Linda Russell's Blog

  Unity Tutorial 04 Unity 3D, source:  Shutterstock Lesson 2.4 "Collision Decisions" For this tutorial we picked up where we left off from our Unity Tutorial 03 . In the previous tutorial we got as far as constructing the movement of our player, our animals and also the food. In 04 we made our game playable to the user. I made my animals spawn automatically in this tutorial. By using a timing system they now spawn randomly. I made my food object collide with the oncoming animal, making them disappear or "delete" from the screen. By giving our projectile and our animals "Collider" component's. I learned how to write a brand new method: SpawnRandomAnimal {...}. Challenge 2 & Quiz Play Fetch This challenge we had to fixed the "bugs" in the unity game. Given a list of the things we had to fix. This challenge was overwhelming at first but I took it step by step.  I had to make sure the balls were only destroyed when coming into contact with th...

 Unity Tutorial 03 Unity graphic, source:  Shutterstock The tutorial I followed was a stampede game. You have to feed the animals coming towards you with food. I chose a sand ground, I selected my farmer wife as the players character and then picked out three animals which were a chicken, horse and cow. The food I selected was an apple! We had to make sure when we shot out the apples towards the animals that the food was 'destroyed' when gone out of site. Same thing with the animals. After finishing all three sessions of tutorials I am coming away with a lot more knowledge and confidence about designing games! I must admit it is tedious but well worth it when you watch what you have created back. I had a few stumbles within the tutorials but I tried to fix them without needing to look up solutions and I did it! Going back on previous work, I tried to remember how things are places etc. I learned new things about using "Prefabs" and "arrays" and it was super ...

       Game Vision Statement Rolling balls slide graphic, source:  Shutterstock Brilliant website to gain knowledge on how to write up your game vision document : Gamasutra Introduction "Rumble roll" will be the newest lip biting, exciting sky high puzzle game to hit your screens. Giving you a modern game for the gaming fanatics and those who like to game now and again... It will be a three-dimensional puzzle strategy game. My game will be constructed with the use of Unity and will be developed in a three dimensional viewing field. The 'map' of Rumble Roll will appear to be as if it was floating in the air to give the player the effect of if they fall, they fall from a immense height. All players will start on 'level one' and depending on their skills and intelligence, they can move up in levels. A puzzle game that pushes the boundaries of modern gaming. The visuals will draw you in. Even as simplistic as a "ball puzzle game" can look, Rumble Roll w...

         A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research The article is called " MDA " by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek. M.D.A stands for M echanics, D ynamics, A esthetics. This article explores how to approach game design and how to approach your research for game design. This can help link different aspects of making a game easier.  Game Design - Development. Game Criticism - Technical Game Research. There are a lot that goes into designing a game but we have to consider the outside logistics. For example; the basic game mechanisms, the overarching game goals or the desired results you want to see after the game is finished. MDA can be used as a tool for designers and researchers.  Games create their own little timeline. Game designers create the games, consumers play the games, the games are used and then "disposed". Games differ from movies, plays and books.? Why? The game designer can never know how the players will fee...

  My Acronym. Made with Canva I really enjoyed making this one. I Will be making more for myself and for this module. I liked to keep my first one lighthearted but also thoughtful. Kindness is free. It doesn't cost anything to be kind to people. I have a tattoo that says "be kind" on my arm, we as humans need to realise that being kind to others can really make somedays damn day!

Learn about sleep. Sleep deprivation facts, source:  Shutterstock The article I decided to read was "How sleep deprivation decays the mind"  by Seth Maxon. I really enjoyed reading this article, it has defiantly opened my eyes to the serious health risk not sleeping for a long period of time can cause.  I personally never thought that deeply into how bad it can be to your mind AND body...(guilty). I have heard many of the stories of people carrying out experiments and making themselves fight the sleepiness and staying awake over 72 hours. They experience almost like a drug trip, Seth referred to this that people actually thought HE was on LSD...You can experience hallucination's, you can dive back into your past and the thoughts you had when you were 10 years old... What I never knew about sleep deprivation was that is can have serious affects to your immune system. When you really stop and think it does make sense but I never have. This makes me a lot more conscious if I...

 Feedback Strategies. Positive quote, source:  Shutterstock 1. Article ONE The first article I selected to read was "What kind of messages to help kids grow"  by Deborah Farmer Kris. They discuss the whole idea of how children develop their self concept on their own but it can be from what they hear and see around them. For example, if a child draws a picture and one parents says "wow that is amazing, good job" seem like the right answer doesn't it? What if we look into that in more detail. The child would of course gain confidence and be very proud of themselves but that could lead them into a bad hole where, what if their next picture they draw they colour outside the lines and they compare it to the last picture they did and remember what that parent said to them. That would automatically know it is not the same and doubt their ability, some may ever get angry at themselves and stop drawing. Now lets look at what the other parent said, they replied with ...

 Unity Tutorial 2. Using unity graphic on Mac, source:  Shutterstock I have certainly come a long way from the first unity tutorial. It really is the more you practice something, you will slowly get to grips with it. In this unity tutorial we had to make our vehicle move forward, backwards, and rotate. We basically made our vehicle have player controllers in simple terms! The objective of this demo game was to make the vehicle avoid the obstacles blocking its path. I am getting better at my coding, I of course made a few errors but thankfully the software tells you if your code doesn't look right. I am looking forward to using what I have learned in the past two weeks for my own game project. The plane challenge was defiantly a challenge... BUT we got there in the end. I kept going back to my previous tutorials if I forgot how to do a step which was very helpful.  It all comes down to practice. I know I won't be a game designer overnight so I would love to do more tutoria...

 Game Idea Research Balancing ball graphic, source:  Shutterstock After researching in more depth about creating games and what is involved, I came upon a brilliant piece of writing. "Gamification and Storytelling" by Marios Giakalaras. He explains on what are the most important things for creating games in general. These four things are Players , the actions carried out in the game, the payoffs the players receives from playing etc. and the information to guide the player through the game. I have decided to choose the game idea that includes the 'balancing ball', which can be found here .(Game idea 1 from idea post). As simple as this idea sounds, I am very motivated to add different types of things into game idea to develop it further. To start off, the game mechanics. They are very important to a game as it "Allows people playing a game to have an engaging but not necessarily a fun, experience". (Giakalaras, Marios. (2016). Gamification and Storytelli...

 Game Elements. puzzle piece graphic, source:  Shutterstock Game design is like a jigsaw, they're all different types of pieces that need to be placed in the right spot to get the finished product. If you skip over a piece, the game may not be complete.  The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about "where to start" for creating  a game would be the player(s). They are the key to your game essentially. This article about Players  tells us about the numbers of players needed depending on the type of game. For example, for a multiplayer game you can't construct the game for only one player. You need to think about how many players are needed for the type of game you are constructing for it to run successfully for the 'players'. Here is the list gathered from "What are the qualities of a game"  which shows us the key components involved for creating a game. Players Objectives (goals)  Rules Resources and resource management Game state Inform...

 Blogger Template I added a little bit of character to my blog. I want to change the colours and background picture to make it a little more personal. I chose to use a lot of purple as it is one of my favourite colours! It was very simple to do and there is so many things you can customize to your liking. No doubt I will be changing more things as time goes on...

 Feedback Thoughts. feedback wooden blocks graphic, source:  Shutterstock . The first article I read was " Rewire your self critical brain ", by Joel Almeida. Almeida speaks about his own personal experience in regards to how he took on criticism in his adult life, how science about the brain may be as true and can develop over time. What I found very interesting about this piece was that we were all told by at least one person in our lives that once we hit our 20's our brains stop developing and we are at the same brain development stage going further into our life. This is incorrect. The brain has so many different areas and how can we possible think it decides to simply 'give up' when we reach our twenties?  We can still learn at any age, what is right and what is wrong and most importantly to this subject, how we take things. One person can take a piece of criticism as a gift and be proud of that, where as another can get pushed back and not improve their work...

 Four Possible Game Ideas. Game 1: For my first idea for a game it would be a ball balancing game. You have a starting point and have to make your way to the end without falling off. Each level would get more difficult when you level up. I think this idea would be not only really fun to make but it is simple yet exciting. I would make it visually pleasing the eye and have coolest details included as it could be a simple game to possible build so I could have more time in designing the objects and what the player sees on screen. It is the sort of game that has you biting your lip as it makes you want to complete each level to get further. I think this would be a game for all ages that would be effective. I have taken inspiration for this idea from the simple board game I use to play as a child. The game at a closer look can be found here: Click me .   It would be 3D style path and you can choose your ball of choice, or even unlock more types of balls (if I can make possible) . ...

 Unity Tutorials. Unity software on MAC graphic, source:  Shutterstock . What have I learned? When first opening Unity 3D, I have to admit, I was terrified... BUT it wasn't that bad coming out the other side. The introduction tutorials were brilliant as it showed you step-by-step on what exactly to do and how to get familiar with the layout of the software.  I never knew exactly how much work goes into designing a game, it goes down to the smallest details. It also includes a lot of physics, for example in one of the tutorials we had to make a vehicle collide with a crate, using the laws of physics we changed the mass of both objects to make it possible for the vehicle to run into the crate and to send the crate flying while keeping the vehicle on path. What I enjoyed I really enjoyed how you can make your vehicles carry out different actions by including coding. for example, Encoding the vehicle speed into the vehicles section on the software. Looking forward to diving d...

 Game Design Ideation & Define. Source:  Shutterstock There is so many different types of games created over the years, games played as children out in the streets, board games and puzzles around the table and then you have your video games that can be played on electronic devices like a PlayStation or mobile phone...you can simply make up one yourself, all you need is a pen and paper! After reading an article titled " What is a Game Anyway? " we quickly learn a game is classed as a game when it consists of a set of rules and a goal/objective at the end. You can add your own obstacles or 'set-backs' into the game to make it more interesting.  https://www.cgspectrum.com/blog/what-is-game-design  is a brilliant read that shows that all you need to kick start your game design journey is a creative mind. The article tells you about the journey of a game designer and the task and decisions making. When discussing video games and what goes into creating one from the st...

 Time Management. Using your time the right way: Timing your management right graphic, source:  Shutterstock . The Important Habit of Just Starting   by Jory Mackay A  lot of the time, especially in your early 20's we feel as we don't simply have enough time for anything other than work & college. Social life? what's that?...😂 Time management is so important as we do have spare time somewhere in our 7 day week schedule for the things we want to do but get get ourselves to do... After reading the article "The Myth to too Busy" by Tim Grahl , I too agree that the word "busy" should be locked up. of course it is ten times easier to say "I'm busy" instead of physically doing the task etc. We use it sometimes as a cop out. What I loved about this article is that Grahl wrote about how to say it out straight to yourself.  Are you too busy to go to bed early and watch tv? or are you too busy to get up early and write? One easy step to getting ...

Technology Tool We Will Be Using. Technology touch photoshopped image, source:  Shutterstock . Looking at the list of tools we will be getting familiar with this semester looks interesting. Of course Blog-spot, our Multimedia website are two from the list I have figured out pretty quick. I have bookmarked the Multimedia website for easy access which is already very handy. Blog-spot was a bit confusing but with the help of Irene's tutorials it is going great! (cheers Irene:)) Unity3D will probably be the tricky one to grasp but everything takes a bit of practice so I'm not too worried. For graphics creations, we can use the likes of Canvas Spark , Cheezburger & Automotivator. I think it is very important especially when doing a course that includes a lot of use of laptops/PCs, to ensure your online space is clean and easily accessible for your own benefit. In other modules we have used a lot of the software's  in Adobe and of course we had to learn how to manage the soft...

 Class Assignments: My Thoughts. Class Assignments imagery, source:  Shutterstock . For this module; Multimedia Development, we are given weekly tasks to complete as well as core assignments. So far, I am liking the idea of these weekly tasks as it is expanding the mind into areas I may not have found in my own time. It is not only beneficial for this particular module, but for going forward in my work for all modules. Going forward I would like to keep a few steps ahead of the weekly assignments so I have more time for the larger assignments. I just have to get into the rhythm of it! I am looking forward to Week 3 as this is where the fun begins...