Final Thoughts
Final major projects can be a scary thing. About three months ago, I handed in my FMP for the Master’s Degree I was studying, Interactive Media Practice. It’s funny because it’s both an incredible relief but also a huge worry. Suddenly this thing I’ve been working on for three months, is over and you’re left with just a waiting game and the wonder of “well, what do I do now?”. So, because this was a while ago, I thought writing my feelings on the whole thing would allow me to get my feelings, frustrations and experience on my time doing my FMP down in one place.
I was quite lucky because I had a clear idea of what I was going to produce from even before the Master’s degree started. I know there were a few people who had no idea what they wanted to do, even upto the very end of the whole degree. My entire goal for doing this degree was to allow me to gain skills necessary to enter the videogames industry as a sound designer and with that in mind, my FMP was to create a sound design portfolio of linear and interactive pieces. Linear pieces I had a fair idea of how to go about that, having done some composition for visual media before, the interactive pieces was the main part I was very worried about. Producing interactive pieces would mean learning a fair amount of new software, I wanted to cover as many bases as possible.
I essentially came to university most days and took advantage of the libraries late closing time, stayed until around 8-10pm working on the linear trailers. When I wasn’t at uni, I was working on another part of the portfolio, a sound-based mobile app for children. I tried to structure my days to make sure I got everything done in time. Once I felt I had enough content in each piece I’d move onto the next thing, with the intention of going back to them later to refine them. The project as a whole, I am quite proud of what I produced, I essentially created twice the amount of content I needed to, we were supposed to create 6 deliverables and I made 12, the same goes for the accompanying thesis, I wrote 15,000 words when it was supposed to be 9000 words. It is funny looking back on it now though as there would be things I would do differently and even looking at the quality of work, I know I can produce higher level content now.
Things I would change? – I would probably of dedicated some time to creating a custom-made level using assets from the Unity or Unreal store to seriously boost my work for the industry, in doing that however my project would have perhaps looked a lot different, being more focused on a singular thing delivering the 6 requirements in one project, rather than producing 12 pieces of different content. That actually is something I’m developing now, a custom level with my own sounds.
On the project as a whole, I do find I become obsessed with them. My undergraduate FMP and dissertation I put in a serious amount of hours each week and honestly felt uneasy when I wasn’t working on it. This FMP was no different, I again became obsessed and thought of little else while I was putting it together. The Thesis was quite a challenge as it was more of an academic commentary rather than a research topic like it was in the undergraduate degree and I guess that sort of mentality pays off, as I got a 1st for the FMP overall as well as the thesis. Towards the end of it there was a slight air of stress, which I imagine is normal, but because I was constantly making progress I was quite comfortable during the whole thing, well, a side from when Xcode decided to not work, you know because, Xcode.
I knew this project was going to be a challenge, whenever it comes to things like this I always want to do the absolute best I can, more than the best I can. I become a little obsessive in a way, I know exactly what needs to be done and I focus solely on getting it done. Luckily it actually paid off and I got the mark I was after. Now the hard thing is deciding on what’s next, but the good outcome is being able to see where you were at the beginning of the project vs at the end, for me anyway, it was night and day, now, I’m moving towards the dawn of what’s next.
