Nikholai - Week 1

The past week has been a mixed of tasks. The main focus has been to sort out my time management ahead of the coming weeks.

As I have two weekly meetings with the learning support team here at the University I needed to plan accordingly to these meetings. On top of that I have the dissertation to take into account as well. This would because a large part of my work over the coming months so it was important for me to work out an effective schedule. With one of my weekly meetings being focused on my dissertation I have come to the conclusion that it would be best for me to priorities the dissertation ahead of the draft submission deadline on the 12th December. The logic behind such a decision is that in the short term, though I’ll spend more time on the dissertation. The goal is to ensure that by the end of pre-production or at least shortly after I would have most if not all the dissertation done. Therefore, after the draft submission and in the weeks that follow I can spend less time on the dissertation and more time on the development of Game 15. I consider this a short term loss for a long term gain.

At this point in time. The current tasks I need to explore mostly include research. As Ed continues work on the character and boss designs, with Joe working on the core code. I need to educate myself on what will be the best kind of rig for us to use. Additionally, how the rig and animations will be imported into Unity themselves and how they will work for what we need. Initial discussions around the animations for the game indicate that there will be a strong need for fluid, expressive and rather dynamic character animations. Furthermore, with the aim of animated environments being a key part of Game 15 it will be important for me to ensure a clear understand of the technical application of these ahead of time.

I’ve always felt that research and knowledge is king when it comes to the creative industries. Therefore, what with undertaking a new role this is now more important than before. I’m aiming to continue my research in the coming week as we continue to push forward in the concept stage. The goal we as a group have agreed on is to have a working prototype for the end of pre-production presentation. The finished feature list and content is yet to be finalised but it is agreed that a rigged, skinned and animated player is key. This means I have my main goal for the following weeks.