For Unit 49 of my course at Gateshead College we were tasked with creating a playable mod within a games engine. This project would involve a variety of different task ranging from brainstorming ideas and developing them to creating it in a games engine. At the start of this project I had already decided to use UDK for two reasons: as it was the engine available at college and it would help me develop my limited skills in UDK.
For this project I feel as though I got off to a very bad start as I placed it bottom of the pile for the work I needed to complete for college. Meaning by the time I started it was already more than half way through the time we had. This was generally just poor time management for me as I placed higher priority on work for other lecturers which put me far behind for a project in which my skills with the software were already limited. For future projects I need to organise them in conjunction with my weaknesses leaving more time for projects using software which I have limited knowledge in.
A simple way that I could use to improve my time management for future projects is to create an Excel document and date what needs to be completed by a specific date. By doing I can calculate how much time I feel is need for certain projects placing more emphasis some projects over others, this will allow me to keep to the deadline and not needing to rush to complete it due to rapidly closing deadlines. I had created a simple flow chart in my sketch book for this project but what I failed to include was any dates meaning there wasn't any structure to when the work needed to completed, the Excel spreadsheet would greatly improve upon this flow chart.
Due to these reasons I decided to focus on a simple design for the mod which ended up being a wave defence type game mode. What I failed to do at this point in the project I feel was that should've gather some research data for these types of games and look at elements such as map design and enemy variation. But again due to me needing to push this through the design process as soon as possible to move on the software which I feel particularly weak due to time constraints meant that this part was overlooked. For future projects I need to do an ample amount of research which will help me improve it.
When I started working in UDK it took me a while to be able to remember where specific tools were, due to this I used the website "WorldOfLevelDesign" for its tutorials to get me on track with the use of the basic functions again such as using the landscape editor and the basic use of kismet. I feel at this point of the project my skills with UDK were gradually improving but due to time constraints I couldn't fully commit to messing around inside kismet due to looming deadlines. At this part of the project my skills with UDK had improved an immense amount due to the tutorials and fellow classmates experience with using it. Before the next project I hope to practice more meaning that the time required to complete it should be lowered due to my increased knowledge.
The first part of the project in UDK that I started working on was the basic map layout of it, I created three prototypes and decided on the final map myself. An easy improvement for this part was if I had simply asked for some feedback from classmates to which design was the most suitable instead of deciding myself.
When coming to create the overall level in UDK I ran into very few problems because of the basic nature of my map, which left big areas of improvement such as better A.I teammates i.e giving them commands during the wave. One important part that time influenced meant that I couldn't create any custom meshes to implement into UDK which would help massively due to limited building choices within UDK
Overall I felt this project could've could be significantly improved simply if I managed the amount of time I had correctly and left time for research my varies ideas and if its applicable to UDK and to allow for a more complex mod to be created.
For this project I feel as though I got off to a very bad start as I placed it bottom of the pile for the work I needed to complete for college. Meaning by the time I started it was already more than half way through the time we had. This was generally just poor time management for me as I placed higher priority on work for other lecturers which put me far behind for a project in which my skills with the software were already limited. For future projects I need to organise them in conjunction with my weaknesses leaving more time for projects using software which I have limited knowledge in.
A simple way that I could use to improve my time management for future projects is to create an Excel document and date what needs to be completed by a specific date. By doing I can calculate how much time I feel is need for certain projects placing more emphasis some projects over others, this will allow me to keep to the deadline and not needing to rush to complete it due to rapidly closing deadlines. I had created a simple flow chart in my sketch book for this project but what I failed to include was any dates meaning there wasn't any structure to when the work needed to completed, the Excel spreadsheet would greatly improve upon this flow chart.
Due to these reasons I decided to focus on a simple design for the mod which ended up being a wave defence type game mode. What I failed to do at this point in the project I feel was that should've gather some research data for these types of games and look at elements such as map design and enemy variation. But again due to me needing to push this through the design process as soon as possible to move on the software which I feel particularly weak due to time constraints meant that this part was overlooked. For future projects I need to do an ample amount of research which will help me improve it.
When I started working in UDK it took me a while to be able to remember where specific tools were, due to this I used the website "WorldOfLevelDesign" for its tutorials to get me on track with the use of the basic functions again such as using the landscape editor and the basic use of kismet. I feel at this point of the project my skills with UDK were gradually improving but due to time constraints I couldn't fully commit to messing around inside kismet due to looming deadlines. At this part of the project my skills with UDK had improved an immense amount due to the tutorials and fellow classmates experience with using it. Before the next project I hope to practice more meaning that the time required to complete it should be lowered due to my increased knowledge.
The first part of the project in UDK that I started working on was the basic map layout of it, I created three prototypes and decided on the final map myself. An easy improvement for this part was if I had simply asked for some feedback from classmates to which design was the most suitable instead of deciding myself.
When coming to create the overall level in UDK I ran into very few problems because of the basic nature of my map, which left big areas of improvement such as better A.I teammates i.e giving them commands during the wave. One important part that time influenced meant that I couldn't create any custom meshes to implement into UDK which would help massively due to limited building choices within UDK
Overall I felt this project could've could be significantly improved simply if I managed the amount of time I had correctly and left time for research my varies ideas and if its applicable to UDK and to allow for a more complex mod to be created.