Evaluation

For my evaluation I got some people to test the my project and then I made a questionnaire to see what they thought about the project. The first person I tested it on didn't really have much knowledge of computer games. I thought I needed to test someone who uses computers a lot and someone who doesn't. That way I could see if it was difficult to navigate around the interactive parts of the game. He's the first results. 

How easy did you find it to use?

If found it easy to use and instructions were clear, also the choice of direction made it more interesting.

Did every work as you expected it too?

Yes, with the exception I didn’t realise crossing the river that you had to follow a pattern.

What did you think of the story?

The story had a clear message of strength over adversity

What did you think of the standard of animation?

The animation was good, the sense of coldness, wind and fear were very apparent.

How did you find the characters?

The characters showed their personalities.

Did you like the music and did it fit with the scenes?

Yes.

Overall what was your opinion of the project? 

I found the story intriguing and there was definitely an interactive element instead of just being a passive observer of events.

How easy did you find it to use? 

I found it pretty easy to follow, and the instructions clear at the start.

Did everything work as you expected it too?

Yes. Using the Next keys & choosing which ice blocks to cross the river worked well.

What did you think of the story?

I enjoyed the story and the flashback of the wolf character.  Which helped to broaden the depth of the story and characterisation.

What did you think of the standard of animation?

Very high standard. A good use of movement and drawings of real animals.

How did you find the characters?

I found the characters interesting with the wolf and fox as the main characters with their own story.

Did you like the music and did it fit with the scenes?

Yes I felt it fitted in with the story / backgrounds / feel of the animation very well.

Overall what was your opinion of the project?

I feel the overall project results including the sketch book, research, animation, choice of music to be of a very high standard.

For the final project we could do anything as long as it was interactive. I really wanted to do an animation. But then I saw someones work from last year and they had done an interactive comic. It was lots of nicely drawn stills. I decided I could do something like a comic but also have it animated. When I decided on a story I planned to animate everything apart from when the characters where talking it would be still. We had to give in a proposal brief, at the beginning of the unit, which would be explaining what we would be planning to do.   

What I learnt

I learnt a lot about how to code in flash and about buttons. I didn't really understand coding in Flash before but now I am quite confident about what I am doing. I found it was very simple code to make next buttons. Then I figured out I could use the code in a similar way to make the next buttons. I learnt that if I spend a lot of time working on a project I can get quite a lot done. The animation took a long time to do but I am pleased with the result.

The point
I wanted to improve my animation skills in this project. I decided to go for a more realistic style which gives me good practise in my drawing style. I was quite different to my other animations I had done in college. My other animations the characters walked on two legs but in this project all the character were on four legs. I believe this gave me some more range in animating things in different ways. I found the point of this project was to use all the skills we have learnt over last two years and come up with our own idea for a project. I wanted to do what I enjoy and what I want to be doing in the future.



Unsuccessful

If I had more time I might have been able to have voice actors for the characters. Some people agreed to do it I just never got round to it. The buttons in the game could have been a bit more consistent in style. I could have put more thought into how the interaction was going to look. I wanted to have the map used in the project more but I ran out of time with that too. I wanted to code it so that the mouse was a magnifying glass and when you hovered over places in the map you could click on them. This would take you to a picture of the place you had clicked on. I managed to figure out the codding for this. I got the mouse to turn into a magnifying glass. But then when I added it into the project it didn't work properly. I didn't know how to change it back to a mouse once you clicked off the map. I could have fixed this by just putting dots on the map that you click and it takes you to the picture. I ran out of time though. So I had to leave it out and just have the map on its own. The one other thing that I had planned differently was the ending fight the characters have. I wanted it to be a bit longer but in the end I didn't mind how it turned out and I quite liked it. The biggest problem I had with this project was the file size. I had to split the project into two parts because the files were so big they kept crashing when I tried to put them together. I wasn't expecting this to happen and I was hopping that both the projects would be one big project. I had to end up splitting it into two parts which was annoying at first but then it was fine and I managed to get them both done.    

Successful

I may have had a few unsuccessful things but actually most of the project I found to be a success. I wasn't expecting to finish my sketch book as it was so big. I thought I would never have time to complete the book. But I ended getting to the last page. This was very pleasing and was a big success for the project. I was also pleased to get all the animation done and the whole story finished for the project. I thought the story was going to be to long and I had to keep cutting bits out to make sure I could get the project fininshed. I completed it successfully and I managed to keep the important parts of the story in so I am pleased to have done that. The coding for the buttons was successful. At the start of the project I was worried because I had no idea how to code in Flash. After I had watched a video on Youtube I was surpised at how quick I was able to pick it up. I thought my animation was good in the project as well and I believe I am improving. This has contributed to my development in animation as my skills improve the more an more I practise.