CU DM Final Project – Weekly Reflections (Development Phase)

Week 11 – 15 Mar 2022

By having studied how to take feedback and comments effectively, I now have a better level of understanding to plan the next steps towards reaching my goals.

Getting feedback is one of the most effective strategies and has an immediate impact on planning and applying improvements. (VIC 2022). It is easy to take feedback personally, but I learned to perceive it as a learning opportunity by listening to the feedback given carefully, be aware of my responses to feedback giver, being open, not being bias, understanding the message and clarifying if it’s not clear for me and reflecting & deciding what to do (UOW, 2020).

By considering feedback and comments given by lecturers, judges and users, I would be able to improve my product (game) and take it to the next level. User feedback will help me understand market demand and expectations, so I can create a product for them that not only meets their current needs, but also includes the features they hope to see in the future.

Week 10 – 8 Mar 2022

Since pitching is one of the most important parts of a presentation for a product/business model, I have been through a few successful pitching examples and studied further on it. I have learned that for giving the kind of pitch that stands out to investors, I should consider the following points (Cummings, 2021):

• A good pitch will tell a real consumer story
• It is pared it down to the essentials
• The pitch should outline my business model
• My presentation should be crystal clear to EVERYONE
• It should show my product in action
• It should have a clear plan to make income

Having analysed the points above and considered the received comments and feedback, I have revised my pitching deck and looking forward to getting feedback after my pitching in the coming week.

Week 9 – 1 Mar 2022

Having performed the usability test and studied more in-depth regarding game development, I now have a better knowledge for development and maintaining products such as video games. One of the essential keys in game design and marketing is to keep the game functionality and content refreshed by performing constant updates to the game.

By updating a game product, a game developer like me would be able to fix glitches and bugs that might appear during different gameplay scenarios. Furthermore, updating in-game content and adding additional features to the game will make users keep playing the game and get more engaged (Ketcherside, 2018) .

Having analysed this matter, updates will also make users trust in my product and make my product more reliable for users as they feel that the developer (me) is more responsible and takes more accountability for the products.

Week 8 – 22 Feb 2022

Having experienced providing and sending a questionnaire for my usability test and striding on how to get the best result from a survey, I now have a better understanding of how to prepare a survey.

These steps include narrowing down the questions and making them easy to respond to, segmenting the survey for the best results (only sending the survey to my target group), making the survey easy to access (use a short link and make the link available on the Footballizer website), writing a clear and inviting message, and showing the users how completing the survey will benefit them (Fischer, 2021).

Considering the preceding steps has also helped my vision for writing and designing a better survey request message (email), which I believe will result in a better outcome with the greatest number of replies possible from my targeted users.

Week 7 – 15 Feb 2022

Since my product (Footballizer) is ready for testing and it’s already available online at it’s website, I am now required to do the first usability test with real users as the best version of the game.

After studying on the beta usability test, I now have a better knowledge of this type of usability test. Beta testing is a type of user acceptability testing in which a product developer or developers distributes a nearly finished product to a set of target users in order to assess its performance in the real world (Babich 2019).

Having analysed this matter, I have understood that the requirements for a beta testing are that the product should be in complete state. It should also be stable and not faulty. Beta testers should belong to my game’s target audience. Lastly, there must be an input form for users to submit their feedback.

The feedback input is very essential at this phase, therefore I did research and studied further on questionnaire methods and requirements and this has helped me to learn and consider points such as keeping the survey questions short & brief, making them easy to answer and easy to access.

Subsequently, having learned and studied on the above mentioned subjects, I was able to create the form and plan my beta testing effectively.

Week 6 – 8 Feb 2022

Continuing working on the development part and creating mini training and skill games using open source codes based on P5.js library, I managed to learn more about this scripting language and I gained better knowledge working with P5.js. The most challenging part of this phase was finding a way to have an API for database connection between the website and P5.js library. Using some techniques of HTML and Javascript I now am able to resolve this issue and make the mini games working.

Additionaly, I had my first WIP rehearsal presented to my lecturer, two guest lecturers and my classmates. This presentation was in the form of a pitch, and two professors were invited to give us feedback. Based on the comments given by lecturers, I need to add a video/demo tutorial to showcase the functionality of my product in my presentation. Additionally, the presentation should be more like a pitch – it should follow the flow of a pitch by interspersing demo videos that demonstrate the product’s functioning and capabilities.

Week 5 – 1 Feb 2022

To create the main core for my game’s gameplay engine, I have done research and studied alternatives. According to my findings and analysing the results, I have found out that the best choice would be P5JS. P5.js is a collection of pre-written code that offers us with tools to make interactive graphics with code in the web browser easier. I have already background knowledge working with this scripting language which is coming from my diploma program.

I now have a better understanding of how to utilise this language and am able to analyse the methods and strategies in this platform in order to develop more sophisticated and complete solutions as a result of engaging in this technology, performing my studies, and studying in-depth techniques of P5JS.

Additionally, during the time of developing links between P5JS and HTML/PHP interfaces, I improved my programming and coding skills. This advanced knowledge gained through the practice of mastering these two technologies had helped me in designing and developing a solution that was specific to my problem (my game) and would open up new avenues to my career path in future..

Week 4 – 25 Jan 2022

Focusing on web development, coding and database design in week 4 and studying further on these subjects, I have learned more on PHP. I now have better knowledge about PHP coding and am able to analyse why this coding language is considered as a high performance language – Things such as being open-source, a large base of reference and educational materials, faster loading speed, more options to connect to web databases, great synergy with HTML scripting anc more flexibility and combinabilities (Roznovsky, 2022).

As for the database design and learning more on this matter, subsequently, I noticed that I should divide my data into subject-based tables to reduce redundant data when designing a database. I should use a database system like mySQL that supports and ensures the accuracy and integrity of the user data and information. I need to provide data and info and analyse them before designing tables and columns. And finally, I need to accommodate my data processing and reporting needs and document my design process beforehand (Microsoft, 2020).

Week 3 – 18 Jan 2022

Week 3’s class was really beneficial and significant to me because we were lectured on the topic of Brand Presence. I now understand how a strong brand presence can promote a brand personality, improve customer trust, and create a strong brand-consumer tie. Another thing learned from this lecture is that beyond making money, the brand purpose is the reason for its existence. The brand mission is distinct from its creator’s vision, it is basically the brand’s passion, and it “defines why you exist.” (Couchman, 2017).

The phrase “’People don’t buy what you sell, they buy why you do it” (Sinek, 2011) has made me think about my brand presence and now I’m able to analyze my product and see how I can consider this when I’m presenting my brand (product) to the public.

Having learned and analyzed the Customer Value Exchange explained in the lecture, I am now certain about my need-based content planning which is focused on Entertainment and Education where I need to provide engaging content that is enjoyable to consume and instructional/how to content that can teach the users something new and interesting.

Overall, this session was meaningful for me and helped me to have a clear picture of how to plan my brand presence when my product is ready for publishing.

Week 2 – 11 Jan 2022

Continuing working on my product development in the second week and following the plan with consideration of feedback and comments from my lecturer, I have studied and researched on game mechanics, gamification and storyboarding. I now have a better knowledge on game mechanics and gamification and know that game mechanics are essential for game design as they define the structure of the game and how they will interact with players.

The understanding of gamification is essential for me since it can make the process of gaming more fun and interactive, can motivate my users and make them more ambitious and also make my game more profitable for them as my product will give them rewards by using it more (SSEC, 2022).

Having learned and on gamification and game mechanics, I am now able to come up with game mechanics and gamification ideas and structure and engage these methods and features in my product.

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