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Weekly Blog


Week 1 
28/02/22

As it is the first week of this project, before I started, I had to set all of my Wix site up. The project officially started on Monday, and as I don't go into college until Wednesday, I decided to get some concept scenes made up for me to base my scene upon. Instead of using pencil and paper for these concepts, I decided to use MagicaVoxel as I was pretty into it. On Wednesday, I started the day by creating some mindmaps of my chosen scene and genre using Microsoft Whiteboard. The rest of the week was spent writing up my SWOT and creating my SWOT analysis. Next week I'm planning to add more to my SWOT as I felt it could be bulked up a little more. I will also be creating my proposal form and pitch presentation.

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Week 2
07/03/22

I started off the week by finalising my SWOT which took up Wednesday's session. All of Thursday was taken up by creating a proposal form. And the rest of the week was spent creating my pitch presentation which I had to present on the 18th of March. Next week I'm mostly going to work on the pitch presentation as it's the most urgent of the tasks.

project proposal
 


Week 3
14/03/22

Week 3 was spent finalising my pitch presentation and ultimately presenting it. Creating the pitch presentation took quite a while and ended up using up Wednesday and Thursday. After I presented, I gathered the feedback I was given on my idea and documented it on Wix. Reflecting on the pitch presentation, I'm pretty happy with my performance as I'm not the most confident at public speaking, even if there are only a few people. As I haven't done public speaking for a few years at least, I'm proud that I've gotten better at it. Although I am happy with my performance, one of the goals for this pitch presentation was to reach 10 minutes of talking time, I reached around 7 minutes of talking so it didn't reach the goal, however, I'm still proud that I could go on for that long. As the pitch is out of the way now, It's time to focus on the research behind my project, I'll be starting that all next week as this pitch took over the whole week.

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Week 4
21/03/22

I started this week off by researching the genre of my scene. Before this topic, I didn't know the difference between genre and theme, I've always used them in conjunction with one another. So to accurately identify my genre, I decided to do some research into the difference between genre and theme. After doing this research I could finally decide on my genre of game. After writing up about my genre of game, I gathered reference images to more accurately create my scene, I was initially planning to find games with a similar look to it, but I couldn't find any games with arcade machines in them. So, the next best thing was to search through ArtStation and Google for images relating to my scene. I wanted my scene to be derelict, and to further push this idea, I was thinking of setting the scene in a present-day setting, establishing a period for the scene is important so to properly decide on a year I chose to create a survey and send it to my classmates asking what year you would picture this scene to be set in. Next week I'm going to check back on the survey results and look for key research areas to look into.

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Week 5
28/03/22

The first this I did this week was to check the survey results and concrete my period. My initial idea of having the period be present-day was shared by my classmates as the option "2022" was in the majority. I decided to conclude my survey and move on to the next topic. Speaking of the next topic, I didn't know what I was going to do next, so I took a step back and had a look at the project as a whole. This made me realise that I haven't done any research into the history of arcade machines which included anything from its invention to its fall. I also wanted to make some reference boards for all the assets that I'm going to create. To do this I needed an asset list which I could quickly make and then start my reference boards. Finding good reference images was proving to take a while so I only ended up creating a few this week. I'll carry on making the rest of the reference boards next week.
 


Week 6
05/04/22

This is the last week before Easter break and everyone in my class including me were  all looking forward to a break. Motivation levels were low, however, I still managed to get some work done. I finished all of the reference boards, which took a lot longer than anticipated. This worked out quite well as with these reference images, I could finally start my practical work. I needed a break from writing as well, as I haven't modelled in what felt like forever because of the previous unit being solely written work. Spending the last day fully modelling helped me get my ideas down into digital form in case I forgot them over Easter break. I managed to complete 2 of the 4 arcade machines which I'm super happy with as it feels like I've actually got some progress in this project.


Week 7 (Easter break)
11/04/22

It is still Easter break, however, as I have extra spare time, I thought I could go down to an actual arcade and take some reference pictures of the placement, layout, and walk room of a real arcade to make sure that mine is realistic. If I could've gone to a real derelict arcade then I would've, however, there wasn't any that I could find. So, the next best thing was to go to an open arcade. The easiest arcade to get to was the Bournemouth arcade by the beach.


Week 8 (Easter break)
18/04/22

I ended up going to visit my grandparents and there so happened to be quite an old arcade that we could visit. I didn't take any photos because I wanted to simply have fun instead of thinking of doing work. Even though I didn't take any pictures, I still took inspiration from it, and also learnt a thing or two about cash machines which I didn't realise before. The arcade cash machines that I saw last week were quite small, and spread out evenly throughout the arcade, allowing customers to easily extract money and keep spending it. I found it interesting that the second arcade that I visited opted for a different approach. Instead of having small change machines scattered around the arcade, there were about 3-to 4 big change machines around. Now, I don't have nearly as much knowledge of arcade machines to have a say in this, however, I'd say that the smaller change machines, scattered everywhere would be more efficient and effective as they are easily accessible. I'm sure there's a valid reason behind it, however, I can't think of why. Next week I'm planning on writing up my findings from over Easter break about the arcade machines.
 


Week 9
25/04/22

All of Wednesday, and some of Thursday was spent writing up my findings from over Easter break. The rest of the week was spent modelling in Maya, and it turns out that I accidentally left the hardest two arcade machines for last. I got one of the arcade machines done this week and I'm planning to finish the other last one next week, along with the other assets such as walls, pillars, and the floor. 


Week 10
02/05/22

This week was fully spent doing practical work and I ended up completing the last arcade machine. For the last day of this week, I decided to take a break from modelling, and instead, I took pictures of my arcade machines and brought them to Photoshop where I could figure out the colour palette for each machine. To add colour to the arcade machines, I added a separate layer for each colour and then painted over the designated area with each layer being at 70% opacity so you can still see the prop behind the colour. Unfortunately, lowering the opacity of the colour also diluted it, making it not as accurate as I'd like it to be. It's not too much of an issue though, as I'm only doing this to get a rough idea of the colour palette.


Week 11
09/05/22

Over the past couple of weeks, I've solely been doing practical work and I forgot to write any of it up, which means now I have a lot of writing to do. To compensate for this, the whole week will be spent writing up everything I've done over the past two weeks. I still have some practical work left to do so I'll be doing that next week.


Week 12
19/05/22

Instead of my usual Wednesday to Friday class time, for this week and the next, I'll be coming in Monday to Friday instead. As I still have some practical work to do, I feel that I need those extra couple of days to complete my project. Almost all of this week was spent doing practical work since I want to spend all of my time next week writing up the evaluation and finishing off any unfinished work.


Week 13
23/05/22

The last week of the project is finally here, and the most important thing to get done this week is the summative evaluation. I know quality is more important than quantity, however, as this evaluation is talking about the entire project, I'm planning to write at least 1000 to 1500 words. I don't want to run out of time writing up this evaluation, so I'm going to be as efficient as possible. And to do this I needed a plan. Using the 'Gibbs Reflective Cycle', I made bullet points for everything that I'm going to talk about so instead of trying to think of what to write while I'm writing it, I can simply elaborate on my bullet points and continuously write without being held back. I spent all of Monday writing up this plan in as detail as possible while keeping it easy to follow. Tuesday to Thursday was spent writing up my evaluation, and on Friday I was writing up any work that I had lying around unfinished.

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