Unity Tutorial 05

Welcome back to my blog,

A screengrab from my finished tutorial

This week I finished up on what had been assigned last week. No problems were had completing this tutorial as the video tutorials help immensely. I did have a bit of a scare when the animals did not destroy once hit with the sandwich. This was until I realised I had forgotten to add the C# Script to each animal.

I did enjoy this particular tutorial as I felt like I learned a few new things that I had not known before (and will probably forget by next week). But all in all, this tutorial was not stressful and it was rewarding once completed.

A screengrab from the second task

Now for the second part of this week's task. After completing part 1 I then moved on to the second part of week 5's tasks. I looked at the instructions and could not seem to get my head around the vague directions. 

I came back to it after several hours working on other things. Although I was able to make more progress than before my break, I was still unable to complete it due to the vagueness of the instructions (and I am aware that this is all on my own lack of knowledge on game design).

As for now, I'm going to shut off for the evening and make some tofu wraps with rose. 

Good Night and Good Luck,

James.

Reading 4, I guess

Welcome back to my blog,

self-explanatory image - source

I will begin by saying I do not understand how to use the matrix whatsoever and hearing from people who have contacted Shaun, they do not either. If I could cry, I would.

Similarities between my topics

My two topics are the structure of a game and game design documents. Similarities between these two are very limited but not non-existent. Both topics map out how the game will work i.e. the structure of a game lays out how the story will flow and a game design document lays out what elements and visuals will be used to aid in the storytelling. Think of both of them as a form of blueprints.

How I will lay out my topics

When writing about my topics I will explain what they are, what they mean and provide an example for each. Although I do feel very unqualified to so so as we are only in phase two of basic game design, coming from a place of not knowing anything about it.

I think many students would benefit from a crash course in how to actually fill in a matrix as many of the titles that are required to be filled are confusing and new.

Unity Tutorial 04

Welcome back to my blog,

This weeks task was to begin a new set of tutorials named 'Feed The Animals'. This tutorial was pretty straight forward, but time-consuming. It begins by asking the user to user player positioning to move the player from left to right on the screen, as well as placing the player and animals.

After this is completed, the user must then place a food item that they wish to feed the animals with, I chose a sandwich. The player must throw the food at the animal to feed it. No problems were had in implementing these steps to work, so I moved on.

some screengrabs of my game in action

The tutorial then demonstrated how to randomly spawn the animals as they run towards the bottom of the screen as well as having them stop existing once outside the player's view.

I do prefer these tutorials over last semester's, but they are extremely time-consuming when trying to maintain a balanced workload with other modules, on top of the fact that we have a book to research and do readings for (which is completely new to the majority of us),

it is all a bit overwhelming.

Thanks for reading,

James.

Unity Tutorial 03

Welcome back to my blog,

A screenshot of the first part of the tutorial

At the beginning of week 3's tasks, I was continuing on with last week's unity tutorial, finishing off the last few bits of the car game. This involved coding the vehicle to move from left to right, rotating the vehicle when turning, taking control of the vehicle and cleaning up your code. This was a really nice tutorial to work on and I would love if the game design process was always this straight forward and pleasant.

 A screenshot of the second part of the tutorial

In the second part of the tutorial, we were challenged with fixing problems in an existing game's code. The game was a plane flying through gaps in a wall, the plane moved backwards, spun in circles and had no controllability. This tutorial did not include any visuals to follow along to, so it proved to be a bit more challenging. With the aid of my good friend Google, I was able to finish this tutorial, but I did ignore the 'bonus' part of it as it was implied to be optional and I was truly not bothered.

Reading 3

I found this image from searching 'scholar' - source

Welcome back to my blog,

I have been using Google Scholar to research into my two subtopics - Game Design Documents and The Structure of a Game. Below are the beginnings of my findings:

Game Design Documents

sources used in this research:

• https://www.kth.se/social/files/581afc07f276545fe24dbde2/BaldwinGameDesignDocumentTemplate.doc
• https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Eks3DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA109&dq=game+design+document&ots=uSo5aeHFUT&sig=CHK9omBQB_1E0HFQ_9-5ndVnbr8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=game%20design%20document&f=false

A game design document is the blueprints or plans for all elements of your game, it can (and most likely will) change and evolve as you finetune your game concept. It should include:

• The name of your game
• Copyright information
• What version of the game it is, including the author and date of publication.

As for the actual information on your game, the document should include a detailed account of the game's storyline, the mechanics, artistic style, level design, audio, obstacles and rewards. Your document should be detailed enough that if it were handed to another person, they could go ahead and develop your game without having to re-consult you.

The Structure of a Game

sources used in this research:

• https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2Adk9hp8nh8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=structure+of+a+video+game&ots=eiftlaK_4y&sig=rJhDb3ww-CpWSKIIKEy0GN0Egmw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=structure%20of%20a%20video%20game&f=false
• https://books.google.ie/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9kPRGPc4zHQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA226&dq=video+game+structure&ots=DAuYMpAyFb&sig=y_DAIl7RrZNMf8dtvMA-6gXotXc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=video%20game%20structure&f=false

The structure of a game is a blanket term for several elements of your game development, these include:

• Rules - the guidelines of what the user needs to achieve to get from A to B.
• Narrative - the storyline that drives the game forward.
• Interactivity - can your character interact with other characters?
• Space - the environment in which your game is set / the world around the player.

Based on the second reading, I have learned that the concept art for a videogame is the most real version of the game in it's earliest stages, it is used as a reference point to look back on. It may deviate from the original but it is completely necessary to progress and evolve in your game design and development. Concept art is used throughout the game's development to visualise what is being done in 1s and 0s.

Unity Tutorial 02

My progress from the first set of tutorials

Welcome back to my blog,

Based on how well we think we got on with coding last semester, we were given two options: either restart with coding unity tutorials or to progress onto VR. If you have read my blog you will not be surprised to see that I am restarting the coding aspect of game design.

This week's task was to follow a series of mini-tutorials from steps 1.1-1.3. Compared to last semester this is a much easier and less overwhelming way of learning how to use unity. Although the tutorials can repeat themselves at times, they seem to be much more manageable when broken up in the way this one has been.

In these tutorials, we were reintroduced to the first few basic steps of game design. I even learned a few new tricks on how to navigate the world I'm building by using the keyboard and mouse. I can't name many negatives with these tutorials so far, except for the fact that it took me a few videos to realise he repeats his steps several times throughout each video.

Overall I believe these tutorials are a lot more manageable and nicer to do than Jimmy Vegas' as he did know how to drag a video out to the maximum length possible.

Reading 2

I found this image when searching 'tired but happy' - source

Welcome back to my blog,

The chapter I have selected is 'Designing and Development', my two chosen subtopics for the collaborative textbook are 'The Structure of a Game' and 'Game Design Documents'. The following questions are what I will search for when researching my subtopics:

• How is a game structured?
• What is the structure of a game?
• How to apply structure to your game.
• What is a game design document?
• How to make a game design document.

The questions that may be the most useful are 'how is a game structured?' and 'how to make a game design document'. Assuming the people using this book do not know much about game design, I do think that my questions meet the checklist and will aid me when researching my subtopics.

Here are some search strings that will be useful for my research:

• "GDD" AND make AND create
• "Design Documents" AND make AND create
• "Game Structure" AND how AND what
• "Game Layout" AND how AND what
• "Game Plan" AND how AND what
• "Videogame Structure" AND how AND what

Here are some links that will help in my research:

• http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/game-structure
• http://www.gamesprecipice.com/category/game-structures/
• https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-and-why-to-write-a-great-game-design-document--cms-23545
• https://stemchallenge.org/resources/game-design-documents/

I will continue to search for sources that I can use when writing my parts of the chapter. I will also check TU Dublin's library for relevant literature as well as Google Scholar.