Unity Tutorial 06

Welcome back to my blog,

Screengrab from the production of the game.

This week's task was to create a game with a moving background, that enables the player to jump over objects that are coming towards them.

There were also steps involved to add animations such as running, running jumps and a death animation for when the player collided with the game objects. This was a bit more difficult to get your head around, but the video tutorials did help quite a lot.

Screengrab from the playing of the game, demonstrating the player running and jumping.

This was an extremely lengthy and time-consuming tutorial, taking nearly 5 hours to actually complete rather than the 'suggested' 3. This should be taken into account when allocating workload for students, not to be disrespectful of course.

Screengrab from the playing of the game, demonstrating the player dying.

There were a lot of new techniques being used such as the physics of a game, which was previously unknown to me, but it was enjoyable to do.

Overall, despite the amount of time it took to complete this week's task it was very rewarding to have the player do exactly what was required with relatively no problems.

Thanks for reading,

James.

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