Unity Free Tutorials

Unity Free Tutorials Week 9

This week I have choose to follow on from last weeks how to design a character for unity to how to animate a character for unity. These are what I plan to use for my NPC's. I found the tutorial on youtube and this is the link. 

This is a small video I recorded from in Unity to show a basic animation I applied to my character.

The second tutorial I have worked on is creating a mini map for my game, I also found this on Youtube and it is a video from Jimmy Vegas here is the link.

This is a screen shot form Unity

 

The tutorials were both easy to follow, I struggled a little to make get my map to become a circle but I figured out i just missed a small step in making it become a mask. I think both of these tutorials will be really useful in my game as they are big parts of the idea of my game.

 

Game Stories

Week 9 Reading

The first reading is about how stories need a hero and it talks about how myths and old stories have been breed into humans as the people who could convince tribes that the preservation of the tribe was more important than the individuals life is more important than their own would have had the best chance of survival and so these are the genes that would have lasted the longest and we more than likely possess. It talks about how stories give us purpose and without them life would seem pointless. 

The second reading talks about how games are not films and films are not plays. He breaks down how films had to adapt after they started as they were thought to be like plays which we know films obviously aren't, it then talks about how games are different to films but they still need story. It suggests that games without stories attract small crowd and don't really keep an audience which I don't think is really true as games such as Fifa and Call of Duty maintain a huge fan base each yea despite no major story or it not being the main aspect of the game. Also another really good example of this not applying is Fortnite despite it not being everyone's cup of tea you can't deny that it is extremely popular and successful. 

(This is an image of Fortnite taken from Flickr)

Week 8 Progress

Week 8 Progress

1. Looking back

I am not really happy with my progress so as I really hoped that I would get a week ahead of where we are supposed to be so that I could be a little bit more relaxed and organised but unfortunately due to all the week from each of the modules I haven't been able to do that and have feel behind. I was going well until 2 weeks ago when I couldn't get my final GDD done and I had every intention to finish it the next day but some how I still haven't got around to it and I also didn't get to start my prototype last week as my group and I are a good bit behind in Group Project so really focusing on that. The assignments I like the most are definitely the tutorials as they are fun while also being educational. On the progress chart I feel I am doing okay I had 169 at the end of week 7 so this is basically in line to be a B so I plan to stay on top of everything and do a few extra credit tasks to get a B for the semester. 

2. Looking Forward

I really want to catch up with the project work for the second half of the semester as that is the whole point of the module and I'd be really disappointed if I didn't catch up. I plan to work on my game a lot more once I get the presentation out of the way for group project. I'd also like to stick to the timetable I set myself at the start of the year more closely just so I am making sure I being as efficient as I can be. 

( This is a picture I got from pxhere to represent busyness)

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

1. Feedback in

I think the comments I am getting in are useful and make me take a second look at everything I do as usually when you complete some work or an assignment you forget about it and don't look back at it, but when you get a comment it makes you look back at your work constantly and when you look back over it you sometimes you think differently about it, for example at the time you could be thinking it's great and there's nothing else you could explore but then someone will comment on it and mention something you didn't even consider and now you have a completely different area to look into and explore. 

2. Feedback out

I'd like to think that the comments I am leaving on others blog are helpful for them. When I do my commenting I always try to look at their project or their writing with an open mind and give my opinion on how I think they can improve their idea. I use the technique we learned early on in the module, TAG, this is Tell them something you like, Ask them something you may find unclear or something they could talk more about and Give an opinion or idea regarding their game.

3. Blog Comments

Yeah I think you do get to know people more from reading there blogs especially from their introductions, People have some really good introductions where they talk about cool things they've done, things they want to do, their favourite books and films and their goals when they finish college, which gives you a really good understanding of who they are as a person before you even talk to them which is really cool. Overall I am happy with how my blog portrays me in a sense as it has a lot of aspects that I like so this represents my taste and style, for instance I really like using the cursive font as I just think it looks really well and I like for things to be neat and uniform and for the most part I feel my blog reflects that, but, I am not happy with my introduction. When we had to do it and it showed all the things we should talk about I misread it and took it that we should talk about one of them so as a result my introduction is all about my sporting career as a kid. I think if I had an easier to comment on introduction I may have got more comments on my blog as a whole because my introduction is very hard to comment on and even I wouldn't want to comment on it.

4. looking Forward

Going forward I will try to be a bit more focused on the individual persons project idea and give them my input on their idea rather than just my ideas made to reflect their theme. Hopefully this will benefit both me and the person I am giving the feedback to as they will get feedback better related to their project and I will be able to expand my thinking and get inspiration from more places.

Week 8 Reading and Writting

Reading and Writing 

This week we are reviewing our readings and writing from the last 7 weeks and talking about what we have learned and what we want to learn.

My thoughts on the readings

I feel like a lot of the readings have been interesting but I don't think they were heaped full of useful information. All of the readings were about vastly different things, some being about board games and some being about players dynamics, but most of them felt that they weren't that transferable to our own stuff. With stuff like Web Development you learn how to do the basics first and then you start looking at reasons why you should do things and why it works. I feel like Multimedia could do a similar thing like in the first semester our readings could be more based on what we literally need to know to make a game maybe it was expected we would go and search for this stuff ourselves. I think readings about how and why coding works, how to create textures and designs in Photoshop that you can use in Unity would have been more useful and practical for our first semester of Multimedia so that we can actually have some good information behind us that we know is needed because although we are college student and we should be able to look up our own research a lot of the time it is very overbearing and daunting especially with the workload from all the modules. 

My thought on what we learned

The readings thought me that you have to think a lot about every aspect of your game from colours and icons to make sure thing is accessible for everyone. For instance a person who is slightly colour blind might have a hard time differentiating between red and orange so you need to make vastly different things stand out from each other using say red and blue but someone who is completely colour blind will not even be able to tell the difference of these so you should also have an icon so that players don't need to see the colour to be able to differentiate objects. Another one of our readings talked about how players van be broke into 4 main categories, Achievers, Diggers, Socalisers and Killers. The article talks about how in a game a player will mainly be one of 4 play styles, they might dabble in the other ones but it is usually just to progress there original play style. I liked this reading most as i felt like it was most useful to understand as I think it is easier to make a fun game for people if you know what people like so by understanding what people like you can try facilitate as many people as possible. We also had a really useful reading in one of the earlier weeks about MDA, this is Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics these are the three main tings you should consider when designing a game, Mechanics are what you can and can't do i.e jump but you can't double jump, Dynamics are how the mechanics work and cooperate and Aesthetics is the feeling it evokes in people.

What I'd Like to Learn

I'd like to learn more about the coding and animation part of game design as I feel this is the real bread and butter of making a game, your game will be very boring if there is no code put into it and without animation any NPC's you have may as well just be an inanimate object. 

 ( This is probably my favourite image I have used as I feel like Super Mario is definitely one of the more recognisable games and it has a lot you can learn from. This image is Devant Art)

Unity Free Tutorials

Unity Free Tutorials

First Tutorial

For my first tutorial I looked up how to make a character in Unity so I could make some NPCs for my game. I looked this up on Google and it brought me to Youtube where I found an easy to follow to tutorial. 

This is a link to it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN0okzfjSp8 

I found it really easy to create my character as you are given sample body types and them you can do it how ever you like by using sliders to adjust so many different things to do with it such as it's height, arm length, weight, facial expressions and you can also put a load of different clothes on it. 

( This is a screenshot of my character in Unity)

Second Tutorial

The second tutorial I looked at was how to create an animation with the camera, I found this animation on the unity website, In theory it was easy but I found it a bit difficult to get the camera to go where I wanted it to. 

This is a link to the tutorial:

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/animation/animation-view?playlist=17099

( This is a screen recording of the animation I created with the Camera in Unity)

 

Game Fun

Reading Week 7

The first article is Natural Funativity.

This article is all about how it is in our genes to play games. The author talks about how tens of thousands of years ago people would play games to improve their survival skills and in a way that is what we still do to this day. He used the example of a hunter coming home after a successful hunt he has three options go back out to try get more food even though its dangerous, just rest until he starts to run out of food but risk being a bit rusty when he goes out hunting again or in the safety of camp he can practise his survival skills by throwing a rock at a balancing piece of wood. The author talks about to this day we are still affected by what our ancestors done.

The second article is Players who suit MUD's (MMO's).

This article talks about the 4 different reasons people enjoyed a popular MMO years ago and how it can be seen to categorise all gamers effectively. The four different types are Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers and Killers. It talks about how many players will be a bit of all but they mainly are one and do the others to progress there main play style or just based off there mood that day. The article states games can easily die if there is too much or similarly too little of a type as it will hinder other peoples fun. 

(This is a picture of the GTA Online logo as I feel like this is a good representation of the second article, Image taken from WikiMedia)

Game Decisions

Reading Week 6

This week for our reading we read an article about cosy games. The article talks about how to make a cosy game, why people enjoy them and some common misconceptions about what makes a game cosy.

To make a cosy game you need to make it so there are no high priority tasks such as eating to survive or having shelter. This makes a player done something, once this happens a game is no longer. A cosy game has no risks or danger in it, instead of trying to survive you instead try to master a skill, connect with people or just simply explore. 

People enjoy cosy games as they are completely different than most games you'll play where there are set tasks and you are usually at some sort of risk.

Many people think to have a cosy game you just need to make it cute or to have a feeling of safety but this isn't true there are many needs for a cosy game to make it successful. One example of a common misconception people have about cosy games the article talks about is that the whole game needs to be cosy and safe but this isn't true, they make the example that if you have a little cosy reading nook with a window and cold rain is hitting the window because you are safe and the rain is outside the cosy space it actually enhances the feeling of cosiness.

Another article I looked at was Cosy Games Make Winter More Bearable, This article talks about how various aspects of cosy games can make or break them such as the minimalism of it or the use of notifications.

A second article I found interesting was I Love Astroneer For Its Optimism, this article explains how this survival game is actually cosy despite literally suffocating to death at times.

The final article I found interesting was Animal Crossing Helps Me Cope On A Day Like This, this article is wrote by someone who had a hard upbringing as they felt like an outsider in this article they talk about how animal crossing helped them both as a kid and also as an adult to appreciate life and everything around them.

(This is an image from Flickr of Animal Crossing)