Week 2 - Primary Research

This week I created and posted out a primary research survey so that I would gain data from an actual audience. I used Microsoft Forms to make the survey, and asked a few questions about preferred game genre, preferred gaming platform, and preferred graphics style. I posted this around to classmates and got many responses back.

The results of the survey took more time to analyse than I thought they would. The graphics section was difficult to understand as realism got the highest votes, however there was never any way that I could have produced a game at full photorealism given the team size and time that we have had. I therefore had to think about how I was going to answer this and not simply disregard it. I came up with the hybrid idea, having realistic environment assets from the FAB marketplace and stylised characters which were in a low-poly state. The fact that there was three votes each for Animated Cartoon and Low-Poly further supports the idea that a stylized approach would have satisfied a majority of players.

The key thing I learned from this week was that survey data doesn't give you what to do. Instead it gives you information that you must put into the context of production. The ability to see data that suggests something that you are unable to produce at, and explain the compromises that are needed so that you can actually produce something that still meets many needs is the skill I have found to be most useful.