Evaluation

INTRODUCTION

For this year's FINAL EXTENDED PROJECT, I sought to make a one level, 2D puzzle platformer game, REPAINTED: NEW CANVAS, intended to be a remake of my first proper project in college back in 2022. My overall goal was to, again, completely revamp the game and use it to essentially showcase and reflect on my growth as an artist and as a developer in the years since I joined Barnsley College. It's presented mostly in its game form, but a major part of it is the artistic aspect. It was to be in the form of a small demo with at least its major mechanic fully implemented. The level is supposed to be short and serve as a tutorial level. In this evaluation, I will be assessing this project and its development, reflecting on how I did overall throughout different stages, how I executed my plans, what I've learned, what I'd do differently, and the difficulties I've faced along the way.

PROPOSAL AND TIME PLANNER

For the proposal and time planner, initially, I didn't fully know where to take it. Before I had the idea to remake the 2022 Repainted, I initially imagined myself working in a group with one of my friends to bring another earlier idea to life, but after that idea fell through because of our differing and conflicting specialism choices, I was a little bit lost. When I did land on the idea, however, despite the concept for the project being solid in my head, I can't say everything was 100% smooth sailing. In fact, I think I can partly blame the proposal for putting me in a rough position early on.

I spent a good few weeks working on it, spending way too long on just the rationale itself. What slowed me down there was my tendency to talk and write far too much. Which, in a way, stems from my perfectionism. There wasn't much issue with the proposal itself, just with actually writing it down in a timely manner, catching myself whenever I feel myself rambling, which is harder than I thought, and working on it consistently. That latter part wasn't a huge running issue, though. I worked semi-frequently, but when I didn't, it'd take a big toll and I'd end up not working for a while after.

After a while, specifically after the specialism section, it was starting to feel like a chore, writing all of that down. I got a little bit more sluggish, but I had a bigger drive to just get it out of my hair as soon as possible, which did end up pushing me forward.

Surprisingly, I didn't have that much of an issue with writing up the time planner. I've never been the most organized person. I tend to favor working at my own pace and in whatever way feels right at the time, and as such, I've always struggled with putting together time planners and such. However, this time, it was different. I had a much clearer vision for where I wanted this project to go. I could properly visualize several weeks of planned out work, and I felt the need to actually follow that. I chalked it up to a higher faith in this project. So, I took the time and wrote it all down, and I was pretty satisfied with it. It seemed concise and easy to follow.

However, considering how I was lagging behind already, this notion didn't last for too long.

I think, if I could, what I'd do differently over all is ask for a little more support to help me make sure I don't end up rambling and writing more than I should.

RESEARCH AND PRE PRODUCTION

Research was a little bit rocky overall. At the start, it was going great, especially up until the survey, but it eventually spiraled for the same reasons as the proposal. I was set on writing way too much. And it was worse here because the research HAS to apply, and so if I'm writing for the sake of writing instead of focusing on getting across things that matter, then it's no use. There was a particularly bad period of time during Week 6, which was Ofsted week. A lot of classes which would normally be workshop were suddenly switched to more organized, standard, traditional lessons, though still on the topic of research. So for a week, I had to essentially put a hold on most of the stuff I was doing to take on research I didn't conduct and that I couldn't find a way to connect to my project naturally. This definitely set me back quite a bit. Like I said, even if I work consistently, if there's a rough patch it can end up knocking me back a good amount.

It wasn't until the latter half of research that it finally got through to me that I write way too much. I had just tried to write paragraphs on research that I physically could not hope to integrate into the final product. I was quite set on this, too. But when it started to feel like a chore, I ended up asking a teacher if it was actually even necessary, and hearing that it's not even really recommended in the first place, I was able to get out of that and get back on track before it slowed me down too much. But it still did slow me down.

Initial research was pretty good. The survey and everything like that provided me with a lot of useful information as well as good, potential reference points to look at in further development. I had promised to do more with these findings during research, but due to those current circumstances, it would be too much of a waste of time, so I quickly wrapped up research while I could.

Pre-production served as a sort of extension to research for me, however. I solely used pre-production for things like concept art. However, even after I had wrapped up research, I used pre-production as an opportunity to talk about small bits that I would have expanded on in a much larger scale had I been able to get it in during the research phase. Research should be throughout the whole project, after all. I have no complaints about pre-production. All things considered, it's probably the smoothest this project has gone, and I'm proud of what I've got noted down there. Quality wise, the work is about as good as MS Paint concept sketches get, but I go quite in depth into my thought process there and I ran into very little issues.

Just to cap this segment off, I do wish I had gotten more reflection done during these whole two phases. I felt as if I neglected that. Because of the way I work, I couldn't focus on trying to regularly reflect and note down weekly updates at any point prior to the production stage. It was full steam ahead of me, as I was trying not to get left too far behond.

PRODUCTION AND FINAL PRODUCT

By the time I got myself out of Research and Pre-Production, I was a good few weeks behind the timeplanner. I was no longer trying to follow it. I started on production on week 11, when I should have been started already by week 7. Technically, I could have started production a week earlier at week 10 which would have given me a better chance at catching up to the timeplanner, but unfortunately, I was going through a rough mental patch that week and struggled to find the motivation to work. Immediately, the stress and pressure was weighing in on me. This was not something I wasn't used to, but I couldn't let myself get complacent just because I've been able to rush things out last minute in the past. From the start of production is when I start reflecting and writing down weekly reviews and targets. I used the Trello board I had set up during research to aid me a little bit in managing my priorities, but from this point forward, things were mostly kept mentally and changed rapidly depending on what was going on and where I was at with the project. The quality of the word produced, as I noted down, was pretty consistently satisfactory. The quantity, however, fluctuated very heavily. That only brought me more stress. Though I had been doing well to keep it to a minimum throughout the project, sometimes procrastination and distraction would sneak up on me mid week and throw me off my flow. Some days I simply couldn't get started for one reason or another. There's gaps inbetween these weeks where I don't work or don't work as much as I should and it added up to me eventuallhy having to finish everything in the last week. Regardless of the mounting stress, I kept going, making sure I didn't spend too much time dwelling on the situation.

Now faced with more pressure, I had to refactor how I work to make sure I don't deliver a completely half-baked final product. It was obvious that what I was gonna end up with wasn't the reasonably ambitious game I had envisioned at the start, but it was up to me to make sure that it's at least reminiscent in playability. Along the way, I tried to crack down on my reoccuring issue with perfectionism. I very quickly learned that a bunch of mediocre elements that look great when put together is better than a bunch of really good looking elements that just barely come together into anything worthwhile because all that time was wasted, and in hindsight, I don't think you could even call the art side of this mediocre at all. I did well with trying to push this aside, as from that point, things were semi smooth sailing. I really should have put more focus into making sure I made the most of my days.

I got plenty of feedback during this stage from close friends. I trust them when it comes to things like this. They're my closest and they don't beat around the bush. They say I'm talented so they don't need to dance around flaws. There was positive feedback, and also plenty of really good criticism and pointers on what to improve, which I tried to act on. For the most part, I did, successfully, but in the end, there's still some things which I unfortunately left unresolved. I was also able to send out a playtesting build so I can see how the average player navigates. I pretty meticulously designed it to meet my aim, but it was good to receive a sort of affirmation that I'm going the right direction.

By the time the last week came around, I mostly managed to keep my perfectionism in order. I wasn't able to get away with that anymore. It was all about keeping a mental note of what makes sense to prioritize next, when to put something down and move on to the next, and to take a reasonable opportunity that arises if I've weighed the pros and cons. I did struggle a little bit with knowing when to put something down, but that specific instance didn't slow me down much, thankfully. Things were finally looking up. Despite all the stress, and even in my rushed state, I was honestly having fun.

Throughout production, I made sure that pre-production and research counted as much as possible. There was a bunch of trial and error on the art side before it all looked final too, and what I ended up with was honestly surprisingly pretty professional looking. I still look at it impressed at how "game" it looks. It looks like something I'd imagine playing rather than looking like amateurish mockup screenshots like the 2022 version. I decided to package the final product in three ways. With a release on itch.io, a video recording, and an artbook containing all the assets. Since this was multimedium, it was important to me that every aspect is portrayed in its own way through these presentations. These came pretty naturally to me. The itch.io release idea and the video idea was always part of it since the proposal, but I think the artbook ties it all together.

CONCLUSION

To conclude my thoughts on this project, I think that, all things considered, the project turned out great. It's playable from start to finish. It's a short, full length level, and that's a great feat. I haven't made something of this scale yet, especially under this much time crunch. One thing that was really important to me through production is that I noticed a shift in what was holding me back. 

For a while, my biggest issue was time management and procrastination over anything. But this time, I can't say those issues plagued me as much in the same way. Rather, it was my perfectionism. My insistance on going above and beyond all the time. Of course, I still did face some issues with time management and procrastination, but not to the same scale as I have in the past, because instead of being mostly held back by doing nothing at all, I was mostly held back by doing way too much and not knowing when to drop something. Even though it is an issue, I have to look at it positively. Time management and procrastination have been my worst enemies for years now, and having something else as my biggest worry this time shows that I've been making a steady effort to work on these issues. 

Even if I didn't manage to meet some of the smaller goals with the game, I hit a lot of my larger aims, especially showing my growth as an artist and developer since I started college. Just from a visual perspective, this remake is worlds better than the 2022 version in so many different ways, and it's almost hard for ME to believe that they're made by the same person. But also from a more in depth perspective, the processes that went into it are so much more complex and developed. There's more intent behind it.

If I could go back and do this again, I'd nip perfectionism in the bud from the getgo. I'd aim to strike more a balance like I ended up doing later on in this project. I'd also want to be stricter with myself in general. Stop myself from sulking so much and eliminate as many distractions as possible, make sure I don't get complacent at any point. Honestly, even under the stress of time crunch, I had a lot of fun, and it doesn't seem like my passion for game development will vanish any time soon. Going forward, in University, I'm hoping to improve on all of this even more.