Matthew Akingbade’s
Personal Development
Project B:
‘Route to Work Journal’
Written by
Matthew-Lloyd Akingbade
Introduction
I am Matthew Akingbade, a budding young Game Developer with many talents. I am currently completing my final year on my BSc (Hons) Computer Games Course at Westminster University. I am looking to enter the Game Industry under the role of a Game Designer.
Exemplar Work
My most recent work of 2010 is a Groups work Game project called SKY LANCER themed around evolution. I pitched the original idea in front of my class and gained two team members on my team to help develop my original concept into a fleshed out game, with roles overlapping.
Please find an early version of our game on my self-promotion page under the post “SKYLANCER DESPERATION”.
The production schedule was spanned over a series of sprints totalling to 11 weeks of work: from the 28th October 2010 to the 13th of January 2011. I feel the following reflection of our production and my contribution to our efforts best presents me with the hopes of employment:
Production Schedule of SKYLANCER
This top-down schedule used for the completion of our full game demo spanned over eleven weeks. It comprised of our weekly targets and deadlines for development:
October 28th – Pre-Alpha build full Design Proposal Document: I built our full Pre-Alpha and Concept work with Adobe Flash CS4 – a 2D illustrative version of our 3D Game. I guided the Gerard Comerford who ultimately wrote our comprehensive and finished Design Proposal Document. This was fully detailed with plan and schedule for the production of the game and ready for formal submittal. I had unfortunately come down with an illness on the date of our presentation and was unable to attend. My team mates knew the nature of my game concept and how I wanted it presented and took to the presentation task outlining the production and demonstration of concept work or Pre-Alpha build with enthusiasm.
November 4th – Starting Production: By now we had completed our initial Engine framework started and partially finished to enable implementing features on the Product backlog. I had decided to implement Adobe Flash’s Extension FreeSpin 3D combined with the flash engine to bring about our 3D Game effect. This engine selection was inspired by the Demo Game entitled 2.5D Get The Thingy on the Freespin3D website: http://www.freespin3d.com/examples/default.html
November 11th – Sprint Backlog: I had coded and programmed engine framework finished and now awaited the level design from Gerard to be implemented. I became aware of an issue with FreeSpin 3D when attempting to implement the models of our game, where the models were not being textured properly. I then took a while dedicating myself to fixing this issue, which took from my co-design time.
November 18th – Sprint Backlog: I had finished the complete Alpha coding, programming, Model implementation and Graphics features with level Design features partially incorporated. My team, however, was rather underwhelmed with results from FreeSpin 3D’s engine, as there were still texturing issues and the game was slow in coping with the minimum number of objects needed for a challenging game. My teammate Chris, the modeler who was also a talented C++ programmer, offered to take over the coding so I could concentrate more on the Co-Design, Graphic Art and Music production.
November 25th – Sprint Backlog: Chris Jones had taken over the coding and programming of the Game with the IRRLICHT C++ engine, with the game models already made, impressing and inspiring us all to dedicate ourselves to our tasks. I had then a more detailed level design and control features for him to implement, with sound tracks and Menu/Level Screen graphics on the way.
December 2nd – A playable version of our game for Audience Testing: Our partially complete Alpha version of the game with the primary design implemented was ready for audience testing and acid-testing the game as close as possible to its final alpha state.
December 9th – Alpha Completed and Interim Review with audience testing: a full Alpha version of the game was complete for our next presentation and demo with most of the main features implemented.
December 16th – Rebalanced Alpha version based upon the audience feedback: We had responded to the feedback of our play-testers and rebalanced sections found to be ineffective, added features missing. I had sent Chris Jones the first draft of Music and Graphics for interface, but it was yet to be implemented into the game.
December 23rd to December 30th – Holidays: to our project, this was contingency time if features were not implemented or the project delayed.
January 6th – QA Testing / Sprint Backlog: Interface and music: We were finalising our Beta version of our game thorough and rigorous new round testing of the game demo; time allotted to remove any issues or solve any problems or implement unforeseen superior features suggested by the ‘team’ or ‘Product Owners’.
January 13th – Prototype Complete: We will have completed our game with my desired Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic vision.
See the completed Game for yourself, under the post ‘SKYLANCER’ on the Self Promotion Page.
