| Week no. | What was completed / will be completed |
| Week 5 | Learning Audacity, Davinci Resolve and OBS |
| Week 6 | Learnt Audacity, Davinci Resolve and OBS |
| Week 7 | Played through Stardew and farming simulator |
| Week 8 | Played through graveyard keeper, Farming valley and harvest moon |
| Week 9 | Creation of scripts and selection of sections to highlight |
| Mid-session Break | Recording of highlight sections |
| Week 10 | Work on and completion of Beta |
| Week 11 | Release of first 2 videos |
| Week 12 | Release of final 2 videos |
| Week 13 | Completion of DA |
Summary of my Analytical Framework
- The simpler and more polished graphics within both Stardew Valley and then Graveyard simulator allow the developers to focus on the game itself more than just its appearance. Compared to Farming Simulator 2017 and the Farming Valley mod where more focus is applied to appearance and less on the depth of story and gameplay.
- ConcernedApe creating Stardew Valley as a love letter to Harvest Moon has caused a resurgence in farming and life style simulation games as more indie developers jump aboard the successful genre bringing new life and ideas with them. Much like how dark souls popularised the souls like genre
- Stardew Valley incentivises exploration and engagement with the world and its activities, similarly Graveyard Keeper has taken this concept and greatly expanded upon it whereas Farming Sim 2007, Farming Valley and Harvest Moon are largely focused on economic gain and expansion.
Axel's BlogSpot 
Reblogged this on Game Cultures.
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Hey Axel,
Great work on completing the Beta project, while I don’t know much about the games you are looking into I have done some research and found that these are farming/life simulators (correct me if I’m wrong). The only farm simulation I have played is FarmVille on Facebook and I don’t know if that is classed as a farm simulator.
While watching your Beta I did notice some things that could have been improved. At the beginning of your Beta, you talked about what has been completed so far. While you have clearly put in the effort and have been working on your video. It would have been nice to see you show us that through screenshots or photos, even if it was an image of your script. It would have helped me understand further what your DA is about. You have a really well thought out analytical framework and i like your first point where you will be doing a comparisons between two different types of farming simulators. Simulator games change dramatically over time as they have to keep up with what is happening in current times.
Your DA schedule shows when & what you have planned for the rest of the semester. You haven’t just said you will be “researching” you gave us a detailed timeline. I have found an article which i think might be of use to your Digital Artefact called “Virtualizing the ‘good life’: reworking narratives of agrarianism and the rural idyll in a computer game” by Lee-Ann Sutherland. It looks into the narratives of rurality and farm life embedded in Stardew Valley gameplay, Lee – Ann focuses on what players may learn about farming practices through gameplay. I think this may help you in your first point of your analytical framework.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-020-10121-w
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Hi Axel!
Your project sounds really interesting. I would have loved to see some of those scripts and video editing in your beta video so you could have included some evidence of your work produced for the DA. Just something to remember for next time.
I think your analytical framework concepts are really well chosen for your project. I also would have loved to see some of the sources related to these included in the video or blog post. Here’s some I found that may be useful for you scripts or report:
https://medium.com/swlh/deceptively-simple-design-cabde40af87f – this article looks at the simple design of Stardew Valley graphics. I think this would be useful talking about communicating gameplay to users even with simple design.
https://medium.com/@jplikesmail/stardew-valley-the-revival-of-the-farming-rpg-genre-b84847b59771 – this article could be useful in looking at the revival of the farm simulation genre in relation to Stardew Valley.
I hope some of this info and sources were helpful. Looking forward to seeing your content being released!
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Hi Axel!
I have been looking forward to your beta update since I commented on your pitch video! As a big fan of the Stardew/Harvest Moon games, I was really keen to see how you were going to go! I am glad to see you have planned to make your videos shorter than 30mins, not only in terms of maintaining audience attention, for your own wellbeing of making and editing 30 mins + of videos would be quite timely!
I know in your beta video you discussed looking into the legitimacy and accuracy of real-life machinery in Farming Simulator, and this is actually quite important to think about as for audiences, the key part of a simulator is simulating an actual possibility of reality, and players want to feel invested and involved in the story and activities. An article written by the Guardian may be useful for you to make notes on as they look into real-life farmers that actually play the Farming Simulator videogame and how they feel about the game, the link is, https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/jul/24/meet-the-real-life-farmers-who-play-farming-simulator .
Looking at your beta video, I would’ve loved to have seen some pictures or videos of your progress so far just to give us that visual update as well! However, your entire digital artefact has been quite well planned out and your timeline is looking good in preparation for the final presentation of our digital artefact. Perhaps some reference to your academic articles/research/sources would’ve added a bit more depth into your analytical framework.
It also would have been really awesome to see if you have had any audience interaction so far, have you perhaps been interacting with farm-simulation game fans or even chatting to people on Reddit boards. I understand you’ve taken a more in-depth analytical way of presenting your DA and that the videos haven’t been posted, but for your final presentation, perhaps think about posting some of your videos on social media, maybe interacting with other people and trying to increase your audience for your DA!
I’ve linked some of the Reddit boards that you could maybe start some conversation on below!
https://www.reddit.com/r/farmingsimulator/
https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheGamerLounge/
But overall, you look like you are doing an amazing job and I am really looking forward to watching your videos over the next couple of weeks! Keep at it!
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