Game Design Document

Game Design Document 

I think it was a lot easier to create the Game Design Document this week as t really focuses you on each section and helps you stay more on track. There was a lot of sections that I didn't really know what to write about. I liked Dundoc and feel it will be easy to update as we go on and get more info about our project.

This is the link to my Dundoc.   

Spyro is a game I feel relates to my idea.

This image is taken from WikiMedia

Unity Tutorial 05

Unity Tutorial 5

This week in unity we done a good bit. I think that it was really interesting as we used Animation for the first time which we will obviously need a lot for our games and using it was actually easier than I thought it would be, for more advanced animation it will obviously be harder to make them run smoothly ect. but as a starting point it was fairly easy.

I liked creating the text and extra cursor for when you hover over the gem as I think this will give us a lot of originality, one example of how we could use this is creating different cursors for different weapons, this will create different feel for different weapons and it will also just look cooler.

The text will be really useful as well as this will be the main way to communicate with different people and objects. So far we have a good bit of information to use for our game I feel like if I sat down for a good while and messed around with it I could create a few different interact able objects.(probably just different gems as of now) 

One thing which I don't know what I am doing wrong is everything I press play and go into the game the noise that happens when you collect the gem plays even though I have it set so none of the sound options play on awake.

Overall I am enjoying Unity and find it fun to mess around with.

(This is a screenshot from in my Unity World to show the Axe, Gem and Action Text.) 

Game GDD

Reading Week 5

One article I read was Only a Game Roger Caillois Patterns of Play. In this article the author talks about how Roger Caillois broke games and he said there are 4 patterns of play. Competitive, Chance, Simulation or Vertigo, I think this is an interesting concept and cool to think about different games and see where they fit in.

A second article I read was called Conversation, this article talks about how you should go about having conversations with NPCs. I liked this as it got me thinking what kind of conversations I'd like to have in my game, I think as it is an adventure game I will like for the NPCs to give out helpful information so it will be heavily scripted.

The final article I read was The In-Game economics of Ultima Online, I liked the article, it breaks down the basic concept of the game but one bit that made me think was,

 Game designers are therefore frequently confronted with the following dilemma:

1. All elements of the game need to be fun.
2. Much of the real world is not fun.
3. Elements which are unrealistic are often counterintuitive.
4. Counterintuitive rules are difficult to learn and not fun, at least at first

This is good to keep in mind when designing my own game.

For the main reading I think there was a lot of useful information on good design consideration, but I feel like there is also a good amount of information that isn't really transferable from board game to computer game such as include spare parts. Nevertheless I actually think having to root around a lot of information helps you retain the good information more. I will definitely be looking back on this when designing my game as there are a lot of useful tips such as using different colours and shapes to help people who are colour blind differentiate between things easier. 

Image taken from Pixabay, showing some board game pieces

Game Vision Statement

Game Vision Statement

Game Genre

The genre will be Adventure. It will be an open world (not too big as I want it to be designed good enough that taking on too much could be stupid) that you explore looking for treasure map pieces in order to find hidden treasure. 

Game play

I want the traversal to be fun as I feel like adventure games that can do this while having a good story always turn out to be great e.g Spiderman, GTA, Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim. Like most of these games the travelling wont just be travelling as there will be enemies to fight and cool areas to explore.

Resources Required

The main resource which will be required is time as the project is just for college and wont be commercial. I'll need a lot of time to complete my project as I'll have to look up a lot of things to make the game I want.

Link to Resource

This is a link to an article I read which talks about pressure plates and how when you walk on it you can have various things to happen such as playing sounds, opening doors and a few more things this will definitely be useful for game development

(This is an image i found on WikiMedia and I really like how this looks both the on screen HUD and the look of it this would make for a really good map in my opinion and will definitely keep it in mind during my game development, This is from the game Armello which was developed by League of Geeks and made with Unity)

.

Unity Tutorial 3

Unity Tutorial 3

In this weeks tutorial we learned how to make a functioning clock. We used game objects to make it which I think is really useful as we will be able to use stuff like this in our game.

Joining objects together will help us make a lot of objects in our games from houses, bridges and structures. I think a good tutorial would be how to make textures as this could really give us a lot of individuality in how we design certain aspects.

I struggled at first rotating the hour marks as I thought I was supposed to make all the hour marks inside the face but once I realised what I was supposed to do I thought the rest was fairly easy. 

I was working on this lab in college and was 3/4s of the way through it but I couldn't really progress too much when I got home as for some reason it wouldn't let me do the coding and I couldn't download Visual Studio.

So far I am really enjoying playing with Unity and think this module will be really fun.

(This is the screen shot I took from Unity of my clock)

Games MDA

Week 4 Readings

This week our reading was a lot more in depth than before I felt,The first article basically explained MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics). Learning about this stuff although slightly confusing is going to be very useful for making our game,Mechanics of a game are kind of like the rules and affects your dynamics, which is how the game plays and aesthetics are the feelings you want the player to experience while playing your game.

The author gave us some examples of aesthetics which I think will be useful to really categorize our game ideas. Some of them include Fantasy, Discovery, Challenge and Narrative. Knowing how to describe the games in development terms will be useful to look up information on developing them.

The second article was all about intentional playing from players and the mechanics you set up in your game can lead to low or high intentional game play. The author says how he thinks making the player have high intentional playing styles is the best way forward for the gaming industry, he shows us how we can do this and how some games have implemented it both good and poorly. The article it's self was kind of confusing at times but I feel like the overall point was to convey the power that giving players multiply ways of doing things can lead to more enjoyable and long lasting content.

Additional Readings

A look at negative game behavior 

This article talks about the hindrance that is games semi-forcing micro transactions to progress.

The Paper chase saving money via paper prototyping

This article talks about ways to save money prototyping your games. (aimed at real developers I think)

Modelling Conversation Flow: NPCs repeating information

This article talks about ways to deal with NPCs getting asked the same question repeatedly.

 

(An image of Dark Souls Board Game as one article talked about board games influencing video games, image taken from flickr)

Feedback Strategies

Feed Back Strategies 

The two articles I looked at were Five reasons to stop saying good job and The difference between praise and feedback.

I liked these articles as they thought me how praise isn't always a good thing which never occurred to me before.

In Five Reasons to Stop saying Good Job it talks about the various reasons why saying good job to young children hinders their development more so than helping them, It suggests it applies to people of all ages but mainly young kids. One of the reasons which I thought was really interesting was that by saying good job to a child for some of the work they've done they then attach that to the feeling of the praise and it becomes less about the actually task and more about the praise, which I thought was really peculiar. I liked the last section of this article a lot as it focused on what you should say rather than why it is bad and I thought this was helpful as it seems like it is focused for everyone's feedback rather than just kids.

In The difference between praise and feedback it talks about two experts in the matters opinion on feedback and one explains how she thinks that the generic good job and stuff is bad and says how she thinks you should say stuff like "You can tell you put a lot of effort in" and general observations rather than judgement. Whereas the second person says that this is just passing judgement on effort and that you should rather ask the kid how they feel about it like how did you find that or which was the hardest part of it.

Overall i feel like the first one was more useful for now the second one might come in handy when I have a kid but how praise affects kids is mainly what I took from the second article whereas I felt like I took some useful information on giving feedback from the first one.

                  (Image of a star taken from WikiMedia

            as this is what I think of when I think of Feedback)

Game Idea Research

                          Game Idea 

I have decided I would like to look more into an open world game where you progress by finding objectives. I have decided to look more into this sort of game as I really enjoy playing these games myself, so I feel like this would help me identify what I like and therefore help me create an enjoyable game.

First Game Mechanic
The first game mechanic I looked into was about NPCs, It was called How to Create Non Playable Characters (NPCs) in Unity 2018 I found a useful article about how to set up the animations and transitions for these. In the article they just downloaded the characters and the animations so I didn't learn much about that aspect but I learned about how to set the default state for them and how to join up the animations to progress between them.

(This is an image taken from the article I read and shows how you could set up your transitions)

Second Game Mechanic
The second mechanic I looked into was all about the Interaction System from a Unity tutorial. I think this article will be useful in the future as it talks all about how you can get different objects to interact with each other and the various ways you can do this. One method I found which I feel will be very useful for my main game idea is the inventory checks you can perform, this will be really useful as it means instead of the character completing the level as soon as they get the object they will also bring it back to the objective meaning more game play.

                             (screenshot taken from the article showing the inventory checks)

Third Game Mechanic
The third game mechanic I found which I think will definitely come in handy for developing my game was found in Jimmy Vegas How to make a game for free video number 6. This is how to make objects interact able, in the video he creates an extra UI to show instructions on how to pick up a gem but I would imagine that by using the same method you will be able to create similar instructions for talking to NPC's and such which will be a vital part of my game.

Overall I feel like I have a few basic building tools already to help me design a game that I would find interesting.  

Unity Tutorial 02

Unity Tutorial 2

I really enjoyed the second Unity tutorial as I feel you can really see how the customization is coming in to it. I also feel like the videos are great as you get a whole load of information really quickly and if you need to look back you can always re-watch the video whenever you need. I actually really enjoy the tutorial videos as I find them really interesting and just think it is so cool that we can literally make a game and with the help of the tutorials we can do it bit by bit.

There is also a lot of useful things in these videos to help with my game idea such as making objects being able to be picked up and such which is the key part of one of my ideas. I also think that the standard asset file is really useful as when I was messing around with unity at home I didn't have this for some reason and then when I went into college and was playing with it I seen just how much stuff there is in it, So there should definitely be a few bits and bobs in there to help with our games.

I think this is a good way to learn as because we have a few deadlines a week it feels like we don't have as much work to do rather than other classes were we have our lecture and lab, they give us work due for the next week and so they give us a lot and it all piles up.

                              (Picture of a kid Binge watching TV from Wikicommons)

Game Elements

Week 3 Readings

This weeks readings was all about learning the vocab needed to communicate effectively as you are building a game. It mainly focused on how we can dissect games to discover how they make us like or dislike them, he showed this by explaining the FADTs of Mario. One example of this is how in Mario you have a certain amount of actions you can do and these actions always available because of this you always know what you can or can't do based on these moves, You can try and jump up to a platform and if you can't reach it you have to do something else. 

They also talk about how you can mix FADTs to achieve the kind of game you want. For example if you are making a free flowing sports game you can't create your own story, as the players actions are what really defines the story, i.e the player can't be winning a game 5-nil and then you make them take a peno which decides if they win or not as it doesn't make any sense. So therefore if you are making a free flowing sports game you won't rely on story to much but more so on stuff like Intention, i.e you want to win as much as possible and Consequence, i.e when you press a button you know what will happen.

I found the reading really interesting especially reading his analysis of super Mario. I liked how he broke Mario down and explained what made it likable and what not. Also reading his analysis of Mario and seeing how he broke it down seems like it will come in handy in future game development as I feel like I could look at games I really like and be able to deconstruct them and figure out why i like them and how to use that in games I make. 

(Image taken from Devaintart, Mario 64 Logo)

Feedback thoughts

A lot of the time when I am getting feed back I expect the worst, I expect them to be really negative and to just highlight all the bad things in my work so I'm prepared for if this happens, but, the majority of the time this isn't the case. I found especially in college it is very rare that you'll be given feedback (by lecturers I don't think most of us students have had enough practice yet) which highlights your mistakes as it usually highlights why they are mistakes or highlights good work you've done and how by following the guides you followed to achieve them results you can improve on all your work.

I feel like in secondary school a lot of the time you didn't really get feedback, you got a percentage (if they converted it for you) and a generic comment like "good work" or "needs work". No matter what result you get none of these comments are helpful as they are really impersonal, like the teacher just wrote one or the other depending on what grade you got rather than how you're work actually was.

The two articles I read were Neil Gaiman's advice on  the creative life and Why it's so hard to hear negative feedback
I liked the second article I read "Why its hard to hear negative feedback" as I felt it gave some good tips on what to do when both getting and giving feedback.

Overall I think although it can be hard to hear sometimes feedback is a great tool for learning.

                                              (Image taken from Pixabay, classic sign for feedback)

Game Brain Storm

(Image taken from Flickr, Picture of  Crash Banidcoot)

Idea 1

My first idea for my game is to have each level open world where you explore and find either one or multiple objects and only when you find them do you complete the level. There will be enemies all over the map you have to either get rid of or sneak past. This would kinda be like an open world 3D version of Crash Bandicoot, which I loved as a kid. Depending how easy it is to design your character model is i could also change this to resemble what the object you need to get it, for example, if i could make it a monkey you would have to find bananas.                                      

                       (Image taken from Wikipedia, Page talks about what a carnival is)

                                                                     Idea 2

My second  idea for a game is that in order to process through each level you would have to play mini games to earn tokens or such to pass through. One example would be that i could have it set in a carnival and in order to get accepted in (or where ever i want to go with it) I need to give them tokens which i can earn by playing games such as whack a mole or trying to knock down bottles.

                                   ( Picture of generic fighting game from Deviantart)

                                                                          Idea 3

My third idea is a action game where the main objective is fighting bad guys, You go through each level unlocking more and more moves to use, when you defeat enough bad guys you will pass the level, but as the game goes on your earlier moves will become less effective as i feel like in games it is so easy to fall into a habit on how to do something so ill try keep it interesting by making you switch it up. (This might be too hard as I'd need a smart AI)

                                                           

                                                                    

                                                                                   

(Image taken from Max Pixel)

Idea 4

My final game idea is that you are one of the last people left on earth but instead of zombies or aliens attacking dogs became rulers. You have to try survive you way through the level using whatever cheap tactics you have, easy example , tennis balls. Your aim isn't to kill dogs or anything but to simple try get past all of the dogs without being enslaved.

Unity Tutorial 01

I really enjoyed the unity tutorials, I felt like I was watching a walk through of someone making a complicated red stone contraption in Minecraft except it was more interesting. Despite the fact that the computer where I do my college work being slow and making it difficult to use unity I didn't feel like it was as complicated as I was expecting. Obviously we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg but even just what we covered in the first three tutorial videos wasn't too bad, it almost reminded me of Sims.

I thought the third video was really interesting when he brought the character and the spinning gem into it, just having the gem made it feel so much more like a game than i would have thought. It seems really customisable which i think is really cool as using all the same aspects everyone could have a really different end product, this is really exciting as it'll be really cool to have a look and see how everyone else thinks in this regard.

I think it will be a lot more fun messing around with it in college as it should run a lot smoother and be more enjoyable overall as it was kinda annoying to try follow along on my computer considering any time I messed with the terrain it would take a few (about 20) seconds for it to update.

Overall I think the introduction to Unity was really enjoyable as it made clear we really are going to be making a full functioning game.

(This is a screenshot i took from within Unity)

Game Design

I thought the reading was interesting, I didn't realise we were suppose to only spend 30 minutes reading them all so I didn't 30 minutes reading through the first article then I spent an additional 15 minutes reading one of the articles from the second section.

The first article I read was don't be a vidiot and I feel like this article has an awful lot of nothingness in it, the introduction where it explained how you really need to open your mind when you want to be a game developer and have an every growing collection of games digital and not that you have played as it makes sense you will be more inclined to base it off what you know. However I feel like he definitely spent too much time talking about board games, maybe it's just me but i thought he talked about political stuff like how Hasbro took over everything to much.

The second article I read was so you're going to make a game for the first time. I found this article had a lot of useful tips, I definitely would have feel into a lot of the traps she talked about such as overreaching as I've been trying to think of a creative idea for my game since our first lecture.


Overall I thought the readings where good as it definitely gets you thinking but I feel like the first one went on a bit much.

(Picture of a dog "reading" taken from Flickr)

Time Strategies

The two articles i read where 11 ways unsuccessful people mismanage there time and 4 questions to help you overcome procrastination. These articles felt really relatable as I definitely struggle with procrastinating. Literally as i am writing this i'm getting easily distracted and took me way longer to read the 2 articles than it should have. I think there are a few helpful tips in the articles i read on how to combat procrastination,  I especially think that making a schedule would be very useful. I'm going to create a schedule that breaks my week down hour by hour when i am finished because already college is a lot more demanding this year than it was last year and we are only in the second week.

I like the idea of working a week ahead as it is kinda like insurance if you can't do something this week you won't be failing behind. So at the weekend i am going to try and get all of next weeks work done so that I can be ahead early on in the year. I also like the fact that you can work ahead as sometimes you may have more time to do work one day or week than another so you can just crack on with it and hopefully finish the year a bit early. 

I think procrastination is a really big problem for a lot of people and i feel like it is definitely just a mind set, it just happens to be really hard to break. It seems like once you get into the habit of being pro active that it will stick with you and definitely help you in the long run.

                                      ( This is a funny picture about procrastination from Flickr )

Thoughts on Tools and Technology

I think the technology we will be using seems interesting and helpful. It is a really good idea in my option to get us to use as many different websites and software options as possible as not only will we learn more about them but it will be really useful in the future if we need to use them again in working situations.

I like how we will be using different websites a lot but I also think that it could become a bit challenging to keep on top of all the different softwares we will be using. I hope this isn't the case but only time will tell.

I am looking forward to the video game development as it is definitely something that interests me and something entirely new to me.

(Image from Durham college about game development)