Summary:

We were tasked to get as far as we could in making a game with the help of a full tutorial. The first couple of hours I was stuck in the first script, as I was trying to do it along with him and it did not work, as I made a bunch of errors. When I got past it I made good progress, until the animation. I got stuck countless times in the animation sequencing, as I had no idea where I messed up. Then magically it worked, no idea how, it just did. Then it came time to make another script, which I had to rewrite about three times. Just as I was starting to make progress on the next piece of game mechanics, we ran out of time.

Day 1: I had tried to get the animation working, as I had no idea what was wrong

Day 2: I had finished the animation, it just worked out of nowhere, and started working on the game controller script so the game would actually function

Day 3: I continued to work on the game controller script and made progress in working on the conflicts within the code

Day 4: I was working on the moving background script

Day 5: I just continued to work on the problems surrounding my moving background script

 

Unity Tutorials:

 

January

Hours worked:

Evidence:

February

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March

Hours worked:

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April

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May

Hours worked:

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Resources

CHS SkillsUSA Page

Summary

This assignment was all about giving us exposure and experience with making a GDD and all that it entails. We were supposed to describe a fairly simple game and write about all aspects of it. Then we were tasked with identifying what genres and environments work best with each other.  We played three games and had to report on various aspects of it’s gameplay. Then finally we talked about one of our game ideas and what it’s about and the mechanics, the story, and much more.

Task 1

Snake: you have a “snake” that is trying to eat the “apple” which it has been remade and reskinned to look different but the premise is the same. There will be “apples” that you have to eat, and when you eat “those” apples you will grow longer, further increasing the difficulty as you have to stay away from the walls and yourself. If you hit either of those you will die and have to restart.

Task 2

The goal of the game is to get as big as possible. I would classify the genre as a top down fast paced arcade survival game. The game mechanics are moving up, down, left, or right. The game is very easy to navigate, as all you have to do is press start. The only rules are get the red block and don’t touch yourself or the walls. The players motivation is to get as big as possible and to flex on your friends. There aren’t really any risks or rewards you just get bigger and bigger. I believe the game is well balanced because it is just pure skill.

Task 3

I’d say that the environment space like outer space, the genre science fiction would work best, as most of the sci-fi games are set in space. The genre for sci-fi gives you a lot of room to work with as you aren’t limited by the bounds of reality and you can be as creative as you want to be, be it crazy futuristic technology, or an exotic alien race.

The FPS shooter genre has multiple environments that could fit it, but I’d say that the modern world is the best, as it limits what you can make, so balancing issues would be very straight-forward. The modern setting would make players feel closer to home and would give more of a understanding feeling.

The genre of survival is one of the most flexible genres as it can be set anywhere, there has been very successful survival games, in the past, present, future, alien planets, underwater, and many more. They are so robust because the main focus of the game still stays the same, survive, and no matter the environment it is still the same.

Task 4

Shadow Hunt 3:

1. Fighting
2. Anyone that has a mobile device
3. To beat everyone and complete the story
4. Three fighting factions
5. The overall feel of the game is very smooth and looks very good

Dino Hunt 2:

1. Shooter
2. People with a PC
3. To kill all the Dinosaurs
4. No narrative
5. The overall feel of the game is very bad, bad graphics, bad textures, bad mechanics

Red Dead Redemption 2

1. Western-themed Action Adventure
2. Gamers that enjoyed the first RDR and GTA series
3. The goal is to make money and just to have fun
4. A gang had a heist go wrong and has lawmen after them and somehow need to make money and survive long enough to head out west
5. The overall feel of the game is amazing, it has amazing graphics, the mechanics all make sense and work, it plays very smoothly

Task 5

The overall “flavor” of my game idea would be Super Hexagon, as you have to maneuver around. The player’s role is not very important, as there is no real narrative, you aren’t really pretending to be anyone else, as you will just have premade geometric models. The game’s model is a square, just a four sided square that you could possibly change the color. The gameplay is just navigating a maze with a time limit, you move instantly to the next wall that you hit. The challenges that a player will face, are maze size and time limit. The player will have to think of whether to take time thinking about their approach or just go and run the risk of hitting a dead end. The game would fall into a escape puzzle genre, as mazes are puzzles and you have to get out of it. People would want to play this game because it gives the “escape” genre kind of a new fresh take of it. The target audience would be those who like the challenge of puzzles and the feeling after you beat them. The saturation of this genre is rather high and you can see this because the top puzzle games have ranging from thousands of downloads to over tens of millions. The games setting is some sort of testing chamber. This game will have a level system, each one getting harder and harder, that being bigger mazes and less time given. The conditions of victory are that you get to the end will the allotted time. The game’s narrative will be that people are being tested in the future for possible job placements.

What I Learned

I learned that it is very important to keep yourself organized and to put some quality into your work and make it into something that you can safely put your name on it.

Notes:

• 3:42 Meshes
• 7:11 Adding Game Objects
• 8:57 Various shapes
• 12:52 How to add models or assets
• 16:59 Scale Factors
• 20:16 Asset Store
• 22:14 How to import assets from the store
• 24:40 Adding assets to the scene
• 27:32 Modeling model
• 28:14 Materials

Notes:

• 3:26 Coordinate System
• 6:48 Projection
• 9:44 Local vs World Coordinate Systems
• 11:35 Game Objects
• 18:23 Lighting
• 19:58 Components

 

Manual:

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/GameObjects.html

Scripting:

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/GameObject.html

 

 

#1 “Square Up”

You are dropped onto a map with other players, trying to eliminate them, but in order to do so you have a line that follows you, and whenever someone touches your line or stops moving they explode. Players have limited lives, that when the opponent runs out of lives, you win. It will have sort of a futuristic-techno neon vibe, with upbeat EDM and very fast gameplay.

 

#2 “Boxed In”

You start out in a relatively small box, with a maze. You have to press the arrow keys to navigate out of the maze. There will be limited time, each level further increasing the difficulty (that be the size of the “box”, and decreasing the time you have to work with. Mistakes will have a big impact, as it will take a good amount of time away from you. They are not random, as the player will learn how to navigate the mazes with trial and error. You will get points at the end of each level, that being the amount of time you have left, which you can buy power ups and cosmetics with those points.

Game Reviewed:

• Candy Crush Saga

Game Platform:

• Mac

1. Provide a detailed overview of the object of the game.

You have to match three or more of the same kind of candy in a row in order to break them, further progressing the puzzle, getting harder each time.

2. List 3 or more things you like about the game. Why?

• Simplistic
• Aesthetic
• Bright visuals

3. List 3 or more things you do not like about the game. Why?

• Childish
• Repetitive
• Tutorial

List 3 or more reasons why you think the game you are reviewing is successful.

• It is very casual
• Easy
• Pleasing aesthetic

GAME MODIFICATION PLAN

Game Reviewed:

Candy Crush

Game Platform:

Mac

Create a revised object of the game based on your ideas and recommendations to improve it.

You have limited time to fill a bucket that is required to fill in order to pass through a part of the world

List 3 or more specific changes you would make to the game. Why and how will these changes improve the game?

• There would be a part of your screen, being a bucket, which you can progressively fill up, needing to completely fill to pass a part of the world
• The map would be have a overhaul, having sections or regions
• Each level would build off of each other, further progressing the bucket being filled

List 3 or more reasons why the original designers did not choose these changes and ideas you identified.

• It might not have fit the aesthetic they were having
• Too extreme for the target audience, that being kids
• Weren’t wanting it to be too in depth

List 3 or more reasons why these changes may be difficult to include if the game were revised.

• Trouble with the script
• Cost money
• Would have to remake most of the scripts and mechanics that are in place, further exposing it to glitches and problems, which would then cost money and time

Briefly explain why you would like to make these changes

Candy Crush in all was a good game that didn’t really need anything new at all, it had everything that it needed, but if I were hired to revise and change Candy Crush I would make the changes I previously mentioned. I believe that it would bring a new feel to Candy Crush, as you need to, on each level build off of each to get further. It would give a new level to the map system.  And overall give people and incentive to revisit Candy Crush.

 

MDA:

• Mechanics: are the base components of the game – its rules, every basic action the player can take in the game, the algorithms and data structures in the game engine etc.
• Dynamics are the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player input and “cooperating” with other mechanics.
• Aesthetics are the emotional responses evoked in the player

The paper seeks to better specify terms such as ‘gameplay’ and ‘fun’, and extend the vocabulary of game studies, suggesting a non-exhaustive taxonomy of eight different types of play. The framework uses these definitions to demonstrate the incentivising and disincentivizing properties of different dynamics on the eight subcategories of game use.

From the perspective of the designer, the mechanics generate dynamics which generate aesthetics. This relationship poses a challenge for the game designer as they are only able to influence the mechanics and only through them can be produced meaningful dynamics and aesthetics for the player. The perspective of the player is the other way around. They experience the game through the aesthetics, which the game dynamics provide, which emerged from the mechanics.

• Don’t combine genres unless they have a purpose or reinforce each other
• They need to complement each others aesthetic
• Make one genre compensate for another one
• What is the core game trying to deliver
• It’s risky, but has some potential
• Creating a unified experience
• Mechanics are the rules and systems
• Dynamics is how it is played
• Aesthetics is why you want to play, elicit some kind of feeling

Eight Types of Aesthetics:

• Sensation (Game as sense-pleasure): Player experiences something completely unfamiliar.
  • Any game that stimulates your senses
• Fantasy (Game as make-believe): Imaginary world.
  • Ability to step into a role that you can’t realistically
• Narrative (Game as drama): A story that drives the player to keep coming back
  • A game that lives off drama
• Challenge (Game as obstacle course): Urge to master something. Boosts a game’s replayability.
  • A game as an obstacle course, NOT difficulty
• Fellowship (Game as social framework): A community where the player is an active part of it. Almost exclusive for multiplayer games.
  • Working cooperatively
• Discovery (Game as uncharted territory): Urge to explore game world.
  • Finding new things
• Expression (Game as self-discovery): Own creativity. For example, creating character resembling player’s own avatar.
  • To stimulate your need to express your self
• Submission (Game as pastime): Connection to the game, as a whole, despite of constraints.
  • To let yourself to let go and relax
• Competition (Unofficial)
  • To state your dominance and prove yourself

 

 

Notes

• Minimum Viable Content
  • The smallest thing you can make that will give you results
• Being able to play it, gives you the most insight
• Find the absolute minimum features that won’t hurt development
• A trigger is needed to restart

Notes

• Don’t plan a project that is longer than a month
• It’s going to take longer than you think
• Don’t panic if you take longer
• Don’t go into it too ambitious
• Set milestones
• Break the big milestones into smaller tasks
• Send yourself producer emails
• Review your game at least once per week
• Don’t worry about production values
• Don’t spend an hour on one thing, go look for help
• Make people play your game
  • You need that feedback
  • One of the best resources available

Notes

• First game should be for learning not for a masterpiece
• Don’t go into a game limiting yourself
  • Find out what you can do
• Watch tutorials
• Start Small, and keep it simple
• Design it around your skills
• Asset store is very helpful
  • Cheap
• Don’t give up

Create a blog post titled Essay: THE NAME OF THE ESSAY

• Write a short paragraph reflecting the WHAT, WHY, and HOW
  • For the blog post copy and paste the four lines below into your blog post and complete:
  • Create links into the specific time of the video under the specific headings

Embed the video(s) at the top of the blog post

Overview

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What

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Why

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How

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