College Adventures

I like the video describing the differences between mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics as I know a lot of people were asking what they were when writing about there own game design asking for the context they could use it. I also think if the video had a voice over reading out the writing or talking about them more in detail it would be easier and I would have more retention. It helped the way the video cleared up the difference between mechanics and dynamics as I do sometimes get them mixed up especially with the grey areas. When I first clicked to read the MDA I was a bit over whelmed with the amount of writing. "By moving between MDA ís three levels of abstraction, we can conceptualize the dynamic behavior of game systems. Understanding games as dynamic systems helps us develop techniques for iterative design and improvement" This is talking about how each part of MDA can help understand what people want and almost control how they will act in the game while giving them th...

I read Be a Mirror as my first article "When students develop a growth mindset about their reading ability, they believe that their hard work, struggle, and opportunities for problem solving are all important and valuable parts of the learning process. When students develop a fixed mindset about their ability, they believe their reading level, skill level, and proficiency are static and not much can be done to change them. With a fixed mindset comes resistance to working hard and putting extra effort in because there is really no point."   I feel like this is a problem that everybody goes through and that you get to a point where you feel like you can not improve anymore and that you begin to stagnate that will also become very frustrating for yourself as you are used to improvement and this can cause frustration and lack of belief in ones skills or ability's. Feedback can help with this as it can help be that push in the right direction if the feedback is given correctly...

The idea I am focusing in on is a hamster who has escaped the house from its owner in a hamster ball and is exploring the outside world for the first time. Some mechanics I was thinking of having is an attack against enemy's like cats and animal control. Im not sure what I would do as the attack move though as there are many ways I could do it. I could do a similar one to sonic the hedgehog and spin fast or jump on top of them. I could also give him a weapon which would be easier to do probably. Another mechanic is that the hamster ball can act as a barrier/ second life like in mario when he gets bigger from eating a mushroom. I feel like it would be a good and interesting mechanic to add as it will enable me to make the game more difficult.The last mechanic is a simple one but it gives an objective to the game which is for the h amster to collect something around the map. What the character would be based on Source

Hello readers I have updated my blog design hope you all enjoy the new layout

The file setup can be tedious creating empty after empty. It was a little confusing to get my head around it but after a while it made sense to do it. The coding is getting a lot easier and I'm beginning to get a feel for it the more I do it. Its useful that the water is pre built into the unity programme. Its a useful. I find the shortcuts are a great help with working at a fast pace. I was originally worried about the look (as much as Shaun told us not to) as I felt it looked too rpg/mmo like, But after seeing how much you can change the textures and overall look of things in the game it put those worries to the back of my mind. The crosshair makes it feel a lot more like a game. As before it felt like a simulator rather than a game for some reason. It might due to the fact that we are so used to having a crosshair in a game thats a first person game. The ray casting was a little harder to grasp but after going over that part in the tutorial a few times it helped me understand. I...

We should expand our vocabulary in the use of describing games in games design and about the overall game. We use "That was fun" or "I don't know, that wasn't much fun" instead we should be dissecting the game into the fundamentals and components of it and talk about what works and what doesn't and explain your thoughts on why. But because a game can be so brad this can be a daunting challenge and seems like you don't know where to start. Design has struggled to to evolve as much as its counter parts due to the lacks of ability to critique it. Designs have been similar in games for the past few years with not much of a leap in the graphics. This could be due to people not being open for change and appreciate the nostalgia almost or they're too used to it. It may also be down to the fact that the technology has advanced for graphics to get better and change but it can be very costly and a lot designers are catering to a broad spectrum of people. T...

How to Get Past Negativity Bias in Order to Hardwire Positive Experiences  this is the first article I chose to read. This talks about how we are very negatively evolved with our brains taking in more of the negative stuff around us rather than the positive. Which I think is really accurate as many people put themselves down for the work and have a constant feeling of it not being good enough or not having confidence in yourself. As I know I really do struggle with those things. This post teaches you how to re-hard wire your brain to take in more of the positive mindset. I found that some of them were very useful and interesting ways of  trying to change your mindset Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it  this is the second article I chose to read. I found this quote really interesting "The greatest damage rejection causes is usually self-inflicted. Just when our self-esteem is hurting most, we go and damage it even further." As I said in the first para...

My first idea I have for my game is an obstacle style game where you have to jump over gaps and time running through blades all while collecting gems to pass through to the next level. If you fall down a gap or get hit by a blade you go back to a checkpoint or to the start. Each level would have a different theme or style look. Each level will get more difficult with things like the level art affecting what you can see making it harder. I like this idea because I enjoy these challenge games and I feel like it wouldn't be too hard to produce. I guess you could say it would be similar to the game mirrors edge a little bit. This is what I would say best describes the game. Here is an example of it My second idea is about an alien who crashed on earth and is looking for parts for his ship to leave. But he is being chased by the FBI so has to deal with them while looking for pieces. The alien will have a gun and can shoot the FBI agents. There will be cows that you can abduct/absorb ...

I learnt that unity only uses c sharp for coding now, as I thought there were multiple languages unity uses depending on the platform. I found how you can select where the lighting comes from very interesting as I know that takes a lot to do. The terrain editing reminded me of age of empires custom maps which was one of my favourite modes in the game. It is not as difficult as I thought it would be and I actually found it quite enjoyable messing with the terrain. As I was following the second tutorial I was getting worried there would not be any use of particles to make it look more professional but as I went on to the third tutorial I saw that we were using trees and grass. I was surprised at how much custom ability there is. It will take me a little while to get used to writing some of the scripts. I found the tutorials were easy to follow and the voice over was clear and concise. These tutorials have furthered my excitement to jump into the game design project. I really am enjoying ...

Part 1 I like how the first reading piece address' the similarity in a lot of games and how they struggle to find how they differ. I really agree with this as many fps (first person shooters) are very similar hence why I stopped buying them especially how they now produce sequels that are basically the same game with slight changes in visuals and concept/time for the same high or sometimes a higher price. They also talk about how the older games are novel but were hits. I feel that older games were more focused on story line as multiplayer online was not an everyday thing. This means game designers and developers these days have more work and more focus drawn out. Costing more resources and time which in turn adds up to the costly game prices we see today. I also had a good think about how board games are actually in the same lines of computer games with the same problems of saturation and the struggle of trying to find your niche that will sell well. The third article I also fou...