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Project 3
Specialist Application

From the 2nd of December to 13th of February, I’ll work in a group based on my specialism to create a game. We’ll start by exploring three scenarios (Escape Artist, Tunnel of Terror, The Final Decree), generating ideas with mind maps, and setting personal and team goals. We’ll use Trello to track tasks and progress each week.

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I’ll research similar games and tutorials to inform my work and contribute to our Game Design Document (GDD). In my assigned role—programmer—I’ll complete tasks, plan assets, and manage risks while documenting my progress in weekly reflections and meeting notes.

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I’ll help produce, test, and finalize the game with my team, updating our Trello board and reflections weekly. At the end, we’ll upload the game and complete an evaluation, reflecting on my own progress, contributions, and teamwork. I’ll be assessed on my own work and collaboration, not my peers’ performance.

Client Briefs

Brief 1

Escape Artist

Brief 2

Tunnel of Terror

Brief 3

The Final Decree

Task 1
Generating Initial Ideas

Developing a Mind Map

This mindmap (fig. 1) showcases our team's expansion of our chosen idea (based on the first brief) in the form of an asset list, with each person making sure that they're aware of what they need to produce for the project to be complete.

Figure 1: Our team's mindmap being used as an asset list.

Rationalisation & Personal Goals

Produce a rationale that covers…

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Our team decided to choose this scenario because we thought it would best align with our idea 

One major advantage of this idea is

One challenge we may face with this idea is…

This idea is influenced by…

 

One skill I want to develop through this project is…

Working on this concept gives me the opportunity to practice…

Task 1
Selecting a Specialism

Market Research

What core mechanics does this game use (movement, shooting, abilities), and how do they create its unique feel compared to other shooters?

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How does the game introduce difficulty—through enemy types, bullet patterns, upgrades, or level design?

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What visual and audio elements (camera angle, art style, sound effects) stand out, and how do they support the gameplay experience?

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What features or design choices make this game popular or well-received (or not), based on player reviews or sales?

Tutorial Research

  • What is the tutorial about?

  • How does this relate to the development of your game?

  • What inspirations can you take from the tutorial to develop your specialism skills, and reach your personal goals for the project?

  • What is the tutorial about?

  • How does this relate to the development of your game?

  • What inspirations can you take from the tutorial to develop your specialism skills, and reach your personal goals for the project?

  • What is the tutorial about?

  • How does this relate to the development of your game?

  • What inspirations can you take from the tutorial to develop your specialism skills, and reach your personal goals for the project?

Task 3
Constructing a Game Design Document

Completed GDD

Once the GDD is done, upload here, explain whichs parts you did and why the GDD helps during the pre-production phase of making a game

Task 4
Game Production & Testing

Task 5
Evaluation

Final Product

Individual/Group Product

Add a final gameplay recording here

Evaluation

Personal Progress

  • Throughout this project my use of specialist tools has improved because…

  • During the project, I developed new skills and techniques such as…

  • One of the main challenges I faced during production was…, which I overcame by…

  • I followed my initial time plan by…, however this changed when…

  • Feedback helped improve my personal progress because…

  • If I were given the opportunity to redo this project, I would…

I believe that throughout this project, I have managed to improve my skills with Unreal Engine since I was able to learn a variety of things that I hadn't known before, such as how to make a system to equip different weapons, as well as exploration of the UI/widget system, behaviour trees and navigation mapping, to name a few. ​ Learning these has been beneficial as I came across new issues and therefore had to adapt to fix them, giving me a greater insight to how the engine performs and its helpful features that identify errors before playing the game, such as the Output Log and Compile system, which pair to show you exactly which block of code is in need of repairs. A large problem that I faced was wasting time through the attempt to create a save/load system, which took too much time for a comparably slim benefit as we decided that the game, being a demo, didn't need such a system. Thankfully, this was towards the beginning of the project so I was able to pivot fairly early and focus on more important mechanics, such as the ability to actually kill enemies through shooting or the range of pickaxes or the enemy being able to chase the player. Using Trello as a time plan was initially quite a good idea, for the first 3 or so weeks of the project. However, after these 3 weeks, I had filled out all the tasks set out on the site, and hadn't added any 

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