All about Research
Hi there! It has been 20 days since our last post, but finally, here’s an update on how things go. So, we just finished the second sprint which was (the title might tell) all about doing research. Tarun was doing research on Game Mechanics, Brûn on User Interface a.k.a UI, Yuna did research on Graphics, Michel on Game Engines (programmes to build a game with) and I did research on different types of Storytelling.
Next to these five components we did also research on how ESA works, what they do for the earth (Space for Earth) and the actual space mission AIM. With all the gathered information we made several mind maps and infographics to have a clear overview of the research.
In the first sprint we created a few paper prototypes of the mini games we have in mind. During this sprint we actually tested them with participants. Brûn and Michel were taking care of this. They recorded all the tests and collected the data which consists of interesting reactions, opinions and insights on our game.
Also, Michel made a basic framework for the game. You can see a framework as a skelleton, where we’re going to build the game upon. Having a good framework is very important for Games Designers and Developers. Our main job right now is to fill up this framework with graphics, mechanics and UI.
Next to building games, something that simply can’t lack when it comes to Game Development is a Game Design Document a.k.a. GDD. A GDD is basically the bible of a game. It’s a document which contains the whole game play, each and every single level, being described in one book. Tarun has experience with writing GDD’s for his study, so he did ours last sprint. Of course not the entire document, since we’re not that far in the project yet, but you can’t get started soon enough right?
These things combined form our sprint goal, which we’ve reached this time, so that’s great! Yesterday, we had our Sprint Review session with ESA. Again they were very satisfied with the results and they are looking forward to our next meeting, which will be in three weeks.
So, thats’s it! I hope you got a clear idea of what we did this sprint and keep continuing on following us within our next sprint. See you then!
