Hey guys,
Seeing as though we've just completed our Milestone II presentation, I thought I'd bring up a discussion post regarding the current Milestone III work. Currently, we're working on getting our test level to final state ready for the 3rd of November (which will be the date of our next dry run presentation.)
Hello guys,
As it's the summer coming up and I know we're all willing to get things done during the break, I thought I'd create this post to aid in discussing who wants to be getting on with what. I know we have a rough plan on knowing what everyone is doing, but it can't hurt to share any more ideas you have in the comments below.
Personally, I'd like to spend some time writing up a few documents justifying our reasoning behind certain elements of our test, and also exploring the things we've considered whether we decide to include the in the final build or not. Studies such as the recently completed environmental ones would be a bonus too, but not entirely necessary.
Currently, work is taking place on our potential alpha build under Lewis' lead that is currently set for completion before the 25th of June. The Milestone 2 Presentation will take place the second week back of next semester, as decided in the previous meeting with Brian and Phil.
I'm sure we'll have far more to discuss after the verbal report on the 25th of May, though the majority of meeting time has been allocated towards discussion of summer work just lately, so we're all well aware of it.
See you soon!
Just a few quick heads up!
I recently completed a source analysis of a study Kyle found during the Easter Break. You can find it included in the post underneath this one along with the original source, and I advise you all to take a good look through it. In my opinion, it's the most important source found yet, as not only does it relate to our test, provide lots of useful information to keep in mind and cross reference to other research papers we've done, it also proves part of our hypothesis correct!
Since Easter is a three-week break with no chance for formal meetings and probably quite infrequent team communication, we should all focus our research towards things to add to the level, NPC and testing*, as well as uploading any outstanding work. Following are the guidlines to refer to:
i. All notes & research work must contain appropriate citations (or inferences as a last resort).
For example: If adding zombies will make our level scarier, why? Who has proven this previously?
ii. All notes & research work is to be delivered in a team meeting once the break is over.
iii. Any pieces completed during the break (ie. Source Analyses, Character Studies) can be uploaded to the blog as they are finished as usual.
iv. Tag all Easter work with the 'Easter' tag in place of a week number.
v. Outstanding pieces such as the Zevran Character Study and the Half-Life Models report are also to be posted during this break, so that everyone is up to date upon our return.
vi. Have fun and be productive! Big brother is watching you!
*things such as 'Why are military uniforms intimidating?', 'Why are office clothes conformist?' and 'What is the effect of teleporting an alien squid into New York City?'
Hey guys,
You may have noticed the new 'Index' button at the start of the navigation bar up above. Clicking this button will now direct users to a post containing links to all the work completed so far! The links included as of now head straight to our Box.net accounts, allowing tutors and assessors easy access to all our documentation and design work.
What this means is, it will have to be updated! Anyone is able to edit the post by entering the 'Posting', then 'Edit Posts' section on the Blogger Dashboard. When in the Edit Posts section, click the 'Work Index' tab located at the bottom of the 'Labels' bar on the left and then select 'Edit.'
The post doesn't necessarily have to be updated as soon as you've completed a piece of work- but it'd be nice team members add links to all their work that has been uploaded on Box.net at least once or twice before every milestone.
Can't go wrong with having a button on our home page leading to a massive list of all work completed so far, can we? =P
If you have any thoughts on the new Work Index page or any changes / problems that should be addressed, let me know in the comments below!
I've begun the 'Source Bible' of all of the sources used by research in Project Skills and in this unit. As this will be completely iterative, could I please request team members take a little more care with their referencing? Simple things such as giving the title of a paper without a URL for easy viewing, or citing a book without its ISBN. Other than that, I'm very happy to see several sources cited across multiple pieces of work (even one source across FOUR seperate pieces), let's keep that up, too!
Also, a minor update with regards to my Research Survey. The Mass Effect survey is being cancelled due to lack of replies, and I've still to recieve completed Dragon Age surveys from the team and from our second testing group. I'd be particularly grateful if this situation could be wrapped up by Sunday. For those who missed the link last time, they're here.
As we build up a list of sources, I think we'd be best to find some way of organising them.
Should we list by quality/how useful the source is? Or by the field of the source?
Like Lewis said, we'll have quite a few by week ten (or even week three at this rate) so we should figure this out beforehand. Character and Game case studies break easily enough into their own sections, so they shouldn't be a problem.
While it is good to have this much written this soon it is a fact that most of these case studies are for our benefit more than the lecturers'.
What we are looking for in these character studies is not details on the character but what traits make them interesting to players. If it gets to week 10 and we have to trawl through 12k words for a few useful lines about what makes interesting/believable character we're going to regret it.
It's really good work thats been done so far though, it's just a little bit too much good work.
Any thoughts?
PS. This is being posted here because I will be far too tired to say this in any meaningful capacity tomorrow and it will be nice to show us using the blog for meaningful discussion.