PDP and Games Design Document (P7, P8, M2)

This is my draft doument of my PDP

Above is a copy of my draft document of my PDP. I asked Keith Pullinger to go through my PDP and point out any improvements that may need to be sorted out and applied to this document.


I got Keith to go over my PDP and Keith gave me feedback on what I need to do to improve my work. So to repay him I went over his PDP to try and help him to improve his work and may even help to bump up his grade. I was looking for any mistakes which could lower his grade which would be little things like him missing a bit of punctuation like full stops, capital letters and other bits of punctuation.

Draft Games Design Document with comments

I asked Oliver to review my games design document. I asked him if he could go through my games design documents looking for any problems that need to be sorted, things like a comma needed, full stops missed, general punctuation error and terminology that is needed to be imputed. If anything was found Oliver left a comment pointing out the mistakes so that I could reprimand it.

PDP and Games design review (D2)

My Draft PDP
Completed PDP
I got someone to proof read my PDP and thanks to Keith, who gave me feedback on my work I was able to reprimanding all the punctual mistakes that I made within my PDP as well as imputing the terminology where possible.

What was the PDP made for?

It was made so that I could keep track of what I have learnt and how I have had to overcome some barriers so that I can learn the skills. it was also made so that I can use it at anytime if I wanted to recorded any skills that I have learnt. it also helps because it is some where that I can put any personal goals and set my self a time that I have to try to achieve them by.

My draft Games Design document with comments
My completed Games Design Document



I got Oliver to read and put comments on my Games design document and thanks to Oliver I was able to improve my Games design document and make it look more professional all the comments that he left I added what he said I need to add and have linked the completed document and the draft with comments above.

What was the games design document for?

Thanks to my games deign document I was able to learn new things such. I learnt how to make my games design document consistent which will make my work look more professional also I found out how long and how much work is put in to the creation of the game. I have also learnt about different styles of fonts that I can use to make things such as headings stand out over general text.

Evaluate Game Pitch (D1)

Analyse
What did I have to do? Well I had to first use my written communicational skills to create a PowerPoint to do my game pitch. Then I had to use my spoken communicational skills along side with my body jesters to communicate effectively to the people I was presenting my game pitch to.

Assess
For my game pitch I had to put all of my worry's behind me so that I could give the best presentation I could do this by using the terminology generally correctly and consistently as well as being able to address the audience instead of staring at the bored and not keeping eye contact with the audience.

Evaluate
Even though I was worried about how my presentation was going to go I had my mined set on at least getting a merit. In my PowerPoint which you will see at the bottom of the page I used bullet points to remind me what I needed to say along with a couple of questions which I would answer so that I could explain everything I need to cover.

Comment critically
I think that my pitch went pretty well, but I  had one problem which was pointed out by Richard and this was that I said maybe to much which meant that I wasn't 100% sure about my game which just sent me down to a merit.

Evaluate critically
The PowerPoint was good but I missed out some bits of terminology that was needed. So I should have put more terminology within the PowerPoint to remind me to use it but I was helped out by my class mates when they asked question at the end of the presentation so that I could bump my grade up.

Summaries
I managed to achieve a merit which I am kind of happy with but if I hadn't said maybe so much and put a bit more terminology in I would have been able to get a distinction but I am happy with a merit due to the fact that I get worried when I stand up in front of people and have to talk.

VOIP (P5)

VOIP is a Voice Over Internet Protocol, a category of software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets such as something like Skype.

VOIP gives to people things that companies make people pay extra for such as:

Caller ID

Call waiting

Call transfer

Repeat dial

Return call

Three-way calling

Advantages:

• It gives you access to free application that you would usually have to pay for
• Easy to use
• You can integrate it with an existing phone connection
• You can send messages and phone someone at the same time

Disadvantages:

• You can loss service during outings
• With VOIP emergency calls, it is hard to locate you and send help in time
• Some times during calls, there may be periods of silence when data is lost while it is being unscrambled
• There can be moments when it may lag and make it so that it is hard to understand the other person!

Name of applications	Advantages	Disadvantages
Skype	You can directly talk to the other person and you can send messages to other people at the same time.	The quality of the video chat can be bad when in a low connection area. Not everyone has Skype on their laptop
Facebook	You are able to talk to multiple people at once.	You aren’t able to video chat people or just generally talk to them other than sending messages
Email	You are able to send attachments such as documents and images.	Sometimes it takes a while to get a reply from someone because they may not check them email regularly.

Skype is the better of the three applications because you are able to do what the other applications can do and more. It is able to talk to people individual people or a group of people using video chat as well as being able to message people individually or in a group. Whereas Facebook and email you are only able to sent messages which sometime you have to wait a while to get a reply whereas Skype you generally get a reply quickly.

Learning styles (M3)

Everyone has a learning style that they prefer. What are learning styles? Learning styles are the way in which people find easiest to learn, there are three different learning styles audio, visual and kinaesthetic. Audio means that people find it easiest to learn from someone speaking, visual means people find it easiest to learn by reading and kinaesthetic means that the find it easiest to learn from doing the work. I am a visual and kinaesthetic learner.


During lessons we were put in to groups to see how each learning style paired with another could work well or not. I was partnered with Jordan who was kinaesthetic but it didn't work well because my partner wasn't good at working in pairs because he wouldn't allow me to do any work.

Pragmatist means dealing with the problems that exist in a specific situation in a reasonable and logical way instead of depending on ideas and theories. 

Reflector is conscientious but has a problem getting started.

Activist are suited to getting hands on with what they are doing rather than listening to lectures.

Theorist are people that stand back and think about the work before they start doing the work.

I believe that I am a theorist because during our lesson we had 10 pieces of paper and 10 strips of tape that we had to use to make a bridge from one desk to another. The reason this activity made me believe that I am a theorist is because Tyler tried to go straight in to doing the work because he is a pragmatist and I stopped him so that I could think of a logical way in which to so this activity then we came up with an idea and manage to create the only bridge that worked in the class.

Review Document (M2 blog)

My edited Document
The changes I made to the original document was that I made it so that you knew what was the title because at the beginning I wasn't sure what the title was. Also I edited it by making the headings prominent so you will know what the headings are. Also I removed the indents within the paragraphs.

Evaluation of written techniques (D1)

When we were doing work in class Me and Tyler had to choose out of a group of Game design documents what document we wanted to look at so out of the group we choose Fallout Brotherhood of Steel 2 because we enjoyed the game and wanted to see what their original ideas were.

Obviously every game design document has its Pros the pros I found:

• They use good illustrative pictures which where recycled for the previous Fallout.
• They used the faded out background well.
• It is well laid out with a contents page that shows you which pages things are on.
• They kept the text of the content consistent.
• They made the document look professional.

You would think that everything would have its cons but I was unable to find any cons within the document.

I conclude that this game concept is well designed with good illustrative picture that help to show off the game which is also very well laid out and easy to navigate and find what you want to find. They also keep it looking professional by keeping the text consistence.

Barriers And Solution To Communication (P3+M1)

Introduction
Barriers, everyone has them whether they admit it or not. A barrier is something that can either stop you from understanding what is said or stopping the other person/people from not being able to understand what you are saying.

Physical Barrier
A physical barrier is barrier that has something to do with your senses these can be thing such as hearing impairment or sight impairment but sometimes they can be to do with a physical disability such as being in a wheel chair.
Solution
The way you can solve a physical barrier such as hearing impairment or sight impairment is by either speaking louder or the person with the hearing impairment could get a hearing aid or to solve the visual impairment they could either right bigger or the person with the visual impairment could get glasses.
Language barrier
There can be quiet a few language barriers these can be things such as them speaking another language or having a strong ascent.
Solution
The solution to these barriers could be either learn the language the person is speaking or try and get a translator but if they have a strong ascent you could ask them to try and speak clearer.
Perceptual barrier
Perceptual barriers can be things such as people stereotyping people just because of the way they look or dress.
Solution
A solution could be to gain an understanding of a person before you judge them. This is most likely where the phrase "don't judge a book by a cover".

Effective Communication (P2)

Effective Communication

What is effective communication? Effective communication is a something that helps us better understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and create environments where problem solving is easier to do. As simple as communication seems, much of what we try to communicate to others and what others try to communicate to us gets misunderstood, which can cause problems with in either a working environment or a home environment.

Effective communication can improve relationships at home, work, and in social situations by improving teamwork, decision-making, and problem solving skills. It enables you to communicate even negative or difficult messages without creating problems or conflict between two people.

Knowing of peoples culture will allow you to communicate more effectively due to the fact that you can take peoples cultures in to consideration so that they do not insult them and they don't segregate the different cultures. 
 Body language can include facial expressions, gestures, eye contact and the tone of your voice. The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person tells them a lot about you.  People from different countries and cultures can use different non-verbal communication gestures.

Being able to use signing can improve communication due to the fact that it will help emphasise what you are saying because people might listen more if there is something to look at.

Personal Attributes Valued By Employers (P1)



Personal Attributes Valued By Employers

A specific attribute is an attribute that is related to the job. Specific attribute to a job such as programming can be things such as having skills in physics tools engine tools and graphic tools because they maybe the tools they use when programming for that specific company. Or another specific attribute for a job such as animation could be having experience in character animation.
   A general attribute is an attribute which isn't just valued by the employer of the job you maybe going for but it is valued by any employer for any job. There are many different types of general attribute that are valued by employers such as things like having good communicational skills, this would be valued by employers because with out good communicational skills you would be unable to work in a group which in most businesses you will have to work in a group at some point. Another general skill that would be valued by employers could be something such as being good at time keeping the reason this is could be a attribute valued by an employer is because if you are good at time keeping it will allow you to make sure that all your work is done in time.


An attribute in which I have is that I have good problem solving skills this is shown by when there is a problem with the computer at home I would help my family find out what the problem was and sort out the problem. Another attribute can be that I am good at maths this is shown by that I was one of the three students in my class that did higher Mathematics.

Introduction

Past
When I was younger I always enjoyed playing games which lead to me wanting to be a part of the games industry. The reason for this is because I have always been very critical of the games I play whether they were RTS (Real time strategy) games, football simulators, first person shooters and third person shooters.

Present
As I have gotten older my passion for games have been come greater than ever before. I have become even more critical about the games I play. This is why I have decided to do a gaming and computing course in college because I hope to become a member of the games industry so that I can help with the improvements of the newer games and technology.

Future
When I have finish college I want to go and move on to university so that I can further my knowledge of software engineering principles to games development and get a degree so that I can hopefully one day become a games developer so that I can help to further the software and games that are created in the future.