This project has been far different from any others I've done this year, but has also had me revisiting previous subjects I've already looked at in a completely different way. I struggled at first with this project, as I wasn't entirely sure of what was being asked of me. So I started gathering research and creating a synopsis for a game, and then everything started falling in place from there.
With the concept of the game finalised in a blog post, I started researching into mechanics that have been used in popular games of recent years, then applying it to my own game, which became more and more fleshed out as the weeks of research went by. As soon as I'd figured out what I wanted to do with my secondary research, everything fell into place for the primary research as well.
The primary research gave me everything else I needed to be able to complete the unit, which was a massive relief, as I had felt desperately behind in this unit from day one. This was a long project, but I had always felt as though I was playing the game of catch up every week. It was only during the last few weeks that I actually started putting together the presentation with all of the information I had gathered, which up until that point had just been on my blog as notes.
I made this project far harder for myself by opting to concept an entirely new game to manipulate according to a survey. This added on quite a big workload, as I could've easily used the game I had a Game Design Document of for another unit this year. One of the reason I decided not to do this was because this unit gave me the chance to create an entirely new game based on what people would like to play and have enjoyed in the past rather than a concept based around something simple that I could create on my own. I decided that the project would be more enjoyable and interesting if I went with a different idea entirely.
I enjoyed the concept stages of the game I pitched in this unit, which had been an idea in the back of my mind for a little over a year. I'm glad I made the decision to use a different idea rather than going with a concept I'd already over-simplified to the point of it being harder to manipulate according to any research I might've done.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project, as it gave me a lot of freedom in what I decided to do. This was also my downfall, as all the freedom of this project also meant I didn't have much direction for the first few weeks, and I made multiple different plans over the duration of the project as to what I wanted to do.
If I could do this project again, I would make a better plan for how I would manage my time on this project, as I didn't balance it as well as I could've with all my other college projects going on at the same time. I would also try and have a definitive plan for research before jumping into it, as this caused me to research a lot of different subjects instead of maybe one or two larger subjects. I am glad that I researched a broad range of factors, but I'm curious as to how I could've solidified my project down, as it is 45 slides in total, which is far more than I anticipated.
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