Proposal

In producing the project proposal, and in preparing for the project realisation, you should familiarise yourself with Unit 8 of the qualification.

In particular, you should understand the assessment and grading criteria which will be used to determine standards of achievement.

Unit 8 requires you to produce a project proposal of about 350 words, excluding the project action plan and bibliography. Project proposals should not be so succinct that they do not address the requirements listed below, nor should they be excessively long and unfocused.

Your project proposal should be sufficiently challenging to ensure you have the best possible chance of meeting the grading criteria.

Your project proposal should include:

Candidate name and number
Project proposal title and date
Main area of activity / pathway, e.g. film, TV, games design etc.

The project proposal must be word processed and presented under the headings listed here:

Section 1 - Rationale (Approximately 100 words)
Section 2 – Project concept (Approximately 200 words)
Section 3 - Evaluation (Approximately 50 words)

Additional requirements, not included in the 350 word limit of the proposal:

Project action plan and timetable
Bibliography (Harvard Format)

Candidate Name

James Davis

Candidate Number

Pathway

Games Design

Project Title

Fathomless

project concept - refer to feedback

Section 1: Rationale (approx. 100 words)

When I first started this course I had: a solid understanding of python's logic, a non existent understanding of music production, a fledgling's experience of 3d modelling and a developing skill of artistic creation. Knowing python previously allowed me to find learning c# much easier, meaning I was able to implement my own mechanics into unit 7 without additional support however I pursued 3d modelling and animation in my own time, meaning I progressed exponentially within that sector. Therefore, it is within my best interests to create a project that relates to my passionate skillset in animation.

This section provides you with an opportunity to reflect on, review and summarise your progress and achievements through the first 7 units of the qualification, and the knowledge, skills and understanding you have acquired:What you know now, and what it means to you, compared with what you knew and could do before you started the course and how this has influenced your choice of pathway and your project proposal.

Section 2 – Project concept (Approx. 200 words)

I am going to create an opening cinematic for a game that I have developed, which will be a sci fi action adventure game set in a flooded earth. This is a 3d rendered animated short that will be developed in blender. The skills this will take and develop are: animation and 3d modelling and sculpting and rigging. Specifically, I will need to be modelling humanoid figures that are compatible with animation rigs which is new, challenging terratory. I need both of these to progress onto an animation university course and eventually a game animator. I will use this project to push the boundaries that I have made myself comfortable within; making my own humanoid mesh, underwater animation etc. Therefore it would be a good idea to research into underwater movement, human anatomy (as well as marine biology), climate change and its affect on the ocean. In addition to this, utalising camera's to create reference for animation would be a good idea.

This section provides an opportunity for you to clearly explain the concept and aims of your project, the research and ideas that will support its development, what you anticipate producing, the levels and types of resources that you will need and an indication of the form in which you will complete and present your project realisation within the allocated timescale.

Section 3 – Evaluation Proposal (Approx. 50 words)

At the start of each week, I will make a trello board of what I hope to achieve for the rest of that week, so that at the end of the week, I know if I am ahead or behind of schedule and see if the work is up to standard.

This section provides an opportunity for you to explain how you will reflect on and evaluate your work, as both an ongoing activity and at the conclusion of the project.You should describe how you intend to record your decision-making and how you will document changes to your ideas as the project progresses. The evaluation section should reference your stated aims and be reflective and analytical rather than a description of actions completed.When working in collaboration with others, you should comment on how this may impact either positively or adversely and outline the steps you can take to minimise disruption to your own progress.

MoSCoW Analysis

Must have:

A game introduction cinematic, it needs to provide exposition and hype up the player.
It needs action/combat scenes to do this whilst also a conveyed reason for those, not just random violence.

A bare minimum of 4 scenes - 3 exposition and 1 action

Lens flares - primarily for visuals, but I want to challenge myself and figure them out. It also works to intensify the sun which is thematic. I also just really like lensflares

At least 45 seconds long, bare minimum - any shorter and its underwhelming

Should have:

probably at least 7 scenes - for now, it seems like a good amount of scenes to convey the atmosphere, anything less and each scene shots get too drawn out.
Fully edited - if it all goes wrong, i can just play the animated scenes one after the other, without putting them together properly.
A cinematic demonstration of gameplay mechanics - this will be engrained into the scenes themselves, but ultimately doesn't matter if they aren't apparent or obvious

Could have:

Narration - tension building + exposition
Originally composed music - cool idea, but a lot of effort and it would be lower quality than professionally composed music
title card - demonstrate the progression to the main menu

Won't have:

Gameplay - I don't have time to do anything else other than the cinematic.

Project action plan and timetable

This section provides you with an opportunity to outline your planning and organisation over a period of weeks and the activities you will need to carry out in order to successfully complete your project in the agreed time frame. The more time and thought you give to planning your project, the more successful it is likely to be.

It is important that you consider how you will balance ambition, time and realism in the realisation of the project. You should also include what you are going to do, how you will do it and by when. Remember to include: time spent sourcing materials and other resources to conduct research, feedback from tutors and peers, and when you will carry out independent study.

Week Commencing

Activity / What you are intending to do

- including independent study

Resources / What you will need to do it

- including access to workshops

6th March

Design the setting more. Research each as I get to them

What the world looks like now, including faction cities/towns
Important locations
Finalise the species and mock up designs
independently, mock up 3d character models. Why - takes ages, need a long period of no distraction, more resources at home too

Stuff to draw on, blender which i'm using independantly this week anyway

13th March

Finalise the setting, begin with gameplay mechanics

Finalise species design
Design a main character to stand in for the player character
Create some factions
primary research into refamiliarise ocean simulations, fluid simulations and anything else that may be needed to use. If finished, start with modelling and rigging characters. Why - less time wasted in production phase and modelling characters I find to be very time consuming and requires focus I wouldn't be able to get in class.
Design how the game actually works, such as open world, what you could do in it, whether there's a story or not, what is your goal etc.
Design combat: how it looks, feels and plays.

Stuff to draw on, blender which i'm using independantly this week anyway

20th March

Finish gameplay mechanics, spend the rest of the week planning the cinematic.

finish off gameplay
Brainstorm potential shot ideas
Plan the cinematic
Shotlist
storyboard (both onsite and independently)
Continue modelling and rigging characters. Why - I wouldn't be able to focus on this in class.

Stuff to draw on, blender which i'm using independantly this week anyway

How the production plan depends on the shotlist:

I'm basing what I need to get done per week of production based off a percentage of progress. This is done because some shots I could easily create within half an hour, but others may take entire days to make, therefore, I can't set a goal of 5 shots per week because i theoretically could get all of the big shots done first and have only done 3, but every other week would then overperform and i don't know where i'm at. To combat this, the shotlist is going to contain an estimated amount of time that a shot is going to take, measured in days and the goal per week is to do x amount of days worth of work, measured in production.

27th March

With the entire cinematic planned, I can begin setting up 3d work.

Start creating set pieces, other objects as well that are going to be necessary
Independently, finish creating and rigging the final models that get mentioned in the shotlist. This shouldn't take long if i've already got bases (such as the main character) that I can build off.
Also start creating less difficult creatures if they feature within the shotlist.

blender

3rd April

Animate

blender

10th April

Animate

blender

17th April

animate

blender

24th April

animate

blender

1st May

finish animation edit everything together

blender, Davinchi

Bibliography (Harvard Format):

This section provides an opportunity to record the initial research sources, both primary and secondary, that you intend to use.

Your sources of research should be as wide as possible and could include libraries, galleries, books, magazines, films, computer games, websites, blogs, social media, radio programmes, archive material etc. Where appropriate, you should use the Harvard system of referencing. The bibliography should be continuously updated as the project progresses.

James Davis - Bibliography

Proposal Reflection:

I found the word limit on the proposal crippling, as I wanted to go more in depth but found I was surpassing the limit before I had made my point, Other than that, I think it went well, I'm fairly certain my idea was put across quite well. The Moscow analysis I found to be fairly mixed, I didn't really have to initially rule anything out because the practical is quite linier, so I had to think of aspects that I wouldn't have thought of but others might have done, which lead me to ruling out any sort of gameplay. The same sort of thinking could be applied to the 'could have' section as well, which is where I got the title card idea.

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