Unity Tutorial 4

 Unity 04

For this weeks task in unity I started a new project called Jump Force. I had to follow along with the instructor once again which was fine but my unity did not want to work with me this week, I ran into a problem about halfway into the tutorial where my Spawn Manager script would not go onto my obstacle. It was so frustrating as my code was all fine but I just could not figure out why it would not let me apply it. I ended up missing the deadline for the submission because of this and in my frustration I gave up on it until today. I restarted it from the beginning and managed to get through it...finally.

While I didn't learn what was causing the problem I was having the first time around I did learn some new things in Unity and C#. I learned some new methods and made some new variables. I learned how to apply constraints to my character so they would not fall off their axes when they got hit by an object. The tutorial also thought me about the Bool data type, which is a true or false statement.

I feel like the tutorials are easy to follow along with and that I am learning something with every lesson that I do , I just hope that when the time comes I will remember all of this.  

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Games MDA

 Understanding Games

This weeks reading was on MDA which stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. These three components when combined together make up a great portion of a video game. A designer must be conscious of how the three work in tangent with one another and design the game on how they work off one another. 

The Mechanics are the base component, this involves what the player is able to do in terms of gameplay. The game might have multiple mechanics such as walking, running then sprinting to name a few, the mechanics have to make sense in order for the dynamics of the game to make sense. 

The Dynamics of the game are what the player is going to experience when playing, for example the PC game Escape from Tarkov is an open world survival shooting game, it involves the player having to battle it out with other players to attain resources in order to complete quest and earn money so they can purchase better equipment. Having this objective style gameplay makes sense with the mechanics such as shooting and running.

The Aesthetics are what is going to evoke an emotional response from the user, if it is a horror game it would make sense for it to not have a lot of bright colours but instead be very dark and give the user a sense of not knowing where they are going.

In my opinion, even though the Mechanics and the Dynamics have to have a close relationship to one another I can settle for a game giving me any sort of dynamics, Ultimately for me it comes down to the actual mechanics of a video game that entices me to buy it. I want to see games that have challenging mechanics and ones that a person has to put time into in order to get better at the game, but that's just me.

Here are some articles I have read to help get a better all round understanding of the subject.

This Article by Mike Stout talks about the problems that developers face when making a game and some of the ways he goes about improving them for the user. you can read the article HERE!   

This one by Marco give a more short and sweet version of what MDA is and what it entails. You can read it HERE!

This Article talks further and a little more in dept as to what MDA is. You can read it HERE! 

Game Vision Statement

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 The Game (Space Ranger)

This side scrolling games called Space Escape is to be an exciting, edge of you seat , keep you on your toes action flying game where the user will try to achieve as high a score as possible in order to be named "The Best". It is an arcade style game that will have the user flying a space ship in a never ending map avoiding obstacles and shooting in order to progress. The game will feature a metre counter that will track the users play as he/she goes through the level. Upon a game over , the user will be given there score and will have to restart from the beginning and go again.

Starting off, you the player will start at a given speed, something easy to get you started. You will then have to begin traversing the level avoiding obstacles that are in your way, these obstacles will be stationary and you must control your ship and decide whether to go over or under them or even through them. There will be pickups that you will be able to get should you fly into them and these will grant you abilities such as slow the ship down(to make the game easier), pick up ammo for your ship that will allow you to destroy objects in your way and there will be pickups that have a negative effect on you too such as one that will speed your ship up(to make the game harder). The game itself is never ending, the only way it ends is if you hit one of the obstacles, resulting in a game over. You will keep going, all the while your distance is being tracked,, so If you want to get first place on the leader board, don't crash! The game will also feature nice visuals in terms of level design, it will not have to be too dynamic as the map is going to go on forever or at least until the player gets a game over, so the level itself can have maybe two or three different scenario's that can be repeated as the user goes forward. It will also have audio ques such as gun sounds, exploding sounds and a simple background tune that will play, It will also have a generic game over sound accompanied with a crash sound for when the user hits an object. 

To give you a better visual understanding of what it is I am looking to achieve, here are some images of who I see as our competitors. The first Image is of a game called Copter and the second one is of a game called Tiny Plane. In essence, the game I am looking to create is going to be a hybrid of these two games. Both game are incredibly fun and slightly addictive especially Copter which I have found myself playing numerous times over and over.

This game is classed as a side scrolling shooter/ flying game/ racing game and will be available to play on pc or laptop using a mouse and keyboard, It will primarily be a single player game but include a leader board where players can upload their final distance scores to compare against each other. It will have some simple mechanics at its core but promises to be a very fun and enjoyable experience, and one that the user can repeat over and over in order to beat their personal best.

 

some of the key features are listed here for you, I will try and explain them as best as I can and seeing that the game is still in early development, know that some of them may be subject to change.   

•  Rise and Fall - The user will be in a constant state of descending, unless the left mouse button is pressed and held which will give the ship the ability to ascend.
• Shooting - You will be in control of a spaceship that is capable of destroying objects that are in your way.
• Race - You are going to be racing against your own distance covered and other peoples distances, to see who is the best at the game.

Pickups - As you play through the level you will be able to collect certain powerups that will have a positive and negative effect on you, the positive ones will help you and the negative ones must be avoided or you will experience a negative effect.

To conclude, I am hoping to create this game to the best of my skills and provide people with a fun to play game that will keep them coming back for more and depending on the success of the game I would love to continue to add to it further down the line.

Unity Tutorial 03

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 More Unity

This weeks Unity tutorial was to learn more ways to code in order to get the game I was making to function. The tutorials were really good and very simple to follow along with , I had no Issues completing it except for one problem near the end where my code would not run and after about 20 minuets I figured out that I was using a lower case v instead of a capitol V.

This week though I learned some new methods in C# and how they function. I am really enjoying learning how to programme but I feel that I still need much more practice if I am ever to make a game for myself. I have been watching YouTube tutorials on basic C# to get a better understanding for things such as Arrays and Strings, and how to implement them in my code. I think that trying to think logically about what it is I need to do has been a bit of a challenge and takes some time to wrap my head around what the code is actually doing and why but also not knowing all the ways that code can be written is somewhat frustrating.

Overall though I am enjoying using Unity and I am looking forward to continuing my journey learning to programme.   

Feedback Strategies

 Feedback

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For this post I will be discussing Feedback, and they ways in which it can be given and received. I began my research into ways to approach giving feedback be it positive or negative by reading an article titled How to give feedback without sounding like a jerk. This article was very informative and explained some of the psychology that is involved when it comes to giving someone feedback, it explains that the vocabulary a person uses can come across in a negative way even though a person may not notice that they are being negative. Instead when it is worded a different way a persons feedback can come across as constructive and the person receiving it will be more inclined to be open minded about receiving it. 

The next article I read was Why do so many managers avoid giving praise  . I could relate to this article the most as I have experienced some of the dilemmas in it first hand both at a job and in my time playing sports. Thinking about what the article discussed I have to agree with what the majority of it says in terms of people who are seen as leaders not being able to give positive feedback for reasons such as, If a manager of a company gives an employer positive feedback that the employer would become complacent and begin to slack. While this is certainly not always the case, I can say that I have seen this happen and understand why some managers shy away from it. I have learned much from this article about how someone can be perceived after they give feedback be it positive or negative.

I find it interesting about how the article discussed how managers did not give feedback for various personal reasons but I can help but think that this is a sign of someone who is not intended to lead, surely if you are to give someone feedback be it positive or negative it can only improve that person but the person in power may be worried about how they are viewed afterwards. In my opinion, someone who can give feedback without coming across as rude or belittling is someone who I would rather have as my boss.     

Game Idea Research

 My Idea

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When thinking about what game I was going to make I initially thought of a type of time trial game where the user has to complete some sort of race and achieve their best finish time. I want my game to be able to be played over and over and have the user wanting to better their score every time. I remember playing the last mission on a call of duty game more than 100 times because there was an achievement for completing the level in a certain time limit and no matter how much I hated that I couldn't achieve it I kept playing it, if you want an insight as to what I am talking about you can watch the quick video clip here. 

My point is that this kind of gameplay kept me coming back to better my time and I feel like it is a good hook that I can add to my game. I am going to create a side scrolling game where the user controls some sort of vehicle be it a plane or a car and has to traverse a course filled with obstacles in order to reach the finish line and be given a high score.

 1. The first game mechanic I research is going to be a Rising and Falling mechanic, you can read some more about it in the link provided. This mechanic will work for the player when they are trying to avoid obstacles on the course.

2. My second mechanic will be a timing mechanic. I plan on having the player be able to hit a powerup marker that will give a brief boost to their speed and help them finish faster, only if the hit it though.

3. For my third mechanic I would like to put in a resizing mechanic where the player would have to trigger something in order to resize the vehicle in order to fit through a part of the course, if the player does not get this "item" then it will result in a game over as they will not be able to progress further. I found this article that talks about my 2nd and 3rd game mechanic ideas to give you some insight as to what they are about and how they operate.

Game Elements

 Game Elements

This weeks reading was all about getting a better grasp of the thought process that goes into making a video game and to understand the component parts and how they combine to form an end product for a consumer.

The first article "What are the qualities of games" was a very interesting read and I found it to be really informative about the components that have to fit together from the beginning of the design process in order to have a functioning game that makes sense and is fun to play. Once the designer has these components in place and is happy with how the game is going to be played it is important for then to be able to carry out a critical analysis of the game to understand what it is that is making the game an enjoyable experience for the user and what can be added or removed in order to improve it. The article gives an insight into what sort of questions a designer should ask themselves in order to analyse the game as a whole and I found it very informative as I would not have thought about asking some of the questions that is stated in it, so I will use this information going forward with my own project.

Going forward it is important to begin a prototype of your game and get a feel for how it plays. The video(Which can be found here!) talks about how it is one thing to have your game idea on paper but if you really want to see if it is going in the right direction, make a prototype! Here you can get answers to some of the questions you may have as a designer such as " do the game mechanics make sense" and " do the components of the game fit together". If the answer is yes then its all well and good but if it is a no then changes can be made, I get the feeling that it is a fail forward kind of approach, which I think is a good way to create something that works.

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