B00104265 MultiMedia Blog

This week I  followed two different tutorials on Youtube. I was working on these separately to my game. The first tutorial showed me how to make an in-game mini-map. The second tutorial I followed showed me how to add music and sound effects. It was a good idea trying out some new tutorials because I now feel inspired to use these in my own game. It was really easy to make a minimap. I had to make another camera and rotated it 90 degrees so it faced down on my game map. I then changed the perspective to orthographic. This gave the map a flat look. I then made a raw image using the UI tab, which made a rendered texture. I placed the rendered texture on the raw image. After that, I anchored the mini-map to the top right corner of the screen. The minimap I made using the tutorial by Brackeys The second tutorial was also very easy to follow, I didn't have any problems and was able to get background music working for my game. All you have to do is add an audio source component a...

The week I almost have the first playable version of my game finished. I'm still having problems trying to get a character controller to work because the standard assets are outdated or broken. I've finished making the overall game map and started some coding. My game now has a working crosshair and gems. I'm not meeting my deadlines because the coding is very confusing even when following along with tutorials. I had expected to have more of the code finished by now.  Most of the time the code breaks my game and or doesn't work properly. This is really frustrating because I don't have the skills to fix any of the errors. I end up having to follow multiple different tutorials until I can get something to work. With plenty of other assignments, I feel the coding is holding back the rest of my work.     Image of The Maze I Made The game map is turning out as I imagined, I'm impressed with both the look and art style. It has come a long way from last wee...

Judging by the progress chart and my current points I should be able to get an A if I keep working hard. I'm happy with points so far because I wasn't expecting to have this many points at week 8. The extra credit assignments have helped boost my points up a bit. I have done a lot of extra comments and tech tasks. The class assignments I Enjoy the Unity tutorials more than other assignments but don't like writing blogs about them after. For the second half of the semester, I would like to stay on top of my work. I want to follow my scheduling plan more closely. I've found it difficult to stick to my schedule because things keep popping up. It hasn't necessarily affected my work but sometimes I'm left doing a lot of blogs the weekend when I'd prefer to have them finished during the week. I would like to learn some ways to better my time management. The workload has increased a lot this year and I'm still trying to adapt to the change. I think I shoul...

Overall, the quality of comments and feedback I received from other students has been positive. All of the comments left on my blog were really friendly and useful. I found the comments on my game blogs the most useful. It allows me to find out what other people think of my game. I like reading other peoples comments because they leave suggestions on how my game could be improved. I also like reading through other peoples comments because it gives me a chance to reflect on my work.  In my opinion, I have left good quality comments and feedback on other students blogs. I try putting thought into each of my comments because I know how useful it can be. The WOW and TAG feedback strategies have been very helpful to me. I use these strategies to help structure my comments, especially the longer 150-word comments. I'd recommend  these feedback strategies to people who  are struggling with writing longer,  detailed comments because they can almost be used as a guide....

The reading and writing assignments have gone ok for me. It's very difficult to keep up with all the blogs because we have to write about everything. I think this could affect some of my blogs up to the end of the semester. I'm not too worried though because I've submitted all blogs on time so far and even did some extra credit work.  My favorite reading so far was about making games cozy. I found this really interesting because I've often been playing a game and felt this feels really cozy. It was cool to learn about the different tricks games use to create this cozy feeling for players. Most of the reading notes have helped me with my game. They're nice to refer back to when looking for some inspiration. I have not discovered any new reading/ research strategies. I usually write down notes for myself before beginning a blog. I find it helps me to write my blogs faster and it's always nice to have a paper copy. I'm happy with my game project but I'm w...

This week's blog I started prototyping my game. It defines my games look and feel, as well as the player handling and gameplay. Before making the prototype map, I read over my game design document and drew a map layout on paper.  Although I'm not finished making the game map I found drawing a quick layout very useful. It reduces time because I know exactly where I want everything to be placed. The Layout of My Game I've had one minor setback with the first person camera controller. I was going to use the camera controller from the Unity standard assets but it now has problems with importing. I'll have to find another Youtube tutorial that shows me how to make a first-person camera. The player will be required to run and maneuver on platforms so the player handling will have to be fluid. The gameplay is fast because of the timer and map size. The number of assignments has left me a little behind on meeting my GDD targets for this week. I planned on making th...

This week there was no unity tutorials to complete, so I had free reign to choose some of my own. I chose to follow two tutorials this week that would help with the development of my game. The first tutorial on youtube I followed showed me how to design an in-game timer. This was really useful because my game will need to display a timer at the top of the screen during play. I didn't have any problems making the timer because the tutorial was really easy to follow. I made a text box and then copied the script from the video.  The Timer From Tutorial 1 How to make a countdown timer by UnderScore Games The second tutorial showed me how to make a different timer. This timer ticks down in the form of a linear bar. The bar gets smaller as time passes. This was similar to the first tutorial but the code required was different. Progress Bar From Tutorial 2 How To Create A Linear Timer by Alexander Zotov Overall I found both of these tutorials ben...

The first reading this week by Noah Falstein delved into the idea of fun and why we play games. Fun is a word that describes a source of enjoyment.  It really got me thinking about what our ancestors did for fun and things they did to keep themselves entertained. It also got me thinking about how similar we are to our ancestors. We all need the ability to maintain a place in our families. Physical fun The primary urge of human beings is to survive. Games immerse players and tap into the theme of survival. This creates an automatic instinct of survival. Physical fun captures peoples attention because our ancestors participated in activities such as hunting and gathering. Social fun Humans need to interact with other people because we are social beings. Games bring people together because they allow us to socialize with each other. Many games have chat rooms where people can talk and share their experiences. eg MMO games Mental fun  Games challenge players as they...

This week's blog finalizes my game design document. I further developed my document this week by adding a lot more detail and some code. I looked at different Youtube videos to find code that I will need to make my game. I plan to finish the game a week early so it leaves time to test for bugs and or any other changes. I want to develop the game environment first so I can focus on the coding side of things. I want to focus more on the coding because it's more important than the visuals for this assignment. It will also require more of my time because I find coding to be the most difficult part of game development. I can use some of the same code in Unity tutorials for my game, so I only needed to research code for my games HUD, main menu, countdown timer, and gem counter.  After finalizing my GDD document this week, I started prototyping a map for my game. I imported some of the assets from the Unity tutorials and changed the textures the look of the texture...

This week's Unity tutorials showed me how to make a skybox, wind, fade screens, and how to improve the game environment. The first tutorial started by showing me how to add a sky to the game. I went onto the assets store and imported sky assets. To add the sky asset into the game, I then clicked on the "Windows" tab and chose the lighting settings option. From here I was able to drag and drop the different sky assets I downloaded. The next thing the tutorial showed me was how to add wind zones. I added wind to the in-game trees by clicking the "GameObject" tab. I then clicked on the 3D object tab and selected the wind zones option.  The second tutorial started by explaining how to add in-game objects that can be picked up of the ground. The example given in the tutorial was an axe stuck in a tree. First, you add in a cube and place it over the axe, then turn off the box collider so it becomes invisible. I then made a script called "AxeTake" a...

The reading for this week discussed coziness in games and what we can do to make games feel cozier. Coziness will help your game appeal to a broader audience, it helps retention by giving players control over pacing while still maintaining engagement during periods of rest. Coziness refers to how a game evokes the fantasy of: Safety - Won't include danger and risk. Abundance - Has a sense of abundance Softness - Will contain strong aesthetic signals that tell the player they are in a low-stress environment. Players seek to fulfill their emotional and psychological needs within games, so if the needs of the player are met they will feel a sense of safety and coziness. eg in the survival game "Don't Starve", food is needed to survive or for the player to feel comfortable. Cozy games help the player to fulfill their higher order needs. Coziness can be affected by the following factors: Extrinsic Reward - generates a pressing transactional need Danger  - t...