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Showing posts from November, 2020

Unity Tutorial 8

Source: Unity The tutorial for the ball movement game was a very fun and interesting tutorial and also the very first time that we added the feature to allow the player to move their character themselves. My favorite part was the power-ups that were added to give the player the advantage over it's opponents. The first task was to add our sphere to the map provided by the asset store and then add a texture to the main sphere, after that I had to create a focal point on the centre of the map and then add the script RotateCamera which rotated the camera that allowed the sphere to move at any position to dodge the other balls and collect the power-ups. Finally, if the player was to fall off the edge the message "Game Over" would appear on the bottom left-corner.

Week 9: Reading and Writing

Source: DepositPhotos Firstly, the "Readings" overall have been a tremendous amount of help especially when coming up to our prototype. The morning lectures where we all went over the "Readings" together was especially useful and helped with time-management so most of the year and myself didn't spend too much time on the articles.  My favorite one so far was the " Game Design Document " or " GDD " this is where we discussed about the importance of a "Game Design Document" and how it provides help before starting on your game prototype. This excited me the most because it was the beginning in creating our own games. I looked at articles and videos about "GDD's" first on finding a good template or creating your own, then putting your game design idea onto the document such as: 1. A summary of what the game is about. 2. A description of the layout of the game. 3. Who is the games target audience e.g. kids, teenagers, adul

Prototype: First Playable

  Source: Myself For my project this week, I worked on getting my character moving around the terrain and testing that out with the "on ground" feature that was discussed in our Unity tutorial 3 and put into our C# script . We had the player, jump and move that is what I wanted to mainly focus on and this was a difficult task and I had to go over the tutorials again just to be sure but I got it working in the end!  My character's view will be first person in my game so I had to add a FPS controller to the player , I had to get one from the assets store off Unity, adding the main camera to the player was and angling it so it was attached above the character's body was quite easy; getting the camera to move with the player was ever more difficult. These videos provided me with great help into attaching my FPS controller and camera to my character! Attach the camera Adding the FPS controller

Twitter Task: Lists

I have never made a list before on Twitter but I have to say it looks really cool and especially for this module. It is handy to have as it is an easy way to see what the members I added post on there pages so if they post any useful articles I can just go onto my list and access it from there. I created the list for the task but it also interested me when I read about how useful they were especially when adding new members to it; so for myself I added people from my course and people who I talk with so we keep up to date on any news or any ideas or features to add to our blogs and our prototypes.  I added at least 30 people from my course I hope after this to add more people so I can see how others present their work and it will also encourage me to post more maybe even daily suggesting articles or tutorials I found useful. Multimedia List CDM List

Game Fun

Games can be described by the 3 components Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA) or otherwise stated as rules – system – “fun” . Mechanics describes the particular components of a game and the level of data, Dynamics takes in the run-down time of the mechanics behavior acting on player inputs and the outputs given and lastly Aesthetics which is the overall look and how the player responds to it when interacting with the game system. There are eight types of Fun outlined by the MDA. These eight are both a source of reference and player experience that blend together in many ways, and essentially what makes a game engaging and enjoyable: Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression and Submission all of these outline "FUN" of the game and help provide and interest and to engage with the game more often. Figure 1: Eight kinds of Fun Nicole Lazzaro presents four types of fun that are involved in defining how fun a game can be for different play

Prototype

  When I first started making my game I wanted to first create the environment so I attached some trees, texture for the ground and added a few rocks that would help my character hide from the enemies. My game is based off the Lord of the Rings movies, my character is an elf played in first person who has to hide from the orc soldiers and find the power ring at the end of the map; if he is spotted he must engage in combat. Image source : Myself The world and the the textures are coming out really well, I added terrain to my ground to give it a more natural look similar to a forest out of the movies, this I completed in a matter of at least an hour as I had to positioned them right. What I am finding difficult at the moment though is adding my First Person Controller to my character and when I added my PlayerController script to him the camera would not work so I am currently working on fixing that. I have met all my targets especially gathering all the necessary materials for my game,

Learning Challenge: The Importance of Reading

  The Importance of Reading Reading was always important for me in primary, secondary and now especially in college. It helps expand the mind, helps improve concentration and helps you de-stress. I haven't done much reading as a hobby only read certain few books like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit books but after them nothing.  For Multimedia Development I take time to go over tutorials for my Unity tasks, in a way that is reading but visually and its helps me to take in information off coding and different features on Unity to help me with my own and up-coming game. One thing I didn't take from reading before was the motivation from it and helping me explore new ideas but since the start of the course I have taken a liken to it and read articles for most of my modules which helps me very much and to keep doing this during my 2nd year and improve my work overall.

Growth Mindset: Being a GENIUS

  What it means to be a Genius Being a "G enius" is not something that you are born with it is something you become if you put in the effort and that is something that relates to the course I do "Creative Digital Media". One thing I learned from three years of doing this course is that you will pass no matter what even if you're terrible at drawing or thinking of ideas; these are helpful but effort is the main factor for passing. This image really interested me as it does really relate to students of CDM but especially to students who are now working at home due to Covid-19. Every college student is a "Genius" but what this images listed is what every student goes through and if you can overcome them well you're a "Genius". Just in a while take a break, relax and have your own little brainstorm.

Tech Task: Creating links on Sidebar

  For the Tech Task, I thought it would have been nice to supply links to articles and a video on a Game Design Document and how to understand and create one. After going over about GDD's in Week 6 and 7, it really helped me understand how to have your game design idea supported and just handy to have a document of the layout so you don't forget how you wanted it in the beginning. I have all links to websites about GDD's in my sidebar for any viewers who want to know more about them.

Unity Tutorial 6

  I really enjoyed this tutorial and feel like these tutorials helped me understand Unity more and to make a proper and overall well designed game. My favorite part of this tutorial was adding in the natural jumping effect when my player jumped in the air and also the death animation was a real nice touch when you collided with the obstacle.  Overall I didn't have any problems with this tutorial the videos were really helpful. I did have a small situation when I added the particles to my players movements,  when he jumped in the air the effect disappeared after he landed but after re-checking my script I forgot to add the class "dirt.Particle" to my "if" statement.

Game Decisions

  In order for the player to be optimally engaged, challenges should be presented at a level equivalent or slightly higher than their current skill. Not too easy, not too hard”( Gigity McD ) The word 'flow state' was coined by Csikszentmihalyi (1975) also known as being “in the zone” This is when the player is fully engaged in the game experience. Csikszentmihalyi put a lot of work into observing and analyzing various groups of people. This theory is focused on the idea of how people should balance their skills and the demands of particular tasks. An example of Flow would be a challenge in a game that interests the player such as a puzzle or a boss battle meant to keep the player interested and not get bored. Csikszentmihalyi also states that flow is related to an ideal psychological condition when a person engages in a challenge-skill activity, often resulting in concentration and a focused emphasis on a task. A practical technique for improving Flow is to look at what player

Games GDD

 A game design document or GDD is basically the design brief before the development of a game this will include the following: 1. A summary of what the game is about. 2. A description of the layout of the game. 3. Who is the games target audience e.g. kids, teenagers, adults. 4. Where the game is set e.g. in space, another planet etc. 5. The controls and mechanics of the game. 6. What platform it will be used on PC, XBOX, Playstation. How do you create one Any format is acceptable but depending on the person and how they would like to present it they can use a variety of options such as Microsoft Word , Powerpoint, OpenOffice, Google Docs and any other type of text document. The brief should be very clear as it is not only useful when presenting it but also useful to look back over especially to the designer if they go off track when designing their specific game. Example Template of a Game Design Document Source: Reddit  Also found this Reddit page helpful towards games design documen