Progress Week 8: 3/11 - 3/18

1.) My goals for this week are as follows:

2.) I accomplished making a presentation for the Expert Reviewers, but I just cannot bring myself to make major progress on this project. I completed the code that needed to be made and I successfully started on making the drafts for the beginning of some of the sketches, but the visuals are still missing. I wasn't able to make as good of a video for the expert reviewers as I wanted to and I definitely wasn't able to finish any of the artwork I wanted to finish. I contacted the surveyor who won the prize for the giveaway and drove to deliver their gift to them. I decided not to do any emailing at this time (a week before they go away for Spring Break, which will be 2 weeks in advance) and will instead email them at the end of their Spring Break / beginning of mine so that they have the opportunity to test during that week for at least a few consecutive days. I did some research and I think my most probable option for product building will be just through Unity as an .exe. Apple requires you to sign up for the Apple Developer program, which costs about $100 dollars. I was willing to pay for this in the beginning, but as it currently stands ... I am not even sure what the game will be like at the end of this. So, I think the smartest option would just be to successfully port it to AT LEAST the computer, showing I can and uploading it to GitHub. From there, I can send that link to anyone and they can have access to the final download as well as the opportunity to see the code. I could also show an example of someone playing on it on my phone (by finding a Mac and porting it onto my device and filming, which can be shown for free.) I just can't share the app with anyone without an Apple Developer account. I will definitely need to work through Spring Break to achieve a completed project. 3.) I have been asking my family and mentor what they think I should do moving forward since I am nearing the point where I just want to stop. They encouraged me to keep going and come up with more of a plan for the rest of the semester (which is why I made a longer goal layout, so I can attempt to see just how much time I have left and how much needs to get done). The feedback I got from HX Testing Round 2 was used to solidify my general layout of the game, which everyone mostly understood. So, I got conformation that I can continue to work on that version to improve it. I was wondering if Olivia was having trouble understanding the GAME or understanding the TECHNOLOGY I used in order to send her the game, and it looks like it is mostly a matter of her not being able to easily access the tools I used to send her the original game. I have since found that making my own walkthrough video instead of having them walkthrough it would be more beneficial for quick understanding, which I used in the demo creation for the Expert Review Panel Presentation. 4.) I never really knew just how unmotivated I would be to do things I enjoy (art and design) during a long term project. I also assumed the grade and graduation would motivate me enough, but I probably needed to be more exploratory during my Capstone ideation phase so that the topic and fun parts were my sources of motivation. I think I was excited at first for the opportunity to practice each skill: coding, creation, design, etc. but at this point I am definitely feeling regretful over what I picked for my Capstone and how it has gone so far. I do not regret picking games and game design but I do regret picking this focus for the game and its creation (more of a structured app versus a casual fun game). Lesson learned that maybe I should've just taken an academic break before jumping into the longest and most important year of my academic career during burnout that has just slowly been getting worse. But, everyone has projects they work on where they are unhappy or unsuccessful occasionally.