GDO730 Co-Creative Design and Development Practice - Week 1 - Research
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Figure 1: Formation Illustration (Groupe Alitutude, 2022)
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One module closes, another commences. This is my second to last module before the end of my MA journey of Indie Game Development. I've learnt from my past study blocks to cut down these posts and be more hands-on with the workload. That is something that is put upon myself due to the longer the work is left, the stronger the feeling in adding more unnecessary reading material appears in the posts to catch up on work that has already been covered.
This module is all about working in multidisciplinary teams to design and develop an interactive prototype. We must take careful consideration into how the project is managed, tools and frameworks for communication and version control, followed by how to maintain a unified product vision throughout the course of development. This feels like a change of pace for me, compared to the other modules as being part of a group as it encourages me to perforn a high level of contribution, due to the weight of roles and responsabilities that go into a team.
I will during this module, be resubmiting my previous project from IGO720 Game Development to ensure I meet the neccessary marks to pass. This will have an affect on the first few weeks as I will need to maintain a balance between the two modules that work without affecting heavily on one another. I will be establishing this to the potential team I end up forming with to make full awareness of availability in the foundational areas of the project.
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Talking about Teams
The first spark forum for this group module tasked us to take a personality test, reflect on our results and introduce ourselves to the rest of the students on the module. This module does consist of a mixed cohort of both Indie Game Development and User Experience Design students, hence the multidisciplinary individuals to work on a diverse product. This acts as a strong opportunity for breaking any tension or nerves to team up with others that share similar interests and knowledge.
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Test and Results
I chose the personality test as recommended and my results portrayed me as an ISFJ, also known as 'The Protector'. This did not strike me as I have always been told I have quite a conscientious behaviour (Truity, 2022).
Figure 2: Truity Test Results (Truity, 2022)
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Thoughts and Reflection
I've never been acustom to these type of tests as alot of mixed calculation goes into someones definiton. Reading someones personality is different to answering your own with a splash of honesty and doubt thrown into mix. The role of protector does however meet my own profiling as I do tend to be driven by personal values.
This is shown through relationships between friends, family and community, especially knowing I can rely on them over a long term period. I aim to observe methods by the proper and accepted way to complete objectives and always try to maintain a solid and realistic schedule, even if going back on myself becomes consequential.
I also consider myself to be compassionate about others during social or general activities like I must fulfil the role of a protector to everyone from feeling negative, casting my own feelings aside due to the length of care I carry for everyone. There is a balanced percentage from the test so it is hard to suggest how accurate again these results are, but a close estimate of something trying to describe how my personality is displayed.
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About Me
Hello everyone, I'm Kyle, a Postgrad indie student who enrolled onto the IGD course back in June 2021 because I felt my indie journey was not quite yet prepared for the industry. My main focuses are within design and production, generating innovative ideas and collaborating with others to develop a potential next best seller.
Mainly proficient within the Unity game engine and experienced with various modelling software such as Blender and 3ds Max. Originally started IGD to comprehend C# programming further. through multiple projects and improve my time management skills, to apply some realistic scheduling. I'm looking forward to working together and making something full of fun and engagement.
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Lecture 1
The first release of lecture material is Project Management for Apps & Games, covered by Iain Lobb which outlines a multitude of significant principles that are used and continuously applied to project management.
Figure 3: Lecture 1 Coverage Slide (Iain Lobb, 2022)
Some principles in particular I was quite familiar with due to previous study experience, such as risk and contingency, Gantt charts and the various methdologies of Waterfall and Agile. This lead me to looking further into the process of project planning (Mike Clayton, 2019). Everyone can agree here when an idea finally appears, the under and overestimation becomes the project, especially how to consider the scope.
The effectiveness of project planning comes into place for these reasons. Whether this being a student or professional project, a clients requirements (target demographic) and a problem/opportunity appear to be the setting stones to a project. Comparing these leads to an ideal scope, estimated milestones and thoroughly considered planned risk registers to oversee the behaviour of development.
Figure 4: Project Planning Process (Mike Clayton, 2019)
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Joining a Team
The first challenge activity of the module is all about team formation. I started quite late due to the commencment of this week clashing with a family holiday. I kept up to date through my emails and the use of Canvas and the Discord channels to ensure I was made aware of the introduction of GDO730. My main concern was to join a team as this was crucial. Fortunately, A student in a different cohort who I had the pleasure working on projects with during our undergraduate studies in game development, Was a part of this module.
I messaged to request joining an existing group. I can now say that I am proud to be a part of Group 7, also known as Fish Cake. The group includes a mixure of IGD (Adam Hitchen, Jack Self) and UXD (Carie Ng and Aishwarya Susheel) students. There were 3 project briefs to choose from. both course related ones, followed by mixed brief of our own choice. This decision between the team was lead to the IGD brief, consisting of creating a game with a replayable core loop.
To elaborate on this brief, I researched further on replayable core game loops and how they essentially are the very heart of a game, enabling a state of flow to the player with full engagement, disregarding anything else but core attention on the game at hand. . A visual example of the game loop demonstrates a better understanding in its functionality.
Figure 5: Core Game Loop Model (Daniel Crook, 2012)
Due to catching up to speed with the first week's content, I outlined a small table of potential case studies, relating to replayable core loops that are categorised between engaging and addictive.
Case Study | Category |
Circle (2014) | Addictive |
Super Mario Bros (1985) | Addictive |
Life is Strange (2015) | Engaging |
Fallout Shelter (2015) | Addictive |
The Last of Us (2013) | Engaging |
Figure 6: Replayable Core Loops Case Studies Table (Kyle Cornwell, 2022)
Core Loops do tend to come in different variations. For instance, Super Mario Bros shares a type known as a Nested Loop. Essentially a loop inside another loop which spirals into further addiction through repetition and sequence (Michael Korek, 2019).
Figure 7: Super Mario Bros Nested Loop (Ethan Stanaway, 2020)
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Reflection
It has felt like a heavily rushed, but positive week. Joining a group and catching up on the reading material has certainly been a challenge. I feel I am in a strong position, provided I stick to my scheduling in the weeks to come and manage the workload whilst retaking IGO720.
I'm happy with the team who have kindly accepted me in at such short notice and look forward to developing alongside one another in the weeks to come since I have missed the feeling of collaboration with a team on the same aims and goals. I hope to take on some project management responsabilities and assist in any areas of programming where possible.
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References
Truity, 2022. The ISFJ Personality Type. [Online] Available at: https://www.truity.com/personality-type/ISFJ [Last Accessed 09/06/2022]
Online PM Courses - Mike Clayton. 2019. Project Planning Process - How to Build Effective Project Plans. [last viewed 09/06/2022] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G_LwG8ozpom
Nathan Lovato, 2017. How To Perfect Your Game’s Core Loop. [Online] Available at: https://gameanalytics.com/blog/how-to-perfect-your-games-core-loop/ [Last Accessed 09/06/2022]
Michael Korek, 2019. Core Loop in Game Development. [Online] Available at: https://blog.theknightsofunity.com/core-loop-in-game-development/ [Last Accessed 09/06/2022]
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