Reflection

This semester I had a stressful but fun time creating my 2D car racing game. I chose this game as I love playing these sort of games on the computer and they bring back lots of childhood memories from when I used to play them in my kitchen on my home computer After creating around 75% of the game on my home computer my computer froze and I lost all of my work. After having a mini heart attack I proceeded to use my brothers laptop to start over and make my game from scratch again. This was stressful and I ended up staying up all night trying to catch up on what I lost.  For my game I followed one set of tutorials to create the actual game play and one other tutorial to create the exit button in the game. I designed the track in the game and i also designed the menu screen both using an art program called Gimp.  I added two different music tracks to the menu screen and to the game play. At the beginning of creating the game I set up the screen size 480 x 800 so it would be able to be played on android devices however when my game was finished I realised that I did not have any android devices to test it on so I was unable to transfer my game to android in the end. I would like to continue with this game and enable it to be played on android once an android device comes into the house.
There was a lot of interesting games on show today in college and it was interesting to see everyone's different games. My favorite game was Ross' game. I found it very unique and fun to play. I liked his script and i enjoyed playing it as there was no other games really like his.
Also thanks to Shaun for his help throughout the semester he is a great lecturer.

Unity free tutorials

Unity free tutorials

So this week I have been so busy with college work like creating a magazine, a short video, a website and my group project so that I only had time to complete one Unity tutorial however it was a useful one and I learned more on how to build my game, Air hockey. So far I have created the hockey table and I am enjoying the process. This is the tutorial I followed on youtube, I found it easy to follow and the narrator is easy to understand albeit the foreign accent.

I learned how to add a puck and barriers and got the paddle to move using the mouse so the player can hit the puck in the game. I also utilised Unitys built in physics for the movement of the puck. There was a bit of c sharp in this tutorial which  completed without any hassle. I am enjoying these tutorials and will be watching and completing the rest of them whilst making my own changes of course to make the game my own.

Games testing

Game testing

Personally for me when I try to give constructive criticism I tend to be shy and not really pick out flaws in peoples work or let them know what I would do differently or how they can improve. I feel like everyones work flow works differently and if they feel like their particular piece of work works for them then thats cool who am I to tell them differently. I do however understand that constructive criticism is very useful to people when given in the right way. We all know that person that just speaks their mind with no filter. In reading 'Giving criticism - the good, the bad, and the ugly!' I learned that the only way to criticise without causing a fuss is to use constructive criticism.

I found this article interesting and useful as it tells you how to give proper constructive criticism, why it can be a good thing and some examples. Constructive criticism is the act of finding a flaw in something and providing possible fixes or how to do it better.

https://personalexcellence.co/blog/constructive-criticism/ - Tips on how to give constructive criticism.

https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/learning-tips/the-8-characteristics-of-effective-constructive-criticism - Characteristics of effective criticism.

https://www.snagajob.com/resources/constructive-criticism-is-a-good-thing-really/ - Why criticism is a good thing.

Unity Free Tutorials

Unity free tutorials

As the weeks go by I would like to believe that I am getting somewhat better at using the Unity software to create my game. At first it was honestly so confusing and there was so much to learn about it but I feel like I am improving, slowly but surely. The most difficult part of Unity in my opinion is the c#, It sometimes doesn't work and can be a bit tedious.

The first tutorial I followed and done was this one

 by Jimmy Vegas himself and it was on how to create a basic scoreboard for your game. As I am creating a game that involves score counting I thought this tutorial would be a good one to do.

This tutorial went well for me as it was easy enough to follow and the result was a basic scoreboard. 

The code opened up mono develop and after a few attempts it worked for me.

The second tutorial I followed was the first episode of a series on how to make an air hockey game

This tutorial started at the very start assuming that you are a beginner using unity. I really enjoyed this tutorial as it was easy to follow and the guy talking was clear and explained everything well. He went through some coding at the start which I completed well. I enjoyed the freedom from our lecturer this week to allow us to find tutorials to follow that were specific to our game.

Game stories

Game stories

I am enjoying learning about games and what makes a game a game and the different rules associated with one. It is interesting to learn the different aspects of a game that draws the player in such as narrative and features. In reading "Challenges for game designers" by Brathwaite and Schreiber I noticed that there is a lot of information in the 19 pages of chapter 7 so I skimmed though the chapter and took bits here and there. I read the passage about Jason Rohrer where he talks about the time he played a game that nearly made him cry. His story is very interesting and fun to read and I found it intriguing how Jason gives away his software and games for free however he does receive donations on his website. The intelligent man living in New York city has a degree in computer science and has a fully implemented garden out the back. He is a man living the dream in the best city in the world. 

Five ways games appeal to players

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/168807/five_ways_games_appeal_to_players.php

5 tips to make your game more appealing

https://ruxar.com/making-your-game-appealing-to-letsplayers/

Tips for building a better game

https://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/10-tips-building-better-game-5126304

First playable

First playable

So to be honest I don't have a complete first playable game developed yet as I've been up to my eyes in other work and some personal stuff going on at home, but Im still going to post my thoughts in the blog. Regarding unity it's a love/hate affair at the moment! I can follow tutorial videos perfectly with no hassle but when it comes to the C sharp code for some reason sometimes when I do it It doesn't work for me and I end up being confused and frustrated with it. As my group project presentation and booklet are now done I can focus on my game and get a first playable version of it done this week. I am going to spend more time watching unity tutorials and learning different tips to improve my game as I want to create the best game I can.

Week 8 reading and writing

Week 8 reading and writing

So we are half way through the blogs for this semester and it's crazy to think how fast time has gone by. I remember sitting down on my computer at home getting ready to write my first blog with nervous excitement. 'Am i a blogger now' I thought to myself and I typed out my first few words introducing myself to Shaun and the rest of the class. At the start I wasn't completely confident in writing or how to engage the reader or how I should even be writing, but fast forward a couple of months and I feel more confident now. My spelling has massively improved, (before I had to look up some words on google to make sure I was spelling them right) I am getting more consistent in using capital I's and I feel like my typing speed has improved, practice makes perfect! From the beginning I loved the freedom and flexibility that Shaun has given us to write our blogs before the Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday deadline's. Overall I think that the reading and writing assignments are working well for me because they allow me to take my time when writing them to write good quality text. I enjoy writing and expressing myself and I feel that it helps with your spelling and sentence structure. So far my faveourite blog has been either the very first one where I introduced myself or the game design blog. In the game design blog I discussed what really is a game and different definitions for it. I included bullet points on what makes a game a game anf so on. Over the last while I have been using a new strategie to help me write my blogs better and help me get the best information for my blogs. Whilst reading the blogs I have been jotting down notes and bullet points on a notepad beside me and then when I am writing my blog I use the notes to write key points whilst also looking at the readings. I feel that my biggest accomplishment in this class is making time for myself to write blogs.  I am usually a last minuite kind of guy but this year I am allowing much more time for myself to do work and get things done.

I chose this image to put into this blog as it kind of represents my childhood, not all of it just a part of it lol. When I was younger and growing up the PlayStation was my main toy I used to play with with my friends and brother. I started off with the PlayStation 1 which I received for Christmas one year and then swiftly moved on to the PlayStation 2. I enjoyed playing games such as fifa and crash bandicoot with my brother and there was always fierce battles. Moving through to playstation 3 which I still have today and the console that I play on now is the , you guessed it, PlayStation 7. Only joking, PlayStation 4.  My faveourite game at the moment is The very popular Fortnite which is the biggest most popular game this year. With the playststion 5 supposedly coming out next year I’ll be sure to buy it and continue the journey.