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.
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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.
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