Peer Review

Undertake the Proposed Project in Accordance with the Agreed Specification

Today I am going to be doing my first peer review of this unit, for this peer review I will simple be showing my peers my mood boards without explaining anything and simple get their thoughts.  Matthew and Jerome will review my ideas.  I asked:

I have decided to take John and Chris' idea of a western world and set it in a steampunk world, my questions are:

1. To you think the speampunk and western styles work well together or should I spend my time looking at other things to tie in with a western theme or even just do a western theme on its own?
2. For my map I have the idea of creating a steampunk western town with a big clock at the top of it, do you like this idea or should I just do something completely different?
3. Do you see this as a 1st/3rd person shooter, adventure game, side scroller or something completely different?

Thanks 

Matthew Responded:

First of all I think that steam punk and western themes work very well together as demonstrated by Will Smith in the film 'Wild Wild West' I think you should definitley focus on this theme as I think it could make for a great looking level. Again I think the Idea is really cool having the big clock at the top of it gives your map a land mark straight away which means that players will be able to navigate around it much easier as they will know where they are from just looking up. In my mind I can see your map as either a first person or third person shooter, as with all the western map Ideas people are doing I automatically think of Red Dead Redemption which is probably the best western third person shooter ever made (at least in my opinion). As for first person or third person in your own level I would suggest trying out both and seeing which plays better.

After responding to Matthew I took his comments on board and considered everything he said and hopefully it will help me in creating my level

Jerome Responded:

1. When I was researching in Chris's unit, I discovered that steampunk or futuristic are used quite a lot when twisting in with the western theme. But yeah I would say it does work well, some say to do something different and unique but you don't always have to, it will be quite easy to go with that combination as its easy to imagine what things could look like so you could start to focus on the quality or the detail of the objects you create for this in future, depending on your skill set.

2. Yeah this could look good, already I am thinking eerie, dark, night time, with rain. Or maybe dusty town, with sandstorms.

3. Personally I perfer 1st Person when it comes to good looking levels, it makes everything look big, and real, especially if you are having a big clock tower. 3rd person would be good if you are focusing on gameplay, making it seem more fast paced and you can see the actions of your player on-screen.

By the looks of chris's game it appears they are going for more of a survival type when he shown a quick preview of it. Plus when it comes to western style games, they seem to fit in well as adventure games. Think of Red Dead Redemption game.

Again, this is extremely helpful information from Jerome and I will take all of this on board and into consideration and it has give me a lot to think about.