Level 3 Team Project - Week 5

This week we spent our time finalising the Design Document, Pitch and Plan. All members contributed to the document and we ended up with a ten page piece, printed and presented during our meeting with Claire on Tuesday. My contribution to the document remained at the Pitch and Plan sections, which saw me working with fellow team members to complete both Phase I and III.

Also this week I have started work on our Pitch Presentation, which is something to be presented to Brian and Phil next Friday. Already we have a 'dry run' version of the presentation completed for the meeting with Claire next Tuesday. By performing the 'dry run' presentation, we'll have some practise and advice about our slide show and discussion before the real thing.

Overall, I'm very happy with the teams design document and feel confident for our presentation next week. I plan to have a final presentation completed during the next few days and by next weekend we should have some useful feedback from Brian and Phil, something that will be both posted and discussed on the team blog.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Week 4

This week work got well under way on our Design Document, Pitch and Plan. I spent my time writing half of the Pitch, half of the Plan, planning out our five major milestones complete with dates and writing a five page case study on the non-playable characters found within the Xbox 360 game, Fable II.

My Fable II report discussed NPC archetypes and stereotypes, compared the characteristics of certain NPCs to others and provides an analytical insight into their roles. To read the full report, click here.

I felt that most of the team has kept working hard this week with the majority of the Design Document completed before the busy weekend ahead, a time that must also be allocated to other units.

The upcoming week is going to be an interesting juggle of work with a hand-in for another unit fast approaching. Regardless, our Design Document hand-in is Tuesday and following that date I hope to write up some more scientific research along with spending time working with our Presentation, so that it's ready for the feedback session on the 19th or March.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Analysis of NPCs within Fable II

As part of the teams ongoing research, I have performed an analysis of non-playable characters found within the Xbox 360 title, Fable II. The five page document discusses NPC archetypes and stereotypes, compares the characteristics of certain NPCs to others and provides an analytical insight into their roles.

Fable II [Lionhead Studios, 2007]
 

"The NPCs found throughout Fable II are interesting, as despite having large roles in determining the final outcome of the story, they’re all shallow, uncharismatic bots whose entire list of traits and characteristics can be viewed at any time via a small dynamic menu screen. Merely shells for the mechanic they so influence, NPCs not directly linked to the main storyline in Fable II are a very common affair, with hundreds scattered throughout the land of Albion, though each one fits the same purpose as the next. It isn’t each individual NPC that directly matters in Fable II, but the views of large groups of them affecting several of the player’s stats. As an example, the more quests the player does for NPCs found around town, the higher renown score they gain. Similarly, the more gifts a player gives to different NPCs, the more they’re appreciated."

"One thing to mention- the mentor character of Fable II, Theresa, interestingly breaks the typical mentor archetype by both being female and having a large disability. The Hero of Strength, Sister Hannah, is another interesting character to consider, her character being reversed with Garth, the Hero of Will. Typically, the female would take the role of the wispy magic user while the male would assume the role of the powerful warrior. This switch aids in helping both characters appear more surprising and compelling to the player. Despite obviously having no dialogue or characterisation, the dogs actions throughout, and especially towards the end, of Fable II help shape it into a compelling character, especially since it is linked with one of the biggest decisions the player is presented with."

"By creating stereotypical minor NPCs, Lionhead has managed to create multiple characters out of one personality, perfectly fitting for the roles those characters play. However, due to this, these minor characters are thoroughly uninteresting and do nothing but contribute to the games mechanics."

To download the full five page .pdf version of the analysis, click here.
 

Level 3 Team Project - Week 3

This week the team began work on our design document, pitch and plan. In our two meetings at University we discussed work completed so far and what's expected from us for the deadline on the 9th of March.

At the beginning of the week three I performed a second source analysis, this time on the book "Game Usability: Advice From The Experts For Advancing The Players Experience" written by K. Isbister and N. Schaffer. I found the book interesting, although only a couple of sections were relevant to us and our research question.
I also spent some time this week writing up a project methodology report, discussing several different types of software development processes, how they're used in industry and if they're useful to us. I concluded in saying Scrum was the most appropriate software process for us to use and that it should be considered sometime during the project.

By next week I hope to help get the project pitch finished entirely (that way it's ready for the hand in at the start of week 5) along with a report on the NPCs found in the game 'Fable II.'

I felt the team has worked well again this week, with some good feedback given regarding our work left with Claire and Amanda.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Project Methodology Report

As part of the teams research this week, I decided to write a document looking into Project Methodology. Software development processes Scrum, Waterfall, Agile, Spiral and Iterative are mentioned, with a short explanation as to what each one is along with some examples of how the process can be used and whether or not it would be useful to us. The report concludes saying the team would benefit most from the Scrum process, making good use of its two to four week sprints and frequent meetings.

"Software Development Processes are a very important aspect of design, with each aiming to aid teams along the development cycle by providing an organised project flow and several different terms and phrases to help identify ‘stages’ of production."

"As part of our project research, we’ve decided to look into several of these software development processes and decide which one would best suit us. The processes looked at here are Scrum, Waterfall, Agile, Spiral and Iterative. A short explanation as to what each one is will be given, along with some examples of how the process can be used and whether or not it would be useful to us. The five development processes featured are some of the most popular used throughout the games industry, with development studios such as High Moon making use of Scrum."

To download the full five page .pdf version of the report, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Source Analysis - Book 2

As part of the team's ongoing research, I've looked into testing methodology using the book "Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience" written by Katherine Isbister and Noah Schaffer as my source. I've created a two page document discussing the relevant information found in Chapters VII, IX and XV and given an insight as to how we can use the information gathered in testing of our own.

“Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience” [1] written by Katherine Isbister and Noah Schaffer gives a good insight into effective testing within the games industry. Chapters VII, IX and XV provide the most relevant information regarding our project, talking about evaluation, metrics, biometric measurement and tracking real time user experience."

"An in-game feedback application as seen in Voodoo Vince [6] could be a useful tool for gathering data. One advantage of this being the player can tell us exactly what they’re thinking the moment it is happening within the game. It’s also possible to present players with an application such as this while masked as an in-game mechanic, asking players if they wish to engage more conversation with NPCs or not, whether or not they wish to travel with one NPC over another and so forth. Games such as Team Fortress 2 [7] offer in-game questioners on certain servers, allowing players to rate the current map they’re playing on, the people they’re playing alongside and the quality of the server. This links back to information found in Chapter VII, as if we’re to include such an application in our product it will have to remain easy to use and simple to understand."

"Game Usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the players experience’ by Katharine Isbister and Noah Schaffer has been a useful source to consider when looking into testing both our prototype and final product. While most sections in the book were not entirely relevant to our project, some of the points made throughout can still be considered, such as the information on the evaluation process and hints to how we can collect data effectively. We may also benefit from including in-game logs as mentioned by Kim in chapter XV and also record player emotion by using equipment such as a web camera to see facial expressions throughout the testing."

To download the full three page .pdf version of the source analysis, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Week 2

This week I contributed to the teams research into compelling NPCs in games. Each of us was to write a case study on a non-playable character of our choice and also complete an analysis of a book relevant to the project. Both papers were printed and shown to lecturers during the two team meetings we had during the week.

I decided to write my case study on Frank Fontaine, an antagonist character from the FPS game 'Bioshock.' I feel my case study was relevant to our project and that the NPC himself was interesting and compelling, though I admit I felt my final document was a little too wordy and became more of an essay than I would've liked.

The team has decided to wait until more information is given about the design document in the lecture next Tuesday before we begin working on it. Also, the results of our NPC surveys regarding Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins are still being collected.

I felt we've all worked well this week and have made a great start to the project, jumping in at the deep end and writing two research papers each.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Source Analysis - Book 1

As part of the teams research into non-playable characters in games, I borrowed the book 'Better Games Characters by Design' written by Katherine Isbister. I've created a three page document analysing certain areas of the source that are relevant to our project.

"'Better Game Characters by Design’ by Katharine Isbister has been a very useful source for finding out information on NPCs within games and how players react to them depending on a variety of different variables. Reading this book has helped us to look deeper into many aspects of characters within games and a lot of examples and suggestions given by the author must be taken on-board if our characters are to be convincing and realistic."

To download the full three page .pdf version of the source analysis, click here.