Ashley’s Critical Reflection Journal
for GAM701 - Synergies module at Falmouth University
Introduction
[Fig. 1. Ashley Sands]
Hello, I’m Ashley Sands [Fig. 1] and welcome to my critical reflection journal (CRJ). The CRJ is part of the GAM701 - Synergies module for the MSc AI for Games (also shared with other master courses related to games) course at Falmouth University and is the first of five modules. The module is designed to challenge our perception of creativity, through the discussion of different creative synergies and a series of rapid projects of which lay the foundation for the CRJ.
Over the next 6 weeks (week commencing 20-09-21) a series of reflective journal entries will be posted. Reflecting on the activities undertaken throughout the module. Exploring what went well, why it went so well and how it could be further improved in the future. While on the flip side, we’ll investigate what didn’t go so well and seek methods that could help prevent such mistakes in the future. In addition, we’ll continuously analyse the way these proceedings make me fell and behave, further investigating methods and theories that could help better handle these situations in the future. Lastly, we’ll take a deep dive into some of the more technical aspects of the short projects, explore some of the decisions made and consider other approaches to achieve the same or similar outcome.
For me, reflection is an important part of my personal and professional development. It allows me to take a step back and view various situations from an outside perspective. It gives me the opportunity to better understand myself and others arounds me, seek new techniques to support me, my colleagues and team mates. Consider the way I’ve made people feel and find alternative approaches which could have better handled the situation. The main outcome is to become a better developer, a better colleague and all in all a better person.
Following the GAM701 - Synergies module, the masters course moves onto COMP702 - Classical Artificial Intelligence of which, I expect we will explore techniques such as A* (A-Star) pathfinding, behaviour trees and the Monte Carlo search tree, among others. Out of the three listed, I am most excited to learn about the Monte Carlo search tree, since I already have experience with using and implementing A* and behaviour trees. Through I sure it will deepen my knowledge in these areas as well. I also thoroughly look forwards to leaning about other classical AI techniques that I am maybe not yet aware of.
In the second semester, we begin with GAM703 - Game Development Project, which I expect will be in be in teams, as is the way at Falmouth University. This allows us to gain experience using version control and agile methodologies. It will also give a great opportunity to put what was learned in the Classic Artificial Intelligence module into action and gain new experiences working with others. Following this, we’ll progress into the COMP704 - Machine Learning module, which I am most excited about. Over the summer (just gone) this has been the main field of interest. Reading books and articles relating to various method, techniques and implementations of machine learning, for the use in games and the wider field.
This leads us into the final semester, where we will be starting GAM705 Major Project which gives us the opportunity to research our own field of interest. This could give me a great opportunity to explore the use of Machine Learning in the cloud for video games (or distributed machine learning) [(1)[#c1]]. Distributed systems are another key point of interest for myself and was the focus my undergrad dissertation. I personally feel that distributing machine learning in the cloud has a great deal of potential to unlock new opportunities and experiences never seen before.
Journal Entries
The Frustrations of being Dyslixic (21-09-2021)
The Avatar (23-09-2021)
Remediation Project (28-09-2021)
Inducing Empathy In Games (05-10-21)
The Importences of a Game Design Document (08-10-21)
The Importences of sprint planing and scrum (13-10-2021)
A Technical look at A/B testing 2 controller schemes with Guitar Hero controllers. (18-10-2021)
Cites
All citations are available in a single bibtex file
[1] K. Bailey,“Cloud Computing Will Bring Big Changes to First-PersonShooters in ’Just a Couple Years,’ DICE GM Says,” [Online]. Available: https://www.ign.com/articles/battlefield-2042-cloud-computing, 2021, [Accessed 21September 2021].
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