19sixteen - week 10 storyboarding

Story boarding

After meeting with the 19sixteen team this week I have been developing initial research and drawing up a storyboard we will be working towards in our shooting. During the meeting i had been brainstorming on possible animations and graphics we can blend into our visuals in the video and pitched the idea of working together with Conor and Chloe to incorporate the characters directly into our video. after the meeting I created a broad mind map of the possible shots and topics we can include in our doc. After connecting through slack with David on our plans for the next few weeks i also got in touch with the rest of the group to request that we can be notified in future of any practical work or meetings taking place on campus that either myself or David can join in on and capture some footage to possibly link as many of these progressions into the doc as possible.

Game Testing

Game Testing

As we are testing our games it can be hard to try and self critique our work. Everyone has been developing their game with different levels of experience and creativity. I have seen some peoples games that look really incredible and well designed and have come together nicely. it is hard then to look at my own game and try to work to improve my design by comparing to others designs. I feel that i would make a much better progression if i had others to look at my game and give constructive criticism based on an outside view of my game. this allows for my work to be compared against another persons design ideas and creative eye. it is definitely a nice feeling to get reassurance from your peers through compliments on your own work but it is definitely destructive to solely get reassurance from someone just to preserve your self confidence. Constructive criticism is one of the best ways to help a peer to take a step back and see what they can improve in their design and help them to see other, possibly better, options for their game. The Closet Entrepreneur's article on giving constructive criticism does a great job to outline how to go about giving criticism in the right way and how, in turn, this can ultimately help your own work in future projects.

Alpha

Alpha

As i have been working on my game levels it has become clear to me about how little i still know about the power unity gives you. for a free program, there is an incredible amount of features available to play around with and include in your game design. Even with watching at least 3 tutorials each week i still dont feel that i could have completed any full level of my game without having to refer back to tutorials or the internet for help. it amazes me that such huge games in both design complexity and user popularity could be designed completely using the Unity software. I have found it extremely challenging to use the program and although i have progressed with designing in unity i still do not feel comfortable using the program and wouldn't have the confidence to attempt to create another game in my spare time. one huge difficulty i have found whit designing my game is getting things perfected in my design. i do think that unity is well thought out and easy to use but it is definitely a professional program and i would have enjoyed the program more if there was more of a simple drag and drop setup for assets. Im also impressed with the amount of free assets available on the asset store and i have found this to be a really great help in terms of exploring new looks for my game and to see what is possible in terms of design within unity. if i look back on my expectations of time management and goal setting in my first few weeks there has definitely been some changes made. i have found it very difficult to plan out my blog posts for the weeks and try to incorporate each of my tutorials and also creating my beta and alpha games on top of all this. I do prefer the 100% CA style of module and i would not want a final exam on game design but i have really struggled to keep up with the huge workload in this module. for the time i have spent with making my game i am somewhat happy with my game but of course it could have been much better if the game was the main focus for the rest of the semester as opposed to the blogs. having said this, i feel that working through up to date tutorials, like the Jimmy Vegas ones,each week is a really good way to learn the basics of Unity and what can be done to improve the overall look of your game.

A screengrab of my Level 1 start point

Game Stories

Game Stories

After reading Bob Bates article on the guide to a hero's journey, I have come away with two main points. The first is that the idea of creating, developing and adding a myth into your game isn't as difficult as it seems, as Bates outlines in the first half of the article, myths are a huge part of our daily lives and we are surrounded by them in Religious Faith, Manners and in contributing to society. Bates makes a great point when he talks about comparing drugs to Myth-Substitutes as the user would feel the need to take narcotics to eith create myth when it is not there or to discover new ones in the most real way, through their own perception of reality. The second point i have taken is that creating a hero also isn't as difficult as it may seem. While Bates uses mainly mythological hero's in this article, the same principle can be thought of for comic books and superhero movies. Bates references a list of qualities a hero can posses and of course, just as in mythology we could think of David (Goliath's victim), Beowulf or Cú Chulainn for an example that we all heard about as children, we can also relate many of these points to a hero such as Spider man, although he may be a much more recent creation, a true hero none the less.

 Screen grab from Bob Bates Article 

In the Article 'What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story' I believe that John Sutherland is campaigning for a revolution in Gaming. He talks about how movies could have died had they tried to continue feeding on the amusement and 'New Toy' feeling as he put it. Movies had to evolve into moving picture stories to compete and overtake the live stage performance as the best way to tell a story. I do believe it is possible to create this change again from movies to games. The growing complexity of stories in games is proof of the world willingness to feed on the juiciest story, with no real loyalty to its medium in which it is told. For many, it is now far more pleasurable to play a game about a world war 2 hero, essentially becoming the hero rather than watch even their favorite movie star act the story out on screen for a single 3 hour movie. With the advancements in VR and AI, it is becoming more and more accessible to portray real, complex and intriguing stories within a game. The TV show 'West World' is a good example of humans being sucked in to the idea of being so intuned with the story, they are willing to give anything to live it. In my opinion, the key to a truly great game is to bring the player as close to the story as current tech allows.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I feel i have definitely benefited from the blog comment feedback that i have received. Many comments have simply just been nice messages from peers and some have given some good advice and supplied some good, constructive feedback.
On some occasions i will admit that I have found myself just shooting out a paragraph on someones post about how I have enjoyed reading their thoughts and are interested by their game design ideas etc as i was behind on blogs and wanted to get something down. it is only in the last few weeks that  have realized the potential these comments can have, it is rare that we are encouraged to actively critique each others work as we progress through assignments and often I wouldn't bother to pass comment on peoples work, rather just compliment on things i like. in this case it gives a platform to sit and read through blogs and see someones progression and view their work as it improves while offering advice and criticism that they otherwise wouldn't hear.

Overall i would say that the blog comment feedback is a really positive and a great idea. It allows students to give feedback, share ideas and give constructive criticism in order to help other students improve and create. The main positive i see to this is that students are encouraged to visit other students blogs to comment, and in turn end up learning a lot about their own blogging by comparing other students work to their own whether deliberately or subconsciously. one downside to the comments is that sometimes the comments become another blog upload crammed in each week and students don't put a lot of thought into giving constructive advice and end up just giving empty compliments drawn out to fill a word count. that said, i would definitely recommend students to visit others blogs, learn from that experience and leave some advice or ideas on how the student can improve or what they are doing well as this is a great way to learn!

I like the randomizer idea as it encourages students to visit students blogs outside their class group and friend group

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back on my reading and writing blogs i feel that although I may have missed a few uploads on these topics i have definitely benefited from writing these blogs. the reading blogs give an opportunity to look at relevant subjects and information that i would probably never just come across while surfing the web or wouldn't even know to look for them while researching.
The writing blogs also help get ideas from my mind down in words which helps to develop ideas and progress as its easier to move on when things are put down in writing. I would have liked to work on more of these as they are a great way to show progression and research of game design info.
I feel i have fallen behind considerably in this lecture as a result of not being able to fit in almost daily blog posts or coming to Sunday and realizing i haven't been able to complete any blogs ahead of time and having to prioritize important uploads. I am not happy with my progression so far in the design of my game but I'm hoping i can pick up the pace on design and development and make a game that i am proud to share.

Gamification Model Canvas

This is an example of one image i like as it shows how a simple table created to outline a tool used to aid in my game development can be simple and effective in laying out essential and useful info into a graphic which can then used to compress full pages of information into a few strong points that can be easily recalled and used when needed.

I think it would be good practice to keep up the reading and writing blogs as they are good for keeping track of progress and can double as a notebook to keep ideas and notes of important info while creating our game.

Unity Free Tutorials

Unity tutorial

For this weeks unity tutorials I wanted to browse through the Jimmy Vegas YouTube channel to find some tutorials that I would be able to alter to use in my own game. The two I found and that I have included in this blog is the tutorial on a sniper scope image that can be added to the players view to give the effect of looking through a snipers optic and also an addition to the HUD of my game with the tutorial on creating a Sky rim influenced health bar. i liked the idea of creating the sniper scope as it could be easily manipulated into other useful game elements. the main one i had in mind for this would be changing the sniper scope to a set of binoculars, a telescope or even night vision, by changing the view to have a green tint and extra brightness. It would be possible to use the same C# script for all these ideas with the image covering the screen and a zoomed image in the cutout of the instrument used. I could implement this idea as a means of allowing the player to be able to see either farther or in a certain environment and I think this would really be a cool effect.

                                         Scope tutorial from Jimmy Vegas' video

The other tutorial i watched was for a sky rim inspired health bar. this would be a great inclusion for my HUD in my game and this idea could be personalized with the png and colored bars used to fit the theme of my final game. Again it would be possible to use the same C# script used in the video with some minor tweaks to blend with my game.

I look forward to exploring more of Jimmy Vegas' Unity tutorials on YouTube and seeing what great tips and ideas i can add to my game. Jimmy Vegas' YouTube channel can be found here