Beta Meta Shmeta

My character about to fall into the void

My character jumping

My character standing

Heya Huns,

So I now have a semi-decent game that does not have any bugs (thankfully). I took the executive decision to abandon the points system as it just caused more problems than it resolved and I'm at peace with that. I have gone almost completely off topic from my game design document as I now realise it was way too ambitious for a first time user of Unity.

Since my last update my game now has a skybox, audio and a longer run of platforms. I had hoped to have more by this stage but on Friday I reopened Unity to the pleasure of it have not saving any of my previous progression so another game of catch up was done.

Overall I'm a little bit proud that I actually produced something in the realms of a functioning game.

Roll on Christmas,

James.

Unity Free Tutorial

My error when trying to play with my scoring script

Heya Huns,

So today I kicked myself up the behind and got cracking with my game. I was actually enjoying it up until a point where my script for creating a rising score did not work. I think it's something to do with contradicting script in the unity chan asset I downloaded, but in all honesty at this stage of the evening I could not be arsed figuring it out for certain.

My game is now past the point of a handful of platforms to now a whopping several! (exciting I know, but you'll have to calm yourself). I have learned to not follow unity tutorials from 7 years ago as well as avoiding anyone with an accent as it's already difficult to understand without a language barrier.

I now have rotating coins that disappear once collided with, and a beautiful set of white walls on the edges of my platforms. I need to figure out how to fix my problems with the displaying of the score as it is required for my game to actually have value.

Overall progress is being made and my game has not deleted like some other students who were further along than me have.

Feeling blessed, stressed and a tad depressed,

your love, your light,

James x.

Game Testing

me looking at these blogs - source

Heya Huns,

This week we were reading up on giving criticism. In the readings it says to be neutral when giving your criticism in order to stay constructive. This ensures that the person being criticised can benefit from your feedback and not feel as if they are being attacked for their ideas.

Your feedback needs to be unbiased and free of any outer opinions of the person (just focus on the work at hand). Your feedback should be to the point, clear and relevant to the work. If you stick to this (although it may not actually be implemented by the person) then you will become better at giving constructive criticism without causing offence.

Unity Free Tutorials

Heya Huns,

Me in Wetherspoons

To be extremely honest, I believed the free pass for the week was for the Thursday upload, which I have already done the declaration for so I went to Wetherspoons after the group project presentations and got fairly locked. For this reason I don't believe I am in any state to complete the tutorials.

I do apologise for this but I also enjoyed myself if you care, I got a chicken burger and a few pintos xxx.

GN&GB

James.

Game Stories

I looked up hero and thought this looked a bit like Hugh - source

Heya Huns,

The readings for this week were focused on the journey of the hero and what game developer need to know in order to create a story.

The first reading begins by discussing myths and how they are used as a way to give us morals. They are ingrained into our society and can be seen in our morals. It then moves on to explain the journey of a hero, from call to action all the way to the prize or end result they get from their journey.

The second reading tells us how we can apply a story for our character (filling in the journey part of the game). It is mapped out in the reading as follows:

1. We have the protagonist (our hero)
2. An inciting incident occurs that drastically changes their life or environment
3. This incident creates a gap between the hero and their normal life
4. The hero tries to go down the normal route to solve this problem, but it fails.
5. The hero must then take a risk to overcome the obstacles they face.
6. The hero then experiences or learns something new, causing a second gap.
7. The hero must then take an even bigger risk to overcome the second gap.
8. After now overcoming the second gap, something else occurs, causing a third gap to open.
9. The hero must then take the greatest possible risk to then overcome this third gap to then get what they want to achieve.

It all sounds a bit convoluted to me, but who am I to judge when it seems to be working for nearly everyone.

GN&GB

'Alpha' - Me Hoop

Sure look - At least it's playable

Heya Huns,

I'm going to share a little something to make you feel better about yourselves - I have managed forget to save any of my game progress on Unity and it then crashed, deleting my game. I hope you can find some solace in my misfortune and stupidity.

This means I've had the absolute pleasure of sitting through the same tutorials I had already done in order to play catch up. In all honesty, I'm wrecked and this just did not put me in the greatest of moods. I still cannot seem to find any assets of an enemy that I could potentially use, which of course means I will have to code my own! ;)

I'm thinking of changing my game to have 1 level that just continuously runs and is based off how long you last without dying. I'm thinking of setting the time frame to a minute or two depending on how long attention spans last.

That's the update, hopefully next week I'll have something more interesting to show you.

Now in the words of NSYNC,

Bye bye bye.

Week 9 Progress

an inspirational image - source

Heya Huns,

So far I have been sticking loosely to my time schedule that I designed at the beginning of the semester. I seem to be on route for a D or C grade which I'm not too mad about (although, I of course would've preferred to do better). I suffered a slight setback when I foolishly did not save my game and unity crashed, causing me to lose my progress, but I am on the road to recovery! (and trying to be positive).

My weekly routine seems to follow the pattern of 'due Tuesday, do Tuesday' which has seemed to be working so far, minus the constant state of stress I've allowed myself to become accustom to. I have not done m(any) extra credit options, although I did plan to during the October Reading week, but Halloween got the better of me so we won't discuss that any further.

I'm going to try to keep up with main assignment uploads as well as doing a few of the extra credit options. And I will definitely be saving my unity game after every touch of my keyboard to avoid this kind of thing happening again. In an ideal world I'd say that I would love to get an A in this module, but unfortunately we live in reality so therefore that will not be the case, which I have come to peace with and I hope you can all come to peace with it too.

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it as much as I tried to hold back the tears.

Nice one,

James.

Review Week Comments and Feedback

source

Heya Huns,

My initial thoughts on feedback were that I appreciate it regardless of whether it's good or bad. It allows me to understand if an idea will work or not and if it needs to be adjusted or just completely scrapped. I do still stand by my thoughts, but I did expect more feedback from fellow students which was a bit disappointing.

Overall the feedback I have received from other students seems to be positive, they seem to like my characters and the humorous and educational side to my game. However, I do see a lack of constructive criticism from the year group as a whole, I don't know if this is because no one wants beef or what, but I'll tell you now if you hate my game idea with a passion and you want to absolutely slate me, go for it, I can take it. Some comments compare my idea to others (which is both helpful and unhelpful depending on my mood), others give suggestions that can help me improve my idea (which I do find extremely helpful) and then there are a few comments, very few in fact, that just seem to be written in order to do the declaration, which is not helpful for anyone really.

When taking on my role of providing feedback firstly I decide if I like the idea, I then look to see if there are any questions or suggestions I could pose to the other students that could get them to think about their game and how to improve it. I then offer any advice I have or suggestions for solutions to problems that they may come across in their game production. However, sometimes I do find it difficult to write the required amount for a comment either due to disinterest or lack of writing in the other student's blog post. I have to admit that sometimes if I don't like another student's game, blog post or idea that I tend to skip their blog and move onto another one.

I do think that commenting on other students blogs has allowed me to connect more with them and make some new friends or acquaintances. I am happy with my introduction post and believe it gives other students a better idea of who I am (while also not giving away too much, to keep the mystery going).

To improve my own feedback I could be a bit more critical of others work, not in a nasty way but in a way where it will prompt them to want to improve their own game. I need to stop avoiding blogs that I do not enjoy reading and give feedback on how to the student can improve. I would appreciate some feedback from students on what they don't like or think will work in my game as it will give me a better idea in what direction to go in instead of thinking that my game is this amazing thing that cannot be flawed (but that comes down to the execution also).

Overall my experience with the blog feedback has been positive, but of course I do find a fault in everything so don't mind my moaning.

Talkche,

James.

First Playable

Screenshot of my progress to date

Heya Huns,

I've been working on my first level of my game, and to be brutally honest if I continue looking at my computer screen I may have a mental breakdown. I have my character as well as the platforms, but I couldn't bring myself to make the enemy AI. I will however continue on the progress I've made tomorrow, but it's late (9pm) and I'm in work early.

I'm still finding it difficult to balance the workload for this module with other modules as well as work and my own personal life. But there's nothing that can be done so yolo.



Later Losers x

Unity Free Tutorials

Heya Huns,

This week I began to research tutorials that could help me in the development of my game. Somehow I managed to stumble across another of good old Jimmy Vegas' tutorials. This was the beginning of a series that showed me how to create my own platform game. I like the way Jimmy's tutorials are broken down and explained, but he does go unnecessarily slow sometimes (which doesn't help my time management skills).

The beginning of my platform game development

The second tutorial I found showed me how to allow for my character to jump, this will be helpful as my game involves the player to jump, slide and dodge enemy AI. I tried to research sliding actions but I couldn't find one today.

The final tutorial I found that will aid me in my game development showed me how to create basic enemy AI. It's a bit long winded but I plan to re-watch it in order to understand it more. 

I hope to incorporate aspects of all these tutorials into my game, as well as researching other tutorials that can help me.

I overall enjoyed working on unity this week and have regained a bit of passion for designing my game after formally beginning it's development.

Game Fun

Heya Huns,

This week I wad reading up on MUDs (a multiplayer real-time virtual world that is text-based). They are traditionally set in a fantasy world which implements an online chat as the form of communication, a role-playing style of gameplay, hack and slash (player combat involving weapons or powers), player versus player, and interactive fiction.

Players of these games can be divided into 4 distinct groups:

• Achievers
• Explorers
• Socialisers
• Killers

The article shows a graph that shows the type of players and their main reasons for playing MUD games.

                                           ACTING

                          Killers            |                  Achievers
                                             |

                                             |
                                             |
                                             |

                  PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD
                                             |
                                             |
                                             |

                          Socialisers        |                  Explorers
                                             |
                                             |
                                             |

                                        INTERACTING

It then continues to explain how these players interact with each other and the possible alliances or combats that can occur. 

My favourite example of an MUD - Club Penguin

I then went on to read about game mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics (MDA), which is a more formal way to say the rules of a game, it's system and how fun a game is. When talking about aesthetics it says they can be put into (but are not limited to) these categories.

• Sensation - Game as sense-pleasure
• Fantasy - Game as make-believe 
• Narrative - Game as drama 
• Challenge - Game as an obstacle course 
• Fellowship - Game as a social framework 
• Discovery - Game as uncharted territory 
• Expression -  Game as self-discovery 
• Submission - Game as pastime

Examples of which include:

• Charades - Fellowship, Expression, Challenge. 
• Quake - Challenge, Sensation, Competition, Fantasy. 
• The Sims - Discovery, Fantasy, Expression, Narrative. 
• Final Fantasy - Fantasy, Narrative, Expression, Discovery, Challenge, Submission. 

The example of dynamics that they use is monopoly; which uses dice to determine how far a player can move on their designated turn. The game works to the advantage of whoever gets ahead first, and then with their continued success, they can then penalise less fortunate players by adding houses and hotels to their properties, which raises the amount of money to be paid by the player who lands on it.

photo of the monopoly board.

The mechanics of a game are what a player is given to work with to make their gameplay more enjoyable or that can help them get ahead. In shooter games, these could include:

• Weapons
• Ammunition
• Spawn Points

These mechanics then produce gameplay like camping or sniping. Basically, the mechanics benefit the game dynamics and overall gameplay. With these 3 components, you should have a half-decent game on your hands.

Prototype

The player enters the clinic from the right, they then turn the corner to see the enemy STIs 

The player must use the arrow keys to avoid the enemy. They can also jump over the enemy and slide as the game progresses on each level.

I have begun by searching the internet for tutorials on building an environment similar to my ideas but have yet to find any. I have also been looking for assets and yet again nothing.

I need to backtrack and finish my GDD as it is not detailed enough to create my game, although I do know what I want to do. The thing I find most difficult is navigating the Unity application to find what I need to make my game. This is halting the progression of the actual game development as I have spent the last 4 hours trying to get a grip of it without much progression. But tomorrow is a new day and this blog post is due tonight.

my lack of progression

This strange video is the closest thing I could find to a Unity tutorial on how to build a clinic like environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymxfsmgQgXg

Unity Tutorial 5

source

I've had to play a little game of catchup due to missing some unity tutorials over the last few weeks. This week good old Jimmy was back with another of his world-class tutorials. He started off with a skybox, lighting and wind zones, I know some really invigorating stuff! 

The skybox refers to what the player sees in the sky around their world. I used the same TGU Skybox Pack that Jimmy used in his tutorial just so I could follow him the way he was teaching. I used the NewDawn1 skybox as it was my favourite.

I enjoyed playing with the lighting settings, giving it an orange hue to make my world look as if it is set at dusk. I found it quite humorous giving the wind zone a high setting and watching the trees freak out.

I was a bit confused with Jimmy's explanation of making the axe an object that you can pick up, but after a while, I got the hang of it. Jimmy's ways of explaining how to do things are a tad long-winded and overly complicated, it usually takes me 3-4 times of rewatching a certain part of the video to understand what he's actually saying.

I need to apply myself more in this module as I find myself falling behind and struggling with all this new information. A lot of the actual scriptwriting for the objects is also confusing but I can only blame myself ;).

Games Decisions

Heya Huns,

This week we read 'Social Design Practices for Human-Scale Online Games' by Daniel Cook. In the article Cook explains how to make an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. An MMO is an online game that supports hundreds to thousands of players at one time.

MMO games can be a platform for users to make friends and socialise whilst playing the game. Users can create groups of players from all around the world to then play the game. Cook explains that there is a lot of social psychology research that goes into designing these sorts of games.

I personally do not like to play multiplayer games, especially ones that involve player vs player combat as I feel like it takes away from the progression of a user if they are not up to the same standards of combat as others. Games like Fortnite seem unfair as there are players that live and breathe the game and then kill everyone else who may not be as experienced, this for me is off-putting as I like to approach things at my own pace.

Cook also explains the importance of proximity, similarity, reciprocity and disclosure when attempting to make friends through these games. Without these named factors a friendship would be unlikely as the users would seem to have nothing in common.

Dunbar's Layers is the way a person bases their relationships with others, going from close friends to friends that the individual may not see that often. During the 1980s, Robin Dunbar put forward the idea that an individual can have up to 150 separate relationships, the categories being casual, good, best and intimate friends.                                 

source

Cook then explains the meaning of primary and secondary groups. Primary groups being with individuals that you share a strong bond or a shared sense of purpose with, like family or close friends. Secondary groups are more task-focused like perhaps a team that you work with in order to create a project or presentation. The members of which can come and go without any remorse for the loss of friendship. He further explains group dynamics in the terms of leadership and hierarchy, this can be shown with titles, karma points and a visual flare.

Cook says in the initial design of an MMO, building a large world straight away is not the right way to approach it. He says to visualise your big world, then add the elements that you want to fill it with and then to create the systems that will support your world.

I don't think that this weeks reading really apply to the game I plan to design but I do understand the importance of what Cook is talking about in relation to MMO gaming and i found it very interesting looking at a bit of the psychology behind it.

Thanks for reading :) xxxxxxx

My 'Game Design Document'

Hey Huns,

Welcome back to my blog.

I'm kind of confused as to what I have to write about but here goes.

A screenshot of Dundoc after I have click add project

In the game I am designing, the main character is either a penis or a vagina. They will designed more like a cartoon than realistically. The setting is in a clinic which I will make the artwork for. The game works in a collect/avoid way in where the user collects the sperm points as well as boosts and tries to avoid damage causing STI's. The player has the option to jump, slide under or move from side-to-side in order to avoid or collect.

On the first level, the player is taught the instructions via a pop-up notification. Level 1 involves using the side-to-side movement, level 2 introduces the jumping option, and level 3 add the sliding under option.The game take place in a 3rd person view, much like games with similar concepts. Each level will progress through the clinic, from the front door to the doctors office, Seeming as if the player is moving through it themselves.

The character will make a squelchy noise when they move, I will try to compose a theme tune to play in the background, something similar to the styling of the Super Mario Bros game. 

The user will control the player using the arrow keys (up = jump, left for left, right for right and down = slide under). The game is single player but works on a leader board system, much like old arcade games of the 80's. 

I really don't understand what I'm supposed to do and I have been trying to understand for the last 2 hours. Dundoc will not allow me to create a new project for some unknown reason so I really don't know what to do at this stage. I have also reported the bug to the website.

Reading about Games GDD

Heya Huns,

Welcome back to my blog. For the reading this week we were looking at the early stages of the design process of games by Greg Aleknevicus.

source

He explains that if you are creating a game that include tiles to then make the tiles smaller than the space in which they have to inhabit so not to cause them to overlap or interfere with each other. 

He also suggests to use distinguishable colours in the design of your game, but this can be tricky as many people (including myself) are colour blind. Contrasting colours are best as they are easily distinguishable from each other and no mistakes can be made, If both characters and red and orange it can be hard to tell them apart.Greg also suggests using shape to differentiate characters in order to avoid the mix up which can occur from colour. Using different materials and components can also help to individualise characters. Use clear fonts so your game is easy to read and doesn't cause strain on the users eyes while trying to read. Keep your game uncluttered, so the user can focus on the actual game and is not distracted from the game play by an overuse of graphics.

When designing the box for your game he suggests listing the name on the side as many companies tend to forget this seemingly unmissable design point. Depending on how the game is then displayed on the shelf, this can be the selling point for the customer as they might miss the game if you forget this design feature. It is also important to display the age rating on the front, side and back of the box. 

Have your theme work with your rules, this means to have a clear set of rules that do not contradict each other (unless the add to the game play) and do not cause confusion for new players. Keep your game rules concise and to the point, don't create intentionally vague rules as they can then be interpenetrated however a player wants. Include examples of the gameplay from the rules to avoid confusion also.

I've learnt a lot of do's and don't about game design from this reading and I found it quite helpful. Even being colour blind I had not considered designing my game to suit these needs.

I also found these additional readings interesting to read:

https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/level-1-overview-what-is-a-game/

http://www.artificial.dk/articles/artgamesnetworks.htm

http://publisherperspective.blogspot.com/2009/08/playtest-notes-on-initiative-frontline.html

Game Vision Statement

Heya huns, 

Welcome back to my blog.

Today I'm going to discuss my idea for the game I will be designing. The plan is to make a platform game where the main character is a penis or vagina, avoiding STIs and collecting sperms. If possible I would like to make the game multi-levelled i.e. after each round you progress to a new level. The character will have 3 lives and every hit from an STI will take one of them away. Condoms and other contraceptives will give the player 30 seconds of invisibility from the STI's. Other obstacles like gaps in the floor will also cause the player to lose a life. The surrounding world in which the character moves will be an STI clinic to tie in with the theme of sexual health. Once the player runs out of lives, I hope to be able to add a feature that brings up a sexual health fact in order to educate users. I hope to have a comedic take on this as well as an educational one, which will hopefully then catch and keep the interest of the user.



Required resources for this game will be Unity3D,a lot of Jimmy Vegas' videos and time. While researching resources for game design, I stumbled across this article, which explains how to increase and optimise your game's performance.

The game will be similar to the likes of Temple Run and Super Mario Bros in the way that it involves collecting points (coins in the case of these games) and avoiding an enemy. 













this is the only non-pornographic image that was 
marked for reuse - source

Problems with Unity Tutorial 2

A very accurate representation of my feelings towards this - source

I know we were advised not to leave work until the last minute in case of this, but this week when I went to launch Unity it recurringly comes back with the message of an error and will not load the application. 

I have watched the tutorials and know what is expected of us to have had done for this week, but I cannot seem to find a way to fix this error, even after spending quite some time searching the internet for some answers. The error display reads 'invalid license' which I do not understand as I did not have this problem with last week's tutorial.

Apologies for not working ahead of the due dates like advised, It's hard to keep up with the workload. I may start attending the afternoon lab on Wednesdays to try and prevent this problem from occurring again.

Game Elements That I Like

 me right now - source

Hi welcome back to my blog,

Today, I was reading about game qualities and elements and a few things stood out to me. 

The first thing that caught my attention was game objectives. A critical part of any game is the objectives that the user must strive to achieve, this is what starts and finishes the game (the interesting parts are what are in between). Objectives mainly fall into 8 categories:

• Capture/Destroy - Examples inclue chess, the aim is to eliminate the opponent's pieces so that you can win.
• Terrotorial Control - Games such as Risk tend to focus more on taking control of the board rather than destroying the opponent.
• Collection - Games like the Spiro series have the aim of collecting objects which are placed randomly around the map in order to move onto the next level.
• Solve - These games take more problem solving and thinking power to result in victory,  Cluedo is a good example as the players must remember key information in order to win the game.
• Chase/Race/Escape - A lot of games fall into this category, even playground games such as chasing. The aim is to catch or not be caught by the opponent.
• Spatial Allignment - Tetris falls into this category, the game rewards spacial awareness skills.
• Build -  This type game involves improving your character or building your resources. games like the Sims and many freemium games follow this model.
• Negotiation of another goal - These games invlove avoiding doing an act, such as Jenga, the player is trying to avoid knocking over the tower while also trying to remove a block from it. Once the tower has been destroyed that player then loses.

Another part that interested me was reading up about players. Games must have either a set amount of players or have a variable. A set amount of players means that the game could not bedone right if they were over or under the required players. The variable usually goes from 2-5 players and works perfectly dine as long as there are at least 2 opponents. Games like solitaire can be played alone, other games can set a single player up against a group (hide and seek). There are any different variations of player conflict and distribution which are unique to each game. My favourite is team competition, as it invloves working in teams against your rival opponent's in order to win, examples of this inclue capture the flag or football.

Rules are another crucial part of a game, without rules the game would be a free for all and no one would win. The rules are what makes the game interesting, as you have to avoid doing something or follow them in order to become victorious. Rules are the guideline for the game, so they extremely important and necessary for the enjoyment of the player.

Feedback Thoughts

self-explanatory image above - source

While researching project feedback online, I came across 'A fixed mindset could be holding you back - here's how to change it' by Anne Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold. It was mentioned that praising a child for everything they do can result in a fixed mindset. This leads to the child growing up into an adult who believes that they are brilliant at everything and do not need to further develop their skills. I disagree with this to some extent, as it is up to the individual to decide themselves if they are good or bad at something and to then take on the responsibility of improving their skills. I do however agree with what the authors say about the then grown adult possibly blaming their shortcomings on others. 

I also read 'Why it's so hard to hear negative feedback' by Tim Herrera. He explains in the article that when receiving negative feedback, our bodies all have the same reaction of tensing up, shallowing our breathing and feeling as if our fragile egos are being threatened. We also tend to build our social groups around people who don't give us the sometimes necessary negative feedback. But as he explains, it works both ways. We avoid giving it out as much as we try to avoid hearing it. To learn and improve we need to understand that the feedback does not come from a place of hate or jealousy, but is given in good faith by those participating. This is especially important for my course as we have a lot of feedback sessions amongst the year group, and sometimes it can be hard to hear if you feel like you've put in the effort. 

Personally, I appreciate any form of feedback as it informs me if what I'm working on is worthwhile continuing with or if I need to go back to the drawing board with my idea. In work, we are told to use our own initiative with whatever we are doing, so It is up to us to decide what happens and we are then expected to deal with the consequences, good or not.

4 Game Brainstorm Ideas

Welcome back to my blog, 

I've had a few game ideas from a brainstorming session today and I'd like to share them.

The first game is based on an idea I had about spreading awareness of sexual health. The main character would be a penis or vagina (depending on user preference) who's main goal is to collect sperm cells which then count towards points (1 sperm to 1 point). The character would take damage from STI's, which will come in the form of small enemy characters (different character designs depending on the STI). The STI's could have different effects depending on which STI they are intended to represent. The character could also boost the amount of points they get and become partially immune to the STI's damaging hits if they collect contraceptives (not just condoms, to inform the user of other options). The idea comes from the likes of Temple Run or Super Mario Brothers. The character could jump over gaps in the floor or interact with the surrounding world. The world in which the game is based would be a clinic or hospital to go with the sexual health message of the game. There will also be messages at the end of each round with a sexual health fact for the user to read. 

The second game idea that I came up with was a chasing game based off a Cops and Robbers game I played as a child. The game would be a police pursuit of a getaway vehicle (the character is the car of the cop or robber). The user can choose between being the cop or robber character. The game would aim to get to the safe house before the police catch you or to catch up to the thieves before they make it to safety. Gasoline would be used as a booster to speed up the car of whichever character is chosen. Points would be allocated for the number of pedestrians the driver avoids, and damage taken for the amount hit by the speeding car. The game would also be timed rounds of around 60 seconds, to put pressure on the player to do better or to come back and beat their previous time. There may also be an option to take a secret route that moves you further towards the safe house (5-second delay from the other car). The setting of this world is the streets of Dublin City Centre, with famous landmarks hidden in the back as the car zooms past.

Screenshot from Super Mario Bros. - source

My third idea has a message about being environmentally friendly. The idea is to create a game for younger children, educating them about the importance of recycling and not harming the planet. The character will be a simple human in cartoon style in gender-neutral colours (to avoid designing multiple characters). The character is then damaged by pollutants, such as smog or toxic waste, and the more of these that the character comes across, the more the clean and lively world behind them dulls. The character can get boosters and/or gain back lives from collecting recycling signs which will be randomly generated in the map of the game. The world in which our character lives will be, in the beginning, green and full of life such as trees, flowers etc.. But as the game progresses, and the character takes on more damage, the worse of a state the world becomes, also increasing the risk of them coming across more damage causing pollutants.

The fourth and final game idea I came up with was to have a dog as the main character. The aim of the game would to navigate your way through a warehouse, owned by an evil cat (enemy), without being caught. The reason for this being that the evil cat has kidnapped the dog's owner and is keeping them hostage at the top of the warehouse. Each floor would be a new level, increasing in difficulty as the game progresses, with more and more enemies to fight off, or hide from. Boosts such as invisibility can be used to sneak past the cat's evil henchmen and points can be collected in the form of dog treats. Damage is taken from the henchmen, if caught, the game will resume from the level you just began on, but if you are killed then the game begins from level 1 again. Once you reach the roof of the warehouse, the dog's owner can be seen, but standing between you is a giant cat, reading for the final boss fight of the game. The game will publish a leader board in order to encourage users to come back and hopefully incite some healthy competition between them.

My game ideas may be a bit over-optimistic for my capabilities but I am excited to learn if I can create the exact game that I picture in my head when looking at these ideas.

Here's a link to a thread that shows the collecting part of the games I mentioned.

Unity Tutorial 01

screenshot from Johnny Vegas' tutorial - source

It was hard to get a hand of how to use Unity, even with the tutorials as it is completely unfamiliar to me. The first video was a bit easier to grasp, but once the second one began I found myself getting lost or being in a complete state of confusion. Applying the texture was not the hard part, but editing the sizes of the tiles took me a while to understand.

It took longer than expected to get through the tutorials as things like details and adding grass caused a bit of stress for me when it did not work, so a break was needed. Scripts made nearly no sense to me so I will not comment on that section of the tutorial. I will revisit these tutorials again so I can improve on the parts which caused problems.

Overall I'm not fully confident but I definitely have a better understanding of how Unity works as well as a little (emphasis on little) bit of an understanding on how to use it. I fear I may struggle in this module as it's something that is completely out of my own comfort zone and seems alien to my way of thinking.

Time Strategies

Procrastination - source

After reading 'how to build a realistic study plan that you'll actually stick to' by Amanda Collins, I feel confident that I can now create a better study plan that suits my timetable. 

I also read 'four questions to help you overcome procrastination' by Peter Banerjea. I realised that all the bad habits I have when it comes to approaching my uploads and assignments. I need to break up my workload into smaller, more manageable parts, as well as thinking about what my main priorities of my day are each day. I also definitely need to start thinking about relieving stress for my future self by working and uploading close to deadlines.

Class Technology

Image of technology - source

I see the blogs as useful tools and assets, we can learn from each other as we progress with our blogging. I am familiar with bookmarking and am aware of it's benefits in relation to this module. The only image editing tool I'm familiar with is Photoshop, so I'm looking forward to discovering more.

I have never heard of any of the graphics creation tools mentioned on the class website. I have used Padlet before in the past, but it was quite a long time ago so I'm happy to come back to it and learn more. I have never used Unity3D or WordPress before,

I find the class website and announcements blog useful, although I do have to remind myself to check these sorts of things. I will be creating a Google Docs account once I've finished with my college work for the day.

Reading Over the Assignment List

This is an image that came up when I typed 'meme' and 

I felt it was the most appropriate search result - source

Looking at the work we must do for this module, I can see a few things that I'm familiar with like reading, project work and giving project feedback. The things that are new to me are writing blog comments and using Unity3D. I'm excited to try coding my own games using Unity3D, but I fear that my coding skills aren't up to scratch . I guess I'll find out when I begin using the software.

I like the idea of extra credit and I also like the sound of the Tech Tasks (mainly because of the memes), learning more about Growth Mindset and Carol Dweck as I found it quite interesting, and partaking in extra commenting as I like to see how others are getting on with the same tasks. Hopefully, if I'm struggling a classmate could help me understand the task a bit better. The extra credit will be useful to for me if I miss uploads due to work, so I really appreciate it. A lot of the required and extra credit work in this module interest me and I'm excited to see where I will be by the end of the year.

Exploring Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset - source

I had never heard of Carol Dweck or growth mindset before watching her TedxTalk. I clicked on the video and once she began speaking, I was interested. The more she spoke, the more what she was saying began to make sense. I found myself agreeing with her, but I would still like to see more studies on different age groups, and in different countries.

Carol Dweck - source

I agree with the mindset of understanding that a failure is just an obstacle that you haven't conquered yet and I think that I have that mindset when it comes to most things, but I also see parts of me that fall into the growth-fixed mindset. I believe I can achieve what I want if I put the effort and time into it but I'm not sure if that's related to growth mindset.

I think my biggest challenge when learning new things is asking for someone to re-explain something if I don't fully understand. Another challenge I face is allowing work to build up and waiting til the last minute, or close enough, to complete the work.

I find growth mindset interesting and I would like to learn more about it. It has given me a new reason to be interested in Shaun's module and I'm excited to learn more.

My goal for this year is to gain a good understanding of the topics in each module I encounter, I'm particularly excited for Digital Video Techniques as well as Documentary Film making in the second semester (but I may have a bias). I'm also excited for Group Projects but have the fear that what comes out of it won't be something I'm proud of.

Introduction to a Digital Media Student

me acting candid - this photo is my own property

My name is James Sandelance, I'm a 20 year old Creative Digital Media Student in TU Dublin Blachardstown. My hobbies include (but are not limited to):

• Photography
• Film
• Travelling
• Cooking
• Attending Music Festivals
• And, of course, Multimedia

I have just started my second year of my course and I'm excited for what is to come.

Lat year I mostly enjoyed Digital Photography, Studio Photography & Image Production and Storytelling and Narrative. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the other modules, but those were my favourites. This year I hope to improve my coding skills as I felt like due to workload, I didn't spend a fair amount of time trying to learn it. But this year there seems to be plenty of it to go around!

Like I said earlier, I enjoy cooking, I often cook dinner for the family as no one else in my house can cook very well (sorry not sorry dad). I like making Asian dishes and trying to come up with my own fusions. I like learning new things so I'm always trying out new recipes and tweaking them to my taste, unfortunately for my family I like spicy food and they do not, so some compromise is needed.

During the summer break I was lucky enough to travel to London with my dad and Berlin with 2 of my friends. I've always liked travelling and exploring new places, as well as learning about different cultures from around the world. I'm not the person to go on a drinking holiday with because you'll probably find me at the tourist information desk trying to find a museum or booking my friends on a bus tour.

My current career goals are limited as currently, I'm not very sure of what I would like to do, I have some ideas, maybe a designer, maybe a photographer. But sometimes  think, why can't I do it all, which is optimistic, but when it comes to practicality, I know it's impossible to actually do everything. I know that I'm in a course that is in the area of what I'd like to do, so I better make my mind up soon.

In this module I'd like to improve my coding skills, learn how to create a somewhat decent game, and learn some new things I didn't know before. I tend to go into things without expectations and allow for each topic to either excite me or terrify me beyond belief. Overall I'm optimistic about my Introduction to Multimedia module and can't wait to see where the year takes me.

My experience with workshop 1

source

Today, I participated in a workshop in my multimedia lecture. There was an exercise based around traffic lights, which I had never come across before. In the exercise we were asked to create a flow chart for how the traffic should move on a timed t junction, providing there are no buttons for pedestrian use. 

We had to work in groups of three and come up with a solution.

What I learned from the exercise is that if you don't overthink the solution, it could be that the answer is right in front of you. I also learned the value of working in a team, rather than trying to come up with your own solutions to a problem. It helped me to understand the exercise differently from what my initial idea for a solution was to what the correct one was.

When I walked into the 9am lecture, uncaffeinated, I was a bit skeptical of how this exercise would go down, but my lecturer made it enjoyable and basically forced us to break the ice with each other by making us work in groups, which I do see the benefits of. I am now speaking to students in my course that I have never spoken to, and making new friends just because of the workshop. 

I enjoyed working in a group, as I always do, as it helped to hear other students opinions and ideas for a solution to the exercise. I was a bit confused myself as to what the outcomes of the exercise were or would be, but I am glad that we were able to work in a group to come u with what we believed to be the correct answer.

To be honest I find this whole reflective writing thing a bit strange but therapeutic. It helps me to understand what I have done in class and seems to be improving my memory skills, so I am positive for what has to come.

My Favourite Game

Grand Theft Auto V

source

My favourite game of all time is GTA V. The game centres around 3 characters; Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton and Trevor Phillips. The trio pull off heists, as well as being your average everyday criminals, in order to accumulate as much money as possible. 

The game allows you to change between the characters in order to help you complete different tasks needed to pull of the heists. 

The game also has side missions located around the map which are specific to each character and help to drive the story line. Money can be spent on weapons, cars or for purchasing businesses, which I am no stranger to in the game. 

After the final mission, you are free to spend your hard earned money freely, and explore the world for easter eggs which the creators hide for players to discover.

 I enjoy the open world that Rockstar provide with their fifth instalment of the video game series. And believe it to be an enjoyable game for anyone (provided they are over the age of 18!).

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