Games Testing

This week the readings where about testing. The first article I read was Level: 11 testing, the article went on to talk about the general concept of play testing. and how there are many different kinds that need to be differentiated, its important to be able to playtest your own creations and be able to set it up so others can playlets it too. This gives us valuable information about our games and if it works. Getting feedback from game-players e.g. target audience is way more important then game designers.
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The next article I read was "Giving Criticism the good the bad and the ugly". This article talked about how criticism is good when done right. It talks about the good way of giving criticism which is constructive. Constructive criticism gives a good mix of good and bad, well not really bad just what could use work.

The article gave good tips for giving criticism and how to make it useful for the person you are giving  important information to. I liked how the article also gave some examples of good uses of criticism and of bad I found this really helpful and it will come in handy when I'm giving criticism in the future  and when I'm taking criticism as well it'll give me a better understanding
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Alpha

This week I worked on getting my game ready to be tested and played. My game is far from perfect at the moment but I am happy with the progress I have made with it at the moment. 

Some of my scripting I am having issues with I had to delete my main menu from the start as it kept glitching my game for some reason my laptop just didn't agree with it for some reason. My gem is kind of working at the moment unity has been crashing a bit lately on me again but some elements of it still works. The gem is how I want it to look at it rotates and everything its just my character won't take it, I have to keep going back to my script and see why but the problem is hard to figure out.

I am happy with how my character jumps onto the vinyls, I spaced them out evenly so that when the character jumps it is less likely to fall off or miss it. My vinyls are more dome shaped then I would've liked but I think they give the game more depth instead of having them really flat, I just think at this stage if my vinyls where how I originally wanted them the game would appear really dull and boring not as good as it appears now.

I am very happy with how my game looks on screen and when being played, Its how I kind of imagined it obviously its not my exact vision from the start but thats ok because I was way too ambitious, I got a little bit carried away with all the features I wanted to add in.

At the moment I am liking how my game is and hopefully others will too, It matches my vision that I had from the start when I came up with this idea. I would like to keep working on it and constantly progress my work and the mechanics because mechanics are where I struggle.

                                                                   

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Unity Free Tutorials

This week we got to look at tutorials that we would find useful for our games.  I find these really useful because its nice to be able to add our own ideas and do some research of our own into tutorials and find ones that will work and maybe not.

I found a tutorial by jimmy Vegas on how to make a credit screen for the end of you game. I found this tutorial really useful because it is something I would like to add into my game at one point. The tutorial was really easy to follow and understand. You had to add a UI Raw image into the game and then choose a background colour and anchor it to stretch you can then just play around with the positions to get to what you want it to look like. The part that was grand and simple was putting the text you would like to be displayed at the end of your game. I liked this tutorial and found it helpful and will be implementing it not my game.

The next tutorial I found was to do with putting an almost firework effect into your game. I found this tutorial at parts hard to follow but I really like the effect it displays. I think this tutorial may have been a little too advanced for my skill level for now. I did enjoy giving it a try though and giving my best to get it to work but it just wouldn't. The tutorial wasn't great to follow as I found it would skip over parts at times or I couldn't keep up.  For now this probably something I will not be adding into my game but it was good practice and hopefully something in the future I will look more into.

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Games Stories

The readings for this week where all about stories and games the fist article read was "Level 8 Games and Art".  This article talks about the question "Can Games be Art", its an argument that has been going on for a long time and why waste time retreading old ground the article delves further into why we should.

1. Fun is not the only purpose of a game, games can be successful without their main objective being fun.

2. It needs to be discussed more and not just between experienced game designers bit novices as well.

3. A lot of art games are small and simple in scope, so this gives designers a wonderful opportunity to establish themselves as game designers.

4. Know about the art history.
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The next article I read was "Into the woods: A practical Guide to the Hero's Journey".  The article goes on to talk about why the hero story is important and why bother with it, its important because myths are important they convey the values of society and teach each other who we are and how we should behave.

Myths give us a sense of personal identity, they make sense of community, they lie underneath our moral views, myths are our way of dealing with inscrutable mystery of death and creation. Storytelling is a way to make sense of the world its wired into our brains like spinning a web is wired into a spider. Without myths to guide our lives we are lost. To write stories you need to understand how myths are put together and communicated, that is why a hers journey is so important!

A professor Joseph Campbell analysed thousands and myths and found that some common elements kept popping up.

• Establishing the heroes world
• The call to adventure 
• Entering the Mythological woods
• Trail of trial
• Encountering the evil one
• Gaining the hero's prize
• Returning the prize to the community 

The article talks about how to use the hero journey to build your stories 

1. Pick your premise
2. Create your hero
3. Create a great villain

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The next article I read was "What Every Game Developer Needs to know about story. The article talks about how important a story truly is to a game and how at the moment its a really hot topic in the industry. There are common misconceptions where people think story doesn't matter and story is dialog. The main thing is that Story is CONFLICT. The article goes son about story in general and what will work.

There is a classical story structure that follows

• First theres a protagonist e.g. Hero
• There world is thrown out of order by an inciting incident 
• Gap opens between hero and orderly life
• Hero tries the normal life and fails
• Hero has to overcome a risk
• Then there is a reversal
• Hero has to overcome a greater risk to get over second gap
• Overcoming second gap means a third gap opens 
• Third gap is the greatest risk to overcome and is the object of desire

The article talks about why character is crucial to a game and needs to be well thought out. We then learn the importance of reversals in a story, and how a story forms before a game. there are different types of conflict in stories e.g. inner conflict. The article then goes on to talk about the story and the writer and how to have good ending to your story.

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First Playable

This week I worked on the first playable version of my game. Luckily my unity went a lot better then last week and didn't freeze or crash as much as it did last week. I had a bit of trouble with my scripting this week though for some reason it just wouldn't work as id of liked it to but I am still happy with my progress and how it is going so far.

It was great because last week was such a stress creating my game with everything not working as it should, it was nice this week to be able to further my game and not have as many annoying problems with unity.

This week I worked on making my game look more exciting and overall match the aesthetic I set out to achieve for the pop level. I used a skybox I downloaded from the asset store and changed the colour of it to pink because the first level is pop music so as I stated in the game design document pop music is associated with bright and fun colours. I am really happy with the skybox and how it came out it really made the game pop.

I also made a special vinyl (prize). This vinyl was made by creating a sphere and changing its dimensions and using a material with a multi coloured glass effect, I had downloaded a different material from the asset store but it wouldn't import so I improvised and luckily the coloured glass was perfect for the vinyl look I wanted to achieve.

Last week I had no luck getting the first person controller in my unity just wouldn't let me it was so annoying and frustrating , luckily this week I was able to get one in and start working and scripting with it. The scripting as I was saying is causing a little bit of hassle but it is hopefully just a small mistake that I am yet to spot. The first person controller is at the moment working but just a few glitches that need to be sorted out.

I am really happy with how my game is looking at the moment, It is so bright and colourful which is what I wanted to achieve. I want my game to be calming and not stressful just simple and fun to play for all ages.

My Screenshots from unity

Week 8 Progress

Looking back I am happy with my progress so far. Every week I make a mental note of the days we have something due for multimedia development module and do the things we have due that morning or a day or so before its due. Usually I will do my reading on a Monday just so I have it done a bit earlier and I can reflect on my work and read back over the articles during the week so they would be helpful when I was continuing with my project.

For the weekend assignments I will do a bit usually everyday of the weekend on friday I will get my bearings and make notes on what I have to do and where I should start. On Saturdays I do quite a small amount of work just so I get a Bir of a break from college and I can relax for a while. Sundays I will do the majority of my work in the mornings so that I can have my afternoons free from work. Unity tutorials I would always do on a Thursday just because it would work out well because I would always have the time to do them.

I would usually do my commenting on blogs on the Sunday afternoon as I enjoyed commenting and found it interesting looking at how other people are getting on with their projects, I also found it useful looking at the blogs later on in the day after I had done my work because then I could go back and see what my work standard was like and the bits that need more work.

A change I would like to make is to maybe do a bit more work on a Friday instead of a Sunday because I found myself getting a bit stressed out at times and worrying about getting everything done on time. I would like to try and do a bit more extra commenting its just this semester I found myself a bit pressed for time and not using them that much.

Looking back I am really proud of my blogs because I was able to do all of them and get them submitted on time, I would like to continue this way throughout this semester and the next.

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Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The Comments and Feedback from my blog have been really great and of good help to me. It was really nice when you'd see that someone had write a comment on your blog and gave a few pointers on how to improve your game or just talking about something they found out we had in common through my introduction post. The comments I found most useful where the ones on my Game Design Documents and Vision Statement. The people who commented gave great pieces of advice on what I could do and what I could possible change, these came in great when it came to actually making my game because I began to think more listen and apply the feedback people had made to what I was doing.

I think the quality of the comments I left on peoples blogs where quite good, I liked reading about others game ideas and how they planned on making their games. It was great to get the chance to comment and ask questions such as how, why and when. It also helped me looking and giving feedback on other peoples blogs because they made me then look back on my work and see was it up to standard or does it need so improving. I really enjoyed commenting on peoples blogs it was a nice way to see everyones work and how they where getting on.

I feel like I got to know a few people a bit better by commenting on their blogs and by them commenting on mine. I got to comment and talk to people that I had never really spoken to before so it was really nice to read their introduction blogs and get a better understanding of who they are and what their aspirations are. I like the randomiser because it made me branch out and not just comment on the blogs of people I know it was a an easy way to find new people. I'm still happy with my introduction post I feel like it displayed who I am, what I like and what I don't like well. It was a really nice way to kind of start of blogging it made me more comfortable with blogger as I had never used it before. My introduction post could probably have a little bit more information about me but I quite like that its not overly packed with information too.

I think I need to still get a bit more comfortable with giving advice and feedback I sometimes tip toe around when giving advice, I need to not hold back as much and be more open. I need to not worry so much about what the person I'm commenting on might think of my feedback and if they even want it, I do enjoy giving feedback and I am happy with my commenting but it could still use a bit of fine tuning at times. I really like how my blog looks I changed and experimented with it throughout it was really fun and easy to do.

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Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back on my readings I'm quite happy with them and I feel as though my writing seriously benefited from doing them every week. I became more aware of my writing and how to be more conscious of what I'm writing and is it relevant and also a big thing is it all spelled correctly. The reading and writing assignments I found where good to do and benefited me immensely because before this module I had absolutely no clue about game design I came into the class completely blind, it was good for me to have the readings to do each week because I got a better understanding of the ins and outs of game design and just how much work and detail goes into game design.

My favourite reading was probably the one from week 5 which was "Games GDD". I liked this reading because I found it really interesting and benefiting for me when making my game. Without a games design document a game will fall flat and not work its just not possible because of everything that needs to be recorded in the document and then added into the game. If you didn't make a document it would be beyond difficult to make a game because you wouldn't have any important information played out for anyone else to read and comment on to give guidance and opinions.

My reading notes are definitely helping me with my game without the readings and my blogs I would be completely lost and wouldn't really have a clue what I was doing, its great to be able to look back at my readings when I need to. I am a lot better at reading now then I was at the start of the semester I find I can read long articles and be able to pin point the important information a lot quicker then I could before.I am happy with my game project it has and is difficult but I am doing my best and constantly learning.My biggest accomplishment I would say is my blogs, I'm really proud of them because I put so much time and effort into them and I think it payed off. They have been a great source for me when making my game its great to have everything I've done in one place and so easy to find.

My Favourite Image 

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This is my favourite image from my previous blogs, I just really like the message and how nice it is to look at. Its an image I like to look back on because sometimes I find myself being very negative so its good to have this to change that mindset

Looking Forward I would like to keep refereeing to my reading when creating my game as they will be of huge help throughout and give me a better understanding on how to make my game enjoyable and exciting. I would also like to look more at the growth mindset readings again to see if there is anything i could improve in my way of thinking and doing. Growth Mindset is something that I've really liked exploring, I had never looked into it before this module, so I am very grateful that it is now something I am familiar with and constantly improving on.

I really enjoyed the readings each week, I was and still am constantly learning and trying to extend my vocabulary which has made my writings so much better. Its been interesting looking back at my readings form the beginning to know, I can see how I've improved throughout the semester.

Prototype

This week I have been trying to work on my Prototype I have had a really difficult time with unity as it keeps crashing and things aren't woking. I tried my best to create a prototype but it proved extremely hard. I started to create my world again as unity crashed on me and my work didn't save. I made my terrain how I would like it to be even though its a world based around music I still want it to look and feel like its outside in nature. 

I tried to add in my first person controller but when I wanted to import one it wouldn't work this was very frustrating as I tried everything but there was no option to get it in. I made a brick wall and changed the colour into a pink so that when the player is playing the game they will see the pink wall and understand they are in the pop music world. I made a bubblegum pink gem as well to indicate pop music and fun. I added in spheres and changed their sizing and proportions to make them look like vinyls peeking out of the ground that the player will be able to step on. I also downloaded skyboxes to add into my game to give the game a calm and enjoyable atmosphere. I added in sound effects that will hopefully help to bring the game to life. It was hard to see my game for what it was because I couldn't import the first person controller I was really disappointed as I love my game ideas and where my games going but unity just isn't my friend. I hope this week to  attend the labs and lectures to get a better understanding of how to make my game and hopefully sort out all the issues I am having. 

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Unity Free Tutorials

This week I had to find Unity tutorials that I thought would help me and be useful for my game.

The first Tutorial I looked at was how to put background music into unity. I wanted to check out this tutorial because my game is based around music and I was curious on how I would be able to put in background music. The tutorials tarts by downloading free music and then opening unity. Before I added the music I clicked/selected the main camera and went to the audio at the side of the screen, I then dragged in the audio file into unity and then dragged that over to the side where the audio was. It then gave information and its good to turn on loop because it will continue to play throughout. I liked this tutorial because I hadn't a clue how to add in music and this tutorial explained it really well.

The next tutorial I looked at was making a main menu for the start of the game by Jimmy Vegas. This tutorial was ok to follow I found that it a bit difficult though to get to work at times even though I was following it and doing parts over and over again. The scripting was very simple only a few lines of code it was ok dragging the script then into a new game object and getting the buttons to actually work proved challenging. I did like this tutorial because it was very straight forward and there was no fussing about in the future I would like to change the font and the colour of the buttons just to make it suit my game better.

The next tutorial I watched was how to create score and counting by jimmy Vegas. The first thing I had to do was add a game object then add a component which was a new script, I followed the scripting and more but I was finding it too difficult and it was done in Java script rather the C#. I ended up watching and trying to create as the tutorial went on but it wasn't going as I hoped.

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Game Fun

This weeks readings where all centred around and about the word "Fun".  Fun is just another word for learning we have an idea of what fun is but not why things are fun. These readings are going to guide us into the meaning behind the word "fun".

Clubs diamonds hearts and spades: Players who suit MUD's

The article explains how there are 4 approaches to playing MUD's. The approaches arise from inter-relationship of two-dimensions vs playing style, action vs interaction and world-orientation vs player orientated. These explain the labelling of MUD's being "Social" or "Game like"

MUD's link back to 1978 Trubshaws game MUD's can still be of great value in non game. The thrust of this paper emphasises those factors that should be kept in mind when trying to create a good MUD whatever the application it's only the terminology of "fun" MUDs, not the subject matter. Even those MUDs built from the ground up are still treated by users as if they were games.

Four things people enjoyed personally about MUD's
-Achievement within the game context
-Exploration of the game
-Socialising with others
-Imposition upon others

Looking into each player type in more detail 
Achievers regard points-gathering and rising in levels as their main goal.  Explorers delight in having the game expose its internal machinations to them.Socialisers are interested in people, and what they have to say.  Killers get their kicks from imposing themselves on others.
How many players typically fall within each area depends on the MUD. If too many gravitate to one particular style, the effect can be to cause players of other persuasions to leave,  can feed back and reduce the numbers in the first category. Making sure that a game doesn't go off in the wrong direction and lose players can be difficult.
Achievers are interested in doing things to the game. Achievers are proud of their formal status in the game's built-in level hierarchy, and of how short a time they took to reach it. Explorers are interested in having the game surprise them. Explorers are proud of their knowledge of the game's finer points, especially if new players treat them as founts of all knowledge. Socialisers are interested in interacting with other players. Socialisers are proud of their friendships, their contacts and their influence. Killers are interested in doing things to people. Killers are proud of their reputation and of their oft-practiced fighting skills.

Changing the player type balance
A stable MUD is one in which the four principal styles of player are in equilibrium. This means that over time players for each style remains constant, so that the balance between the the various types remains the same. 

Players
Putting emphasis on players rather than the game is easy, just give the system with lots of communication commands and little else. The more the scales are tipped towards players, though, the less of a MUD you have and the more of a CB-style chatline. Beyond a certain point, the game can't provide a context for communication,  it ceases to be a viable virtual world and no longer have a MUD.
Worls 
Make it so big and awkward that no-one ever meets anyone in it, you can ensure that if they do meet up, then there are very few ways in which they an interact. 
Interacting
Putting the emphasis on interaction rather than action can go a long way. Restricting the freedom of players to choose different courses of action is the mechanism for implementing it, so they can only follow a narrow or predetermined development path. It's MUD-as-theatre


Player Interactions
Achievers vs Achievers: Achievers regard other achievers as competition to be beaten
Achievers vs Explorers: Achievers tend to regard explorers as losers
Achievers vs Socialisers: The achievers don't want to lose the argument, and the socialisers don't want to stop talking.
Achievers vs Killers: Achievers don't particularly like killers, Increasing the number of killers will reduce the number of achievers.
Explorers vs Achievers:Explorers look on achievers as nascent explorers.
Explorers vs Explorers: Explorers hold good explorers in great respect.
Explorers vs Socialisers: Explorers consider socialisers to be people they can impress.
Explorers vs Killers: Explorers often have a grudging respect for killers.
Socialisers vs Achievers: Socialisers like achievers they provide the running drama which the socialisers can converse.
Socialisers vs Explorers: Socialisers consider explorers to be sad characters who need a life.
Socialisers vs Socialisers: Socialisers can talk to one another on any subject for hours on end, and come back later for more.
Socialisers vs Killers: The hatred that some socialisers bear for killers admits no bounds
The reading goes on to talk about more different types of player interactions.

This article helped give me a better understanding of MUD's as I hadn't had any extensive knowledge before now.
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The second article was MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubec. This was an article I had read before and was happy to revisit as it was really insightful. Its about the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics framework. In The article explains everything about MDA and how each part plays a significant role in understanding games. MDA helps to better the experience of gaming as a whole and will then impact people to better their designs and research thats involved in every game out there at the moment.
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Another Article I found helpful
MUD history

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Final GDD

Working on finalising my Game Design Document was a learning experience it was great to start to understand the different elements of my game and what people will be looking for and want to know about my game. I found some aspects of the document a bit difficult to fill out so more research and to be done so I was confident that what I was writing made and sense and would be understood. Writing my Game Design Document has been a huge step to understanding and getting ready to produce my game, it has built my confidence up and I am looking forward to continuing my work.

Dundoc Project

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Unity Tutorial 5

In the Unity tutorial episode nine Jimmy Vegas gives instructions on how to use a sky box in your game and how it changes the effect of what people see. I learned how to apply the skybox as a material the skybox is usually set on a default one so I learned how to make the skybox more of what I would like it to be for my game and future reference. Learning how to manipulate the scene lighting was fun it was great to know and will come in handy. I enjoyed playing with and experimenting with the environmental lighting it is such a simple and easy effect but adds a lot of character. The tutorial went on to explain how you can turn of the directional light and skybox to make the scene be quite dark I didn't try this out as it isn't an effect that I will be needing. The tutorial continued on and explained how to create wind zones and what they are.  I learned how to add in wind zones to different areas it was easy enough to add in the wind zones, it was very fun to experiment with the turbulence.

In the next tutorial I learned how to pick up the axe that we added into our game.  The tutorial explained how to make a cube collider surrounding the axe, we did this so that the axe would then be able to be picked up the tutorial shows how to put the axe into a tree it then went over to use C# Script to pull it out it was a bit complicated to follow the instructions sometimes during this part I found myself replaying the video a lot but it was great to finally get it to work. I liked learning and adding in the fade screens we did a bit of script work for this and used it as an animation and put it in an animation folder. I found the fade screen a little bit tedious at parts but I got the general gist of what it was doing and how to add it into my game.

These tutorials where quite nice to learn from and also allowed for a bit of experimentation which I liked a lot. I think these tutorials will benefit me when I am creating my own game.

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Game Decisions

This weeks reading material was called "Cozy Games" By Daniel Cook. The article starts by explaining what a cozy game is and how to design them.
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The article talks about how coziness is an aesthetic for games and gives the example of animal crossing. Coziness refers to how strongly a game strongly evokes the fantasy of safety, abundance and softness. We then get an explanation as to why people want to play cozy games, cozy games can fulfil needs, its a means of satisfying unmet needs and its a form of safe practice. We then learn about the factors that negate coziness a few examples are Danger, fear, threat, Responsibility, Intense stimulus and Confinements. Coziness overpass with quite a few aesthetics and themes for example childlike, cute, romance, small world, home, party and politeness. But coziness has a unique identity separate from the few examples.

Cozy games make people feel good they help players explore their higher order needs. the article talks about how games motivations were directed towards young men and never met the motivations women, people from non-western countries, older generations and people with children. Newer models today such as tend and self-determination theory describes a more broad and diverse set of player behaviours and motivation. The article talks about how people who play comfy games usually don't want stress or conflict and how there is a process to remember, 1. Mechanics generate emotion 2. Emotions attract players 3. Social norms spread 4. Developers reap what they sew.

We learn about the general cozy design principals, Cozy is an adjective, Coziness is player dependant and Coziness thrives on authenticity. The aesthetics of cozy are abundance, smooth transitions, Protection and Support, Focus, Mundanity, Refuge and escape, Human-centric, Welcome, Seasons and Ritual. Cozy visuals include Colours, Light, Natural Materials, Space and contrast. Cozy Audio includes the obvious music which needs to be gentle and acoustic and sounds must be soft fro example a cat purring water running down a river and fire crackling. Cozy locations have to be calm and not have a sense of danger to them. Cozy items are usually found in cozy spaces e.g. a fishing rod, flowers and wooden blocks. The article talks about cozy mechanics and gives an example about how when the trees shake it makes a nice sound when you are trying to get fruit and makes the experience pleasurable.

 Optional activities is a must in cozy games gives the player freedom and a sense of security. the article then talks about safe rituals and how repeated low risk tasks allow players to relax. Patterns of cozy narrative it tends to exhibit certain qualities e.g. low pressure and non-violent. Nrratives tend to center around "it takes a village", "immigrants hour" and a few more. Cozy characters have to be friendly they tend to be easy to befriend in a way and portray the cozy aesthetic. There can be a challenge with cozy interactions online because it can be dehumanizing. Cozy unlike other game aesthetics that usually few others as enemies, cozy wants to attract a better community. Conversations should ramble with cozy games.

We learn about the different types of gifting and how they are not all equal. Forcing cozy in social interactions can cause it to fall apart. There is a lot of design patterns in building a cozy game that cam be applied to any game created, it was very insightful to read this article and learn about a design process in so much detail.

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Game design document

This week I made a game design document on Dundoc. I have never used or even heard of Dundoc before so I did find it a bit confusing to use. I tried my best to fill in as much into the site map as I could and I am happy with what I have produced. It was really difficult at first trying to wrap my head around everything and understand what I needed to do but once I start writing and thinking clearly I

I found some of the headings and areas of the sitemap to difficult to do and to understand so I would have to just leave them for a while and try and come back to them with a more clear mindset and information on what the sitemap was asking me to write and document

Once I was settled and understood Dundoc I found it really easy to use and quite useful. It helped me to flesh out my game idea and think about what I could possibly ad to my game to make it more exciting to play, it made making a game design document easier and interesting.
Dundoc Document

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Unity Tutorial 4

This week in the unity tutorials we were using raycast again and how to make UI elements, I really liked using unity this week as I find I am becoming more accustomed with using it but at times it still proves difficult. I became familiar with what an action key/text is and found out how to use them efficiently.  I enjoyed adding in the cursor elements I thought it was interesting, it was good to learn how to create an action and have it display.

Adding the raw image to the cursor was fun to do but got a bit confusing as I kept going wrong when following the steps but learned along the way. I then created the C# script for the the gem that was was collected by using an action. The tutorial then went on to explain more about variables and I enjoyed working more with the c# script this week. It was interesting to see how the code works and just how important it is.

I liked how in the tutorial we learned more about adding in the environmental elements, this is such an important thing for me to know and learn and I found it easy enough to follow along with the video. Adding in the fence was easy enough to do and the instructions where clear. I really enjoyed learning how to create a weapon and then learning how to make it usable for the person playing by downloading the axe element. It was interesting to actually create it in unity and adjusting the sizing and making sure all the elements were there, I had to be really careful to not make mistakes or forget anything creating the weapon. Animating was fun to explore and learning how to record so it can either loop or just play once.

Adding in the audio wasn't easy to do because its obviously something I have never done before. It took me a while to really understand what I was doing and to wrap my head around why certain things were used. But I eventually was able to follow the tutorial and have a better understanding. The was a lot of C# script used in these tutorials which I was happy about because I want to be more in tune with using it.

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Games GDD

The Early Stages of Design Process outlines what we have to consider when making a game and how as we go on during this module we will learn more and more about the design process that involves so many different components.

The article I read was Design Considerations by Greg Aleknevicus. The article goes on to talk about rules for good design. Components is the first thing he outlines clearly. Greg gives good tips for example make the tiles smaller than the spaces it will be put on and to use shape and colour to distinguish pieces and to avoid clutter.

It was interesting to read about "The Box" and realise how important it is to a game and how many design elements are used for it. Greg goes on to talk about cards and that how most people think they are easy to make and this is why there is so many poorly deigned cards out there, he outlines how to produce a well deigned card with tips like have the index on all four corners, use large indices, use a white border and to include extra cards as replacements.

Theme was well discussed in this article. "The theme needs to work with the rules rather than against them" is something I will be keeping in mind. Rules are then played out and explained with tips on how to produce good rules first mentioned is blind test the rules which is a crucial step it will be of good assistance and is crucial, don't be intentionally vague with the rules this can ultimately ruin a game. There are many more examples of guidelines to follow though with when making rules. At the end of the article greg writes what he would like to see every company employ which is "Support your game online", "Make replacement parts available" and "Include extra components as replacements".

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Game Vision Statement

Record Scratch is a platform game created for PC, the game will see the main character played by you jumping from vinyl to vinyl across a musical landscape to collect prizes and reach new and different musical worlds.


The game record scratch is a exciting and innovative game that sees the main character who will be an average Joe of sorts jumping onto vinyls which act as stepping stones for the main character to explore the musical landscape and also collect prizes which will be in the shape of musical objects like a microphone, guitar and many more.

 The aim of this game is to not fall off the vinyls. The vinyls act as stepping stones for you (the main character). This game is about an average person wanting to escape the reality of daily life, the main character wants to escape their nine-five job and be someone else and be somewhere else. 

The character then decides to create his own world while listening to music, a world where music is the one and only important thing, where vinyls act as a path and music is constantly changing to correspond with daily tasks

Music is a gateway for many people it can be a way for someone to escape relax and think about nothing but the music thats playing. The game was created for exactly that reason want people to play this game and be transported to a new world where music is the absolute main objective.

 Record scratch will consist of different music genres because everyone is different and I want everyone to enjoy this game.

The game will be fast paced one slip up will cause you to fall from a vinyl and you will have to start the game all over again. 

There will be special vinyls available to jump on and if you jump onto them successfully you will win extra lives or a more points to add to your total.

This game is going to be new and exciting because there is no games like this on the market at the moment. 

It is fresh, enjoyable, fast paced and I think it will be exhilarating when its played because no one will have experienced a game like this before.

Key Features of the game include

• It is a 3D game 
• It will be enjoyed by all age groups
• its a Platform game with some adventure
• Lots of music
• A great story
• Goal driven 
• Simple but not easy

Links that were of interest to me

Linkedin

Pluralsight

Gamasutra

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Unity Tutorial 3

In this weeks unity tutorial the task was to create a simple clock that would display the current time. I found it a little bit difficult to follow the instructions at times and would find myself getting frustrated when it wouldn't be working the way it should. I did like that we weren't following a video this week, It was nice to have a set of notes and guidelines to go by and as I finished a step it was refreshing to just see the nest step written out in text.

Creating a game object was simple enough to do and was easy to understand. Creating the clock face was fun to do but it was kind of hard at parts in my opinion but I did liked doing it and putting in the different values. The periphery was interesting to make I liked creating a separate material for it and changing the colour. It was extremely difficult doing the next steps it took me a while to get an understanding of what I was doing.

Making the arms was very taxing to do but I am happy that I was able to create them cause at times I thought I wasn't going to be able to. Animating the clock was interesting cause I had to add in code which wasn't to bad because the code was provided so it was just making sure that I copied everything and that the code was in the right place and that everything that needed to work was doing what it should. Putting in all the code for the arms, rotating the clock basically making the clock perfect was painstaking at times to do but it was very rewarding when the code would work and the clock came together. I look forward to expanding my skills and hopefully becoming more efficient
with unity.

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Games MDA

The article MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubec. Is about the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics framework. In the article the it goes on to explain everything about MDA and how each part plays a significant role in understanding games. MDA is helping us to better the experience of gaming as a whole and will then impact people to better their designs and research thats involved in every single game.
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The Vimeo video also went through MDA in more fleshed out detail which was good because it was nice to thoroughly go through everything step by step and helped me to understand what MDA was and most importantly what it actually stood for. MDA is a huge part of games it is basically games itself without MDA there wouldn't be games to begin with.
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Designing to promote intentional play the powerpoint was helpful to read because everything was nicely laid out. The powerpoint is about intentionality its the ability of the players to ache their own meaningful goals through understanding the game dynamics and make plans to achieve them using the information provided. The powerpoint got on to give examples of intentional gameplay throughout and gives examples of the tools needed.

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Feedback Strategies

Feedback is something that often times scares me it can be a daunting thing. I don't enjoy giving feedback most of the time because I can sometimes feel like I'm disrespecting someones work even when I know I'm not it can just in my opinion feel that way.

I read the article "How to give feedback without sounding like a jerk" by Adam Grant. I enjoyed this article because the author drew from his personal experience. The article also had helpful ways to give feedback that where simple and to the point. I like how the author said to explain why you are giving feedback, I think this is a nice example of how to get comfortable with giving feedback. Another simple point was to ask the person if they wanted feedback, this point is so important but something I think most people would forget to ask including myself.
Article

The next article I read was "The trouble with amazing" by Jennifer Gonzalez. This article was extremely eye opening because I found myself taking in this new way of thinking and giving feedback and how impersonal the word amazing is. This article shows how a simple word can be sometimes destructive. The word amazing I find is a word that gives praise when it wasn't needed its not specific. Gonzalez went on to talk about her experience with the word amazing and I found it quite relatable like many of us would.
Article

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Game idea research

After consideration and the game I have chosen is "Record Scratch". I think this one is my strongest game idea and the one I would be most interested in making and having fun with while experimenting and learning along the way.

Record Scratch in a summary is a game where a character is jumping/running from vinyl to vinyl through different music worlds for example rock and pop. There will possibly rewards to be given during the game when the character passes a milestone in the game.

I didn't really know what game mechanics where before I did some research on them and saw how many there are to choose from and explore. I want my game to be simple but fun, because thats what I like in a game I hate when a game has too much going on in my opinion a game can become boring very fast when there isn't proper structure to it or the mechanics are just thrown in there for no reason just so they can say they are there.

Mechanics I would be interested in adding into my game would be points/progression dynamic, level themes and lives.
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I think adding in the points/progression dynamic would really work for my game idea from my research I can see that it would fit into my game. I would like the points to be earned by maybe jumping onto a vinyl that is gold to represent its a milestone accomplishment for the player so they will get extra points and lives.
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Level themes is a game mechanic I am interested in the most but I'm not sure if it will be in my game at this moment. I would like to do level themes based on music genres, I think it would make my game stand out and be enjoyable to play.
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Lives would be a good mechanic in my game because I also want to have the points system in place. I would like the player to collect extra points from which they could get extra lives from. I would have the player start out with 3 lives and if the player loses them all they would  have to start the level from a certain point/milestone they have passed
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                                         Example of a vinyl that would be a milestone/prize

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Unity Tutorial 2

Unity for me is something that will take some time to understand and get used to using. I was luckily able to download onto my laptop without it crashing so I hope I will know be able to use it more easily than last week when it just didn't go well.

With this tutorial I learned more about adding code to your game. I found the tutorial really useful and easy to follow I did have to keep stoping and rewinding the video at parts and also sometimes the code just wouldn't be working so I would have to go back and fix my mistakes, which was good for me because I got to learn from my mistakes. The colliders are a bit confusing to understand but do able. I enjoyed learning how to add water and the walls but I don't think I will really be needing them for my game in the future.

It was fun experimenting with the cursor and changing it to how you would like it to appear in the game. Reycast is an important element to what will be my own game so I tried to follow the instructions as well as I could and understand what reycast is. I liked that you can change the reycast to what you would like the distance to be and that you aren't stuck with just one setting.

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Game Elements

When I was growing up I was never really into video games, the odd one I would grab my attention but I never knew just how much went into creating a game and how technical and intricate they are. Before today I would have never known just how much goes into creating a good game.

Something I really liked and thought was interesting is the waterfall method when it comes to designing a game and in general I don't know how I hadn't heard of it before but I like how simple it is but how important it is in order to design anything this method is crucial.
Waterfall Method

I found "Design Considerations" by Greg Aleknevicus very insightful and gave clear tips that will help me when I'm making my game and make the process much easier now that I can apply these tips. I want my game to be have colour and be bright and exciting to look at but I have a tendency to go overboard do I like that one tip is to avoid clutter I will keep this in the back of my mind while designing my game. The article had really good tips for if your game will include cards, I'm not sure yet if my game will use cards but it is a definite option. The importance of a good theme is absolutely huge when designing a game, I liked how he said "have the theme work with the rules rather than against" its so simple but a great piece of information to keep in mind.
Article

The next article I read was "Formal Abstract Design Tools" by Doug Church this article was a good read and had really helpful pointers and information. I like how the reader is urged to use multiple tools and to make it interesting for the player. The article goes on to use examples of Mario kart 64 I found this really interesting to read and try and understand. Tools can make a game great they can change a boring game into one that players will enjoy playing.
Article

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"Feedback Thoughts"

Feedback is something I always in a sense kind of dread because all I think about are the negatives of feedback and not the positives. For years this has been my mindset and I would like to change that because I know feedback is a good thing but sometimes its hard to believe that.

The first article I read was "Neil Gaiman's advice on creative life". I really enjoyed reading this article becasue of how positive it was. Gaiman is brilliant at explaining the truth about mistakes and how they aren't necessarily a bad thing but a good thing that helps us learn and experiment. I will definitely take on what was said in this article, I usually only see the bad in feedback as I said earlier but I will now as Gaiman said "Make them into art". I think that mistakes are always categorized as these horrible embarrassing things and I have been thought that from a very young age thought school, but they aren't they can be an inspiring change and a learning curve in life.
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The next article I read was "Silence the critical voices in your head" by Sabina Nawaz. I took interest in this article because I thought reading it would benefit me and help me to change my mindset. I like how this article gave good and applicable tips to the reader. I enjoyed how there was an example of a real person who dealt with the troubles of the critical voices and how even when he was getting great and amazing feedback all he could focus on was the small fraction of negativity. What I will be taking from this article is to believe the positives and to hear them, I think this is something everyone should do.
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Game Brainstorm/Ideas

Summer Forever
This is going to be a fun and simple game about changing seasons. The objective of the game is to catch the leaves that are falling from this huge tree before they hit the ground. If the leaves hit the ground the tree will start to change the leaves will start to change from green to orange which means that Summer is changing into Autumn and the player is losing the game. If the player hasn't collected enough leaves the tree will then loose all of its leaves meaning the player has lost the game. I think this would be a fun game to make because it could be seen as an educational game where it teaches kids about the different seasons.
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Record Scratch
For this game I came up with the idea that there will be a main character that is jumping from vinyl to vinyl and as the character is jumping and progressing the background will start to change around him, for example it would change from a rock music background with electric guitars and dark red colours to a pop music background with light and bright pink colours and so on. If the character falls off a vinyl it means the player has then lost the game and will have to start all over again. The aim of the game is to keep jumping from vinyl to vinyl and win a prize every-time the player passes a different background/genre. This game is a game that I would've loved to play growing up its fun and exciting which is why I would like to explore this type of game.
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Jump the Vine
This is going to be a game where the player chooses a character who will jump and climb up different vines to to get to the top of a mountain to win a prize and win the game. As the game goes on the game will become more difficult for example some vines will fall and other will be snakes that will send the character back to the start. Think this would make a good choose your own adventure game where the player can choose what they want to do.
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Quick Bake
This is a simple straight forward game. How the player plays the game is by picking the food they want to bake e.g. a cake of sorts and then all the ingredients for the cake are on the back of cards. The player will then have to find the ingredients by picking two cards with the same ingredient on it so they match and then the ingredient will go into bowl and the cake will start to come together. Puzzle games are the games that I played most growing up I think they can be an easy and fun way to pass the time which I like.

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                                                              My ideas coming together

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Unity Tutorial 01

This week I learned about unity before last week I had no idea what it was or how it worked. Unity from my small experience this week is a system we will be using to make our games. I first watched the tutorials which really helped understand and how to use unity.

I had a bit of trouble downloading unity every time I would try and download it it would crash and when I did finally get it to download it would crash again this was very annoying as I would be in the middle of following a tutorial going through steps and it would just decide not to work. I was able to create with the tutorials just not as easily as I would've liked.

What I did like about Unity was its set-up it wasn't too hard to understand and work with it of course was a bit confusing because I had never used it before but once I kept going back to the tutorials I felt more at ease.

I liked that in unity most of the tabs can be moved around and you can kind of create a workspace that suits you. I learned how to add in my different objects which was quite easy and fun to do and how box collider is used so a character can't go though an object I found this step interesting. I like how adding a terrain can make a huge difference to your game. There is so many different tools in unity it will take some time for me become familiar with all of them but I do enjoy using them and experimenting with them. I liked adding in the textures to my terrain it was nice to see it become more exciting to look at but I did find it difficult to keep adding new textures. I found it a bit difficult at first using C# coding but it will hopefully become more familiar to me in the coming weeks.

I found using unity at the start really frustrating because if you make a small slip up it can be really hard to figure out but I got used to it, I'm still not entirely comfortable using Unity but I look forward to using it more.

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Game Design

I have never before looked into all there is to know about game design. I liked reading these articles because it helped me to understand more about what is involved in game design and how much time and effort is put into making a playable and enjoyable game.

The essence of Euro-Style Games 
The articles all taught me something I hadn't known before I read them. Before today I had honestly never knew there was Euro-Style games. They don't seem to involve many elements which I like cause I tend to get distracted if a game has too many elements my attention will tend go to something else. I have now found out that I prefer Euro-Style games they are easy to play but also dont give the answers you have to make choices.

Pulling the plug in defence of Non-digital teaching and learning
I really enjoyed the article talking about how it is better to teach with non-electronic games to learn electronic game design. I fully believe that this is a great way to learn electronic game design because  I am. beginner and I feel like if I tried to straight away dive in and learn electronic game design electronically I would be overwhelmed and not be confident in myself. If I was too learn first with non-electronic games I would be more comfortable and be able to expand my skills and understand more about gaming in general.

So You're Going to Make A Game For The Very First Time
I also really liked the article "So you're going to make a game for the very first time". This article had so many informative and useful points of information for beginners like me. Something I will definitely be taking from this article to "reign back your ambition. I have a tendency to sometimes rush into things and make things too intricate, so I now know that this is something that could make me very stressed so I should go with the usual instead of the unusual as it will work more in my favour.

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Time Strategies

Time management is something I tend to struggle with I find myself most times worrying about how I will get everything I have to do done. I am gong to try this year to be on top of my work load and work more with my schedules not just for this module but for my other ones as well.

I am really happy with my schedule for the time being but as time goes on I will make sure that it is still working in my favour and not becoming too hard to keep up with.

The first article I read was "3 steps to recapture time" by Joynicole Martinez. I enjoyed this article because it had easy and absolutely doable tips and helpful information on how to take back your time. My favourite bit of advice given was to "Practice the art of no". I find it difficult sometimes to say no to people and a lot of what was said in this piece I related to especially when saying it can cause you to feel guilty which is something that I always feel when saying no. I will take on this piece of advice to become more comfortable with saying no.
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The next article I read was "Realistic study plans" by Amanda Collins. I chose to read this article because I want to learn how to make a better study plan for myself. It was really good and insightful, I will definitely be taking on everything that was mentioned in the article my favourite tip was to make study goals its something I sometimes do but not all that well so its something I will now be doing all the time.
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The final article I read was "How to beat Procrastination"by Caroline Webb. This was my favourite article because I am a terrible procrastinator and I am always looking for ways that I can try and not be one. I will take on all the tips given in this article because they are all going to be so useful and hopefully help me to stop procrastinating so much and just start doing.
Link to article

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