Semester 2 Week 6 - Unity 6

Unity Tutorial 6

Alright there's something wrong with Unity today. For the tutorial, there a section that requires you to set up "Physics.gravity", so that when the player model jumps, the gravity will pull it down back on the ground.

Logically, the text on the script file should turn to a particular color when the code is correct. However, the Physics.gravity code refused to work and I tried everything I can think of. 

This is not flying, this is walking with style.

Funny enough the codes for this tutorial is rather fuzzy at times that I can't really figure out where exactly went wrong. Errors in the codes are easy enough to find but if the codes are typed in "right" and error still persists, it is the hardest to find and fix.

Also the script for the background doesn't seem to work for me, even though I made it identical to the tutorial.

So I have a business man spacewalking to the stratosphere and the infinite planes beyond on my Unity right now and because of a particular individual's assignment, I don't have much time for this blog anymore.
Hope you had a better time than me at this.

Zhen Li.

Semester 2 Week 5 - Unity 5

Week 5 Unity

Alright. Same week, same story. The scripts gave me a bit of issues. I crashed because of constant fatigue for the past month and does not have the energy to fix every nook and cranny.

The good thing is I got everything except two working so that's good news.

First, the tutorial was okay enough. The Instantiate, box collider, etc. was easy to put in but for whatever reason refuses to work together. The food projectile does not collide with the animals, therefore can not destroy the GameObject.

This took too long to do for what's given.

The challenge was relatively simple but despite simplicity, it still refused to work. The ball spawner just needs to be moved up. The destroy object script for both objects can be confusing but I'll leave this late reminder/hint: click on the dog in the play mode and look at the dog's position in the inspector. If on your file, the dog is moving toward a negative direction, you have to change the script accordingly(This took almost an hour for me to figure out).

However, I tried everything I can to make sure the ball spawner spawned three balls instead of one. I even copy and pasted the script from this week's tutorial (of course with some adjustments). It still doesn't work...
At least I got the majority of them to work somehow.

The reading will have to be dropped this week, I've been trying to find more sources to make an adequate paragraph but to no avail. Finding journal and other peer-reviewed sources for game world purpose and game aesthetic choice is about as scarce as snow sticking to the ground in Ireland.

Semester 2 Week 4 - Reading 4

Week 4 Reading 4

This will be very disappointing in terms of progress made...
Due a lot of confusion, fatigue and lack of clarity to the readings, little progress has been made in these few weeks. But thanks to Sam and his email containing a simplified explanation of the readings which really clears things up.

Under the criteria of this weeks readings, I did what I could with the information I currently have:

1. Regardless of aesthetic choice of realism or stylized, immersion is rather important whichever the case. One of a game's most important aspect is how immersive the world is and the art style can help the player sink deep into the world of the game. Realism give the world a down-to-earth, familiar feel while stylized, cartoonish art style creates the world in a different and abstract manner.

2. Fidelity with Realism: Like what I said in the post last week, the realistic look needs to be believable but not 'creepy' in order to make the world 'feel like home'. Same goes with stylized art style, if the art style is too abstract and feels like a drug-trip, unless that's the aesthetic choice you went for and designed around, it can turn off players as easy as the depth of the uncanny valley. Failing in both can make the world look messy and without pulling punches, repulsive. The game's world must be appealing as so to interest the player than to disgust them to prevent them from playing.



In order to approach the writing I need to structure the flow of the writing in some way. I currently have an approach I want to take:


First start with answering the research question of what the purpose of the world is in a video game: What draws in a player to the world of the game?

Story/lore, environment, characters, interactions and aesthetics, etc.

Next it's the aesthetic choice of a game with the main two being:
Realism vs Stylized (Realism vs Animation sounds weird.)

One leaning towards high definition graphics and real-looking models and world design.

The other leaning towards exaggeration, vibrant colours, stylized assets and characters, etc. which some may call cartoonish to some degree.

Both of these styles will be compared, their differences, feel and their purpose in the game they were used in.

This should be relatively how the paper will be structured. Obviously it will be subject to change but it's better than last week.
I still have some things that are still slightly muddled, but I have went through similar things before and I know what to do.

(Many thanks to Sam who wrote that life-saving email that made everyone's life a little easier.)


Zhen Li

Semester 2 Week 4 - Unity Tutorial 4

Week 4 Unity

This week's Unity task was okay for the most part. The codes worked as long as you put them in correctly line by line. 

The Instantiate code in the launching of the food item is particularly useful for a lot of things. FPS shooters, dangerous traps, etc.
Honestly, if I found this tutorial earlier in the first semester, it might've been easier to set up the shooting script for my projectiles. 

The Horde comes... You can not stop it...

The random spawner code is useful for spawning enemies and entities in random spots on a map and creating regular flow of enemies to quench your insatiable hunger for mowing down the opposition with many means of violence... But hey, more mechanics for your games!

Since I don't have time to look at the next tutorial, I can assume that the random spawner won't be activated with the "S" button anymore but set on a timer interval so the animals spawn with a slightly random yet still consistent pace, much like a defense genre flash game.

The movement mechanic is rather common to simpler games with a straight forward mechanics like space invaders. If the movement system is expanded upon just a bit, it might feel like games such as Temple Run where movement is limited to the left, middle and right paths.

Oh well, that's for today. Hope everything's going well with the readings and such. I'm definitely not liking the readings so far.

Zhen Li.

Semester 2 Week 3 - Reading 3

Week 3 - Reading 3

For the reading this week, I looked over a couple of sources regarding game designers choice over using realistic or animated/'stylised' aesthetics.

Even by skimming over the articles, it's rather painfully obvious that due to a certain over-saturation with the pursuit of realism that players are now more drawn to either stylized art styles or a combination of both aesthetic choices called 'stylized realism' (not very creative here but better than scientists naming things...)

I remember a video talking about the concept of the 'Uncanny Valley'. This is a concept where, a certain individual or thing will look rather weird or uncomfortable if they don't lean towards high fidelity realism or the cartoonish style. It's like a robot with 'realistic' facial movements. Despite how realistic they're trying to look, these robots will always look weird and uncanny. This feeling is what any game designer choose to avoid as much as possible when picking an aesthetic choice for their game as it can make or break it completely.

Recall Team Fortress 2 and the recent Call of Duty. Team Fortress 2 is very stylized with its rather recognizable cartoonish character proportions while the modern Call of Duty achieved a very impressive and believable realism in their graphics.

Photo-realism is very good as it shows the capability of
the game engine rendering realistic faces accurately.
However...

The uncanny valley has a very deep gap where
you have to make things look 100% realistic or stylized.
The 'depth of the valley' never looks appealing to anyone.

After reading majority of these sources, I have a rather clear image as to how designers of the industry and games in the past years approach the use of realism and stylized designs. Surprisingly, many designers and artists are looking into this 'stylized realism' and I am trying to find more sources regarding this aesthetic design choice.

Zhen Li

(Edit) To explain 'Uncanny Valley' in a more interesting and easy-to-understand manner, I would recommend Extra Credit's video on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K1Kd9mZL8g

I hope this video expains this concept better than I have. Also Extra Credits is a great Youtube Channel on everything gaming and very eye-opening.

I'll have to temporarily drop the 'Game World Design' research due to a surprisingly lack of peer-reviewed sources on the internet that is readily accessible.

Semester 2 Week 3 - Unity Tutorial 3

Week 3 Unity 3

I. Have. Fixed. Everything.

I finally fixed Unity to work as intended. Needing to reinstall a new version of Unity alone took a few hours (for whatever reason). 
My questionably acquired Visual Studios was re-downloaded in the middle of the tutorial but it worked out in the end.

Let's get on with the tutorials.

This tank model looks better than my first Unity game project by a long shot...

The first tutorials went well without a hitch. The code was very clear on the website and since the tutorial mainly composed of very basic procedures, you can skip the videos and just use the code under each video so speed up your process. This tutorial says it'll take up a few hours but in reality, for Year 2 students, it should only take half an hour. Thanks Multimedia 1...

Here's the best/worst part.

Not gonna lie.
This challenge did get me.
Not for too long though...

'Challenge 1' is just using what we learned (and using the convenient hints offered on the page) to make a "Happy Bird" rip-off. The hints were just either blatantly obvious or just downright sadistically vague.

Just remember: to spin the propeller, just use transform.Rotate(x-axis, y-axis, z-axis * Time.deltaTime);. Change the z-axis and you're good to go. 
I posted this really late in the night so this hint can not be used for your own Unity tutorial. This way I cannot be accused of being 'unfair' or 'scummy'.
You can only cry after reading this and wonder: "Wow, what a dick."

Anyway. Everything went well with the tutorials. (not) Looking forward to the next tutorials.

Zhen Li.

Semester 2 Week 2 - Reading 2

Reading 2 - Reflective component 

(I dunno what to name this blog...)

This booklet thing is DEFINITELY quite overwhelming. The amount of research required and sources that needs to be sited, the amount of work that goes into using the Matrix...

Not going to lie, the matrix thing is rather confusing to use, or it's just me and my bad English...

However, I have a clear idea as to how I'm going to approach my chosen topics. That's a plus.

First, the purpose of a game world:

Game worlds are there to fully immerse you into its culture, mechanics, lore, people, and... well, the world itself. There wasn't any actual articles or research notes on game world on their own. However, since worldbuilding itself is not just a term applicable to games, I can look up how worldbuilding is done on other mediums; novels, movies, etc. This may or may not make my life easier but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Second, Realism VS Animation:

I know it's referring to the aesthetic choice of which the game world is presented; whether to depict it with realistic or cartoonish rendering and how it can affect the look of the game world. I have basic knowledge when it comes to this thing so I have a clear picture as to how this topic can be researched. Does the stylistic choice of the game affect how we experience world of the game? Does it immerse us into the world or not? These questions are also applicable to drawing and animation since the approach to the topic is similar in those regards.

Words: Too long
English requirement: ERROR

The sources are coming in nicely, even though they're all articles and blogs...

I am really slow and confused when it comes to the matrix and the whole ORGANISING part but I can handle it.

Zhen Li.