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!

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). 

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.

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. 

Image from Pixabay.