Tech Tasks: Twitter Follow

Although I already have a twitter account from a few years back (it's gone pretty quiet now), I wanted to make a brand new shiny account separate to my original one, and just dedicated to this module. 

I have played around with some settings today, to try make my account a bit easier on the eye and I've also just started following 20 new accounts spread across three industries of interest to me; multimedia, beauty and tech. Some of the big names I have followed include @Loreal @ConanOBrien and @YahooTech all three of which have strong opinions and such dedicated to their professional field and I found them interesting to follow. 

If you want to add me on my new twitter, you can find me @RachelMenton3

Tech Tasks: Switching up the Blog using Blogger Tips!

Hey everyone! Today I wanted to play around with changing up the theme of my blog.. make it look a little bit more interesting. I'm used to using Wordpress for blogging in the past and so I've always found Blogger a little bit limited in regards to its design tools, but never the less, I've tried to redesign my blog the best I can and I reckon it looks a little better!

I've used one of the Travel Templates and played around with a new background, and changing some of my fonts and link colours, so hopefully it's a little easier on the eye and better for all that reading you's are doing :) It comes with an easy to use mobile template too so handy for catching up with blogs, or doing blog comments while on your phone. Sure let me know what you guys think?

While I'm here, I just wanted to link a new blog I've discovered and have been enjoying reading for more knowledge on making our games. I'll link it here for anyone who is  interested https://mindofgames.wordpress.com/ Hope everyone's project is going well!

Laters,


Rachel

Introduction

Hi guys! 

So my name is Rachel and I am currently repeating Year 3 in CDM after a tough year last year. I should technically be in 4th year with all my pals but hey.. not everyone's journey through college is smooth sailing for the 4 years. I also failed the Multimedia Development 1 module last year but had to repeat it again.. yes I am probably the only ever CDM student who is meant to be in 4th year but still repeating a 2nd year module. Shaun if you're reading this I bet you can't wait to see me finally pass yay! :)

The modules I'm probably the strongest at would be all the design stuff. Visual Design Fundamentals and Brand Identity Design were my favourite classes by far. Hoping to get into some sort of visual design job once I graduate. 

A little bit about me? Well I'm classed as a 'mature student' and coming back to college was one of the best decisions I ever made after working in horrible jobs for 10 years after I left school. I also live in Swords which is handy living close enough to ITB! Fun fact: I started a society here in college in first year with my friend called The Blogger Society.. it didn't really last too long into second year once the assignments and deadlines came along. And who'd a thought, I actually blogged for 5 years previous to coming to college where I ran a beauty and lifestyle blog called The Powder Room which got me some pretty cool free stuff and opportunities to go to events. So I should be good at this blogging thing then no? 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed getting to know me some more! 

Laters,



Rachel 

My Game Design Document

This week was the beginning of focusing on the actual Game. I really enjoy this part of the module - researching various games and the approach in which I will take to make my own is exciting. The thought processes and brainstorming behind the development of a game is crucial, but really fun. You can make pretty much whatever you want to make. 

My thought process behind the game I intend to make was inspired by watching the film 'Castaway'. The story behind that film was pretty simple, Tom Hanks Plane crashes into the sea and he ends up being deserted on an island in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilisation. I have based my game on a story similar to the film, but I have put my own spin on it and decided to create an environment where it wasn't a beautiful sunny beach with palm trees and blue skies, except an environment where it's desolated and almost eerie - with no sign of civilisation, dark murky skies and a mist which sets all around giving the unknown land a chilling feel. 

In my introduction in my GDD, I go on to describe what exactly the game is about and how to play. The concept is relatively simple. The player ends up washed ashore, finds a map, has to find and collect the objects on the map, locate the village (in which the last object on the map is in) and ask for help to be rescued, pointed in the direction of a bridge crossing a river and it is there where they will be rescued and so, the game is complete. 

As a design student, I do feel it is important that the game looks well and the global elements should also play a big role in the overall gameplay. I have researched various games and one that sticks out to me the most is Resident Evil - that type of feel will be obvious throughout my design. I have also added some images into my GDD for visual representation from Pripyat, a town in Ukraine which was the setting for the Chernobyl disaster. Here is an image from Pripyat, which could be considered a good representation of my proposed game visually. 

(image source: https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/307159637068573168/?lp=true)

Gameplay is obviously one of the most important factors, your game might look good visually but who would want to play it if there was no real purpose or objective. I didn't want to make the usual POV shooter game, I'm not really big into violence so that was a no go from me. I have decided to make an adventure style 'find the hidden gems' type of game though, this can be played by anyone from the ages of 7 and up, or someone who understands the concept of finding and locating hidden items at least. The main objective is obviously just Collection. Many platformer video games (such as the 'Spyro') included levels where you had to collect a certain number of objects scattered throughout the level, and so I thought this would be fun to build and play and also roam around the world and explore.

To find out a bit more about the game I intend to make I have included a link to my Game Design Document for further reading  https://www.dundoc.com/project/4784/uwxa8xk520

Unity Tutorial 05

In todays Unity tutorial lab, we explored how to add more UI effects to the scene. Action text is essential because the player needs to know what to do when they come to a certain point on screen, adding action text will inform the player what to do, like in the game I hope to make, the player will have to run around and collect certain items so this was really helpful for me to understand today so I can reference this in my own game. We added a script using the public GameObject command and also a command for when the mouse hovers over something on the screen. 

I find writing the script to be easy enough when following the tutorials because it's pretty much just step by step, however I can't see it being as simple to follow when I go to execute the script into the actual game myself, but we will see when the time comes. After writing the script and saving it into my scene I did get an error message but when I went looking back I was just missing a semi colon in my text so it was easily solved. The tutorial also informed us how to add a sound, so when you pick up your item, it can play whatever sound you like - I really like this feature.

(Executing script in Unity - Source: Tutorial screenshot)

We next looked at how to add some more environment, by importing a white fence into the game and adding a texture. Building the environment is one of my favourite parts about Unity, it reminds me of a time when I used to play The Sims computer games as a child, and building houses and designing their environments and surroundings. The animation and applying keyframes part in Unity is also something I enjoyed learning about. Objects that animate and move make them appear so much more realistic and I can see this feature being used a lot when making my Game later on - I did have to rewind the tutorial when he was playing around with the keyframes, as I found it confusing at first. 

Layers are a way that we can provide an extra camera to render a certain layer so as we do not clip our weapon into certain objects. We added a layer to our axe and had to tell the camera not to render that particular layer. This part of the tutorial was tricky enough to understand, again I had to rewind. A useful tool to use going forward though, as the weapon never clips onto anything and ill always be on top, handy to use for any other weapons being used in the future.

Games and the Initial Design Process - GDD

In this weeks reading we are focusing on Gaming and the Initial Design process or stages. The early stages of the Design Process are crucial, this is where you want to have everything planned out so you have the starting point or base for your game. There needs to be a step-by-step guide to allow for bigger projects to run smoothly and lead to an all-round better game in the end. 

The design components can go a long way in how a game is enjoyed but do they really matter? Imagine playing chess with cardboard cutouts, it's still the same game but would it be as enjoyable to play? Things that should be considered: space between players, high contrasting colours/distinguishable characters, legible fonts, avoid clutter/excess components, etc. But what about the rules of the game? Writing clear and to the point rules might seem like an easy task, but it's often the hardest thing to get right. Things that should be considered here include: blind test the rules (when a game is sent to a group of people who need to learn how to play and understand the game on their own without the help of the developer/designer), include a detailed list of components, what happens when the game ends, how many lives does a player have, etc. 

(source: https://mindofgames.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/failing-makes-success/  interesting blog about the experiences of a game designer)

The first thing that needs to happen in Game Design is coming up with a core concept or basic idea for the game. So Core Aesthetics is very important - how should the player feel? How should the play experience be like? Starting with a rule or system is often a good idea, look at everyday life and how or what decisions being made can be interpreted into your game. Technology is also a good consideration within your game. What items could be used to enhance player experience etc. Other important things to consider is also narrative and market research. Combinations of several of these. For example, starting with core aesthetics and narrative at the same time, you can make a game where the story and gameplay are highly integrated.

I have heard a lot about 'designers block' in the past and it is something that is important to consider could happen. Trying something new and random and integrating it into our game is a good way to prevent this from happening. Also keep a collection of all your ideas for games, mechanics, narratives, etc and look back on these to generate some new ideas so designers block doesn't become an issue. 

Unity Tutorial 03

Todays lab was really enjoyable for me. Creating the clock tutorial within unity was quite simple but fun. It's tutorials like these that I feel you benefit from the most because they are teaching you the basics and it's at a nice step-by-step pace. I learned a lot about how parent and child grouping is important when creating an object, as it allows you to have more control over the object as a whole. I found the part where you had to create the clock hour and then duplicate and rotate every hour by 30 degrees to be particularly helpful as I've used Unity before and was not aware something like this could be so easy to create. The use of the object hierarchy here and then deleting the object was also very helpful and something to remember for future tasks.

Something I struggled with was animating the clock. I could understand the basics of the #C scripting language but when it came to rotating the arms, I couldn't implement the code correctly. I'm not sure why it wasn't working for me properly, perhaps it was just an issue with a missing character. However, I carried on and continued editing my script in the MonoDevelop programme and implementing same.

I am now really looking forward to making a start on building a game within the Unity environment. Unity is a really great tool and has so many cool features available that make it fun to use when it comes to game development and design. I am enjoying the Jimmy Vegas series on YouTube as well, he makes it a lot easier to understand certain features and how to do certain things.

Games MDA

Today I am going to be discussing Games and their MDA Framework. MDA stands for the Game Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. So what does each word mean exactly and in what sense does it refer to gaming? 

(image cred: http://gamedevelopertips.com/mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics-game-design-theory-behind-games/ )

Lets start with the Mechanics. These are basically the 'rules' of the game and the constraints in which the game operates. Gameplay, player actions, what happens when the game ends etc - these are all determined by the mechanics. Then we move onto the Dynamics of the game. These refer to the play of the game when a set of rules are set in motion - how players may interact with each other and so on. And finally, Aesthetics. This is the effects the dynamics have on the players themselves - essentially, the player experience of the game. Is the game fun or boring? Does it have some sort of intellectual or emotional engagement, etc. 

MDA is a 'taxonomy' for formal models meaning knowledge of Mechanics, knowledge of Dynamics and knowledge of Aesthetics but also a knowledge of the interactions between them all. So what about game Dynamics? To understand this, we must ask questions like how can we explain the behaviour we are observing? Or can we predict game behaviour before we go to play-test? 

To understand things like Aesthetics, we need to be able to see past wording like 'fun' or 'gameplay'. How will we know a particular type of 'fun' when we see it? Or what makes a certain part of the game 'fun'? They're is many different kinds of 'fun' available to players in the form of things like sensation, fantasy, narrative, discovery and expression. So what about a definition for aesthetic goals or stating criteria for success and failures - these can be called an 'Aesthetic Model'. An example of an 'Aesthetic Model' - Goal Competition. A game where players become competitive because they are emotionally invested in defeating one another. This is a success when players want to win, or a failure if a player feels he/she cannot win. 

There is a vast library of common game mechanics when it comes to understanding Mechanics in general. Some examples: cards - shuffling, bidding, trick taking. Shooters - ammunition, spawn points. Golf - sand traps, water hazards. So what about Mechanics VS Dynamics? Some behaviours are direct consequences of rules, others are indirect. Dynamics and Mechanics are different views of games. Some dynamics for example, time pressure, can create dramatic tension within a game. Various mechanics create time pressure like a simple time limit, or a pace monster or depleting resource. 

Learning About Game Elements

So we have established that there is many different disciplines involved with making a game (design, art, audio, code, objectives, narrative, etc). Game content creation is evolving all the time in order to keep up with technology speeds and so on.

The design is such a crucial aspect of the entire game, because without it, the game would simply be data on a disk with no user experience. It is also important that when it comes to game design, we understand and are able to communicate effectively to others, aspects of gameplay or design that we like or don't like. Once we reach this understanding, evolution across all game genres will accelerate and we effectively have our own shared language. In order to understand and appreciate how elements of a game fit together, we should be dissecting it into all its components - Design evolution often only occurs through refinements.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_64#/media/File:Super_Mario_64_box_cover.jpg

So what tools would be useful for us in order to dissect and analyse game elements and components? We should take a look at the overall game aspects and look for things that we could abstract or form and apply to other genres and titles. Take Mario 64 for example, the idea behind it was to have multiple objectives in many of the 'worlds'. This allowed players to have some sort of idea about what their goals were and how to achieve them in later gameplay, because they had already visited the world earlier on and knew what to do in order to achieve new goals. This allows players to engage in a pretty sophisticated planning process. They have been presented with knowledge of how the world works, how they can move and interact with it, and what obstacles they must overcome.

So looking back on the Mario 64 example, we can now understand what can be derived from one or two specific observations. We see there are many ways in which players are encouraged to form their own goals and act on them. The key is that players know what to expect from the world and thus are made to feel in control of the situation. Another tool observation is known as PERCEIVABLE CONSEQUENCE: A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player. This tool is often used in RPG games with some sort of character or plot development.

All About Game Design

One of the first things I learnt today from my readings was what exactly a game is classed as. A less analytical definition could describe a game as play activity with rules that involves conflict but this doesn't truly describe how exactly a game should work or be viewed as. 

By any standards a game should have a 'start' and 'end' and an objective throughout with rules on how to get there or how to finish or win the game. Games can be classed as a form of 'art'. There is also several different forms of games. These can be puzzles, adventure games, shooter style, role-playing games, etc and more often than not a game will have to include some type of story or narrative throughout.

Natural instinct of gamers is to play any game as the rules imply but the nature of some games can lead to more sophisticated gaming styles with heavy narrative and role-play, where your character interaction becomes so important in the overall objective of the game. This is particularly interesting where younger gamers are concerned, because they can engross themselves in this 'fantasy world' where you could experiment with individual personalities and actions in which you would most likely not ever come across or explore in real life. Of course where did modern video/computer games stem from? It was actually mainly board games.

When it comes to game design in particular, what exactly does it mean and what parts of the game is it referring to? Game Design is the creation of rules and in-game content. It involves the overall design of the game but not things like marketing, art, animation or programming. These are referred to as 'Game development' and Game Design should only be classed as a small part of the Game Development phase. So who exactly designs games then? These people are known as 'Game Designers' and they cover a broad range of skills and contain qualities that artists, architects, research scientists and educators all have within the industry. 

Computer Space. 1971 (first ever video game) developed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabne, who later founded Atari.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Space#/media/File:Computer_Space_flyer.jpg