License Agreement 30/07/18

Name	Byron Jacob
MA Course Title	MA Games Design
Status (F/T or P/T)	PT
Date	30/07/18
Version No.:	7
Brief explanation/ outline of project
As my background is intertwined with education and games design, my career has presented a unique opportunity that would place me in a job position where I would use my games design skills but within a different industry that utilises games designers within a specific role looking at key points of correlation and differences that of a different industry and the games design industry and how the skills can be useful.  I want to present various parts that my new job orientates around to demonstrate the correlation and connection that can be done between both the games industry and a different industry. Initially, my research into motion capture in semester one, presented that it was going to be difficult to get into research / practical time to continue developing those skills into practical skills with the time demand and lack of kit to develop with. With my current skills and development within industry using these skills, my idea is to present a view of how adaptable the industry is with my current skillset and how my own skills are converted and changed depending on the necessity of the projects I am working on.  Whilst this is happening, I am pushing to develop a gaming prototype for my semester 2 and 3 project to work alongside the learning / adapting with the idea of keeping my skills intact whilst adapting and learning new skills and how they can integrate within my current skillset. The projects “prototype” will be presented from a standpoint of a pure “indie” development team (small amount of people within the development process), that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in developing a prototype whilst finding issues  within that development and presenting how I noticed, attempted to fix and if possible present the end outcome.
Context / Rationale
Within my initial assessment of being a teacher and having 3 years of games design education behind me, I knew that the industry was unique in how it positioned itself and how adaptable it can be to other industries such as media and art.  There were however industries that have been presented that utilise designers but in other contexts that stick to the same processes but in a different context.  Although not much has been done in presenting how you change your skillset to develop your skills for that industry, I am in the useful position that I can present what I have learnt in my time and present how dis/similar the industries are to each other and how overall a designer isn’t restricted to a specific media industry. Although the concern is that keeping your skills up to date is going to be difficult, I don’t want to be rusty so with that I want to work alongside the development process with a side project and keep it fresh.  The idea is to research into the games design process working with the documentation side of games development whilst developing a game for the end project in the view of what it is like to be an indie developer.  As the indie development cycle tries to adhere to the same style within pipeline development like AAA companies, the idea is to see what can happen to the development process if situations of restrictions / problems occur.  The development will integrate the knowledge from the previous semester but as look at it from a legal, ethical and logical view of a developer working to make a working prototype but also how it can be adaptable for future use in the current industry I work in and how adaptable my skills can be. For Semester 2; The process of getting the games mechanics to a stage of alpha with the documentation recorded and up to date ready for semester 3 which will be for aesthetic design as well as final changes with a guide of my own skills development presenting new skills and how they can be developed for future use in industry.
Key areas of Research / Key Activities
Game mechanical prototype at an alpha stage. Game Design Documentation (GDD) A guide and breakdown of how the industries utilise different skills but for different outcomes with look at various parts both in technical programs and taskings that are done during a project.
Intended outcomes of project tended outcomes of project
The intended outcome of the project is to have a final piece that presents that difficulty of being an indie (independent) developer whilst trying to adhere to the constraints that would be usually part of being an indie developer whilst an overall log of the design process looking at issues, problems, alternative solutions, and fixes for problems throughout the development lifecycle of this prototype. Alongside this, a timeline of a designer view of how working in a different industry can adapt your own skills and vice versa looking at from software, hardware and personal points that have the biggest change.
Student signature		Date:	23/07/18