15th May 2010 - Final Project Review

I have now completed the project and I have a final product. I will now review how the whole project and what went well and what didn't go quite so well.



First I had to come up with an initial idea for the project. I thought of a couple of different ideas for games but in the end I chose to base my game on a rocket ship. I then decided to make it move from left to right and allow the user to control it with the up and down keys. It took a while to decide what obstacles to use. In the end I decided to have rocks and moving bullets but I didn't decide this until the last minute. This meant that I almost didn't have a final game idea when I was meant to. I also decided to add red and green dots that the rocket ship had to collect. Originally the red dots where supposed to make the rocket ship explode but while I was meeting my client we decided that they should just take 5 points away. We also decided that green dots should be worth 10 points.



Once I had come up with my idea I had to create a plan for the project. To do this I used a couple of techniques. First I created an CPA diagram. this stands for Critical Path Analysis. I had to think of all the different tasks that I would need to undertake throughout the project and then put each of them into the diagram. This helped me to see what task was dependant on another and which ones were not. It also showed me the minimum length the project could take. However after the first time I did this I found out that I had made some of the dependancies wrong. This meant that it needed to be changed and this altered how the diagram looked.



I then had to create a Gantt Chart. Again I had to put in all the tasks that needed to be carried out and then say what they depended on, the resources they would need, the start and finish date and the number of days it would take. I entered these into Microsoft Project whcih automatically created the chart for me by using this information. This task took me a little while as I wasn't sure how long each task would take and I was certain on some of the starting dates. however after a while I eventually got them all sorted out and had a final Gantt Chart to use for the project. About twice a week since then I have updated this blog to say what has been done and what needs to be done next and have included screenshots of the Gantt Chart as it has been updated. Every time I completed a task in the project I have changed the 'Percentage Complete' collumn to show that it is finished. I occasionally forgot to review the project with the blog and so the posts were sometimes a little late. However I have always kept up to date with the Gantt chart itself. There have been a couple of points where I have fell behind the Gantt Chart. this was where I was meant to have done a certain task but had not completed it yet. This happened while I was on holiday. because Project did not take into account that i was on holiday and not working that much, it assumed that I would carry on as normal. This meant that it thought I would finish a week earlier than I did. There have also been a couple of occasions where I have been able to finish certain tasks before I was scheduled to which gave me the opportunity to get ahead of the project plan.



I have had regular meetings with my client to discus the progress of my project. I have had several meetings now and at each one I have told them what I have done recently and if there was anything that I was having problems with. We have also discussed improvements that could be made to the game and during the earlier meetings we decided on finalisations to the game.



I have updated my progress on the blog as well so that my client has been able to read about how the project is going. They are able to comment on each post so they can ask me questions or make comments on the project. This gets my client involved with the project and allows them to see how it is going and have their input even when we are not meeting up.

I then started the work to create the game. First I had to create the actors to be used in the game using Adobe Photoshop. I had to make these look good in order give the game a professional feel to it; this was one of my objectives. I made sure that the images looked how they were supposed to in order to make the game look good and to follow the design I had shown my client. This was all relatively easy and didn't take me too long to finish. This was one of the tasks that took me less time than I had planned for.

I then wrote the code for the game. This took a while to complete as I had a holiday in the middle of the task. Although I did some work I did not do as much as I would have done otherwise. This meant that I was behind according to the Gantt chart even though I still had plenty of time. Writing some parts of the game was quite difficult. i had not thought it would be as hard as it was and so some parts of it caused me to fall behind and I had to work at home to catch up. In particular the code to make the counters appear where the dots used to be took me a long time to figure out.

When I was finished with my game I was quite happy with it though as it does everything it was supposed to. it meets all of the requirements my client gave me except for one. Although I got the score to be displayed in each place a dot was collected, I did not have enough time to add some code to make them disappear after a certain length of time. They disappear at the end of each level anyway but it was agreed that they should go after about three seconds. If I had more time to continue with the project I would make them disappear as i think I would be able to work out the code needed. Other than this I have completed all of my objectives and met all of my client's requirements.

I have enjoyed working on the projects although I have found some parts easier or more enjoyable than others. Writing the game was mostly quite easiy as I have a lot of experience with Greenfoot although some parts of it was very difficult. If I was to start the project again I think I would try to push myself a bit more. I would stick with the same game idea but add more features to it as I don't feel the game I produced tested me enough.

15th June 2010

I have now finished all the work that needs to be put into the project. I have finished creating the game tested it and then made improvements suggested by my client. I have also written the user guide to help the users know how to play the game. Also I created a document containing all the technical documentation for the product. Now I just need to write review of the whole project. I will put the review into this blog. Then I will have completed the project.

9th May 2010

I have finished testing my game which only took me one day. in the Gantt chart it said it would take two days. I have also corrected all the things in the game that failed the test. i then retested these areas and they now all work as they should. This means that I can now concentrate on all the documentation that needs to be produced.

8th June 2010

Over the holiday I finished creating my game and it is now complete. this means that I can now start testing it. This is what I will do over the next couple of days and then I can fix any problems that occur. Because I could not enter the fact that the last week was a holiday into MS Project it says I should have finished the project a couple of days ago. However I still have a couple of weeks left.

27th May 2010

I have continued working on my game over the last couple of days. I am scheduled to finish it today but I have still got a little bit left to do. This means I will miss the deadline I set for myself. Fortunately I can continue to work during the half term holiday as it will not take long to complete. Then I can carry on doing work such as the test plan. I have a couple of weeks free at the end of the project so I can work during these if I am not finished on time. This means that my project is not in danger of not getting finished so I am still on target to suceed in my project.

25th May 2010

I have carried on working on my game. I have now done the majority of work that needs to go into it but there is still a bit to do. I am scheduled to finish the game this Thursday which is the 27th. Howevere I am not sure it will be completed by then so I will have to overrun. I am planning to continue doing some work throughout the upcoming half term holiday. I think I will have completed the game by the end on the holiday. I will then be able to start testing. i will not be able to start testing untill the game is complete so if I overrun with the creation of the game the testing will also be set back. It will also mean I do not get round to fixing any problems untill a bit later as well. This means that I will not finish the project exactly when I had planned to but this is OK as I have a couple of weeks spare according to my Gantt chart.

20th May 2010

I created my test plan ready to be used once my game is complete. Then I started to create my game. I have all four levels complete now but there are still other things that need to be done before it is complete. I am keeping up with my Gantt chart and on track to stay on target. I will continue working on the creation of my game over the next couple of days. I have also now got all the sound clips that I need to put into my game.