Level 3 Team Project - Week 17

The team has spent much time this week getting back into the swing of the work load and going over the tasks completed during the summer. In both meetings, a lot of time was spent re-capping tutors on what work is completed and what still needs to be done.

Currently, the project is in the 'build phase' with team members spending as much time as possible creating our final level build. So far, the environment has been created and population / scripting has been added to a certain degree. We aim to have the environment nearer a final state within the next few weeks ready for testing to begin during the first week of November.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

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

Personal Portfolio - Now online!

During the summer break I decided to create myself a website. I did this with the intention of creating a place I could easily store and showcase any work completed while at both College and University. Although certain portfolio sections of the site are still work in progress the majority of the content is now live and viewable by using the address provided at the bottom of this post. 

I feel that online portfolios of work are a necessity for any designer searching for a place in the industry- and at some point in the future I also wish to produce accompanying business cards that will include the websites address.

Currently, not everything on the site is final, as I plan to edit several sections and, of course, upload more of my completed work. Please do check the site out if you can find the time and feel free to give feedback by using the form provided in the Contact section.

Thanks!

http://leesparkes.co.uk

Level 3 Team Project - Summer Post II

As the summer is nearing an end with work kicking off again at the end of this month, I've decided to upload finished versions of two pieces of research I have completed during the break.

After having a chat with the team, we've contemplated combining Milestone II and Milestone III into one, larger milestone. The original tasks set for both of these milestones will still be valid and ongoing, however we feel that merging the two milestones into one will help us easily get back into the swing of work once returning to University. Due to this, the change could possibly lead to our testing phase (Milestone IV) becoming slightly shorter than originally planned. This is something we feel would be a sensible and beneficial change, as it gives us a greater amount of time to perfect our NPC and testing level.

We plan to engage in further discussions regarding the change once back at University, as all team members will be able to easily get in contact with one another. Summaries of all meetings will be posted on the Team Fable group blog.

- "01. Human Emotion - Empathy and Sympathy", click here.

- "02. Human Emotion - Empathy, Chivalry and Sympathy", click here.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

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

Level 3 Team Project - Summer Post I

As the Milestone II deadline hits in three weeks time, I have decided to post an entry previewing my work completed during the summer break so far. The work shown here is still yet to be completed, however all documents will be finished come the Milestone II deadline on the 26th of July.

During the first half of the summer break, I have been performing research into human emotion. So far, two of four documents are nearing completion, the first of which discusses Empathy and Sympathy (the differences, outcomes, and importance), while the second talks about Chivalry in regards to empathy and sympathy (the definition, what it entails, where it is used and the importance.) The remaining two documents will study the effects of Ingelligence on Empathy and the effects of Similarity on Engagement.

I find it interesting to look into human emotion and also feel that by creating these four documents it can help us better understand them, something that will greatly aid us during the creation of our test NPC. With a better understanding of human emotion, we will be able to create a more realistic and belivable character, something that in turn will hopefully leave us with a more engaging NPC.

To read a preview of the first document, click here. To read a preview of the second, click here.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

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

Level 3 Team Project - Summer Plan

As the summer break has now begun, weekly journal updates will be postponed until the first week of October, 2010.

Work completed over the summer will be posted to both my team and individual blog upon completion. Find below a link to the teams 'Summer Plan', of which was presented to Brian, Phil and Claire the last week of May. The Summer Plan contains a more in-depth overview of what work will be completed over the course of the summer, with the specific individual tasks each member is to complete.

Click here to be taken to the Team Fable 'Summer Plan.'

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 16

In the past week, the team has spent much time considering summer work and assigning what tasks need to be completed and by who. After the verbal report with Brian, Phil and Claire, changes were made to our milestone dates with the cut off point for the second moving back until the end of July rather than the end of June. This was done to give the team more time with the Alpha build, as it'd take far longer to create a fully functioning Alpha from scratch than it would to turn that Alpha into a final product.

For sake of convenience, the second and third milestones have also 'merged' so team members need not present half way through the summer. Team members will still be treating milestones two and three as individual sections of the project, but both will be presented as if they were merged into one, longer presentation during the second week of October. During the summer break, team member Steve will be liaising with Brian and presenting the work completed up to that point for some informative feedback.

Over the summer, I will be performing some in-depth research into the emotional factors of our test, specifically chivalry, sympathy, empathy and engagement. I'll also be helping to create physical builds of our level in hammer and writing various other research pieces that hope to back up the decisions made during our levels production.

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 14 and Week 15

The past two weeks have seen slow progress with Team Project work as deadlines for other subjects have been coming to a close. Meetings with Andrew Williams have taken place of the course of the last two weeks, with positive feedback and recommendations given.

Now making a summer plan, the team hopes to pick the pace back up during the break and have a fully functioning alpha build by the end of June.

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 13

This week saw the team starting work with Milestone II, picking straight up with a meeting on Monday where team members discussed what work was to be complete and who did what.

After reading an Environment Study completed by Kyle on the secret bases of 'Goldeneye', I decided to write up a study of my own on Left 4 Dead's 'Dead Air Office Complex.' You can find the three page investigation here.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

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