Multimedia Development Game Blog

  Image from the tutorial For this weeks Unity tutorial I had to continue on from last weeks lesson where we created the game in which you fire food at animals. This time we learned how to make an animal spawn automatically every couple of seconds instead of them spawning when a key is pressed. I also learned how to make the food and animal disappear from the scene when the food hits the animal. For the first time I had to create a new method called SpawnRandomAnimal () {. The type of method is called a void. I then had to copy and paste my code from my If-statement and paste it into my new void and remove the code from my if-statement. Then I had to add SpawnRandomAnimal (); to my If-statement. To make my animals spawn on a timer instead of spawning when a key is pressed I had to add InvokeRepeating("SpawnRandomAnimal", startDelay, spawnInterval); into my start method. I then had to remove my If-statement so that I no longer had to press S to spawn animals. I then had to two...

  Image from the tutorial For this weeks Unity tutorial I had to do something very different from the last one where I learned how to control a car and destroy crates. This week the tutorial taught us how to create a game in which you control a farmer and you have to fire pizza slices at incoming animals in order to feed them. To get started I had to follow the same process as the first tutorials and create an empty prototype 2 folder and download the prototype 2 starter files. I had to a human, 1 food and 3 animals to the hierarchy. I dragged in a moose, a fox and a doe just like in the video.  I also had to adjust the XYZ scale so I could see the food clearly from above.  The starting process was very much the same as the one in the first Unity tutorial I did only it is a completely different setting which I found very interesting. I would've assumed that the starting processes would be different depending on your game. I had to create a scripts folder in my assets fold...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/skateboarder-jumping-ledge-13793492.jpg ) In my blog post last week I talked about my newest idea for my final game project. After writing a series of ideas for driving games the week before I decided to change my idea to a skater game with a similar concept to one of my driving game ideas however the idea I originally came up with was too similar to a Unity tutorial I did according to my lecturer and she suggested that maybe I change the playable character to a skater rather than a vehicle to make it more original so then I came up with the idea to make a skater game. The idea for the game is similar to that of Tony Hawk Pro Skater in which you play as a skater and I plan on including a certain number of crates that the skater has to destroy in a certain amount of time in order to win the game. I will also include obstacles that the player must avoid by either jumping over them or skateboarding around them. The game will be a single player game ...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/composite-image-woman-playing-video-game-against-white-background-blue-abstract-light-spot-design-111162150.jpg ) For this weeks task we had to do readings on game design MDA. MDA stands for mechanic dynamic aesthetic.  The first article I read was called MDA: A Formal Approach To Game Design And Game Research. The article talked about how games are designed by designers and teams of developers and they are consumed by players and how players purchase them use them and eventually cast them away like consumable goods. The article also talked about how games are different to other entertainment products such as movies. TV and books because their consumption is unpredictable. While we known what happens at the end of a TV show, a book and a movie when it is finished we don't know what happens at the end of a game when it is finished. The mechanics are the particular components of the game, the dynamics are the run-time behaviour of the mechanic...

  Image of the vehicle from the tutorial For this weeks task I had to continue on with the unity tutorials from last week. This week I learned how to control the vehicle and make it move from left to right rather than the vehicle just going straight and driving off the end of the path. First I had to open my PlayerController script and add a public float variable called a turnSpeed. I gave it a speed of 5.0f just like in the tutorial.  I also had to add a new vector3 in the transform.translate section of my script. Earlier in the tutorials I had to add vector3.forward to my transform.translate section but now to make the vehicle move left and right I had to add vector3.right and vector3.left so now the vehicle can move left, right and forward. I then had to multiply the Time.deltaTime by the turnSpeed variable so that so then the vehicle could turn left and right overtime instead of once every frame. After I did this we then had to go into the input manager in project settings...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/research-word-puzzle-hand-holding-piece-which-written-inserting-group-white-paper-jigsaw-puzzles-54965860.jpg ) Last week I had to brainstorm four ideas for a game that I hope to use. I had to email my lecturer my four game ideas for feedback. The feedback I got for each was fairly mixed. All of them were for separate driving games. I feel like I should do a driving game as we have been looking at tutorials for driving games so I already have an idea of how to do those however my idea might change as I may find further tutorials more interesting and easier to use. The feedback I got from my lecturer for each idea was very mixed. My favourite idea that I thought of was for a game in which you play as a vehicle that has to avoid obstacles such as barriers and have the vehicle travelling at high speed and the obstacles close together in order to make the game more fun and challenging. I took inspiration for this idea after watching the Unity tutoria...

( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/feedback-text-yellow-letters-black-chalkboard-below-white-written-your-opinion-important-chalk-held-49617001.jpg ) Feedback is a very important thing in all areas of work especially when it comes to creativity. If negative feedback is needed then we must give negative feedback and not just give positive feedback in order to avoid hurting the persons feelings. If we just gave game designers positive feedback even if negative feedback was needed just to avoid hurting their feelings then they would be releasing a terrible game with many flaws and costing the game company lots of money. However when it comes to negative feedback there are strategies that it involves. For this week we had to read two articles about feedback strategies. The first one I read was "How To Give Bad Feedback Without Being A Jerk". Adam Grant, the author of the article talks about his experience of doing this. He talks about how he had to give negative feedback to a CEO ...

( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/card-board-game-elements-dice-ideal-background-website-magazines-card-board-game-elements-130373855.jpg ) For this week's task we were given four readings to do on game elements. Game elements are what is needed to make a game. The first reading we had to do was "What are the qualities of a game?'. The reading taught us about game definitions and recurring themes of a game. The recurring themes were rules, conflicts, goals, decision-making and an uncertain outcome. The reading also described games as activities, artificial/safe ordinary outdoor life, voluntary and a form of art to name a few things. The reading also told us about the atomic elements of a game. These atomic elements were players, objectives,  rules, resources and resource management, game state, information, sequencing, player interaction, theme and games as systems. The reading also talked about critical analysis.  It tells us that critical analysis isn't necessarily a...

( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/man-collect-rubik-cube-timer-championship-concept-man-collect-rubik-cube-timer-championship-concept-player-brainstorming-128571185.jpg ) For this module I have to design my own game using Unity. I have to follow game tutorials on Unity weekly to help me with these games. The one I had to follow this week was a tutorial for a driving game where you drive a vehicle and smash into obstacles. I would like to make a driving game for this module as I already have experience making a driving game on Unity and I have always enjoyed driving games myself. I am now going to list four ideas I have for my own game. ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/driving-car-highway-close-up-hands-steering-wheel-71974896.jpg ) Idea 1 The first idea I have is for a racing game. I want to have at least six vehicles, more if possible having to race against each other and possibly include a time limit. Rather than something as simple as the vehicles just being able to drive around a ...

Image of the vehicle I chose for the Unity tutorial. For this weeks task we had to look at a series of Unity tutorials that we will be using for our game that we will be making for this module. For lesson 1 we learned how to set up Unity and our game. I also learned how stressful it is to use Unity without a mouse. First of I had to download files and put them in a folder called course with code and then open that folder in Unity. I then had to add a vehicle from the hierarchy menu to my game. I chose a tank. I had to place the tank on the road that came with the tutorial sample. I then had to place an object from the hierarchy menu onto the road in front of the tank. I chose a box. After I did all this I learned how to move the camera around and I had to position the camera behind the vehicle. This was the most difficult part of the first lesson. After I did all this I had to change the layout of my screen. I moved the game view on my screen beneath the scene view so now my game is in...

  ( https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/icons-customer-satisfaction-positive-neutral-negative-isolated-white-background-represents-feedback-three-dimensional-69929892.jpg ) For this post I will be talking about feedback. Feedback is a very important thing when it comes to work whether it be positive feedback or negative feedback. It is important to always go to your lecturers for feedback so you know if your work is ok. If your lecturer gives you positive feedback for your work and tells you that everything is ok then you know that your work is ready to submit and that you have done well however if they give you negative feedback then they will tell you what changes need to be made to your work and you must make these changes in order to do well. In order to write this post I had to read two articles from a list of articles on the class website. The first one was "Seven Ways To Crush Self-Doubt". The first one was "Don't Compare Yourself To Others". When I was doing...