My presentation (Evaluation - D1)

"The Last Titan" presentation

I had to pitch my game idea to an audience consisting of my peers and my lecturer.
In order for my presentation to appear professional, I had to dress in a shirt and tie among other requirements such as speaking clearly and making my presentation look interesting by including relevant, interesting information and some design ideas (concepts of characters etc.).

Evaluation

I think that I presented professionally and I was happy with the outcome of that personally. I have came over some challenges such as terminology which I had to use throughout the presentation. I didn't use the terminology at certain points and that is what had let me down.

I had to speak clearly and enthusiastically to make my presentation look professional, by doing that, I ensured that my audience was listening with interest. This is important as it is quite boring to listen to someone giving a presentation on something they are not enthusiastic about. Throughout the presentation, I took note of my body language which is quite important as it could give the audience the wrong impression of me.

Another important factor was the pictures and/or diagrams which will help the audience visualise the game concept. I had done that and it helped to engage my audience and draw more interest into what I was saying. It wouldn't look interesting and professional if I didn't have the pictures on my presentation, this is because the audience doesn't know how the game will look like.

I think I was talking calmly, changing my intonation where needed to highlight certain areas of the talk, modulating my voice and using the correct terminology where I could/remembered to be as accurate as I could in talking about the different topics, while giving the presentation and it looked like my audience understood what I was talking about. I forgot to clarify what was the actual main character in the game but I  clarified that later on when I was asked questions.

Also, when creating my presentation, I have taken under consideration the terminology and the format and structure of my presentation in order to make the written points understandable and easy to read. Because my audience was nodding at times, I knew that they understood what I tried to pass across. I didn't really have to take the cultural differences under consideration as everyone more or less came from the same area, therefore I didn't have to worry about offending anyone with some of the content.

Another thing which I did was I proofread the work to check my grammar and spelling in order to prevent me and my presentation from looking unprofessional, checking if I made mistakes such as not capitalizing names or places. I especially checked the grammar when I outlined the key points of certain slides as that catches the audience's attention the most as it's short and highlights what I would be talking on the presentation.

I also helped my audience to understand what I was talking about by paraphrasing certain parts of the presentation and summarizing each slide. I took extra care when structuring my presentation so that the slides are easy to understand and are straight to the point.

I also refrained from using any kind of smileys or emoticons in order to make my presentation seem professional.

At the end of the presentation, I did a Question and Answer session by asking the audience if they had any questions. I also changed my intonation here to engage the audience by letting them know it's a question.

When doing the Q&A, I used methods such as verbal exchanges by letting my audience ask me question and based on that I would answer them accordingly.

The question also involved probing by the audience, as some have asked me to elaborate on what I said.

What would I do to improve my presentation
I would change some of the slides on my PowerPoint presentation to inform the audience of the key factors of my game, including gameplay mechanics and how the character mechanics work etc.

I would also change my notes and change the way I explain different aspects of my game and be sure to cover the subject terminology and audience, among others.

I would also look at the negative and positive aspects of my body language and determine how I could improve upon that. I could also change the format of my notes so that when I look at them, I could quickly remind myself of what I'm talking about without having to read through all of it.

I believe that although my presentation went well, if I took the advice given into account and redid my presentation, I would be able to improve upon it. I would do this by speaking slower and ensuring that I use the subject terminology consistently.

 

When I would do the Q&A again, I would try to improve upon the speed of response, as many times I had to think about the answer when I should have known the answer off-hand.

The Q&A had open questions instead of closed ones as for example there were questions such as "How did you create the levels?", which required me to give longer and detailed answers.

I would also try to cancel out any distractions such as background noise caused by people walking by the room which caused me to lose concentration by closing the doors to the room, to at least minimize any distractions.

If I'd be doing the presentation again, I'd present alternative viewpoints when presenting facts and opinions to make my presentation a bit more interesting. I would also take notes in order to gather all the constructive criticism about my game and such. I would also identify the relevant parts of my presentation and make sure that I highlight them so that my audience would further understand what I'm talking about, just to take that extra care to making my presentation look professional.

There weren't any key messages in my presentation, as in email, fax and letters weren't relevant in any way, although I could provide my email address if the audience wanted to get in contact with me about my game for example and to ask me more questions.