GDD710 Development Practice Module - Week 1 - Activity ________________________________________________________________________
The first activity for this module entailed "Use objects from your home to create a custom avatar of yourself". The one rule was that they can not be random, more have a meaning/value or have a story behind them. Once all objects are together, a photo must be taken to show other students on the forum. This would be followed by 1-2 paragraphs explaining what the objects are and what they mean to me.
Figure 1: Week 1 Activity Illustration (Kyle Cornwell, 2021)
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Avatar Outcome:
My Avatar
This is my collection of objects that I believe represent the type of character and personality I have. There is a mixture of geekiness, funkiness and creativiness going on here that make up my persona over the past few years. But what do they all mean? ________________________________________________________________________
Phone - The go-to guide for anything and everything. it will always have a place, in my backpocket. Whether its contacting family and friends or constantly binging my youtube feed, I'll always find 20% of battery at the end of the day. But that's okay, I'll turn the computer on.
Lego - Lego has always been part of bringing out my creative side whether it be Star Wars, Marvel or my own pure customs. It helps me to unwind when times are tough and I need to destress brick by brick at a time. See what I did there?
Mug of Tea - I always find this to be the best kickstarter to a day. Just one of these will get me focused for about an hour or so, then its up to my brain power to carry out the same level of work.
Assassin's Creed Bracelet - A 2 in 1 USB bracelet, to literally symbolise that I'm an obsessive fanatic over the Assassin's Creed Franchise. Although my interests have differed over the years due to their change of gameplay mechanics, they haven't agreed with my love for its original stealth-action. regardless, I consider it as a part of my childhood and a somewhat lucky charm.
Sunglasses - Nothing beats a pair of sunglasses to make you feel confident about yourself around others. I've always been unlucky with looking after a pair each time to find them snapped in my bag or jacket. my track record for keeping them is low. All the same, I feel it gives me that extra spark of positivity.
Apple Watch - I was never a massive fan of apple products aside from Iphones and at a push, Ipads. When the smart wear range of Apple Watches came out, I thought to myself "Why not give it a try!". It wasn't until last year I came into possession of the SE Series watch and I have to say, I can't stop checking my wrist every 5 minutes. I started taking up running over lockdown and the watch did both monitoring my exercise and playing music for motivation. I couldn't be any happier with such a reliable piece of tech.
Airpods - Another Apple purchase but for more personal reasons. I have a sacred passion for music. I'm more of a search random artist on youtube kind of person. If I like the one song, I download 2 or 3 albums to binge through. Music during study time is essential, especially a nightcore playlist to boost my concentration. You'll always find me with airpods so good luck trying to get my attention when I'm lost in an immersive world of music.
Playstation 4 Controller/The Last of Us Part 2 - This is where the my gaming side kicks in. I currently own 3 consoles: Xbox 360, Xbox One X and the most faithful, Playstation 4 Pro. I differ between games from Oblivion, Red Dead to The Last of Us. My favourite genres have to be between Action-Adventures and Horror/Thrillers. It still amazes me how I can be taken away for hours on end from a games story, inspiring me to develop games for a living and meet the same end-user satisfaction.
Blu-ray Avengers Infinity war - I'm not a comic reader (blasphemy!) but when it comes to marvel, I'm consumed by it! Infinity War is the best one out of the franchise so far. Endgame topped it off, but the cliffhanger of Thanos Snap still haunts me since it premiered. My favourite character is War Machine due to his unique suit and weapons. Even though most of the main characters have gone from the franchise, I'll still love them 3000!
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Avatar Reflection
For a first activity, this was both fun and fustrating. Luckily, I keep alot of the chosen objects on my personal possession or within the same room in my study. It felt strong and positive to express my interests in a certain way and shed some light on the other students. We are all on a similar page and will be going through the same academic hurdles, whether it be Indie Game Development or User Experience Design and have that ability to connect and support one another in the right direction.
The fustrating side was down to overthinkng about the task. I tend to create stress when trying to pick apart and break down information when it comes to studies. This is also down to a processing disorder called SPD (Cambian, 2021) Also known as a learning difficulty that affects my understanding of information and how that information is interpreted into a concrete and clearer format. To overcome these types of situations like the this weeks activity, I should learn to break it down into a clearer and visual representation. I researched into a task priority system called the Eisenhower Matrix (Fred Wilson, 2019).
This method helps determine types of tasks by importance. Even though this is one whole activity, it would assist towards one of my short term goals to apply some realistic scheduling when carrying out weekly challenges. A famous quote from Dwight. D Eisenhower states "Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent". I can also use this matrix to my advantage when planning with its 4 catagories: Do, Decide, Delegate and Eliminate.
This activity could have been gone more efficiently if the selection of objects, were measured by their urgency and importance. This would break down and determine its value and meaning on a more reliable and sentimental scale.
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References:
Cambian, 2021. What is Social Communication Disoder? [Online] Available at: https://www.cambiangroup.com/our-specialisms/our-specialist-services/learning-and-communication-difficulties/social-communication-disorder/ [Last Accessed 14/02/2021]
Fred Wilson, 2019. What Is the Eisenhower Matrix? How to Use It to Be More Productive? [Online] Available at: https://www.ntaskmanager.com/blog/eisenhower-matrix/ [Last Accessed 14/06/2021]
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