Evaluation
Learning Outcome 8.4: Be able to evaluate a creative media project.
Assessment Criteria 8.4.1: Critically evaluate a creative media project against the agreed requirements and parameters.
Strengths and Areas for Improvement
Project Strengths
One of the strengths I have observed during this project is the effective teamwork. Collaborating with Aiden and Jude, we successfully brought all the assets together and created a functional game prototype. Each team member contributed their skills and expertise, resulting in a cohesive and well-rounded project.
Conducting thorough target audience research was another strength of our project. We carefully identified our target audience as teenagers between 12 and 18 years old, predominantly males, with experience playing simple 2D games and an interest in tower defence/platforming games. The goal of researching the target audience for a game is to find people who may be interested in the game, this can then inform decision about what elements would fit best in the game. This research helped us develop the game’s design, mechanics, and aesthetics to better appeal to this specific audience.
Another strength was my leadership role within the team. I took charge of guiding and coordinating the development process, ensuring that everyone stayed on track and met the established milestones. I ensured that my team knew what parts of the game needed to be worked and how they could make it happen, we communicated in verbal meeting at the beginning of each day and made sure everyone knew what work needed to be done. By providing clear directions and fostering effective communication, I facilitated a productive and efficient workflow.
The coding aspect of the game development was executed well. I successfully implemented the necessary code logic to make the game function as intended, the code is what makes the game work and connects the sprites and UI together to make it functional. This involved programming features such as tower placement, tower combination strategies, enemy behaviour, and overall game progression. The coding implementation was structured and organized, allowing for easy maintenance and scalability.
Creating the user interface (UI) was also a strength of our project. I designed a visually appealing and user-friendly UI that seamlessly integrated with the game’s mechanics. The UI elements, including menus, buttons, and information displays, were intuitive and easy to understand. It’s important that the User Interface is easy to use because it is how the player controls the gameplay mechanics (such as placing towers and navigating the UI).
The game’s functionality was another strength. Through careful programming and testing, I ensured that all game mechanics worked smoothly. Players could easily place towers, strategize on tower combinations, and navigate through the game’s levels without encountering major glitches or unexpected behaviour.
Overall, the project demonstrated good user experience (UX). The combination of appealing visuals, intuitive controls, and well-implemented mechanics contributed to an engaging and enjoyable gameplay experience for our target audience. I believe players will enjoy the colourful graphics and intuitiveness of the gameplay mechanics.
Areas for Improvement
One area for improvement is the process of importing files between Game Maker (GM) projects. During the development, we faced challenges in transferring assets and resources from one project to another seamlessly. I managed to ask for help and found that creating a local package with all the files is an easy method for importing them into a different project. Finding more efficient methods, such as multiple people working in the same project file simultaneously or exploring better file management techniques would enhance our workflow and save time during future projects.
Another area that needs improvement is the addition of audio files. I encountered difficulties in properly integrating audio files into the game. Understanding the audio settings and implementing them correctly proved to be a challenge for me as I am mainly a programmer. To enhance the game’s overall audio experience, it would be beneficial to gain a better understanding of audio file management and the different settings to adjust for the desired effect.
Communication during the production phase could have been better. There were instances where miscommunication or lack of clarity led to delays or misunderstandings within the team. I talked with my team at the start of each day to make sure everyone knew what the needed to work on, however, my team could have benefitted from regular check-ins to make sure we were all on track. This would improve the success of the development process and ensure smooth collaboration among team members.
By addressing these areas for improvement, we can enhance our project’s efficiency, quality, and overall success in future projects.
Target Audience and Feedback
Target Audience Research
I have critically analysed the audience research we conducted and provided the feedback from our target audience / play-testers about what they think of the game.
In 2021, total console gaming market sales amounted to 32 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 44.6 billion U.S. dollars generated by the worldwide PC gaming market. According to statista.com, PC gaming overall has a higher value than console gaming.
My team decided to make the genre of our game an RPG (roleplay game) with strategy and tower defence elements. We chose these genres because they are within the top four places on the genre popularity scale provided by Gametree.
RPGs offer players the opportunity to immerse themselves in a fictional world and take on the role of a character, allowing them to escape their reality and experience a different life. RPGs also provide a sense of progression and accomplishment, as players can level up their characters and gain new abilities, weapons, and armour.
Strategy games, on the other hand, provide a different kind of challenge, often requiring players to think critically and strategically to overcome obstacles and achieve victory. They offer a sense of control and decision-making, as players must make choices that can affect the outcome of the game.
Both RPG and strategy games also often have compelling storylines, interesting characters, and immersive gameplay, which can keep players engaged and invested in the game for hours on end. Additionally, these games often have online multiplayer modes, allowing players to connect and compete with others around the world, adding a social aspect to the gaming experience.
Our game is geared towards the demographic of teenagers and young adults, as the RPG and strategy genre is particularly popular among individuals aged 18-22. The age range of people interested in tower defence games can vary, but it typically includes individuals from their preteen years through adulthood.
While our target audience includes a blend of both males and females, the preference slightly skews towards the female side, since RPG games are relatively more favoured by women. The strategy genre, however, remains a popular choice for both genders, alongside fighting games.
Game Research
Researching other games for similar target audiences played a significant part in the games success and influenced many of the decision we made to make the game fit within some of the protected characteristics of the equality act of 2010.
We considered the target audiences and game reviews of three popular games: Terraria, BloonsTD6, and Neon Abyss. By analysing the App Store page and user reviews for these games, we gained valuable insights into the preferences and expectations of the target audience we wanted to get playing our game.
Understanding the target audience for other games allowed us to align our game concept with their interests, ensuring a more engaging and enjoyable experience. We chose these games because they have similar platforming / tower defence elements and art style. Moreover, studying game reviews provided us with valuable feedback and an understanding of what aspects of these games are highly praised for and appreciated by players.
We took note of the positive aspects, such as the addictive gameplay, exploration, and the sense of progression, challenging gameplay, fast-paced action, and unique power-up mechanics. These insights helped shape our game’s design, allowing us to incorporate elements that resonated well with the target audience.
I have completed a further piece of audience research to gauge the target audience’s reaction to our game below.
Game Rating
I asked the target audience / play-testers what rating they would give the game out of 5, here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | 4 |
| 2 | Joel Read | 5 |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | 4 |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | 4 |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | 5 |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | 4 |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | 3 |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | 5 |
There are mixed ratings for our game, ranging between 3 – 5. This information is considerably positive considering three of the eight rated 5 / 5.
The average rating is calculated to be 4.25 / 5.
Positive Aspect
I asked the target audience / play-testers what they liked about the game, here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | The music was cool so were the animations/graphics and the different weapons were cool. |
| 2 | Joel Read | I liked everything about the game it was all really fun |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | im a fan of tower defence games and this worked really well, I loved all the different towers, and their particle affects |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | getting cooler weapons made me want to play more, can just sit back and chill |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | The graphics and audio |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | I liked the graphics. |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | The buying system. Very creative. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | I really like how many enemies and how many towers there were. |
When considering the positive aspects of our game, one respondent noted the ‘cool’ music, animations, graphics, and towers within the game. We made sure the audio and graphical aspects of our game aligned with the target audience by using other games as inspiration.
Another response said they liked everything about the game and was a ‘really fun’ experience. We made the game intentionally fun and addictive to keep players engaged, however, I believe we could have added some more gameplay mechanics to make the gam more enjoyable. We considered adding a speed-up button or a wave skip button to skip past the boring sections of the game where the player is waiting for their money to increase.
Finally, the graphics seemed to be an overall positive aspect of our game, as well as the buying system and the diverse enemy and tower types. These aspects were crucial parts we considered would play a big role in keeping the players engaged while playing, the diverse types of enemies and towers keeps the player on-edge and awaiting the chance of seeing them in action, while the buying system builds suspense as the player waits for sufficient funds to purchase a tower to add to their defence.
Overall, the game’s positivity is significantly higher than expected, and the lengths we took as a team paid off.
Negative Aspects and Improvements
I asked the target audience / play-testers what they did not like about the game, here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | It did take a while to complete all the waves. |
| 2 | Joel Read | I think the game would be benefit from a wider variety of enemies with more distinct characteristics. |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | maybe add a name system to the turrets while I hover over them in the shop, so I know what im buying. |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | a bit long and repetitive for my taste |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Nothing, it was all great |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | I enjoyed it all. |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | It should be infinite. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | There was nothing I did not enjoy |
Contrarily, a respondent noted the long wait times to complete a wave of enemies. This was considered when planning the game and concluded that the wait times add suspense to the gameplay. This time allows the player to see what is happening and re-adjust their strategy if needed. However, I do agree that if you know what your strategy is, the game becomes very slow-paced and repetitive but remains within the scope of the initial design.
Another respondent noted the benefit of a wider range of enemies with distinct characteristics. This was considered when planning the game, however, over-complicating the gameplay mechanics can create confusion – keeping things simple was the goal here, and I believe that was a key factor to the game’s success.
The final negative aspects of the game are the long repetitive nature and lack of an infinite wave system. I agree that the repetitiveness is off-putting for some people, however, considering that the lengthy wait times was an intentional feature to build suspense justifies this and creates the player focused on their strategy instead of being overwhelmed by too much going on. A possible update to this is to give the player the option to play levels 2x speed if they are confident of their strategy and would be selectable on each wave.
Finding the Target Audience
I wanted to see what the play-testers thought about how the game fit the target audience, here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | Most likely yeah |
| 2 | Joel Read | yes |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | yeah, it works well with any audience I feel |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes definitely |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yep |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | Yes |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes, it does. |
Everyone agrees that the game fits the target audience (Teenagers between 12-18, mostly males living in most countries). One said that the game would fit with any target audience, but they might have not considered people who have vision difficulties, as the game does not have the accessibility for those groups.
Implementing New Mechanics and Features
I wanted to see what new mechanics the play-testers thought would be good to add to the game, here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | Perhaps a speed up button maybe |
| 2 | Joel Read | an upgrade system for the towers would be a cool addition |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | adding an infinite mode so I can try and see how well I can do; the targeting mode needs to be fixed as I don’t know if it’s not finished or what. |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | more variety in maps, weapons, and enemies |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Maybe more things to place to make it more interactive |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Maybe more towers |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | Maybe some new weapons |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | More towers and enemies |
When it came to suggestions of new gameplay mechanics, I was surprised to see a speed up button mentioned. This was going to be implemented when producing the game, but we instead spent the time making other things. A speed up button would fast forward the game to skip the boring parts and would make the game more appealing.
There is another mention of the infinite wave system and how the targeting mode for the towers needs to be fixed.
Sound Effects
I wanted to find out how the sound effects impacted the game, were they distracting to the gameplay or did they complement it well, here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | The sound effects were cool, and the slimes made noises that made sense but personally It was wired but that’s just how I feel about slime sounds in general so no hate it’s cool |
| 2 | Joel Read | I liked the sound effects because they weren’t too distracting from the objective and felt natural |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | yeah, it worked well with the game concept |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes. slime sounds like suspicious mac & cheese though |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, it was very fitting to the game |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yes, they were a nice touch |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | Yes |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes, as they fit the theme |
The respondents found the sound effects not too distracting and fit the game well. Jude tried to find sounds that would not be distracting to the gameplay.
Background Music
I wanted to know if the play-testers thought the background music fit the game, here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | Yeah, background music is cool and didn’t get respective |
| 2 | Joel Read | I enjoyed the background music; however, I think it sounds too intense for the gameplay |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | yeah, it worked well with the theme of the game. it was a lot of fun to hear |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes, very chill |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, matched the genre very well |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yes, it fit well |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | I couldn’t hear it. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes, as it fits the theme. |
The same goes for the background music, overall, a positive review. One person noted that it is too intense for the gameplay, and I somewhat agree, we did use boss music for the game music which could be the reason.
Art Style
I wanted to find out what the play-testers thought about the art style of the game, here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | The art was very cool especially the slimes |
| 2 | Joel Read | I enjoyed all the art of the game |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | it was good and clear what everything did. the particles were my favourite. the places where the player could put the turrets could look a bit more appealing though |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes, fits well and well detailed |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, was beautiful |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yes |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | I think the art style is a little inconsistent, however it does look nice. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes, I enjoy it. |
The artwork has positive reviews from everyone; however, one mentioned the inconsistencies in the tower sprites, this was caused by me adding new towers without consulting the tile size constraint we set when planning the game.
User-Friendly Menus and Intuitive UI Design
As the UI/UX designer and programmer, my role was to implement a user interface that was easy to understand for the target audience and worked fluently to promote a good user experience.
I wanted to find out if the in-game menus were easy to navigate and if the UI in general was confusing or not. Here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | I understood everything quite well |
| 2 | Joel Read | I found everything easy to understand, but I think maybe some people would need a tutorial as not everything is explicitly explained |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | other than the turrets not having a naming system, they were fine and easy to understand |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | easy to understand |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, I loved it |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yes and no |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | The weapon window was blank. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | They were easy to understand |
Everyone said that they found the User Interface easy to understand, however, one mentioned the need for a tutorial as the towers / enemies were not explained. I have implemented a ‘Codex’ menu, which is like a built-in wiki within the menu of the game, for information about all the towers and enemies in the game, how they work, what makes them unique, and specific statistics. This menu helps players understand what the towers and enemies do, which helps the player create strategies to win the game.
Balanced Gameplay
Balancing the difficulty was a key factor for the enjoyability and replay ability of the game. I want player to feel challenged but also coming back for more. Here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | It was a bit challenging, and I ended up letting a slime get through |
| 2 | Joel Read | I didn’t find the game too challenging, however I think it has a fair difficulty |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | I feel it wasn’t challenging enough. a slime never got past the first half of the map before my turrets killed them |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, it was fair and challenging |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yes |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | Yes |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes, it was, and I enjoyed it |
Game Stability and Bug-Free Experience
I wanted to see if any unexpected bugs or errors happened while the play-testers were playing, here are the responses:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | Nope no bugs |
| 2 | Joel Read | No |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | no, it all worked well. good job |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | no |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | No |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | I found the cheat button |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | No |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | No |
No bugs or errors occurred during gameplay which is what we expected. This was because we extensively tested our game beforehand to find any bugs or errors, to do this we needed to skip through the waves quickly to make sure everything worked. I coded a skip wave button which skipped the wave and returned any lost currency to the player, Archie may have found this ‘cheat’ button which was only meant to be used for debugging purposes. This is for testing purposes only and would be removed from final product.
Intuitive Game Mechanics and Strategic Gameplay
I wanted to find out if the gameplay mechanics were easy to understand. Here are the results:
| ID | Name | Responses |
| 1 | Evelyn Garrett | I understood the mechanics well it was cool |
| 2 | Joel Read | the mechanics were very easy to understand, but I think a tutorial would be useful |
| 3 | Jake Liotta | yeah, they were. the targeting system wasn’t easy to understand, but im not sure if it was finished |
| 4 | Jaymee-lee Whymark | yes |
| 5 | Liberty Weller | Yes, I really enjoyed this game 🙂 |
| 6 | Archie Holmes | Yep |
| 7 | Rico Canadinhas Canadinhas | I did not know combining towers was a feature. |
| 8 | Fabian-Ioan Cretu | Yes |
Everyone said that the gameplay mechanics were easy to understand, however, some noted that the tower targeting system was not working, this was because the code was not working at the time, so we scrapped the idea.
Audience Assessment
I have assessed the visual aesthetics of our game and determined that they align with the preferences of our target audience. Teenagers generally appreciate vibrant and visually appealing graphics. Through the feedback we have received, our game’s art style, character designs, and animations resonate with the interests of teenage players.
While evaluating the gameplay mechanics of our game, particularly in relation to tower defence and platforming elements, we believe that the mechanics of the game fit within the typical interests of our target audience. My team have thoroughly tested the game to ensure the mechanics are engaging, intuitive, and offer a suitable level of challenge for the target audience. I have achieved this by incorporate elements that encourage strategic decision-making, exploration, and skill-based gameplay.
I have considered that our target audience may have prior experience playing simple 2D games, so it is important to strike a balance in difficulty, not too difficult but not too easy. I have designed the mechanics of the game to gradually introduce challenges and allow players to progress while offering a sense of achievement and growth. I have considered implementing different difficulty settings to accommodate varying skill levels.
I have made sure that the tower defence and platforming aspects are prominent and well-integrated to match the target audience from the 3 games we originally researched. This was done by creating appealing themes, storylines, and level designs that interest the target audience and keep them engaged throughout the game.
Multiplayer mechanics have been considered, however, with the lack of knowledge for making multiplayer games using the limited tools available has made it too challenging for us to implement. Teenagers often enjoy playing games with their friends or engaging in competitive gameplay. I believe that implementing features like cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes can enhance the appeal and longevity of your game.
I have assessed the user interface (UI) and controls of your game using the feedback given, and I have concluded that they are intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing players to quickly grasp the mechanics and functionalities. I have thought about providing customization options for controls to accommodate individual preferences by creating an options menu.
I have extensively optimized our game to ensure smooth performance on various devices commonly used by teenagers, both PC and mobile. I have designed the game to accommodate different platforms, screen sizes, and operating systems to guarantee a consistent and enjoyable experience.
In conclusion, I have gathered feedback from our target audience / play-testers to understand their preferences and expectations. I have considered their suggestions and I plan to incorporate necessary improvements to better align our game with their needs and interests.
Creative Decisions
Planning Tools
One planning tool my team have used is Trello. It is a workspace for organising information, making notes and time managing. We used Trello within our team to keep information about the project organised, such as citing sources and storing reference images for artwork designs.
We made a diary which summarized our Trello workspace and communication within the team. The diary contains the thoughts, planning, research, designs, and processes for the pre-production and production of Slime Slasher. I added screenshots and documented everything inside the Trello workspace, with explanations of the thought processes during this project. This was useful when referring to the research we did as a team.
Utilising Nine-Splice Technique
As mentioned in the documentation, Nine-Splicing is the technique of splicing a sprite into nine distinct sections and repeating the texture to allow for scalability of the sprite without any warping or stretching of the texture. This technique is super helpful when designing any sprite that needs to be stretched and warped without obvious stretching and warping effects, and because of the pixelated arcade-like look of Slime Slasher, the look needs to be consistent.
Most modern-day computer screens have high-definition (HD) displays meaning they have millions of tiny pixels. Because of this, and because Slime Slasher is a rasterized game with a defined tile size, the sizing and stretching of the sprites must be consistent with the tile size to avoid anything being offset and looking out-of-place.
Nine-Splicing was used for the sprites within the game to prevent any inconsistencies when being stretched. This allowed the artist to use the squashing and stretching animation technique with the slime sprite while keeping the sprites consistent and fitting within the game world.
The bonus of using Nine-Splicing is performance gains. When using Nine-Splicing, there is no need to create a new sprite for every size of a sprite to give the stretching effect, therefore less work for the compiler.
Nine-Splicing has been a considerable time-saver for this project and has supplied a reasonable performance boost at runtime. I am glad that I utilised this technique for this project and will use it again in the future.
Object-Oriented Programming Method
Game Maker Studio 2 is Object-Oriented, meaning the game is made up of objects, and instances of those objects are created to perform the functionality for the game.
This method of organising code in this way has been especially useful when developing the game and has saved a lot of time.
Interpolation Technique
As mentioned in the design document, linear interpolation is defined as ‘a method of curve fitting using linear polynomials to construct new data points within the range of a discrete set of known data points,’ or in other words, a way to find one value that is between 2 other values.
Lerp (Linear Interpolation) can be used to create a smooth transition or translation of an object’s size, position, or colour blend to create a satisfying animation.
In this project, interpolation has been a particularly useful function for animating the game and UI objects. I have used problem solving skills to overcome the floating-point arithmetic error with Wikipedia’s lerp function: wikipedia.org.
I then converted this code into Game Maker using the ‘min’ and ‘max’ functions seen above for the transition animation to move the black boxes towards each other exponentially.
Personal Development
During this project, I have worked on many soft skills, such as problem-solving, communication, time management, critical thinking and more.
I used problem solving when coding the game to find solutions to the gameplay mechanics of the game. I needed to find a way of making the game work correctly and fit the puzzle pieces together to make it functional. This also included finding vulnerabilities in the code such as memory leaks and fatal errors, but also simple things like performance considerations and factoring user experience.
Communicating with my team played a big role in the project’s success, talking with my team about design decisions and gameplay elements helped me construct rational opinions about my ideas and allowed me to create a game that was not fun just for me, but for everyone else too.
We used time management tools like Trello to keep work organised and allowed us to speed up the process of researching other games for their sprites and target audiences.
I used critical thinking when programming most of the objects for the game, I had to find a way to simplify the process of making the game functional within the time constraint. I achieved this by utilising what I know about the software tools I have been given to my advantage. An example of this would be using the object inheritance feature in Game Maker, which allows for objects to be connected in a child-parent format to make organising the code easier. When adding a parent to an object, the code gets replicated from the parent to the children objects which not only helps when debugging, but also improves performance and file size.
I have improved on my programming and art skills during this project, including finding new ways to solve problems.
Overall, improving my soft skills throughout this journey has helped me considerably for this project. I am proud of my achievements and hope to use them in future projects.
Lewis' Games Development Portfolio 