The Time Is Almost Upon Us

Well it's almost time for our presentation and due to technical issues we are unable to do an animation as planned. Instead we are sat here with Powerpoint open and laughing uncontrollably at what is the best presentation ever. Just as a preview here is one of the slides.



"Can you tell what is is yet?" - Oh look, another Rolf Harris quote.

 The 3 Bloggers

Presentation Preview

Well the presentation is next week and I know Liam has prepared a treat but here is a very little sneak peek at what we have to offer:



Dan

The Best Original Power Ranger

The winner of the latest poll was - nobody! Zack and Kimberley had an equal share of the votes with Tommy trailing behind slightly. Given that Zack had a campaign video and Kimberley didn't, I'd say it shows who was most popular.

We have a new poll now in anticipation of the series finale tonight - Which is the best Merlin character? Get voting!

Competition Winner!

Of course we are busy preparing for our presentation on the 16th December and trust me when I say that you will be blown away. A week ago we gave you a chance to meet us. We picked a winner and it was Morgana Pendragon. She came down to meet us earlier today and had a great time. She was also really happy to meet not only 3 really cool bloggers but Selena and Demi, being a big fan of their music and TV shows.

You may have noticed that we've been altering the blog a bit with banners, backgrounds and now we have a random quote and video of the week on the sidebar along with a weekly poll. Currently Kimberley and Zack are tied for first place for the best original Power Ranger. Get voting!

Left-right: Demi, Dan, Ryan, Liam, Selena and Morgana

Dan

How do I Assured Quality?

Today in project management we talked about quality assurance. QA is done in several different ways depending on the budget and the amount of time available. One way games are tested is using a public beta test, which involves giving the game to a limited number of the public to play the game and give feedback. I've taken part in several beta tests like this (I'm in one now for Killzone 3) and have done my part in helping games improve before they are released.
More importantly, a woman walking past Ryan (who was wielding a shovel at the time) with her kids pointed out that he looks very similar to the creepy guy from the original home alone movie:

Well, that does explain his love of children

Honestly, I'm not sure how we didn't notice this earlier.

Statistics

Many games developers these days have integrated online features into their games which allow them to track what is going on. In the long run this can help improve the game by adding features that users want, or assist when developing future games. Beta tests also include statistics - for example Halo Reach when it had the public beta tracked where the most players died, and the areas that were least visited in order to design the maps better.

This brings me to the next point - we have some statistics for the blog. We've hit over 1100 views and while many suspect that it is just Liam constantly hitting F5 I can now reveal this isn't true. 1,069 views have been from the UK with 26 from the US, 3 from Russia, 3 from Singapore and 1 from the only people in South Africa to own a computer. While 91% of our views are from Windows, less than 1% are from Macs.

In all honesty, even I am quite surprised by these statistics.

So a big hello to our American fans, and to the lone civilian of South Africa who knows exactly where the future is at. And just to remind you that the competition to meet us and Selena is still open. We might even throw Demi Lovato into the mix if that tempts you.

Enter the competition guys! You know you want to.

Dan

A Case Study

Well we've finally hit over 1000 views! Thanks to all our fans for their support because without it we wouldn't be where we are today with best selling books and movies (remember the special edition is the perfect stocking filler!). There have been some rumours saying that we haven't actually worked with Gary Barlow and that our 1000 views are simply made up. I must emphasise that we have worked with Gary Barlow and our 1000 views have not been made up, this is simply jealousy.

Now it's time for a case study. Recently two games developers set up and some workers in both decided to either next to nothing or nothing at all. One of the developers decided to buy the other and so Skull Head Studios was a division of Construct Games. Of course this increased the workload done since there were two teams but the ratio of work not being done against the work being done was still higher. Like all projects, both of the teams had a deadline to work to and it was evident which members were doing work. So Construct decided to 'outsource' some of their work to Skull Head and within just an hour more work was done by one member of Skull Head than one actually in Construct. Whether these teams meet their deadlines and make good use of their resources is still to be seen but the gap for completion is closing fast.

Now because we've hit 1000 views and because some of our fans didn't get to meet us in person then we are giving you to opportunity to meet us. Not only will you get to meet us but you will also get to meet Selena Gomez! All you have to do is leave a comment telling us why you should get to meet us. You can only enter once and this is open to everyone except for Piers Morgan for not reading our book.

Meet (from left to right) Liam, Ryan, Dan and Selena!

Dan

Charity Single

From deadlines approaching, I have to put some work at the top of my list and circle the ones that are a priority. For now it has been Zuby's work because it requires a lot of time and effort and his is in very shortly. I have already finished my Programming one and I've already started to make my 3D environment in Art & Graphics. I am doing a street, Dan is doing a futuristic city set in 3010 where Ziga Zigah wins coach trip and for Liam... well... errmmm he makes things that look like... ANYWAY...I am greatful to be in a team that does the work and also i can rely one.

P.S We have a single coming out thanks to Gary Barlow. Be perfect for a stocking filler in Christmas ;) or defense weapon. Proceeds will not go to Children in Need as the money will help us raise funds for the new book!

"Simply Amazing- Metro"

Update from Dan: Listen to the instrumental now:


*Cd Lyrics*
I wanna be the very best blogger,
No one ever was,
To blog is my real test,
To update is my cause,
-----------------------------------
I will travel across blogspot,
Searching far and wide,
Each Blogger to understand,
From the power of inside,
----------------------------------
BLOGGGGEEEEERRRRR
Got to update
Its you and me
I know its my Destiny
----------------------------------
BLOGGGEEEEEEERRRR
ohhh your my best friend
In a world we must update
---------------------------------
BLOGGGEEEEEEERRRR
Got to update,
my heart is so true
Our fans will pull us through
---------------------------------
You Blog me,
And i'll blog you
BLOGGGGEEEEEERRRRRR
Got to update
BLOGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR!

Ryan




----------------------------------

Third book in Process: Part 1

Hi everyone, just to let you know that our third book is coming out called "Three guys and their prison of the Blog". From learning many knew things from project management we where able to plan when our new book would come out. We also talked greatly what the third one would be about with J.K.Bowling, we did this through talking in person. Communication is key as everyone is on the same wave legnth and everyone can suggest ideas and also talk about worries they might have.

Here is short script of the interview with J.K.Bowling about the third book:

Interviewer: Nice to meet you J.FK...*audience gasps*
J.K.Bowling: it stands for joan felix Kathleen  *audience sighs in relief*
Interviewer: So whats the new book about? and whats it like working with the bloggers?
J.K.Bowling: well, the book is about the popularity of the three bloggers and ermmm.. there.. ermm basically feel like there trapped in a prisong of their own blog. It was a pleasure to work with Fran, Brian and Barry.
Interviewer: Don't you mean Dan, Ryan and Liam
J.K.Bowling: who??? but anyway, to get the book released Fran, Brian and Barry have gone to talk to a man who will sponsor them!

"J.K.Bowling talking to interviewers"

Will we ever find out who this mysterious person is?
Will J.K.Bowling ever get there names correct?
Will Wagbo ever be stopped?

TO BE CONTINUED...
Ryan

Great Expectations

"Oh bugger guys, this blog counts towards our mark for Project Management. We'd better do loads of posts quickly so Yuwei doesn't notice," said the members of the other groups while Ryan, Liam and Dan sat in their thrones basking in the glory of winning awards, releasing hit books and movies. The failure of these other groups is that each post contains a timestamp of when their posts were created meaning that their cover-up hasn't quite worked. Somewhat like a criminal thinking they've got away with theft but their passport fell out of their pocket at the scene of the crime (I tend to come up with completely unrelated analogies, as Liam said in the post below - I am crazy).

Last week in the lecture, each of us were asked to come up with an example of a failed project. Since then another has occurred, and I can tie this in to the industry. I ordered a Christmas present for my 11 year old brother on Amazon on the 13th November. Amazon said "this will be with you between the 17th and 19th" which I was happy with since I was going home on the 19th so could take it with me. The problem is I never received it until the 22nd. That was after when I expected and so my plan of taking it home couldn't go ahead. If this had happened next month instead then that would mean my brother wouldn't get his present until the end of January.

As I said I can tie this into the industry, more specifically Ruffian Games and Microsoft. Microsoft set Ruffian a deadline for Crackdown 2 and as they got closer to that deadline Ruffian had to outsource the game. If Ruffian didn't receive the things that the outsourced company were doing when they expected then the game would miss it's release. This did happen and so Keys to the City was introduced as DLC a month later, a similar thing happening with more online modes recently released for it. To me that is a failed project because what was initially was going to be one big package has been split into three.

Everyone's favourite bloggers at the premiere of Three Guy and their Blog

Dan

Problem, guys?

Last week we where told to write about something but I forgot what it was so im going to talk about something a little more random instead.
We have been doing alot of work for this course (especially Dan, I think he's crazy). Because of this, Ryan has been trying to keep the group's moral up. He does this by telling terrible joke, playing the piano and teaching us effective ways to break someone's face. All this wasn't bad, but he then decided to show everyone his acrobatic skills, shown here in this completely unedited .gif: 

U mad?

What you don't see in that .gif  is everyone in the room throwing shovels at him afterwards.

As you should know, the DVD and Blu-Ray of our movie, 'The Blog', is on sale now. What you might not know is there is a Special edition version, which comes with ,among other things, an exclusive poster featuring Ryan in an important scene in the movie:  

Its the Christmas present everyone want this year... probably.
Liam.

Cooking With Trollface

All great game concepts must start with a prototype design. In Project Management today not only did we win in terms of points (thanks to animals being acceptable languages) but we also devised up a game. Cooking With Trollface. And here is the prototype, created in Flash:



Hopefully this takes away from the need of a video or picture and concludes my need to triple post.

Dan

My Body is Ready

The title would probably suggest that the picture of the same name is going to be somewhere here - it isn't. But after being set the task of doing the Process of Design in less than 2 weeks I must say that  my body is indeed ready. As a team leader it would be kind of unnerving to the rest of the team if I wasn't ready because without the confidence to look up to in a leader the group can fall apart pretty quickly. Out of the six in the group only four turn up consistently which is already pretty damaging as it means more work has to be split between the rest of us. I'm just fortunate that my mind works in a strange way which allows me to get on with it while having fun.

But now after the sellout book, tour around Salford and the red carpet premiere of our movie, it is my pleasure to reveal the sequel to the first book:

Pre-order now to avoid disappointment!

Dan

Different Lenses

People look at things differently. Just ordinary things. For example when I was at college we were throwing paper aeroplanes in the Social Area and found it hilarious while the cleaners seemed pretty annoyed and told us to stop after the second flight. Goodbye Abajehabba Airlines. And in Project Management on Thursday during the group work, most of our group weren't taking it seriously while a few were (looking at you Frank, you killjoy!). And that's because everyone has their own different way of interpreting things.

Yesterday when I was sat with Ryan and Liam in the library starting our 3000 word essay, I was doing some research into how to define a successful project. The book I was using had quotes from different people and we've used them because they all say different things but do very much so arrive at very similar conclusions. The point I'm trying to make here is that while people do things differently, if the output is stated beforehand then the end result will usually be the same from everyone.

A good Project Manager would allow people to interpret things differently while keeping everyone focused on the end result. Some people would be 100% serious while others less so, like us three. We understand that there is a lot of work to get through but by having some fun it can make it seem like less of the hassle it really is.

Now the target of 500 views wasn't reached so I shouldn't be giving you this but here is the trailer for the movie based on us, titled The Blog:


And of course we must always end on a picture so here it is. Just one I found that was funny:

"Does this normally happen when narrating an RPG Menu?"

 

 

 

Dan

Everythings going according to plan

I've just spent a day on the set of our new movie , 'The Blog', using all my new management skills. With my help everyone stayed focused and we got everything done ahead of schedule.This spare time allowed me to get a picture of the cast. Jack Black really managed to capture Dan's magic:

Leo just couldn't keep still

I dont know why anyone hasnt put this excellent cast together before. We must be geniuses. 

We really want to hear from anyone that reading, so write a comment for this post and I will reply. Also  help us get 500 views by Friday! Dont you want to see the trailer?

Liam.

***Our UNOFFICIAL tour***

Hey Fans!!!
From what we can see so far, our blog is getting so much attention it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.
If you want to see us in person, we're going on an unofficial tour around salford doing book signings of our latest book "Three guys and their Blog" in HMV (until they spot us and throw us out). If you want to purchase the book, it will be in all good book shops...YOU JUST GOT TO LOOK FOR IT!

         "Our new book.... YOU JUST GOT TO LOOK FOR IT!"

Ryan.

Quality Control

Time to be serious today I think. After spending about 10 minutes throwing paper around my room to find the PA2 for Project Management, I finally found it and looked at what I had to do for the presentation. One of the things was Quality Control & Assurance so that's what I'm going to write about today. However first of all I must start with a random story since my stories are pretty awesome as I think our readers will agree.

On Tuesday I went to the comedy night which occurs every two weeks in the Student Union bar. There Jason Manford's younger brother Colin hosts the night as a series of comedians do some, well, comedy. Now every time previously I've had to sit right at the back on top of the pool tables which doesn't really help the bottom as it's nearly 3 hours long sat in the most uncomfortable position ever. This week however I sat quite near the front. One comedian spotted my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt, congratulated me on being awesome and then invited me to stand up and show it off. Then this female comedian (or comedienne) got on stage and mentioned Blue Peter. Cue me showing off my Blue Peter card during the 'Beer Break'. The cool points I got...

Anyway, Quality Control. Here's a little video and then I'll explain why it's so important.


Yes I realise it's not exactly related to games but it's McDonalds and everyone knows what that is. Pedro Bear is known to hang around outside at peak times of Happy Meal sales. Without Quality Control then an end product would end up being really bad and the consumer wouldn't like it. It's quite clear that the iPhone 4 didn't have Quality Control since it was (and still is) really faulty. Although a few million idiots still went out and bought one, one being my uncle who works at Nintendo. Quality Control can happen during the product's development after a prototype has been created. A group of people then test the product to ensure that it works as it should and then it will go back into development to iron out the bugs. Which of course is cruel really, the scream ants make when you iron them... (joke!).

Quality Control is crucial to making a great product and a great game. It's a shame that at Activision the testers aren't the best as everyone knows that all Call of Duty games are flawed. Now I leave you with a funny picture but first a note (related to the picture actually) - we have a Quality Control team here on the blog. After we have written a post and send it to be published, a small group of internet gremlin-elf hybrids read through and see if the post is good enough to go onto the site since we have very high standards here. We will also be hiring them to be the script editors for the new hit movie about us. Here is a poster for the movie:

The set-to-be award winning movie, The Blog, is coming soon.

Edit: OK. We've just jumped by 100 hits in about 24 hours. If we can hit 500 by the end of Friday I'll see if I can spruce up a trailer for The Blog.

Dan

Great Communication comes great projects!!!

Communication is the most important thing of all in projects. It is certain that projects fail or get delayed because everyone is not communicating with each other. The basic functions of communication is who is committing to do what and when.
Within a team there are four key coponents for leading a successful project:
1)Coordination- Information given will enable team members to work efficiently.
2)Responsibility- Each members do different parts of the project.
3)Status- Tracking the project and discussing what is working and whats not.
4)Constant- Constant communication among the team and try to get everyone involved.

Overall, communication will make the project succeed as everyone will get involved and talk about what could be improved; if there are any errors that need to be solved. If no one in the team communicates at all, then the team have failed before they have even started as no one will know what they're doing!

                       "Ryan, Liam & Dan happy as they have great commincation"

 Ryan.

Guest Writer: Being Team Leader

You may have noticed from the title that I am in fact a guest writer to this blog which has gained quite a following in the past few weeks and no doubt my mum will be reading this in which case Hi Mum! Let me introduce myself first, I'm Mahen Tampoe and I've studied Project Management and even wrote a few essays on it. Dan would be writing this but unfortunately he was taken into the police station for questioning regarding being mugged last week. I joke of course, he's busy shooting a scene with David Tennant and Billie Piper or so I've been told. In a barn for some reason.

Before I get to my point, Dan wanted me to tell you that he is Team Leader for the work in Design. And while it's not got to the point where much work has to be done, it is a bit of a hassle trying to work out the team contract when only half the team bother to turn up for a scheduled meeting (although one had a legitimate excuse). In the industry if only half the team bothered to turn up for making a Barbie Princess game then no doubt it may turn out into a zombie fest.

If the situation that Dan's team is currently under in that half of them can't be arsed then the project may drift and (excuse me if I quote myself here) 'the tendency is to strengthen the controls taking away more of the team's freedom to carry out corrective action and thereby further undermine their confidence and morale'. Sometimes to get back on track it means that some people have to do twice the workload in half the time. I'm just grateful that the group behind this blog - Ryan, Liam and Dan - are dedicated to informing you, the loyal followers, of their experiences in Project Management even if it involves stories that are often not related in any way, shape or form. Thank you for reading. As I believe is the standard I must leave you with a funny picture.

Barbie the Zombie Princess or something.

Mahen
Only joking, it's Dan. But Mahen is real, check the latest reading for Project Management. And why the hell is Banana Bot beating Colonel Tasche in the poll?

Learning to communicate

Without using communication, most projects would fail pretty quickly. This blog only has many dedicated followers (*trollface*) because Dan, Ryan and me discuss it regularly.

An actual photo of me in a video conference with Ryan and Dan

  Without this discussion, we wouldn't be able to share ideas and arrange times for doing our other work and I would completely forget about posting here. We were told to find a useful video about communication so i decided to look for the most random video on the topic I could. After minutes of searching, I managed to find this:


Isn't it informative.  

Liam.

Impulse Buying

I don't know whether this actually covers Project Management or not but in terms of games I've become somewhat of an impulse buyer lately. Once upon a time I had no money and no job (OK I had that one job for six months but I didn't even work the full hour so got like £2 a week), but here at Uni I've been given about £60 a week to live off. And when I don't drink and food stuff costs less than £20 then I'm getting £40 spare, a tenner of that at most being spent on going to the Student Union bar thanks to cheap drinks.

So Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were recently part of a Steam sale and I got them both for under £8 together. Instant grab, even though my brother has the Xbox versions. Gears of War, preowned without a single scratch or mark on the disc - £3. Final Fantasy XIII - £20. All pretty good deals. And this final one was when I went into Manchester today.

After finishing Programming and making a Pokémon card for Ziga Zigha, I went into the Manchestershire in search for a sci-fi shop. Since I don't know the area well I checked on Google Maps before hand to be sure of where to go. I went to the ticket office at the station but it was shut so I had to travel the whole 5 minutes and pay over double of what I would have paid just because some guy decides 2.30 is a good time for a lunch break. Walked for another 15 minutes and I end up in a rather rough area of Manchester, the shop has closed down, some Spanish kid tries to mug me so I do the typical English thing and shout loudly before punching his 14 year old face in (I kid, but he did try to mug me) so I quickly nip back to Primark where I'm nice and safe apart from the calling voice of the gaming T-shirts. "Come and buy us Dan. We're really cheap. Bow-ties are just £2 and you know that bow-ties are cool." But I don't want a bow-tie and besides I can't see them. "Oh. Look at these retro gaming shirts then." That's me £6 out of pocket just because I like the look of a Pacman shirt.

So the conclusion of this little trip out saw me head into HMV where I go downstairs to find what is essentially Game or Gamestation and then an area dedicated to customers to play games. I managed to pull myself away but instead ended up in the Xbox 360 aisle where Saint's Row 2 stared at me. I stared back, then looked over to Fable III and Rock Band 3. Then over to Pokémon on the DS. Then back at Saint's Row 2. Yes I bought it. Call it impulse.

In Soviet Russia, impulse buys you.

Dan

Master of the Semi-Colon?

*Opens folder, sees the homework wasn't just to find salaries but also to blog, turns around and gets typing*

Since I was about 7 all I've wanted to do was make games. Actually no, that's not strictly true. I wanted to make games but I also wished to be an author, doctor and a milkman. In terms of doctor I've never come close to achieving that although I did train to be a milkman but decided it wasn't for me. And in my spare time I write scripts - most of them fan scripts for Doctor Who and a piss-take of Skins that went too far and ended up being my own series which I'm now working on writing. But back to games. Where have I got with that so far? I've dabbled in Flash, Game Maker and RPG Maker but never really made anything that stood out. And by stood out I mean half-decent.

I've always had a keen interest in drawing. Although since getting an E in Art at GCSE I've given up somewhat on that being a career plan. Seeing the 3D modelling side of Art & Graphics has made me think that maybe the 3D modelling is where I want to go. Having said that I'm really interested in programming. Looking at the job lists over on gamesindustry.biz, there are all kinds of programmers who make Physics Engines to Animation and even Sound. Rather than having just one area to focus on though it seems that being all-round good at everything is the best way to go.

Having seen videos of tours around several developer's studios it seems that being a part of this industry in any capacity is fun. Some have workout rooms, Epic Games have a slide, it's all very fun. The same with the Animation industry. I watched a documentary about Pixar a few months ago and they have scooters to travel around the offices with. While the work is hard, there is certainly a lot there to ease the mind and ensure that in a cut-throat industry everyone is feeling good.

The Slide at Epic Games

Dan;

Art Attack!!!

The dream job I would like is obviously to be a game designer, I’ve always played and loved games all my life and to actually see how they get designed and what process it involves would be pretty cool. From what I’ve seen on TV and also read about, it seems that the environment in a game studio seems to be a fun place to work and everyone gets on well with each other.

The specific job I want in the games industry so far is to do something with creation, I like creating things and seeing how I can improve on it and see what happens if I included this or that.  In CVG we do Arts & Graphics where we have to create our own environment by drawing it out to give ourselves an idea; then create it on 3ds Max.

I am not a big fan of programming, I can do it but I don’t really want to go down the route as a programmer like the rest of my fellow classmates. For the time being, I am leaning towards a character designer or a level designer. I would like to design something and see it in a game and I also think designing would keep you interested and awake then programming.

From what I’ve seen advertised on games studios websites, you do need to have many skills as possible and also need a basic knowledge of programming. For the time being I am just building on my skills and see where it takes me.

       "Dont worry, i'm not insane! Isn't that right talking statue"
Ryan.

Splitting the Work

On Thursday we decided to split the two assignments between us.

For the 3000 word essay we split it into three smaller 1000 word chunks which we would each do. Once they have all been finished they will be put together. For the presentation it has been decided on 2 slides each. Ryan will be doing Project Lifecycle and Time Management, Liam will be doing Risk Assessment and Budgets & Schedule while I'll be handling Team Structure, Roles and Responsibilities and Quality Control & Assurance.

The plan is to have these done and finished with a bit of time to spare before the deadlines, with the January hand-in done before Christmas so everything can be checked over plus so there isn't much to do on the 3 weeks we have off. You may ask why I am writing this at about ten past eleven on a Saturday night. The truth is all of my other housemates have gone home and I'm waiting for ITV Player to update with Harry Hill's TV Burp.

"Blooming heck, Zuby does give you a lot of work doesn't he?"

 Dan.

Too many words, not enough funny pictures

I started reading the Project Management Article today and its was going well. Until I realised the pages were double-sided. At that point, I decided to put that down and do something else. From the amount I read, I learned there are multiple ways to effectively manage a project while keeping the moral of your team high (and that I cant tell when the sentence I'm reading changes half way through). There are probably more important facts in there and I'll get to them... eventually.

Liam.

        

I've read it!!!

I was on the train today and i thought, the journey is going to take over 50 minutes so i might of well start reading about Managing Creative Projects. At first glance of the sheet, it seemed quite intimidating but after the first two pages i got into it. It was quite interesting to see how a Project Manager (PM) operates and what they actually do.

Ryan.

Possible Projects

Being honest I've not yet read the article that has to be read for this Thursday and having a glance at it there seem to be quite a few words I've never seen before. However there is plenty of time to read it before then.

Looking at the first assessment which is the 3000 word essay, a few projects have come to mind. While I've yet to discuss these with Ryan and Liam (although I aim to do so at some point tomorrow), I will list them here - the ongoing 12 years in development Duke Nukem Forever, the rather unsuccessful APB which saw the collapse of it's developers and Super Elf Wizard Tournament 2010. Although that last one is fake and we can't do made up projects.

While writing this essay we will probably be using the terms which we recently learned - SWOT and PESTLE - along with some citation of the product lifecycle from Initiation to Closure. And by mentioning closure I will finish this post with a funny picture. Until next time.

Will Duke Nukem Forever ever be released or are Gearbox trolling us all?

 Dan.

The First Post

Hello there readers. This is our first blog for the University of Salford Computer and Video Games course in Project Management. Bear with us as we post over the coming weeks and months about our experiences on the course.

Dan, Ryan and Liam