1. Evaluation
William Young

2. Research 1
• The research I compiled regarding four existing
products that I wished to take inspiration from
in regards to my video game animation project
was very detailed when it came to talking about
the specific parts of three games and one
anime that I wished to emulate in my game
animation project.
• I had easy access to places that I could find
more information that helped me in my
research, like YouTube and several other sites
that gave me tips as to how to animate certain
things and make certain things easier for me.
• The experiments I did helped me learn what
was the right amount of pixels to move
something in order to make it look balanced
between looking smooth and going quickly
enough to look realistic.

3. Research 2
• I'd say that a weakness of my research was that
the bibliography that I submitted, listing some
games that I took reference from during my
research, were all very similar to each other,
and only came from one or two different game
development studios (nearly all the games I
mentioned in my bibliography came from one
studio, PlatinumGames, who are known for
making high-octane action games).
• Something that I could've improved was talking
about a higher range of hack and slash games
(since I talked about a great range of platformer
games, from Mario to Shovel Knight to AVGN
Adventures), as I only really mentioned a
couple, those being Metal Gear Rising and God
of War. This would have diversified my research
a lot, and given me a lot more insight into what
could go into the best hack-and-slash game I
could make.

4. Planning 1
• One of the major strengths of my planning was the fact that I had
more than one major idea as to what I could do for a video game
animation. One idea that I had was an MMORPG game similar to
something like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm
Reborn, put with pixel art for the whole game, similar to games like
Mega Man X or Super Mario World. I decided not to go with this idea
in my planning, but the fact that I had more than one idea was
something (at least to me).
– Another of these major ideas, and the one I eventually decided
to go with, was my platformer/hack and slash idea, which I put a
lot more detail into as I was more passionate about the genres
of games (platformer and hack-and-slash) that the game would
be).
• Another strength of my planning was that my mood board included a
lot of stuff in it, that would contribute a lot to the game that I would
animate if I had the skill and the time for it. These things included a
lot of characters with swords and other melee weapons (Travis
Touchdown, Adam Taurus, Zero and Shovel Knight), screenshots of
games I enjoyed very much (such as Nier: Automata and Cuphead),
and pixelated characters (like Mega Man X, Madeline and Mario).

5. Planning 2
• Another strength of my video game animation
project was that the schedule I had planned for
what I was going to do throughout the whole
project was a schedule that I stuck to very well.
This was something that I aspired to achieve
during my other projects that I've done this year
(such as my advertisement project and my music
video project), so this was an improvement for
myself over my previous projects.
• However, a weakness of my planning was that I
didn't stick to the mood board (which was only
focused on the gameplay in my video game
animation) at all, only animating the title select
screen and file select screen (I had planned for
the animation to cut to a bit of gameplay after
the file select screen, but I couldn't finish that
segment in time, so I scrapped it).

6. Time Management
• My time management throughout the whole video game
project, in my opinion, was pretty good. I stuck to my
schedule for the entirety of the project (except for
starting on the music composition and sound effect-
production rather late in the first week of production,
which caused it to spill into the second week), everything
else went, more or less, as I hoped it would.
• I was able to complete my project on time, and I'm mostly
happy with how I did throughout, from the PowerPoints
explaining what I was going to do in the animation (or
what I hoped that I'd be able to do), to the animation
itself and the music that played during it.
• However, I believe that I would be able to do more with
my video game animation production (such as adding a
bit of gameplay into the animation and possibly making
songs that were longer and more detailed) if I had had
more time to complete them.
• However, I only had two weeks to do the production part
of the project, so I had to cut my planned animation
short, and keep it to only the title and file selection

7. Technical Qualities 1
• The title screen part of my video game animation isn't
very technical, but what was done was done well, I
believe.
• The title of the hypothetical game, 'The Way of the
Sword', was the first thing to fade into view. After that, a
red sword with a brown handle (inspired by Adam Taurus'
Wilt from the anime web series RWBY) slid onto the
screen and under the word 'Sword', followed by an 8-bit
sound effect of a sword sliding into a sheath (which was
directly ripped from the NES game Ninja Gaiden). After
that, the title music starts playing, and a little bit of text
that states the name of the fictional studio that made this
hypothetical game (RoxGaming), and the year of the
hypothetical game's release (2019). Along with this, the
game prompts the player to press start (in the style of
games like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania, games that had
similar title screens to this game) on their controller. The
title screen continues for about 20 seconds, and as the
player presses start, everything on the title screen fades
to black.
• The sword sliding into view was done by
me creating the sword and moving it off
screen, then having it slide into view, a
couple of pixels at a time, frame by
frame, then under the sword, which was
done by moving the layer that the sword
was on under the word 'sword' in
Photoshop. I believe this animation,
which was inspired by Iaido (a Japanese
sword-technique that is famous for
sheathing the sword after an attack has
been completed) was done well, in my
opinion.

8. Technical Qualities 2
• The file select screen portion of my video game
animation was more technical to do than the title
screen portion, but I still think that it was done well.
• The file selection screen faded into view, and as the file
selection music started playing the hypothetical player
began going through the different files that people
could make and get to in the game. All nine files are
gone through, along with a 'create file', 'delete file' and
'copy file' option, and the player settles on their own
file, titled 'Jackass', selects it, and enters the game,
which the point at which the animation ends.
• The first file shows what a 100% completed file in this
game would look like. The player has gotten all the
upgrades (both for attack and defense) that they can in
the game, which amounts to a second sword to dual-
wield with their original sword, chains to attach to the
swords in order to give their attacks more reach,
armour for his head, chest, legs and feet (the designs
for this armour was taken directly from Minecraft), an
absorption technique for his swords, and all moves and
combos that can be brought for them.

9. Technical Qualities 3
• They've also brought all the trivia (which would
include fun bits of information about the development
of the game and extra facts about the things featured
in the game), songs (the video game soundtrack) and
art (concept art and hand-drawn art for everything in
the game) that can be brought in the game.
• Overall, I think the animation in my file select screen
was good. The fade-in and fade-out animations were
smooth as I needed them to be, the things I drew to
represent all the things that could be collected in the
game were detailed, the text stood out from the
background and everything else and looked
professional (as in it didn't look like I'd just drawn it on
my first attempt and then didn't bother to edit it at all)
• I took inspiration from Shovel Knight's
file selection screen in order to make
my own file select screen. Similarities
between my file select screen and
Shovel Knight's include the name of
the player who has started the game,
the amount of armor the player has
collected, and the amount of
upgrades for their weapon the player
has collected, and the amount of
currency the player has collected (in
my file select screen's case, the player
has collected 9S, but in Shovel
Knight's, the player on the screen has

10. Aural Qualities 1
• Something that I endeavored to do with my musical
composition was to make the two songs that I ended up
making as catchy as possible, which I believe I achieved
with the file select theme, however not so much with
the title screen theme (which I tried to make slightly
depressing, which would go along with the theme of the
game that I had in mind.
• The music that I made for my file select song was the
first one I worked on. For the most part, I used all four
tracks that I was allowed to use on Beepbox (the website
I had to make my chiptune music on), except for the
third bar out of four, in which only the first track and the
fourth were used. The first track was for the main
melody of the song, the second and third tracks were for
backup notes and slides, and the fourth was one
specially for chiptune drum beats, which I used to great
effect by taking inspiration from the drum lines used by
Steven Adler of Guns N' Roses.
• My file select theme plays for 13 seconds during my
video game animation.

11. Aural Qualities 2
• The title screen music that I composed in Beepbox was a bit
slower and more depressing-sounding than the file-select
music that I composed for my video game animation. I had
the idea to compose it in the key of C minor as I tend to like
songs that work in that key.
• I personally think I did well with composing my music for my
video game animation. I could've done a lot better with
more time, but with the time I had, there were a lot of good
qualities to it. The music I composed for the title screen was
(in my opinion) similar to the title screen music for the first
Legend of Zelda game for NES. The file select theme that I
composed sounded similar to Undertale's 'Start Menu'
theme, given that the song only lasts for a moment before
looping.
• The sound effects I composed only took a few minutes to
create, and only consisted of a few notes and lasted for
fractions of a second each.
• The only weakness that I could fine in the audio elements of
my work was that I didn't have very much, because I didn't
make much video of my video game animation to compose
music to.

12. Aesthetic Qualities 1
• I think that my title screen, while simple, looked
aesthetically good. Though not creative, I still think it
looked good for what I was trying to make for a start
screen. The lettering wasn't skewed and didn't look
horrible, like I'd drawn them once and didn't try to edit
them at all.
• My file select screen looked as good as I wanted it to
be. I took inspiration from Shovel Knight's file selection
screen to make mine, such as making small graphics
representing what the hypothetical players have
collected in the game (in the case of the first file
(named Will), they have collected everything that can
be collected).

13. Aesthetic Qualities 2
• Everything on the file select screen (aesthetically,
that is) is simple and easy to understand. It shows that
you can collect:
A second sword to dual-wield with your first
sword in combat
Chains to attach to the swords in order to 'throw'
them, giving you a ranged attack
Armor for your head, chest, legs and feet
A technique that allows you to absorb the damage
that enemy attacks do with your sword
Extra moves in regard to attacks
Extra combos in regard to stringing attacks together
Currency (known as Silver, or S)
Trivia (in order to learn more about the game and its
development)
Songs (in order to listen to the game's soundtrack)
Art (in order to see the game's characters and enemies
drawn in a 2D style, like the famous 2D Disney movies such
as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Lion King

14. Audience Appeal
• The only way that my video game animation really appealed to my target audience
was in the fact that it was done via pixel art, which popular games like Shovel
Knight, Undertale and Celeste have been doing very well recently. The fact that my
video game animation features swords would probably appeal to my target
audience (male teens and young adults), as they are known to enjoy things like
swords, and by extension, sword-fights. The same goes for the armour, as wearing
armour is known as a sign of strength and power.