Week 12 Finale and Personal Case Study

And that's that…. Last post of the module and an amazing little journey. I started out not knowing if this would be something I could do, in the terms of ability and time and it has sure tested that out for me. It was smooth sailing for half of the module but the latter half fought with my job commitments and my ability to manage my work and motivation.

But I have enjoyed it and I feel like I have got a great deal out of it. It's given me a lot to think about with regards to my professional development and where I think I should be heading in my career and what I enjoy doing in my current job.

A great benefit of this module has been to learn how to reflect, and although I may not have recorded this perfectly well it has helped me to look at where I am, what I'm doing, and how I can improve. My weakness has always been the written word, it fills me with dread having to write but in small stages, the reflective Journal has encouraged me to do this and I have started to feel more confident and this can only get better in time.

I set out in week 4 with two sets of Smart Goals. Long term and Short term, I felt it would help in the development of myself and give direction going forward especially as it is still unclear what I want from the course. It was strange at first as I set these for my students in my job but I have not done this for myself. The short term goals relate more to this module and I will address these here.

Short Term Goals 29/10/20

S - Developing my ability in using visual programming to enable my rapid prototyping to become more efficient.

I have created playable prototypes during the Rapid Ideation tasks. I created these both in Unreal Engine and using Tutorials and Forums has improved my understanding of visual programming. This, in turn, has enabled me to introduce the Engine to my course replacing Unity and I have created training content for my team and my students. It has given me confidence in an area of Game Dev where I had very little and found it difficult.

M - Take part in one or two more Jams before Christmas that will allow me to practice and keep the momentum.

I didn't take part in any further Game Jams, however, what I did was run three Game Jams before Christmas with my students. Not having time to take part but I wanted to implement some of the techniques and practices from the RI Sessions therefore I included them as learning objectives for my students so that I could develop the practice further and test them out. Paper Prototypes, Ideation techniques, Scrum, Miro, Retrospectives, and gameplay loops were all parts that I included of which I took away from my own experiences of the RI Sessions. This was really worthwhile and more importantly, I was directly feeding what I was learning straight into my job.

A - Each outcome would need to have a different Mechanic or further develop one that has been used before.

I created two very different outcomes, the prototype was more an exploration of mechanics and how they worked together, and the second a formula that I knew would work. Each enabled me to take from it further understanding of Gameplay.

R - The activity should improve my understanding of terminology and processes.

On to the final RI task I was much more fluent in understanding visual programming and this allowed me to look at more advanced techniques such as saved data. It also enabled me to problem-solve issues much more efficiently. Working with colleagues creating material for my source meant that I was reinforcing the terminology and understanding.

T - I would like to be able to add two more small prototypes outside of the directed study before the end of the semester.

This links more to the Game Jam’s created with my student but I have also looked at animation in the engine.

The long term goals I feel as though I am making progress but will most likely start to tackle shape as I move into the next module as this will be focused more on Game Development. This module has been beneficial in a way I had not thought but I am keen to get stuck into the making as this was the best part of the 12 weeks. I also wish I had worked collaboratively in the final Jam, my uncertainties about if this would work alongside my other commitment were it was clear from how the other peers that did work in teams managed this well.

Long Term Goal 29/10/20

S - Explore and have a greater understanding of the start to finish process of developing my own game to a ship-able standard.

M - Have two games where I have worked independently and as part of a team before the end of my Master's that are complete and give different perspectives on the process.

A - Independently would likely be a vertical slice of a game concept that would be to a where it may be pitched to investors. The team game would need to be a ship-able outcome.

R - These experiences will improve my understanding of the game development process and enable me to identify where my role may be in the process.

T - this will take me to completion of my Masters or should start to become clear during my final year.