DC EXERCISE 4: Produce a SWOT analysis of your project.

[Incognita Nom de Plume]

Refer to your project goals and competitor analysis, but also looking at your own team's and project's strengths and weaknesses in particular.

You can use the SWOT template that is on the server, or provide your SWOT as a series of bullet-points.

[Mohd Shazwan Noorazman]

Team : Space Bacon
Team Member : Mohd Shazwan Noorazman, Alexandra Lester, Nigel Dunne

Strengths
-Very knowledgeable with what we have learnt in our specific fields
-Using our own engine (we don’t have to read up other engines)
-Work very well together as a team (good communication)
-Cheap to produce
-Competitive nature of our team members pushes us to work harder

Weaknesses
-Only 4 people building a game from scratch
-Referencing from similar games is scarce
-Distractions of social life
-Can’t spend all our time on the game since we have other subjects in university
-We are all still in the learning process and experimenting with software we have not previously used
-Bugs in the game take a lot of time to fix

Opportunities
-New game type so less competition
-Our area and trails are unique
-Very simple and easy to play (anyone can pick it up and play)
-Cheap to produce a high quality game (higher returns)
-No language barrier, able to be sold to the world
-Made for PC/Xbox 360, and everyone has a PC.

Threats
-People who like playing alone (single player) wont pick up our game
-Competitors have bigger teams and more money
-Games that are similar but offer single player mode are big competition for us (e.g Mirror's Edge)
-Venturing into unknown territory, the gaming industry (unsure of what we are about to face and how to prepare for it)
-Games that are of the same style could also be competition

[Jeffrey borroni]

Strengths
• When we do meet up, we do go thorough long discussions of game play, game flow and game design.
• Were willing to cut and change things often, to suit
• We understand our fundamental roles/tasks
• Overworking
• Open to all ages
•
Weakness
• Organization
• Sense of teamwork
• Not knowing the group’s individual strengths
• Lack of constant communication
• Lack of consistency
• Overworking, then cut

Opportunity
• Lack of driving games of this kind of game play
• Political awareness

Threat
• Many game with similar traits
• Most games of this genre are for all ages

[Nadav Tossia]

Strengths
-Shared vision towards projects.
-Great communication between team members.
-Knowledge of each team members strengths and weaknesses.
-No heroes (each team member knows when to ask for help).
-Ability to absorb criticism.

Weaknesses
-Tendency to overwork each task.
-Over complicating simple core ideas.
-Aesthetic/narrative prevalence over core game mechanics.
-Communicating core ideas to a mainstream audience.
-Each member tends to be overly complacent with their own skillsets.

Opportunities
-Unique audio visual gameplay adds more than just novelty attraction.
-Fusion of genres opens Iris to a wider market.
-Inspired design lends us a springboard to future employment opportunities.

Threats
-Market decrease due to global financial crisis.
-Under exposure to public forums.
-Lack of funding leaves us without license to commercial software.
-Other competitors releasing similar products before us.
-Lack of professional support from existing developers.

Andrew Milton s3162487
Jonathan Leong s3159598

[Martin Au]

Team : Paper Plane Productions

Team Member : Martin Au, Anthony Pietrosanto, Felix Serrano, Dat Do

Strengths
- Concept Art
- Modelling
- Group management
- Strong understanding of team members abilities
- Trusting team members to produce their part of the work
- Self critical/analytical
- Open to criticism



Weaknesses
- Outdated Hardware
- Group Logistics
- Still learning the engine
- Referencing from similar games is scarce
- Distractions of social life
- Other subjects taking up time


Opportunities
- New game type means that there is less competition
- Expanding on an the already popular market of multiplayer FPS


Threats
- Venturing into unknown territory so there is not much information
- Under delivering therefore producing an unsatisfactory game
- People who do not play multiplayer games will not play our game
- Limited time limit to produce the game

[Jane Nathania Gandadjaja]

Team: BlackBox
Team member: Mandy Yong, Jane Gandadjaja

Strengths
- Unique setting (1880s steam train)
- Custom content
- Familiar with the UT3 engine
- Good teamwork and communication
- Each member equipped with required skills to complete the project
- The only horror game in the course

Weaknesses
- Time limitation
- Work and other studies commitments
- Lack of discipline
- No public exposure
- No management team

Opportunities
- Combination of adventure, 3rd person shooter and puzzle (bigger market scope)
- Unique setting (evoke interests in players)

Threats
- Economic influence affects project to be exposed to public
- Competitors has bigger reputation

[Matt Coles]

Team: Rare Gem Interactive
Team Members: Matt Coles, Chris Gan, Nicole Tekin

Strengths
- Using an engine we are comfortable using as a team
- Team well versed in creating video game assets
- Small project meas higher focus on quality
- Team is coherent

Weaknesses
- Only 3 people in the team to get the work done
- Subjects and part time jobs make progress on game slow

Opportunities
- Will serve as a great portfolio for team members
- Unique and creative visual styles

Threats
- Limited time to produce art demo
- Under delivering producing ‘unsatisfactory’ art

[Felicity Trembath]

Strengths
- team works well together (good communication skills)
- strong understanding of our selected fields
- our own engine, caters to what we want
- cheap production
- team members are willing to help each other out
- because our product is a tech demo, we can use it to showcase the strengths we think future employers would be interested in.

Weaknesses
- only 5 of us
- lack of other products in the field make it difficult to see what works(perform research)
- learning new software we haven't used before
- short time frame to complete a professional looking product
- being uni students, we have other subjects that chew up time
- tendency to be too ambitious
- because we have our own engine, we can't use 3rd party exporters etc

Opportunities
- not a well known field, more room to set the standard
- indie games are becoming increasingly popular
- cheap to produce, requires very little money
- new type of game play is more than just an aesthetic, looks good to employers (something different)
- independent developers are interested in new and experimental ideas

Threats
- game type is not well known, risky for employers to take a chance on
- people might not understand exactly what our game is(art game)
- economic crisis makes employment opportunities increasingly difficult to find
- indie developers doing more lately, greater competition

Red Pill
Felicity Trembath s3164612
Hamish Lockwood s3138084
Dimitra Lainas s31644732
Nicole Collis s31664885

[Andrew Drechsel]

Dohertys Gym
www.dohertysgym.com

Strengths:
- Boutique Style series of gyms. We sell an experience, not just a workout.
- Built upon traditional Californian style layouts (eg Gold Gym, Muscle Beach) But with a modern twist.
- Well constructed system in place that has been proven to work and improved over 20 years.
- Flexible Memberships
- People like the underdog.

Weaknesses
- Time management. As a rapidly expanding business we tend to delegate time on the bigger picture and not the nuts and bolts.
- Finding experienced staff. Its difficult to find someone that has both an interest in Fitness etc AND a background in IT. The Nerd/Jock Hybrid is hard to find.
- Currently the underdog (by comparison to the corp giants).

Opportunities

- The Seasons. Heading towards summer sees and influx of self conscience individuals seeking the damage they have done over the winter months. During the winter months people tend to be less motivated due to the cold weather. By offering seasonal memberships (cheaper during winter, more expensive over summer) we tend to keep a consistent flow of people coming in.

- Bi - Annual Bodybuilding shows. Seeing as we are responsible for Bodybuilding Australia we have a unique opportunity to promote our business to an already captive audience.

Threats
- The Corporate Giants. Fitness First, Genesis, Fenix and Virgin.

[Sean Ogden]

Strengths
- Unique Idea
- Water physics
- Idea/setting allows easy modification while keeping source idea in tact0

Weaknesses
- Untested gameplay
- Relies on outside sources
- 2d Artistic skills lacking (Concept art, texturing, ext)
- Procrastination
- Unproven Quality
- Water physics may be too hard to implement
- Completely new IP.

Opportunities

- Indie/”arcade” games are growing in popularity
- Low price to capitalize on low budgets.
- Can be aimed at all platforms, providing a larger opportunity for sales

Threats
- Other professional games doing it better
- Potentially lost in an already crowded marketplace
- Game relies on multiple players – ergo no players = unsuccessful game
- Releasing the game at the wrong time could see it overshadowed by big releases
- Quality will not be competitive with big budget titles
- People are less likely to be interested in a new IP

[Michael Boettcher]

DC EXERCISE 4: Produce a SWOT analysis of your project
Team: XX
Project: Room 13

Strengths
*Incorporating our own B&W comic style illustrated textures
*Can focus on quality through a manageable project size
*Strong drawing skills

Weaknesses
*Interactivity limited without a programmer
*Not enough hours in the day
*Balancing other subjects/work
*Only two group members
*Both group members being perfectionists (Need to determine what the standard is)
*Fear of failure

Opportunities
*A showcase of our creativity for future employment
*Audience for digital art and games forever growing
*Creating a project faster and cheaper than a large company

Threats
*Competition itself from other groups & Art Demos in wider community
*Other projects have superior programming/interactivity
*Small production team (need to make clearly defined roles so that if one member pulls out the other is not doomed)

[Nikola Kovacevic]

Team: Bamboo

Strengths:
- Modelling
- Unique combat system
- Group management
- Self critical/analytical
- Open to criticism
Weaknesses:
- Still learning software
- Distractions of social/work life
- Other subjects taking up time

Opportunities:
- Expanding on an the already popular market of multiplayer Action Adventure
- Create a professional product and be recognised
- Learn more critical teamwork skills and time management skills
- Learn software skills

Threats:
- Under delivering therefore producing an unsatisfactory product
- Limited time-limit to produce the product

[James Caudwell]

Strengths
- Strong physics engine
- Stable Engine to work on
- Useable built in assets

Weaknesses
- Untested gameplay
- Hard to iron out all the bugs in short time
- Working on my own
- Balancing other subjects
- New techniques to learn in short time

Opportunities

- Showcase level design skills for future employment
- Custom maps can become quite popular amongst the community
- Learn new techniques in level design

Threats
- Official maps from the games could be better
- Other games having more advanced graphics or physics
- Maps rely on multiple players to work (Multiplayer only)
- Quality will not be competitive with official maps from other games
- Hard to get noticed amongst a variety of good and bad maps