Sunday, December 8, 2019

Beta

This week, I've finally managed to finish my game and conquering my fear of scripting. Since my research on adding tweaks to my game, such as adding fog, night modes, start and pause screens, I've ended up with a pretty cool game.

My start screen.
Sticking to my aesthetically-pleasing fanatics, I've managed to place a white grid with an opacity of 35% onto my start screen with some simple "play" and "quit" buttons, inspired by yellow subtitles from movies. I've taken a lot of inspiration with my start and loading screens from a YouTube called Brackeys, and he's definitely helped me a lot with the coding aspect of Unity, whereas Jimmy Vegas helped with the terrain aspect. I originally wasn't planning on putting much effort into my coding since it seemed so difficult, but adding little tweaks like these and some hidden effects into the game really helped me bring it to life. 

My pause menu.
Following Brackeys pause menu tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivuXdrIHK0) as discussed earlier on this week, I've followed every step of it and it's helped me create my very own pause menu (with some tweaks). I've ended up using a different font and shadow as he did, and spent much longer trying to complete the tutorial considering he uses Microsoft visual studios which somehow isn't compatible with my Mac. I've also added a darker screen effect just like he did. 

Mountains.
Messing around with the terrain tools, I've eventually added my own secret mountains that can be seen in the background! (so happy!) Although my game is finally fully finished, I do feel I'll be adding plenty of tweaks to my game such as adding in more objects, changing up the start and pause menus, and possibly editing the map to make it smaller and using much higher quality trees. However, I did struggle trying to find tutorials that help cater to my games, as there are plenty of Youtube videos dedicated to creating Halo/Fortnite-type games, or some simple 2D games, rather than creating more educational-based games. I've created a fabulous (in my opinion) game, and I hope others can see that too once it's released and ready to be played by others next week!

Friday, December 6, 2019

Unity Free Tutorials.

As of last week, I've done some further research into improving my game and making it more complex. I've come across a quick tutorial that teaches me how to create a pause menu on Unity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivuXdrIHK0). Again, this Youtuber uses Microsoft Visual Studios which isn't compatible with a Mac, so I will have to find another application to code my game. I really enjoy the text effects he used as its very minimalistic, sticking to a neutral font with a hint of shadows behind it. I've also learned how to leave the audio in the background while the game is paused. The coding in this tutorial is much more complex so it will take me much longer to copy the code, but I really enjoy how straight-to-the-point this Youtuber is with his tutorials. 

I've also found another rather short tutorial that taught me how to create an intense fog and a night illusion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgJE3TgT3o8). I originally thought of having very harsh vignette with a single light source, but thought this would be really hard for the player to find any plastic in my game. This tutorial taught me a better and safer solution to overcome that, which makes it easier for the player to navigate the map and find plastic, yet make the world seem much more gloomy (and even better, Jimmy Vegas saved the day with yet another spicy tutorial). 

 Link; https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/11/01/22/34/morning-1789903_960_720.jpg
Image from Pixabay

Games Testing

This week I've been reading various articles on the general concept of play testing (http://theclosetentrepreneur.com/giving-criticism-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly). When it comes to giving criticism, some of us can be very shy and timid while others can be very blunt and outspoken, but if there is one thing we all share in common when it comes to actually giving criticism, it’s that most people aren’t very good at it! For instance, have you ever been asked for your thoughts on something only to say “I like it!” when deep down you actually don’t like it at all? Or, have you ever criticized someone/something and it led to an argument? Unfortunately, it’s in our nature to let our emotions speak first and our logic speak second, and this can sometimes lead to some problems when left unchecked. (https://www.keengamer.com/article/20183_video-game-criticisms-need-for-change)
The good form of criticism is also known as constructive criticism, it offers valid feedback both positive and negative. Giving constructive criticism can provide much needed assistance to someone by giving them feedback on things that can be improved and issues that can be avoided. Giving constructive criticism can also help determine your credibility and expertise by ensuring that you know what you’re talking about. Anyone who benefits from your critiques will be more likely to give you credit in some way or form for playing a part in their success. Constructive criticism can also keep feelings from being hurt by focusing on things that can be improved while avoiding personal attacks or insults. (http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05164.32231.pdf
The most important thing to keep in mind when critiquing other people’s work is to focus on valid and unbiased feedback. By this kind of feedback, we’re talking about feedback that is tangible, credible, well-founded, and free of individual opinion or personal tastes. The theory behind this, is that your criticism is focused on concrete feedback instead of personal tastes or opinions, as everyone has a different opinion on how something should be done. Another important thing to keep in mind is to make your criticism clear, understandable, and relevant. Giving criticism can be stressful enough, so try not to make it worse by being vague and have the conversation spiral out of control. If you’re going to criticize someone’s logo, elaborate on what exactly needs improvement or could be better (is it the font, letter-spacing, line-spacing, contrast, hue, size, style, alignment, etc.) If your only response is “I don’t like it”, then chances are you’ll start an disagreement. The less ambiguous and more clear your criticism is, the better your chances of getting your feedback across and helping out your friend/acquaintance.

 Link; https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/09/20/06/51/thank-you-3690115_960_720.jpg
Image from Pixabay

Unity Free Tutorials

This week I've continued on in researching Unity tutorials on youtube that would help benefit my game. I've recently come across a video that teaches me to create a gorgeous terrain that's supposedly "super easy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUJ9qMMhlQ). I find this tutorial much easier to work with than others, and I can now create a much more complex terrain for my map without spending a long time trying to perfect it. Unfortunately, the majority of the tutorials I find, such as this one, use Unity's recent version (the 2019 one), while I still use the latest 2018 version (yes they are actually slightly different and take a while to find certain buttons/tabs). This tutorial inspired me to create mountains aren't the middle so the player has the option to climb and see a terrain in the horizon (which I will definitely rob from by the way), and creating pathways with the terrain tools. I also really like how he places the grass in sections to create clear pathways, and I much prefer the trees used in this tutorial as they have a much harsher contrasting in their shadows, and have much more detail added. I've also learned about including a fully functional lake, with edging and detailing, that I'll also be including into my game. 

I've also come across another video that teaches me about fade-ins and fade-outs animations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oadq-IrOazg). I've really wanted to start off my game with an easy black fade-in animation, and this video teaches me just that, through the inspector image scripting and animator tabs, and how I can prevent the animation from consistently looping. Although I do hate scripting through Unity, this tutorial made it much easier to create the animation, however this YouTuber uses Microsoft Visual Studios which is not supported by Macs. 

 Link; https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/01/17/19/01/tree-247122_960_720.jpg
Image from Pixabay.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Games Stories.

This week, I've went onto read various articles on stories & games, where they explain the different storylines, different objects/items they used, etc. For example, Gamasutra's "The Blue shell and its discounts" (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218696/the_blue_shell_and_its_discontents.php), features everything wrong with the Blue Shell from Mario Kart, yes, that spiny blue shell power-up that's taunted players since its second iteration in 1996 (as you can tell I'm also a victim). It's a pickup item sometimes given to players who are far behind in a race, which hones in on the leader, bringing delight to any player that's far behind. While all of us refer to the Blue shell as such, it's actually called "Spiny's Shell" as explained so in the Mario Kart 64 manuals.

⤷ Another article I've read in relation to this topic is how Nintendo has doubled it's first-party game sales in 2019 compared to 2018 during the same six-month period (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/353259/Nintendo_has_nearly_doubled_its_firstparty_game_sales_in_2019.php). According to Nintendo, they've sold approximately 14-15 million copies of first-party titles during the period between April and September of 2018, but in 2019 however, that number of games sold in the same time period has spiked to over 20 million! In the briefing, Nintendo's credited games like Fire Emblem: Three houses, Super Mario Maker 2, and the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for spiralling its growth.

⤷ And lastly, I thought I would mention this article aswell and also coming from Gamasutra, Nintendo has launched a monthly subscription for its free-to-play mobile game Mario Kart Tour that offers players to earn more in-game rewards in exchange for 5 euros a month! (and you are certainly right to assume I have that pass too)(https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/351131/Nintendos_freetoplay_mobile_Mario_Kart_now_offers_a_monthly_subscription.php). Those that buy into the Gold Pass receive access to a faster, 200cc mode in-game and can earn additional in-game rewards while playing the tours for the duration of their subscriptions, such as limited-edition characters/skins, more karts, gliders, or even its currencies! (coins and/or diamonds).

Source; Pixabay

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Alpha.

Since last week, I have continued on with the development of my game, by altering the sky to give it a more nostalgic feel and giving it an endpoint (congrats, you win, here are other ways you can help save the planet!)

You win!
By adding this skybox, the lighting completely changed the feel of the game and the map. The grass and trees look more alive, and in the distance, there are buildings and a sea. As part of the endpoint, I have added this image to raise awareness on global warming;

How to help the earth.
If everyone started doing these simple tasks, the world would be a better place. I do however think my map is slightly too big and I need less trees and include a barn or a house someplace to include a hidden item of plastic.. or two. As of now, the size of the map is 600x600 (a simple square), but I should be cutting it by half, surrounding the area with mountains and playing around with more than one tree-type. I'm quite happy with how my game looks so far and I cannot wait to finish it!

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Review Week Comments & Feedback.

Overall, I think I benefitted a lot from the comments and feedback I was receiving from other students in my class, as I can take constructive criticism very well and I can, in turn, use this to improve my blog posts and game. I find comments who express their own opinion towards my game or about me more beneficial as I feel like I can learn and grow from it, and I find its a great way for to help me reach my goals. I find looking at other classmate's game ideas and presentations beneficial, as they inspire me to add on and push myself to create a much better game. I try my best to be as honest and sincere as I can be when I write up feedback towards my college mates, and I hope it gives them an opportunity to see their actions from my perspective. I've also looked at videos they've recommended as tutorials for their game, and took some aspects to put into my game (https://wakelet.com/i/invite?code=cb8edba), such as the forestry terrain tutorials, creating a start and end pop-up sign, and even messing around with the sky block. A good feedback strategy I've discovered is being as honest as possible, as other's can really benefit from this to improve their game and also pull their weight a bit more if they've realised their slacking is getting noticed by us. After reading everybody's comments on some of my blog posts, it gives me a better insight on how I should phrase my own feedback towards others, being its more professional or more friendly, each person to their own preference, and that's totally fine. Reading others people's blogs and commenting and replying to each others introductions, I've learned a lot about my classmates, like their tv show preferences, career goals, pets, etc. really makes me feel like I am a much closer friend to them than I thought. I'm also delighted with how many responses I've gotten on my own introduction post and how people didn't know I was Eastern European (thought my name would give it away but anyway). I'm also amazed at how these feedback comments and introductions got me to be able to talk to my peers, as I feel my year is very secluded and clique-y. I do feel the word count is unnecessary when writing feedback comments for others or when others are required to do so on mine, as I sometimes struggle trying to find critiques towards a blog post/game idea that I feel doesn't need my opinion on. I'm quite happy with my blogs layout and the content provided, as (in my opinion) is very neat, with the labels on the side for easier navigation, and a very Tumblr-esque/aesthetic background of the view from an airplane window (if you didn't know, I appreciate aestheticism). I also try my best to find more aesthetically-pleasing non-copyrighted imagery to publish, display and link to, but struggle when I consistently get recommended to adobe stock and pay a fortune for some images that I can potentially recreate or find for free on websites that display a lot more than they do.

An aesthetically pleasing image.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Week 9 Reading & Writing.

Overall, I think the reading and writing assignments were working quite well for me. I've learned a lot about the different aspects of game design and there is much more behind it, ranging from GDD's, MDA's, MUD's and so on and so forth. I now know there is a lot more work put into game design. My favourite reading thus far would possibly be based on game elements, where I done further research on gamasutra.com, thegamesjournal.com and even on reddit.com, as I got to question myself on what really makes a game fun, what qualities it must have, and what unique elements a game must contain in order to be classified as "fun". Reddit has also taught me all the errors in a bad game and how to overcome them, from unclear and bad gaming controls, to unnecessary features such as ugly user interfaces. Some games even feature extremely long and unneeded tutorials, and if a player can't play the game fast enough, they usually lose interest. I'm definitely going to try to avoid this, as I'd like my game to be "fun" and fresh. The reading notes do help me in creating my game, as I've put more thought into coming up with my own unique concepts to include into my game, so it would then be more entertaining for  game players. Also learning about the design, development, technicalities and criticism of a game put me into a much more critical mindset so I could push myself to create a much better game. I've discovered doing further research into other articles aswell as reading the ones given to us, help me understand the topics a lot more and already answer my questions. I'm very happy with my game project idea, I think it's a unique concept and I haven't seen something done before (there have been similar concepts but I don't think there are any about raising awareness on global warming and becoming more sustainable). My biggest accomplishments for the class, would be creating the actual game. At the start of the semester I had no idea what unity was, how to use it, the complications of game design, all of it. I now have a much greater understanding on each and every one of these topics, and am quite proud of myself that I am nearly finished with a fully functional game on a topic that's relevant to me.

Reading, Week 6 image.
I chose this image as one of my favourite images from my previous reading notes, as it is very clean, and sticks to minimalistic colours. This image also represents how me and my friend, Ellie, usually work on assignments together (but instead of coffee and overpriced snacks, its a Caesar salad wrap and a Diet Coke for me, and good old Navan roll for her). I also love the artsy aspect to it, and the decorations are placed in a way the scene still seems neat (oddly enough?).  I'm very excited to do further readings and research that benefit my game, and I am as excited to complete it!

Sunday, November 17, 2019

First playable.

This week I've finally started working on my game and let me tell you it was not easy (resisting the urge to purchase an assets pack from the unity store to have much better graphics was quite tricky). I've begun laying out the terrain and quite frankly am still confused by it all. I'm still stuck on this one big square when I want it differently shaped, surrounding it with water (somehow this was hard to find) and scripting the plastic.
Beginning.
I've somehow managed to create this dull look with just the original sky, but may make it darker and more spookier with some alternative settings. I despise the coding for a single. piece. of plastic. absolutely horrible. This took me more time than perfecting the terrain (somehow?). 

Finding plastic.
The constant research for different aspects of creating the game is making me lose motivation to continue, but it's actually turning out really well because of them (who knew Indian men from youtube were so cool?). I will admit that originally I had really high expectations for creating this game and I did think it would be a piece of cake but my god it's somehow turned into a piece of work. I'm quite happy with how the game looks and what it's turning into, but I do think I need to work on how the game starts and how it looks by creating a menu and several levels. I'm super excited to see how the game will turn out!

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Unity Free Tutorial.

This week, I've decided to do some research and find other Unity tutorials rather than stick to Jimmy Vegas' series, as I'd like to find tutorials that are more specific to my own game. I've come across a You Tuber called 'Sherry Dragonair' who showcases a video titled 'Making a Terrain in Unity - Beginner's Tutorial'. In this video, Sherry goes in-depth on creating a much higher-quality forest/terrain than Jimmy Vegas, and I quite enjoy how he gets straight to the point in a 16-minute long video, rather than creating a whole series on different aspects to the terrain. Although he doesn't talk in the video, I did learn a lot about the terrain tool, adding textures, forming the ground, etc. I'm quite the perfectionist and I know I'll be struggling with the terrain more than the scripting (because it's much easier to find, copy and paste code rather than finding map formation tutorials). I also know I'm going to spend hours struggling creating the terrain to look like a mountain to suit my taste, I did however enjoy adding the trees and messing around with the grass textures to create a more forest-y feel to the game, making it look more realistic. Adding just hints of grey to the mountain tops and some greenery around the trees make the map pop that much more.

 mountains.
Mountains.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Game fun.

Not long ago, I came across several articles related to MUD games (http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm). An ‘MUD’ is a multi player real-time virtual world that’s typically text-based. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Most MUDs can be traced all the way back to Trubshaw's 1978 game called “Bartle, 1990” and “Burka, 1995” and, possibly because of this legacy, the vast majority are regarded as ‘games’ by their players (https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf). There are four things that people typically enjoy about MUDs. Achievement within the game, where players give themselves in-game-related goals, and set out to achieve them. This usually means collecting and disposing of big quantities of high-valued treasure, or cutting a through hordes of mobiles (such as monsters built into a virtual world). The exploration of the game is another one too, where players try to find out as much as they can about the virtual world. Another thing would be socializing with others, where players use the game' communicative services, and apply the role-playing aspect, as a setting in which to interact with their players (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-7-introduction-and-readings). MUD’s also support a much more formal approach to design. This allows us to aim specifically towards specific design goals, and to expect changes that impact each feature of the framework and it’s executions. There are also three levels of abstraction, we can theorize the dynamic behavior of game systems. Understanding games as dynamic systems help us develop our techniques for designing and improvement, and allows us to control for any undesired outcomes, and tune for desired behaviour.

Gaming.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Prototype.

Since my 'Game Vision Statement', I have elaborated on my idea by developing some prototypes, such as drawing out a basic map of the game and some start and end points. 

A photo of my map.
➪ Considering the game is meant to raise awareness on global warming and our doom because of plastic, I wanted to go for a more greener feel, with plenty of trees, grass and scenery. I'm also considering creating a barn to promote organic products, and a home made from more sustainable materials. I'd also like to surround the land with trees rather than the player being able to jump into the water, but still be able to see water in the horizon. I won't be creating a player for the game, therefore it will be in first person perspective.

A screenshot of my starting point.
➪ To start the player off, I'm going to add very harsh lighting and vignetting so when the player starts off, they would be particularly slow and can only see the spot they are on, with a message saying "Find 10 pieces of plastic" so that the player's environment could improve. 

A screenshot of my ending point.
➪ Once the player has collected 10 pieces of plastic, they see a beautiful "nostalgic" sky with a lively environment. They will also receive a message to let them know they won and can continue to explore the area, and will get a pop up message on different ways to be more sustainable and help our world.

➪ What I am struggling with, is reducing the vignetting effect and altering the light by bringing brightness in for every piece of plastic collected as this involves scripting. I'm also struggling with coming up with objects to include in my map, I am however open to suggestions if you'd like to comment them down below!


Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Unity Tutorial 06

This week I've decided to continue on watching Jimmy Vegas' tutorials on creating a game using Unity (I've watched episodes 9, 10 and 11 which can be found here). I've found the next few episodes much more useful and easy to use, and I'll be incorporating some of his techniques into my own game. First of all, the lighting techniques he showed, when messing around with the sky, adding different hues to match the scene with the background lighting, and creating a dark atmosphere. For my own game, I wanted to have the player start off with a more gloomy and dark feel (everything is pitch black apart from a light that follows the player around) and then eventually when the player collects pieces of plastic, the area gets brighter and more lively (robbing his "nostalgic setting" feel). I also really like creating a black fade-in screen for when the player joins in, but I'm not too sure if it'll suit my game considering the game starts off completely dark other than where the player is (his only source of light until he finds some plastic). I did enjoy learning about collecting an item as well, but do find the C# sharp aspect of it confusing. Watching these tutorials make me even more motivated to continue on in creating my game. 

clouds.
clouds.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Games Decisions.

A little while back, I've come across some articles talking about decision making and the flow theory (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-6-introduction-and-readings), that I find quite interesting. Lots of difficulties associated with making a huge multi player online game, comes in several parts. An ‘MMO’ (Massive Multi player Online game) is particularly delicate to create due to technical reasons involving ‘server scaling’, as well as designing issues involving scaling economics, politics, level design, pacing, persistence, and progression. (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2247/e6a3f394bf389c7ffe1c8dbbcf05eff86265.pdf). Many early ‘MUD’s (Multi-User Dungeons) involve populations of dozens-to-thousands of people and still have vibrant communities thus far. Minecraft, for instance, is wildly successful, despite its reliance on relatively small, instanced server, and other games, such as Fortnite, that successfully limit their focus to matches of 100 or less. There are plenty other game genres, in particular action and strategy games, that haven’t been successfully scaled to the massively multi player realm thus far. The main reason is that these games meet different requirements in terms of scalability than an already scalable role-playing genre: in particular, it’s player densities. When researching to make human-scale systems, there are several key concepts based on social psychology, each providing a set of restrictions on social design (https://lostgarden.home.blog), and it’s quite obvious it all comes down to friendships and social circles.

 Friendship.
Friendship.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Unity Tutorial 05.

Recently, I've went back to continue Jimmy Vegas' Unity tutorials, and have watched episodes 6, 7 and 8 (which can be found here). This week, I've learned about scripting an item in order to collect it (with text appearing on what button to collect it), and providing the player with a weapon (in his case, he used an axe, providing it with a sound when it was being used and an animation). I found them quite useful, as he does go in-depth with the tutorials by providing a step-by-step guide, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be using weapons in my own game. However, I do like the idea of scripting an item in order to collect it, but I do find using C# sharp confusing and very complex. I did enjoy messing around with the materials, textures and "normal map" buttons in order to create a more realistic look by adding shadowing by the sun and making it look less "baron". I'll also end up taking some of the steps from creating a weapon, and incorporating it into making someone less dangerous for my game, as I don't plan on making it multiplayer or a fighter-type game. I love Jimmy's tutorials and am excited to continue his series.


Monday, October 21, 2019

Games GDD

I've recently come across several articles on the early stages of the designing process (https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-5-introduction-and-readings). When deciding what to include, I tend to constrain my own ideas and concerns that don’t actually need extra time (i.e perfecting it to a T). Something I really love about games is their physical presentation, I'm more likely to appreciate one that has a lot of thought put into its design principles, such as its box, its rules and its components. The design mechanisms can go a long way in shaping how much a game can really be adored (http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/DesignConsiderations.shtml). For the most part, the design of the box really has nothing to do with how a game is played, but there are still problems to take into account. A lot of first impressions of a game come from the box ,and so a good design will go a long way into advertising it. Keeping in mind, but writing clear and short rules to a game does seem like it should be a simple task, until one really tries it. In fact, I think it's a very tough process and one of the trickiest things to get right. No matter how great a job I do, somewhere, someone is going to misunderstand them. With this in mind, there are some overall principles that can help minimize problems. Examples of this would be to include a detailed list of components and to not intentionally write vague rules, as this can make it more difficult for gamers to understand the controls and objectives of your game (http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/1415/the_game_design_process.php).

Designing.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Game Vision Statement.

Introduction
⇨  As for my game, I envision a very typical spawn-in game where the player collects a few coins and wins, but putting my own twist to the game. I originally was planning to create either a Sandbox RPG-type game, where the player spawns in and can freely explore their surroundings with some side tasks (they choose whether or not they can complete them), or a more stealth-type approach, where the gamer has to hide from one big target to avoid punishment, as from my experiences I much prefer these gaming styles, but thought this would be a better route, as it is based off something that is more meaningful to me.

Game idea
⇨  As part of my idea, I'm considering basing it off a character who spawns into the game, who starts collecting plastic off the ground to save the planet, as we only have a few months to live before the world has irreversible side-effects. To start off, I'm going to call it "Pepe saves the planet", Pepe being the name of the character, who's main objective is to attempt to save the planet. This would be a more educational-type game aimed at anyone and everyone who wants to make a change. There is also no age-restriction on the game as well, which opens up to the vast majority of our population. I am thinking of having the game play in first-person view, and adding really harsh vignette to it, and for every piece of plastic picked up, the vignette effect starts to fade away, and once all pieces of plastic are collected, the vignette is completely gone. I also plan to have the scenery look more lifeless i.e. dead trees, brown grass, overall an unfriendly environment to begin with, and for every piece of plastic collected, the scenery improves until it eventually becomes a bright beautiful sky with trees and grass full of life. I'll be getting my inspiration for the scenery from various games on Roblox and Minecraft, as I'm quite familiar with plenty of their game modes. I'm also contemplating setting the game in a forest, as in today's world, plenty of our animal's habitats are being completely obliterated by bulldozers damaging our forests and harming our environment for our high demand in wood and meat. At the end of the game, I plan on creating a pop-up message/window that's rather aesthetically pleasing and sticking to a beautiful day's colour palette (white's, brown's, green's and blue's) listing out ways one can help save the environment, such as going for reusable straws, avoiding use of plastic, promoting sustainability by shopping at charity/vintage stores, or even going vegan for a few days. I'll be using the programme "Unity" to create this 3D-based game, as I am quite familiar with the lay-out of the application, and if I am ever stuck on a specific aspect of the programme, I can always look up tutorials that will most likely solve my problems for me. This will be the games only objective, and as simple as it sounds, I hope gamers can understand the message and take something from the game. This game is a great opportunity to educate everyone about the effects of global warming/climate change, its side effects, and ways to prevent it from happening again. (https://www.ted.com/speakers/greta_thunberg)

Inspiration
⇨  I originally got inspired by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenage environmental activist on climate change whose campaigning has gained international recognition. When she began her protest outside of the Swedish Parliament last year at the age of fifteen, she sat next to a wooden sign that was painted in white with the words "Skolstrejk for Klimatet" shown in black paint. She also had leaflets available for people who passed by explaining what is was she was protesting for, in which she responds; "I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future". As her protests have gained recognition, she was then invited to give speeches at several forums which enabled her to expand her horizons. Thus far, she has initiated four themes; that our humanity is currently facing an existential crisis due to climate change, that our generation of adults are responsible for the climate change, that it also has a disproportionate effect on the younger generation, and that not enough is being done about the situation. I got a lot of my research for my game idea from different articles online that helped me go more in-depth with my creative thinking, and I hope this, in turn, creates an amazing game for people all around the world to enjoy.

Reusable coffe cups.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Unity Tutorial 03

This week, I've learned how to create a clock using simple objects, and scripting it so that the arms of the clock could rotate to show the time (https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/basics/game-objects-and-scripts/). I found this webpage quite helpful as there are images for every step of the way, but I still find scripting rather confusing as I am only new to it. The layout of creating the clock using simple objects, is the same as Roblox Studios, Cinema 4D and Blender, so I was already quite familiar with it. The terminology in Unity does put me off, like "Albedo" and "Mesh Collider", thankfully, the website does have external links underneath the imagery to explain what they mean, which is very convenient. Luckily, java scripting from this tutorial is very similar to coding for a website using html and css, with a simple copy and paste, and you're good to go. The terminology, again, is rather advanced/difficult and even I struggle to try and spell words like "Quaternion" (had to copy and paste that one), so this will be a challenge for me. As for my game, I don't think I'll be including clocks for the moment, but it would be a nice little addition to it. 

Clocks.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Games MDA

Recently, I've came across a few articles talking about the different mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics of games (https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf). MDA is a much more formal approach to understanding video games, and differentiates game design and development, the technicalities and the criticism of a game. Reading webpages like these really get me thinking as to what makes a game "fun"? Any game can be labelled so, but there's a much more in-depth explanation for this, such as if the game was more sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression or submission-based. 

⇸  http://gamedevelopertips.com/mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics-game-design-theory-behind-games/, shows the dynamics of a game. Dynamics work to produce much more aesthetic experiences, for instance, challenges created by the likes of time pressure and rivalry-gameplay. Friendship can be encouraged by sharing information between specific members in a team, or even providing winning conditions that are much more difficult to achieve alone (such as capturing an enemies base). 

⇸  Lastly, https://medium.com/@jenny_carroll/using-the-mda-framework-as-an-approach-to-game-design-9568569cb7d, goes into the specifics of mechanics in a game. The mechanics describe a particular component, action, behaviour or control mechanisms of a game, using the level of data representation or even algorithms. Together, with the games content, the mechanics maintain the overall game's dynamics. In conclusion, I believe it's a much more helpful technique as it's given me a better understanding on how too categorise games and how changes can impact each aspect of a game's structure. In addition, I am now better at being able to break down those experiences, and use them to create new designs, research, and critique respectively.


Mechanics.


Thursday, October 10, 2019

Unity Tutorial 02

I've since continued Jimmy Vegas' series in Unity (can be found here), and I now find Unity slightly more confusing with the whole scripting aspect. I am quite unfamiliar with Visual Studio, I know I'll struggle at first but hopefully I'll get the hang of it sooner than later. I do however find the "creating gems in order to collect them" quite interesting, and I may end up taking this idea and using it in my game, as I most likely will create either a stealth-type game or a sandbox-rpg game where the player can collect something a little more unique (possibly pages, bags of goods, or even hints). I'm also quite excited to be messing around with the terrain tools to be creating my own rivers/lakes/ponds, mess around with the colours around it to make it a little more realistic, and even include fences as a border around the entire map so players cannot go over the boundaries and into oblivion (or maybe they could, who knows). Unfortunately, I am quite disappointed with episode 5 of his series as I don't understand the difference between the before and afters of ray casting. I feel it was a waste of an episode, but I'm open to learning more useful techniques to use in scripting.

Into Game Design.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Game elements

I've recently came across some articles talking about the atomic elements and the qualities of a game that I find rather interesting. Games do have a repetitive theme, and each game has its own set of rules, it's own conflict, various choices, and its own goals.

↬ https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3357/formal_abstract_design_tools.php  discusses the formal abstract design tools and whether a game is "fun" or not, which I quite agree with. Whether a game is fun or not comes from a thorough and unbiased outlook on a game, and simply stating if a game is "fun" does not actually tell designers why it actually is entertaining. In turn we should be able to a pick a specific game, choose a single cool aspect from it and apply it to our own game, or even take a game that we love "if it weren't for one annoying aspect" understand why it bothers us, and make sure we don't create a similar mistake in our very own games. I think this is a very interesting approach to game design and I'll definitely be sticking to it.

↬ http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatMakesaGame.shtml covers some very interesting topics on what actually makes a game good. For instance, it would have to be an original concept and has to possess unique elements that have never been used before, otherwise gamers would be considering playing other games as they would have the same concept with a more advanced approach. The freshness and replayability of a game makes its players want to play it again and again, and it should feel exciting each time it's played as it was the first time.  Games lacking this quality will soon becoming boring. Games should also be enriched with surprised and repetition in sequence, progress and events should be strictly avoided.

↬ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/64z7w8/what_are_the_qualities_that_make_up_a_bad_game/ features all the errors in a bad game and how to overcome them, from unclear and bad controls, to unnecessary features like ugly user interfaces. Some games also feature extremely long and unneeded tutorials, and if a player can't play the game fast enough, they'd lose interest, meaning your game is probably too complicated/complex and you'd need to tone down the specifics. 

 Terrain.
Complex Terrain.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Feedback thoughts

Recently I've came across two articles, one titled; "Why rejection hurts so much and what to do about it". and the other titled; "Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work". From what I have gathered from the first article, "rejections are the most common emotional wound we sustain in life", which in fact is true. Us as humans, value acceptance from others and when things don't go our way, it really brings us down, and because of these "minor rejections", it makes us become more vulnerable to become more anxious and over thinking, as opposed to being just you and taking in critiques, but unfortunately our brains are wired this way. This article covers a lot about overcoming rejection, from having zero tolerance to self-criticism, to boosting your feelings for social connection. This article really brought light onto the topic, and I feel more open to the idea of constructive criticism for others and being more kind to myself as I'm really not as perfect as I think I am.


↛  The second article has really taught me how to stop giving into self-doubt when it comes to my works. It has covered everything, from not comparing yourself to others, to being vulnerable to a trusting community and embracing your growth mindset. I will admit that I am guilty to consistently doubting my works from my photography skills to my very own YouTube channel, I am a complete perfectionist. I'll always spend more time than others on what I think is art, going down to the very nitty gritty details of things, before publishing, as one flaw will tick me off into recreating the entire thing, and unfortunately that's just my nature, but this article inn particular has brought light onto the topics. It taught me some valuable lessons on how to show my works some love, and hopefully spending less time on perfecting when really I could be getting advice from others and possibly nobody would notice the same details as I do.

Game Brainstorm.

For my first game idea, I was thinking of doing a Sandbox Role-playing video game (RPG). This kinda video game allowed players a large amount of freedom and usually contains somewhat more open free roaming, and is purely simulation driven (so the player isn't confined to a single path restricted by certain objects such as fences, rocks, walls, etc.) Instead of featuring levels and specific areas, sandbox games most likely occur in a world in which the gamer/player has full access to from start to finish. The games would include structured elements (such as tasks, specific prescribed story lines, mini games) that the player can choose to do or ignore, and because of this non-linear nature, it creates challenges for game developers (I like the idea of pushing myself to create better content anyway). Some examples of 'sandbox gaming' would include Grand Theft Auto, Terraria, Garry's Mod and The Sandbox. What I was thinking of doing, is creating this alternate world in which the player somehow wound up, where the grass is blue, the trees have glowing pink leaves and creating inter-dimensional creatures that wow the gamers (my projects and work is usually always pretty and have hidden meanings to today's world problems, I'd like to try something new and create something beautiful out of galactic species that make the viewers feel like we may not be alone in this universe.) I also plan to have interactive- characters (that possibly say a few words when being clicked on), some unique scenery and hopefully some side challenges. The character will be in first person view, and may or may not have it's own body and/or weapon in hand (like in Minecraft when one can go into first-person view). I know this will be difficult to achieve, but I am open to the idea of working harder in order to create a brilliant game that I'm proud of.

 Grand theft auto

⇉  A second game idea I had in mind was creating a stealth-type game, where the game tends to emphasize sneaking around and avoiding an enemy to avoid conflict. In stealth games, players have the option to be able to engage in loud combat, but are often punished for it, or can obtain their goal with or without stealth, but stealth is encouraged as the player is at a disadvantage over many of their enemies. An example of this would be playing "Stop it, Slender!" on Roblox, where the players have to hit 3 generators and find 8 pages before Slender-man can get to them first. The players are given a 100% battery camera (which acts as their life bar) and the ability to run (which also acts as a bar that regenerates once it's used up). Other examples include Sky rim, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed, and Hit man. I really like the idea of "Stop it, Slender!", and rather it being a multi player game like on Roblox, it'll be a single-player one with a different goal and different creature following the player. The game featured several maps, all made from different designers, but I think for the purpose of my game I'll create a single map, preferably someplace spooky, like a forest (as it'll be a much easier map to create, I'm also open to the idea of creating the inside of a hotel as a map, or even an asylum). I might also take the idea of finding 3 generators to activate in order to be able to access the rest of the map in hopes of finding hidden objects for the player to find so they can win the game (in my case, I think I'll create different coloured keys), and might add some visual effects to the first-person view such as adding vignette, grain, and have the game in black and white.

 Black and white.

⇉  Another game idea I had in mind was a platform game, where the gamers (also known as platformers in this case) have their game play primarily centred around jumping or climbing to navigate the character's environment (they may have enemies or obstacles to avoid and fight, or may even be straight up jumping as part of a puzzle). Examples of these can include 'Obby's' (where each short level, the player has to solve by jumping through a course, just like in "Wipe out"), 'Flood Escape' (where players are put into a designated room and have to climb and jump to get to the top without drowning), and 'The floor is lava' (where players must get to a high place and avoid touching the floor as they will potentially die). Generally the player's characters is capable of jumping many times their very own height, and is sometimes offered some control over their movement mid air. Some settings tend to be somewhat exaggerated with uneven terrain so that gamers can leap to or even fall off. I also particularly like this idea, as it's nostalgic and brings back childhood memories, and also gives me the ability to create various rooms and different challenges for the players to try (this gives me the opportunity to dive deep into scripting, and learn more about gaming than other game developers). I am leaning more towards a recreation of 'Flood Escape', but with a more interesting setting, such as in a lab and its hydrochloric acid flooding the room, or potentially in an asylum and it's oozing black liquid to create a more sinister feel. I'm going to come out of my comfort zone and create a character for this game mode, rather than it being in first-person view, as I'd like to learn more about character design too.

 Flooding.

⇉  My last idea was a good ol' typical shooter game, where the main objective is to shoot (whether it's at an object or another player). Players typically use ranged weapons to partake in the fun, which take place at a distance. Most shooting games involve rather violent game play (I'm not a violent person, so this in turn would be challenging for me and way out of my comfort zone), however, there are also non-violent objectives such as what the game 'Splatoon' partakes in (most likely going to be my approach). Splatoon is a third-person shooter video game, centred around fictional characters, also known as "Inklings" (a kinda squid-like creature that transforms between human and "cephalopod" like forms). Other examples include Call of Duty, Counter-strike, Fortnite, and Destiny. I most likely won't be taking inspiration from any of these games as they are so complex and detailed, so I'll be going through a more safer route considering I am highly inexperienced in the 'shooting field'. I do like the idea of a more family-oriented approach like 'Splatoon', however I won't be making it into a multiplayer mode, rather it being a single-played mode, and create a "Mii" with scenario's from "Wii sports resort". I'll be creating tasks where the gamers would have to shoot at designated objects in a specific timeframe in order to achieve a prize. This gives me the opportunity to go more in-depth with scripting, play around with different terrain's and even alter the lighting to make it similar to 'Wii's sports resort'. I will keep it in first player view, but have the body and weaponry visible to the player, in order to make the gamer feel like they're in the actual game. I'll also mess around with the audio, and make it feel rather soothing where the player looks in one direction and hear more naturist sounds in one ear more than the other when using earphones and playing the game.

Shooting.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

UnityTutorial 01

After viewing a few episodes of Jimmy Vegas' series in creating a game using the 'Unity' programme (can be found here), I've come to the conclusion that I've seen some of the tools and am familiar with the layout because of Roblox Studio (bare in mind this has been a while ago I've used the programme). The first two episodes, I was already familiar with the set-up, but found episode 3 rather interesting when Jimmy introduced downloading content from online and including trees, grass and gems. I was also fascinated when he began altering the colours, adding movement to the grass and bringing the trees to life, and in turn, is motivating me to do further research into creating my own game. I do however find the terminology and multiple tabs quite confusing, and I know I will soon struggle trying to find different folders and adding textures as I'll be mixing them up a lot (a common theme for even when I was creating my own games through Roblox's studio as a kid). I'm also quite the perfectionist so I know it will take me quite some time to fully understand all the tools used, and I'd want to make a more complex game than a simple "survivors"-type gameplay. I do like the idea of creating a role-play game, so I'll further do some research from other YouTubers and gathering inspiration from unique custom content.

Gaming console.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Game Design

After doing some research online about what a "Game" and what "Game design" really is, it got really thinking about how complex the whole industry really is. A game will always have a start to end, have various tasks to do/choices to make, own rules and goals etc. and that's only some perks (http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml). After reading this article, I was given a better understanding of a concept of a game, and got me to think more about the different components and criteria for a future game I plan to develop. It encouraged me to think about a better lay-out, different scenarios a player can encounter and even the rules of the game. I also got to learn about the history of games, starting from the early 1900's such as tic-tac-toe and chess, to more advanced gameplay today by the likes of "World of Warcraft".


↺ I've also done some follow-up reading in a blogpost called; "Don't Be a Vidiot; What Computer Game Designers Can Learn From Non-Electronic Games " (http://www.costik.com/vidiot.html), where I got to learn about the enormous gaming industry and it being a field for originality and creativity. For someone who's very educated in both software and games, it is a very confusing development, and there is so much one can do, from audio development, to creating your first character for players to enjoy.


↺ Lastly, I got to go in-depth in researching about game design on http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/20110516/7453/So_Youre_Going_To_Make_A_Game_For_The_Very_First_Time.php. I've never really noticed but game developers will most likely re-create their game from someone else, because it's very rare to come up with an original storyline nowadays with the endless amount of games everybody has access to. Realistically, a game developer would have to focus on the gameplay rather than the appearance because players are drawn to storylines rather than the art of the game.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Growth Mindset

Personally, I have never heard of the Carol Dweck growth mindset challenge, and have learned about it through various posts and videos found http://growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com. Honestly, I think it's very strict forcing children to push themselves and make them feel guilty. I understand that making children feel tasks are too easy for them is a bit much, but making kids feel cheated if the work is too easy for them can in turn, make them feel bad about themselves. Instead, I think telling children the opportunities and rewards that they'll receive once they push themselves, that way children will feel better about themselves.
 
   ↳  I don't think I would be very interested in further learning about this challenge as I don't want to be guilt tripped into thinking I am not pushing myself when I know I am capable of doing so.
   ↳  For this semester, I am going to push myself to learn more about the different software's and equipment we use throughout the year, as I know this will be beneficial towards my career and influencer lifestyle through creating content for YouTube and Instagram. I am also going to push myself to learn about different filming techniques and go into the technicalities of using a DSLR camera, since I want to learn about different photographic techniques and effects.

Feeling guilt-tripped

Introduction to a Future Instagram Influencer.

Hello, and welcome to my blog. My name is Vladimir Marcuta, I am 19 years old and I am a Gemini (yes I feed into all Gemini stereotypes, enjoy me while you can). I was born on May 23rd in the year 2000 (also I was 4 weeks late because I knew I was not going to be born an Aries or Taurus, my mother really hated me).

Selfie because I love myself
   ↪  I was born and raised in Dublin, but have Moldovan heritage. My parents are Oxana and Adrian Marcuta, and they grew up and lived in Moldova until 1999, the year they moved to Ireland in search of looking for a better life and hoping to have children who will have brighter futures and opportunities than them. I also have a little sister called Arina, just turned 17 and is a total Virgo, (least compatible sign with a Gemini, both friendships and relationships because they clash too much) but somehow we get along so well. I'd compare my sister to a bulldog, total hard-ass and full of testosterone, but hella protective of me. I also have aunties and uncles who emigrated here too, and cousins who grew up here just like me, who I've grown to love and cherish, and can't live without.

Group photo from a wedding last year
   ↪  My favourite movies are Charlie's Angels, Bratz Rock Angelz, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (I know, how typical), and my favourite TV shows include Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Pretty Little Liars, and Gossip Girl, (and about 30 more, please don't judge me, I had a lot of time during my Junior Cert).
   ↪  I'm also a HUGE Arianator, have all of her ICONIC perfumes (including some of her hoodies, tops and totes.. yeah I think I'm quite obsessed and you get it now). I first got to see her live in May 2017 for her Dangerous Woman tour, and just yesterday came back from her Sweetener/Thank You, Next tour, and it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S.
   ↪  My favourite foods vary a lot, but I am currently obsessed with mezzulene (FILLED with mozzarella, spinach and tomato), avocados and lasagna. I also get weird cravings for mighty munch (quite a lot actually, it's very odd).
   ↪  I have plenty of hobbies, ranging from photography, videography, modelling, netflixing and cuddling. (Yes I've reached the expert level of cuddling, thank you very much).

Reading 8.

So I've taken a break from blogging last week to focus more on my group project, but this week I've been doing some research on cre...