Infotech 11/12 Exit Interview

1. Which assignments did you enjoy and why?
My favourite assignment was absolutely the Premiere Pro assignment. I don't particularly enjoy the software itself compared to Sony Vegas, however I do enjoy editing videos in my spare time. I had a lot of fun with this assignment, although I do wish we could have done more with the program than simple slideshows.

2. Which assignments did you struggle with and why?
Ironically, the project I struggled with the most was the one I enjoyed the most. Not do to inability, mind you, I knew exactly how to navigate the program and do everything I needed to do. My issue, however, was during the Cut to the Beat assignment. I did not enjoy doing this, nor did I like how it turned out. The problem isn't so much the project itself, moreso the requirements. It asked me to take my own pictures and use them for the assignment. The issue with this, however, is that my phone is a Google Pixel, and it takes pictures in 4K. This computer is not equipped to handle editing a 4K image, be it a picture or a video. I was able to get one transition done and copy it, but beyond that, the program would crash upon doing anything else.

Of course, the sheer number of pictures might have been a factor, as well.
3. Report Card Comment
"Dylan matches and exceeds expectations for the work he does, however he requires reminders to pay attention in class."

Game Journalism - Final Day

For this slideshow, I played Raft for an hour and took as many screenshots as possible to show my progress It's worth mentioning that, as I was not aiming for completion of the game in this time, I threw away the Receiver and Antenna blueprints at this time

Game Journalism - Work Day 2 - Raft

Water Purifier

Fishing Rod

Simple Grill

Sails

Shark Defense

Row row row your boat, gently down the stream

Chopping down trees

Foraging underwater

Pillaging abandoned raft

Game Journalism - Play Day 2 - Raft

Today, in the game Raft, I simply foraged for some debris. There wasn't a whole lot to share, however I did learn something.

When I first learned of the existence of blueprints, I thought the Research Table would be useless without them, and thus useless to me due to needing to be online to use the things in the blueprints I had (antenna and receiver).

While you can use this to research blueprints, you can also research materials and add them to your library of knowledge.

Once you have the necessary items researched, you can learn how to craft those items.
So now I have a much larger variety of creation options, and from now on, my goal will be to discover as many new materials as possible.

Game Journalism - Play Day - 1

Today, I nearly ran out of food.

So as I have explained, barrels (along with abandoned rafts, which I forgot to mention) can provide raw potatoes and beets. I had 5 potatoes and 3 beets.

These are useful for the early game, because they don't require and resources to scavenge, and you can eat them raw.

However, you cannot go through an entire night living on only beets and potatoes. I lasted the night with only a sliver of my hunger meter left.

So, desperately, I went out to scavenge for some leaves, or perhaps some rope. Why?

My first goal was to make a fishing rod. At the time of taking this screenshot, I had 7 rope and a single leaf, however I started with only a leaf and no rope in my inventory, so I had to look really hard.

I did eventually get myself a fishing rod, with enough hunger to survive until I would be able to catch and eat a fish.

So I went ahead and caught some fish, and went to go eat it, before realizing a fairly large flaw in my plan.

The fish are all raw.

I don't personally know the side effects of eating a raw fish, but I wasn't going to risk it. I needed to make a grill.

The ingredients for a simple grill are as such, and because I used all of my rope to make the fishing rod, I needed to look for some more.

I did eventually find the rope I needed, thanks to the sail with allowed me to go where I needed, and barrels, along with an abandoned raft, however the simple grill, which is all I can make right now, cannot cook catfish, which means I have 2 catfish just sitting in my inventory than I can't do anything with.

Luckily there are tons of small fish in the water, so I go ahead and cook those.

From that point, I went on a fairly minimalist play through for the rest of the day, just catching fish and occasionally purifying some water.

There wasn't a lot to learn about the game from this experience, just that I'm bad at survival games, but I have learned that despite requiring both food *and* water, this game is much more forgiving than most other survival games.

I'm low on planks, so I will likely be spending tomorrow looking for materials, and possibly expanding my raft a little more.

This is my raft. In order from left to right, there's a sail for navigation, a water purifier for changing saltwater into freshwater, and a simple grill for cooking the fish that I catch.

Game Journalism - Work Day 1 - Basics

There are 3 ways to collect debris

1. Allow it to flow near your raft and pick it up by hand

2. Use the hook given to you at the start of the game. Doing so reduces it's durability, however it doesn't require many resources to craft another one

3. Finding an abandoned raft. Doing so can be risky, and may result in either taking damage from the shark, or losing your raft as the one you're on continues to sink

At the end of the day, my raft only contained a sail, which was useful for gather more materials, as I could rely less on my hook

There are 4 types of debris I have come across:

Planks are a tool you need to craft just about everything in the game, with the only exception being the cup that I have found so far. They are also used as fuel for the water purifier and grill. They're essential, but the game is forgiving, because they are plentiful

Leaves are needed to make rope, along with the water purifier. This means you need them for fishing rods, hooks, spears, sails, and most of the things you craft. While expanding your raft itself does not require rope, rope is needed to create the hammer, which means you want as many leaves as possible. Thankfully, leaves are plentiful in quantity, and you can find them in stacks of either 1 or 3.

Plastic isn't essential for much, beyond expanding your raft. You do need them to make the cup, as well as the purifier, however it's not needed beyond that point, aside for some repairs when sharks eat your ship.

Barrels aren't needed for anything, but I recommend you find as many as possible. Barrels can contain food, such as beets and potatoes, along with materials you can't find anywhere else on the ocean surface, such as scrap, nails, actual rope (which is nice, as 1 rope takes 2 leaves), and much more. If you see a barrel, go for it.

However, always be sure to look out for sharks

Sharks will every now and then come and nibble away at your raft. I had one destroy a quarter of mine in the first 5 minutes of playing.

Rotoscope - Fulfill your Destiny

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