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. 

My Own Images

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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