Thursday 29 January 2009

Rational work: am I on the right path?

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to get an idea on how to complete this rational so that I can present it to my audience.

Thanks


Character Project Rational

What is the project?
My project is to create a highly detailed game character that can be used in a next generation game; the game engine I have chosen to use for my character is the Unreal engine.
The theme of my character will be a mixture of post World War One and steam powered technology (Steam punk style). This theme will fit in with the back story of my character that is an agent part for a secret organisation that is the fount line defence against the paranormal and bazaar super natural enemies of Great Britain.
The reason I have chosen this theme is to step out of the comfort zone of creating the usual characters that are seen in most games and try to make something different.
132 words

Why this project?
As a consumer I have enjoyed playing Bio Shock, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War which all use the Unreal engine. What attractive me into buying these games, was the great marketing, outstanding graphics and most importantly good game play.
Another attraction that I like about the games mentioned, is that new content can be added by downloading content from the developers or you can learn to custom build your own content.
72 words

How will this be done?
The first step to creating a character is to explore my ideas, generate as many ideas possible onto paper and by brain storming lots of ideas I will send my drawings to my audience for feedback.
For the production of the character I will be producing concept designs, exploded diagrams, blueprints and modelling the character mesh.
By following the principles of modelling characters for Unreal engine, the mesh, textures, normal maps and specular map of my character I will be imported into the Unreal engine.
My custom character will be fully playable within Unreal Tournament multiplayer modes I will give users from the mod community access to my finished character and they can download my character for free.
123 words



When will this be done?
For this character project, I have created a Gantt chart which will mark out the deadlines dates of when each module is to be complicated. So far the date for the pre-production pitch bible and this rational document will be done by the end of March.
46 words

Who is involved in this project?
I will be producing the work that is required for the pre–production, production and post-production stages of the project.
Following the progress of my project will be my audience (Epic forum), mentor and tutors. The reason for this is to gain extra knowledge of what my audience would like to see, take into consideration any opinions made and not to become self indulgent due to the fact that I am creating work for an audience.
76 words

What Intellectual Property Rights are used?
I have found out information from senior users of the Epic forums, about the rules behind IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) when creating content for Unreal Tournament 3.
Within the IPR documents there was lots of information about many subjects relating to the content of Unreal Tournament.
My understanding of the IPR document is that it protects the content made by the studios artists from anyone outside of Epic who may claim the artwork as their own. Epic has given users access to the unreal engine so they may freely import custom content into the game engine and anything users create outside of the engine is the creator’s property.
However if users are using any of the content provided by Epic, users do not have the right to claim this content as their work.
133 words

Who is my audience?
Unreal Tournament 3 has been released on three formats (PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox), from what I have leant of Unreal on the PC and Playstation 3 formats is that users can import custom content directly into Unreal.
So my audience is the Epic mod community for Unreal tournament 3 and I will create content that can import onto both formats for a broader audience.
http://forums.epicgames.com
65 words

Total 647 words not including title or word count

1 comment:

Dave Wood is Scouse-Scot said...

Nice one Tony,

So far so good in the changes you've made. This is really going in the right direction. I've suggested some alterations that will make it more concise and will reduce the word count down. Hopefully it will make sense. Make the changes, re-read it and then present it as a draft for the group crit for a final draft.

What is the project? -
GOOD… add "My custom character will be fully playable within Unreal Tournament multiplayer modes I will give users from the mod community access to my finished character and they can download my character for free." to this section from below.

Why this project? -
GOOD… so far. May offer advice at next crit.

How will this be done? -
This bit is enough eg "For the production of the character I will be producing concept designs, exploded diagrams, blueprints and modelling the character mesh. By following the principles of modelling characters for Unreal engine, the mesh, textures, normal maps and specular map of my character I will be imported into the Unreal engine."

How will this be done? -
This is enough… "For the production of the character I will be producing concept designs, exploded diagrams, blueprints and modelling the character mesh. By following the principles of modelling characters for Unreal engine, the mesh, textures, normal maps and specular map of my character I will be imported into the Unreal engine."

When will this be done? -
Based upon the gantt write a summary of the main tasks with dates next to them. Move this to the end.

Who is involved in this project? -
GOOD… but you only need to use this bit eg"I will be producing the work that is required for the pre–production, production and post-production stages of the project. Following the progress of my project will be my audience (Epic forum), mentor and tutors."

What Intellectual Property Rights are used? -
Good research evidenced here but not needed in rationale (put in research instead). The last sentences are GOOD but move earlier in rationale eg "Epic has given users access to the Unreal engine so they may freely import custom content into the game engine. Anything users create outside of the engine is the their property unless users are using any of the content provided by Epic. Users do not have the right to claim this content as their work."

Who is my audience? -
GOOD… but change tone and voice and put this earlier eg "Unreal Tournament 3 has been released on three formats (PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox). Users can import custom content directly into Unreal on the PC and Playstation 3 formats. My audience will be the Epic mod community for Unreal tournament 3 and I will create a model that can import onto both formats for a broader audience."