I was asked to conduct a self assessment audio on myself as part of my success criteria for my Final Major Project, identify things such as my Professional Skills, Strengths, Areas for development, and explain them with detail with ways I plan on incorporating these into the creation of my Project, whilst also explaining what needs to be worked on for the betterment of future projects.
Professional Skills:
Researching Gathering:
My ability to sift through information online and conduct research is something that I hold highly, i am able to find out useful and useable information quickly and efficiently, this is something which can be used in a professional setting as being able to quickly deduce useful from useless information is an ability which can help reduce workloads and increase the work rate therefor reducing the time taken to finish tasks.
Time Management:
Another one of my professional skills would be my time management, this is useful in a professional environment as it helps me manage when my projects need to be complete, allowing me to meet deadlines and not fall behind on the workload, it also helps me ensure that I can set optimal timeline for the work ahead, which makes sure I am never behind the set schedule.
Problem Solving:
One other professional skill I possess is my ability to problem solve, i can find creative solutions to problems, ones which take the least amount of time whilst also efficiently and optimally solving said problem, this can be seen in my pervious projects which ran into multiple roadblocks during production, of which I overcame in various different ways.
Strengths:
I was asked to identify my main strengths, and explain how they can impact the project I intend to make, and how I can use said strengths to help create a more polished and functional game, whilst also explaining as to how they can be helpful in general.
Narrative Creation:
One of my strengths is my ability to work on and expand upon my own storylines, and visualize stories which can be explored through a game, essentially creating expansive lore behind the game, helping them become more immersed in the storyline of said game, making it easier for them to spend longer on the game and enjoy it, this is helpful and links back to the project I intend to make as It helps create a reason for the game and creates the world around it.
Level Design:
One other strength I have which relates to the game I intend to create would be my ability to create Levels using the game creation engine Unreal Engine, I have been taught how to create complex environments which react to the players choices, such as giving the player the option to destroy certain parts of the environment for their own benefit or detriment, this ties into the game I plan on making as these levels will be the main areas of which the player will be exploring, and are the building blocks of said game.
Software Knowledge:
One of the other skills I posses which could be linked to the creation of my game would be my knowledge of current software’s such as Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Blender, Garageband, After Effects, Adobe Premier, Digitalspace, Unreal Engine, and my ability to adapt and learn how to use new software which can be helpful in the creation of my game, such as things like Photoshop which can help create the sprites needed for the 2D environment I intend on creating, and Garageband which can help in the mixing and creation of custom audio which can be put into the game to help expand and create a more immersive and fun to play environment.
Game Development Knowledge:
An important strength of mine which ties in heavily to the game I intend to create would be my general knowledge of how games work and how they are created, which has been gathered over years of playing, and researching into how to create games, such as looking into the game mechanics in said game and finding out the most optimal path to an item, or looking into the coding of the game, to help me create the most optimal build for my playstyle, this knowledge has been gained throughout my lifetime as I am an avid gamer, whom has always wanted to create a game for myself.
Areas For Development:
Team Management:
One of the things I intend on developing would be my skills in a team, one of the things I learned after my old project would e that managing a team is something I need to improve, as I found it difficult to manage each person on said team effectively, often making mistakes and not assigning the right people to the right jobs, this lead to disarray and ultimately led to the project being less than optimal, compared to what It could have been if I had led the team under me more effectively, this time around I am working with one of my classmates, Salman to improve upon last time this time I have laid out which of us is doing what, I have assigned us both our tasks and will ensure that proper documentation of evidencing is something that is done (which is something that plagued my year 1 FMP, lack of evidence.) I will ensure that I assign the 2 of us to our strengths and make sure that both of us are doing the set work whilst also evidencing it.
Willingness To Work:
Sometimes I find that my willingness to work is low, this is something that has interfered with my previous projects a lot, some of this unwillingness is laziness whilst other parts of it are mental obstacles which I aim to work on and improve, in pervious projects I found that I often lacked motivation, particularly towards the end of said project, to avoid this and work around it I have chosen a project which I am passionate about, instead of creating one which I think will give me the highest grade, I have done this to ensure I am properly motivated throughout the entirety of the FMP, whilst also ensuring that I have chosen a probable game within the timeframe set.
Consistency:
One other problem of which I intend to remedy would be my consistency of work, particularly my consistency when it comes to the quality of said work, I have often found that sometimes I produce outstanding work whilst other times I produce poor quality work, this is often due to the willingness to work and motivation mentioned previously, but it also linked back to the enjoyment I may feel when doing said things, for example when creating my initial FMP I enjoyed the concept very much but when it came to creating it all motivation was lost, which is noticeable with a drop off of quality around said area, to avoid this and develop on it I will choose projects I enjoy doing and ensure the consistency of said projects is always the same, so no part of the game I intend to create is different quality to the rest of it.
Coding:
An area of which I could improve upon would be my ability to code within the Unreal Engine, I have learned how to use the software and learned how to properly navigate myself throughout it, but would love to improve my knowledge and further learn how to code both 2D and 3D games more efficiently and effectively, this would help me drastically as It would improve my ability to create the game I have envisioned, and would assist me in any future projects I am wanting to create, to improve upon this lack of knowledge I will ensure I spend as much time possible attempting to improve how I use the software and gather as much knowledge and information as possible in the timeframe I have.