuinely enjoy taking on a more Art directorial role, I love motivating others and getting them excited to create and share their ideas. Honestly bouncing off of other people is my favorite part of games design, I don’t necessarily have to create work for the final game, or have my name on anything, I just want to work with others to make work in a positive environment. I’m honestly happy to just do the admin, organisation and cheer people on from the sidelines. Don’t get me wrong I do also really love creating and making my own work, I find is so satisfying to see all the ideas you’ve worked on come to life, I just don’t always need to be the one to do it. After hand in I’m going to gather those I can to talk about the options properly, I’ll outline the risks involved and see if they’re willing to take that jump with me. If they’re not then I can continue to work 2D asset freelance and do game jams.









