Methods of planning

To start with Planning I have decided to look into the methods that are available for planning with a strong emphasis on making and planning games. We have to pick at least three forms of planning that we are going to use and evaluate their effectiveness. 

Here are the ones I have chosen:

Sketching:

I have chosen to use sketching as one of my methods as I will be designing the main pause and options menus for our game and I will be creating the logo for our game. Sketching is one of if not the best methods for conceiving the visuals of a menu/logo because it gets the person's thoughts across and puts them down somewhere to help visualize the design. 

Sketching is a great way to get multiple concepts for one visual sone in a short amount of time which makes it perfect for conception gem areas. I will make sketches for many elements of the game and I will post the images I create. I will create multiple concepts of the same things to ensure I am getting the best one. I will also make sure to use input from my team to ensure that everyone's happy with the visuals.

The biggest issue with sketching is that it takes many steps beforehand to do it properly and effectively which takes up more time and adds more to my plate. it also is harder if you have not got drawing skills as sometimes you can not get your ideas across well. To avoid these I will try to watch videos on concept sketching including how to do it well and all of the steps needed beforehand.

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Flow Charts:

I have chosen to use flow charts as one of my main methods of planning as I am one of the programmers on this project. the reason flow charts are useful for planning code is because they are the main planning tool for planning a sequence of movements or actions which is perfect for coding. As coding is a linear system for telling a computer what actions to take it is a perfect thing to plan using flow charts.

The main issues with flow charts are that they can be hard to read if layered out incorrectly or if you have made a long one. To the people who either haven't used them before or were not there when you were creating it may be hard to read so to avoid this I will keep them simple so as not to do this.

another issue with them is that they are not that creative or pleasing to look at so they can be boring to look at and read so the people reviewing may not understand all of the information. The method to avoid this is the same as the other as making them simple will also make them better to look at and increase their readability.

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Mood Boards:

I have chosen mood boards as one of my ways of planning as it is essential for sketching and completing any sort of visuals for many parts of the game. Mood boards are a way of conceiving visuals by getting a collection of images that fit with the type of visual you want to help with making the concept and finding the right look for the visual. 

Before I make any sort of sketches for the game I will get many images of the type of visual I am going for and make a mood board. I will use the mood board to gain ideas and themes for the concept sketches and I will also use it as a basis in the evaluation stage where I compare the examples used in the industry.

The issues with mood boards usually lie with the information that is gotten from them as most people just make them and leave it at that. most people do not explain the images they got or sort them to get a clearer vision. they are also very subjective as what one person thinks fits a theme may not match the same as other people. 

To avoid these issues I will ask my team about the mood boards asking if they agree with the image's fitting. I will also explain the images and go into detail about what I got from the experience.

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Analysis:

I have chosen analysis as one of my many tools for planning as it is another essential step in making concepts for the visuals of the game. But analysis is also useful for more aspects of game planning as you can analyze any part of a game. analyzing is simply looking at the aspects you are planning to make by looking at examples of it in the industry and extracting information from it. An essential step is being able to take that information and apply it to your planning.

For analysis, I will look at industry examples of menus and logos sorting them by categories to help me decide a direction to go in for mine. I will look at the logos from various racing games identifying themes that remain persistent. I will look at the menu layouts taking notes on the readability and ease of navigation I will then use this information in my own work.

The biggest problem with analysis as a tool is that it not only takes time to sort out all of the information it is also a very visual format meaning that it is hard to keep it tidy and readable so that the people reviewing have an easier time. another problem is that not all people get the same things from an image and some things may not have anything in common. I will try to avoid this by looking at more than the basic visuals and looking at things like composition and framing.

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For this, we also have to do the opposite and explain a few we will not use and why they are not the right effective tool for us to use in the planning stage.

Here are the ones I have chosen:

Voice notes:

Voice notes are a way of taking and making notes using an electronic recording device for planning. There are two reasons I will not be using voice notes mainly that I lack equipment and lack the need of using them. I will not be using voice notes because I do not have the equipment for it as my phone is not good enough to record listenable audio and I do not really have the need for voice notes as the main use is taking notes that everyone can see and hear and most of my work is self-contained.

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Annotations:

For this project, I will not be using annotations for the planning. Annotations are notes or comments added to either explain or criticize the work. To use these for planning you would simply explain the work you are doing using things like arrows and circles. I will not be using them for two reasons firstly because I will already be explaining all of my work in depth using more conventional tools and because most of my planning already incorporates similar methods in them like flow charts.