Sprints 1 to 4

All posts relating to Module One, Development Practice.

Sprint 1 Orientation

• Week 1 Orientation
  My background and introduction I worked for The Open University, assisting the delivery of vocational qualifications by distance. I offered learner support including IT support, … Continue reading Week 1 Orientation
• Week 1 A research list
  Setting up Once I received my student number, email and information I began right away to research access for free software. Importantly if I want … Continue reading Week 1 A research list
• Week 2 What is creativity?
  Spark Forum: “Think about times when you have needed to channel your own creativity. What did you do to foster this and did it change … Continue reading Week 2 What is creativity?
• Week 2 Challenge Activity
  “Now we have explored a variety of techniques for helping to foster creativity and generate new ideas, let’s experiment with some of these ideation techniques. … Continue reading Week 2 Challenge Activity
• Week 3 Spark forum
  Thoughts on my Spark Forum post: I signed up to the games jam for Women In Games to participate, but I did not want to pressure myself … Continue reading Week 3 Spark forum
• Week 3 How AI is being used
  How is creativity being used by Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Colton’s (2020) discussion on Computation Creativity first struck chords of 1984 and other dystopian novels. AI … Continue reading Week 3 How AI is being used
• Week 3 Challenge activity
  “One of the best ways to hone your prototyping skills is to reverse engineer the finished work of other practitioners you admire. This allows you … Continue reading Week 3 Challenge activity
• Sprint 1 Reflection
  Material Week 1 Orientation Getting to know each other Setting out our goals for the module and our future Week 2 Creativity What is ‘creativity’? … Continue reading Sprint 1 Reflection

Sprint 2 Rapid Ideation One

• Game reviewsSeptember 24, 2020
  ‌An academic review of indie games and indie game studios related to my practice: Astrologaster (2019) Can games focused on history find success in the gaming world? Education, history, a great sense of humour Astrologaster is a blast. It is informative, as well as good fun and witty. Playing as Dr Simon Forman, a real person … Continue reading Game reviews
• Week 4 Rapid Ideation One approach and planningOctober 11, 2020
  “One of the exciting aspects of a rapid ideation (RI) session is there is often a big reveal in terms of the theme or brief. Even the organisers do not know what the theme is until the start of an event. This is done through the use of random generators, such as Brian Eno’s Oblique … Continue reading Week 4 Rapid Ideation One approach and planning
• Week 5 Reflective WritingOctober 19, 2020
  For Week 5, we are looking at Reflective Writing in more detail. I have been practising writing in my blog for a few weeks now and reflecting on the materials, discussion topics and the challenge activities. For the Spark Forum, we looked at Reflect on-action, in-action and for-action. “Reflection-in-action is reflection during the ‘doing’ stage … Continue reading Week 5 Reflective Writing
• Week 5 The Five Reflective Domains & SMART GoalsOctober 21, 2020
  Week 5 Reflective domain chart “Step 1 Review each of the entries you created in your journal one at a time. Which of the five reflective domains are mentioned? Edit each individual entry and use the tagging system to tag it with the reflective domains mentioned. Multiple domain tags can be used for a single … Continue reading Week 5 The Five Reflective Domains & SMART Goals
• Sprint 2 ReflectionOctober 26, 2020
  Material Week 4 Time Management Week 5 Reflection The Five Reflective Domains Week 6 Reading Week Rapid Ideation One Personal Development The Open University course ‘Succeeding in postgraduate study’ Games and Books reviews Develop:Brighton Reflect-in-action Please see my blog posts for Sprint 2 for my reflection in-action. Reflect-on-action Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the news … Continue reading Sprint 2 Reflection
• Week 6 Book and documentary reviewsNovember 3, 2020
  Book’s that have inspired and informed my imagination, creativity and creation in Development practice. This is not a complete list of my reading material during Development Practice. The Freelancer Bible (2012) – Essential reading for anyone looking to begin offering their knowledge, skills and experience as a freelancer. Horowitz, S. and Toni Sciarra Poynter (2012) … Continue reading Week 6 Book and documentary reviews
• Develop | Brighton 2020November 5, 2020
  Develop:Brighton Digital 2020 Event: Nailing the Pitch: Practical Skills for Securing Multi-Million Pound Projects Objective-based document design (Wicks 2020). Nailing the Pitch, was a practical talk on how to present your game. As part of our assessment for this module, we are being asked to produce a capstone video, pitching our idea for a game … Continue reading Develop | Brighton 2020

Rapid Ideation One

• Week 5 Rapid Ideation One (Part One of Two)
  The Game Jam started Wednesday 14th October 2020, during our evening webinar. The first thing I did is play an hour of Among Us for inspiration. The second thing I did was plan my SMART goals. Dixit is always a wonderful instigator for creativity, and the surrealist illustrations lend themselves to this type of activity and … Continue reading Week 5 Rapid Ideation One (Part One of Two)
• Week 6 Rapid Ideation One (Part Two of Two)
  Alchemy’s End Featuring no alchemy! Play Alchemy’s End – Featuring no alchemy! https://impalpable.itch.io/alchemys-end Week 6 Progress Week 6 I focused on animation and interaction. I explained how I started to create interactive boxes in my Week 5 blog post. Making parts of the game interactive is a lengthy process, so I spent most of my … Continue reading Week 6 Rapid Ideation One (Part Two of Two)
• Rapid Ideation 2 An animation journey
  Rapid Ideation 1 My first attempt at importing an animated character into Unity was truly awful. Unity offers animation software, but it took several hours of research to begin attempting animation. I felt like giving up a few times. I used ‘bones’ in Unity to move my character (Fig 1). In theory, it sounded easy … Continue reading Rapid Ideation 2 An animation journey

Sprint 3 Rapid Ideation 2

• Week 7 Version control
  by Sarah
  November 6, 2020
  Week 7’s focus is on Version Control. While practising HTML5 and CSS for short courses on website design and development, I have submitted my work in GitHub (version control) for feedback. I also use GitHub to backup website projects I am working on sometimes. My Rapid Ideation 1 project Alchemy’s End made in Unity was saved and … Continue reading Week 7 Version control
• Week 8 Spark Forum
  by Sarah
  November 6, 2020
  “In this Spark activity, you will need to place yourself in the shoes of the Ethics Review Committee. Read the case studies below, then share your answers to the discussion points in the forum below. Please take no longer than 15 minutes on each case study” (Falmouth University 2020). Case Study 1 “Tyrone wants to … Continue reading Week 8 Spark Forum
• Week 8: User and Audience Research and Activity
  by Sarah
  November 11, 2020
  Eric Geelhoed (2020) discusses the potential use of the online community for qualitative and quantitive methods of research. I have participated as a play tester in the following forms of user and audience research: OpenDev call for HumanKind – Played through three different setup examples of gameplay including combat, settling a city and resource and … Continue reading Week 8: User and Audience Research and Activity
• Week 9 Networking, conferences and communities of practice that align with my aspirations and goals
  by Sarah
  November 16, 2020
  Networking, conferences and communities of practice that align with my goals in art and animation, creative writing and research. Networking and Conferences As a naturally shy and awkward person, networking and conferences are something that I am still practising. My role at The Open University did involve attending conferences and talks (usually as part of … Continue reading Week 9 Networking, conferences and communities of practice that align with my aspirations and goals
• Week 9 Challenge Activity
  by Sarah
  November 17, 2020
  An informal Ethnography Report on Communities of Practice My focus for this ethnography report is on communities of practice I have recently begun to engage with on Discord (Ink, Spine and Adventure Creator). I am a fan of digital communities of practice that utilise Slack and Discord because I have more time to interact in online engagement. … Continue reading Week 9 Challenge Activity
• Game Off 2020
  by Sarah
  December 1, 2020
  Game Off (sponsored by GitHub) runs from the 1st of November 2020 to the 1st of December 2020. The theme ‘Moonshot’ was announced on the 1st of November 2020 and entries could interpret the theme however they choose. A ‘Moonshot’, something unlikely to succeed but it does, is an apt theme. You could choose to … Continue reading Game Off 2020
• Sprint 3 Reflection
  by Sarah
  December 4, 2020
  Materials Rapid Ideation Two Valuable feedback on my current level of practice and the results of Rapid Ideation Week 7 Version Control Week 8 Research & Ethics Week 9 Communities of practice Personal Development Photoshop Spine 2D Game Off Reflect-in-action Please see my blog posts for Sprint 3 for my reflection in-action. Reflect-on-action Balancing Rapid … Continue reading Sprint 3 Reflection

Rapid Ideation Two

• Week 8 Rapid Ideation 2 (Part One of Two)
  “As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems” Global Game Jam (2009). The Rapid Ideation 2 theme is “As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems” (Global Game Jam 2009) followed three randomly generated articles in Wikipedia. I loved this idea along with … Continue reading Week 8 Rapid Ideation 2 (Part One of Two)
• Week 9 Rapid Ideation 2 (Part Two of Two)
  Puzzle Design and Game Mechanics Puzzle design and game mechanics were developed in the second week. Our first idea involved a torch that you could use to combat fear but it transpired that this mechanism was too ambitious to develop in two weeks. I liked the idea, that light could defeat fear and this was … Continue reading Week 9 Rapid Ideation 2 (Part Two of Two)
• Rapid Ideation 2 An animation journey
  Rapid Ideation 1 My first attempt at importing an animated character into Unity was truly awful. Unity offers animation software, but it took several hours of research to begin attempting animation. I felt like giving up a few times. I used ‘bones’ in Unity to move my character (Fig 1). In theory, it sounded easy … Continue reading Rapid Ideation 2 An animation journey

Sprint 4 Finalise

Week 12 Finale

• Adobe Creative Cloud – Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects & In-design
  by Sarah
  October 2, 2020
  While undertaking intensive courses in Photoshop and InDesign, our tutor has not only supported our learning of two highly valuable tools but also best design practices. The course covers terminology in design, design practice and how to use advanced features of Adobe software. Accessibility and design are two essential practices in games development. How to … Continue reading Adobe Creative Cloud – Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects & In-design
• Week 10 Agile Development
  by Sarah
  December 10, 2020
  The Agile Manifesto: “We are uncovering better ways of developingsoftware by doing it and helping others do it.Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentationCustomer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items … Continue reading Week 10 Agile Development
• Week 10 User Stories
  by Sarah
  December 11, 2020
  What is a user story? ‘ “A user story is a tool in Agile software development used to capture a description of a software feature from a user’s perspective” (Rouse and Francino 2020). “An Agile user story is meant to be short, usually fitting on a sticky note or note card” (Rouse and Francino 2020). “They place emphasis on … Continue reading Week 10 User Stories
• Week 11 Personal branding
  by Sarah
  December 12, 2020
  “Have you made any steps towards creating a personal brand? The idea comes naturally to some, while to others, the very thought of building a personal brand can make them cringe. If you can get beyond the marketing hype and buzz words, a lot of the time the personal brand is more about reputations and … Continue reading Week 11 Personal branding
• Week 11 The Art of Approach
  by Sarah
  December 13, 2020
  Real Works, The Art of Approach The Art of Approach covers the following topics: What makes a great CV? Opportunity Spotting and Planning your Approach Researching Employers Legendary LinkedIn profile builder: Cialdini’s 7th Persuasion Principle: Using Unity Speculative Application Planner Perseverance and re-framing rejection The Art of Approach covers familiar topics for a freelancer and … Continue reading Week 11 The Art of Approach
• Week 12 Finale
  by Sarah
  December 14, 2020
  The last twelve weeks. Participation: My grandmother graduated from The Open University with a science degree, and my grandfather studied but sadly died before he could graduate – I feel strongly about the opportunity to study in a flexible and distance institution.
• Sprint Four Reflection
  by Sarah
  December 15, 2020
  Materials Week 10 Agile Development User Stories Buyer persona Week 11 Real Works LinkedIn Networking CV Week 12 Finalise Preparation for the next module: Game Development Ideas for The Final Project: Indie Game Startup Personal Development InDesign an intensive course Interactive documents Animation in PDFs Design terms Design practices Signing up for HTML5 Apps and … Continue reading Sprint Four Reflection
• Activity, Research, Planning and Development
  by Sarah
  December 21, 2020
  R = Research – to write-up responses to what you have seen, read or watched. D = Development – to document the development of your research project(s) and assignments. A = Activity – to log your weekly tasks and activities. P = Planning – to document and planning for SMART goals.
• The Five Reflective Domains
  by Sarah
  December 21, 2020
  D = Dispositional domain A = Affective domain I = Interpersonal domain C = Cognitive domain P = Procedural domain