Unity Tutorial 5

Unity Tutorial 5

This week Unity gave me the most amount of issues so far.
Firstly, the scene I have created became corrupted, meaning that I have to remake majority of the thing I've already done. The only good thing about this was that all my assets was still intact.

Second of all, the axe model kept on giving me aneurysms because it keeps on disappearing when the animation was about to play. Took me several hours to find what is wrong...

Also if your extra cursors show up even though you're not in the vicinity of the gem, it's probably because you're still loading into the scene. Wait a few seconds then it should return to normal.

Now for this week's tutorial:
Skybox and Windzones:

Very simple. Just the case of importing skybox from the assets store and implementing windzones directly into the environment. But the next part...

Weapon Pickup and Fade Screen:

Weapon pickup was particularly bad due to the axe hover just below your view when you duplicate it directly from your AxeObject. The Fakeaxe will appear just below your cursor (almost all the time) and no matter how close you get to it, you can't pick it up because you can put your cursor on it.

One way around this is to follow all of Jimmy's steps except where you have to duplicate the axe in the beginning. As long as you remember to rename the axe accordingly, you won't have any issues beyond that.

The Fade-in scene isn't as difficult though. 

Bug-fixes and Better Environments

Here we just fix some inconsistencies within the script so it works a bit better; eg. pressing the left mouse button which plays the axe swinging SFX even when you don't have the axe. The usual.

Adding in bushes and house to make the overworld look a wee bit better.


That's the end of the tutorial for this week.
Almost gave me a heart attack by the end of it.  -_-"

Hope you had fixed any issues you may have on your Unity.
Have a nice day!

Game Decisions

Game Decisions

Ok. Hear me out. 
I can't find the article that Shaun wants us to read on Daniel Cook's blog. So I looked around and read the one I find interesting and digestible. "Cosy Games" is the name of the blog and I think it's worth looking into because it goes into what about the game makes people feel cosy.

In this blog, Dan Cook talks about how feeling cosy in the game you're gaming can make you more productive and engaged in the game.

A well-designed game environment can help fulfill certain needs besides our basic ones.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs as it relates to coziness
as shown in Daniel Cook's blog.

A cosy game setting can help us:
1. See game as a form of safe practice.
2. See games as a means to satisfying unmet needs.
3. Help players practice fulfilling higher order of needs.

These games provide space for the player's emotional, social and psychological maintenance and growth which can really break the monotony of everyday life.


There are thing of which can negate cosiness simply because they exist in the game. Such as:
Extrinsic reward.
Danger, threat and fear.
Distractions.
Responsibility (that are unnecessary).
Intense stimuli (eg. sudden loud noises.)

Dan also mentions why cosy game design should be implemented: to replace the old, narrow motivational models that itself was an experimental one which needed more change.
The new motivational model (shown below) went to describe that players often have broader and more diverse sets of behaviours and motivations of which proper cozy designs can satisfy them.

The things about the game that interests and motivates the players to play.

He then went to talk about how it can shape the game's community, their behaviours. With Realm of the Mad God and Alphabear as examples. One being aggressive easily irritated MMO players brought about by the game's great risks and crushing losses. The other being a more relaxed and casual environment where players are more polite and easy to chat with.

There also various aspects of cosy design which plays an important role when creating a cosy game:
Cosy Aesthethics. Visuals. Audio. Locations. Items. Mechanics. Narratives and Characters etc. all go hand in hand when creating a game with cosiness in mind.

There so much in this article to read and comprehend that it's probably best if you read it for yourself:
http://www.lostgarden.com/
You might find some interesting or inspiring ideas for your own projects.

Anyways, thank you for reading.
Have a nice day!

Game Design Document

Game Design Document

In my honest opinion, DunDoc is very convenient  for game development as a means to keep track of your games' progress. There are many tabs to use and the presets are very detailed, although they might be overwhelming at first.

I have put in all my ideas from the week before to the DunDoc document as of now

Here's the link to my DunDoc.

This should be what you see when you get to the site.

I'm not sure if anyone needs a password or permission of some sort to enter someone else's project document so if you want to, tell me if it works or not.

As of now I need to research some design for things such as UI, character model and its associated software and such. Character creation will be a hassle if I don't learn how to 3D model for Unity.

I made the image extra-big so you can see the details.
I don't need the HUD to be super complicated.
Just simple enough with all the essential details.
The final game will probably use this HUD layout in
the future.

The technical thing will have to be on hold for now because of the other assignment I'm currently doing but after this, I can work some more on this project.

Tell me some issues like slow-downs, image imports not responding, etc. just so I know I may not be the only one having these issues on DunDoc.

Thank you for listening to my short, late-night rambling.

Have a nice day.

*Updated: Someone mentioned that my DunDoc link didn't work so I changed somethings around. It took quite a while but it should work by now.

Unity Tutorial 4

Unity Tutorial 5

Finally back to Jimmy Vegas and his tutorials! The clock one from last week was just a nightmare...


This week's tutorial involves creating a dynamic cursor in our HUD which will react accordingly so we can interact and 'pick up' the gem. there's also the steps in which to put in a weapon which will have its animations and prompt to swing when clicking the left mouse button.

The cursor felt weird to understand at times and occasionally the cursor will show the prompt to press [E] even though the player model is too far away. However, it may be my brain playing trick on me for not sleeping enough.

(I forgot to upload this image the day before so here it is)
If video games cause violence, then this tutorial is a guide
on how to become an axe murderer.

The addition of weapons is always welcome in any game. Let's face it. It's pretty neat. The process was difficult but seeing that axe swing feels somewhat accomplishing. At the end of the video when Vegas said that in the later tutorials that we'll be adding new weapons, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Besides that, I also looking forward to the addition of other variety of weapons like bows, crossbows, and guns. They will be using a totally different mechanic to program in Unity and I hope we get to that stage.

Hope you guys liked my late-night rambling.
Have a nice day.

Games GDD

Week 6 Reading - Games GDD

Design Considerations

From what I have read in the readings, I see the important role that game design can play in the player experience of a game.

'Components' - Presentation

The components of a board game is the like the equivalent of a video game's presentation. User interface, information, layout, etc. are there to help convey the messages and information to the player so they can use those info to respond or react to the current game state.

These 'components' needs to be clear, distinguishable and not confusing in order to fulfill their role in any game.

Themes

I can't say much for game boxes or cards because I don't play those games much. However, I can say something about the themes of the game working with the rules instead of against them.

This is very much like the theme of a game dictating the mechanics of a game. For example, in a fantasy game magic plays a central role in its theme and so its healing mechanics is simple and straight forward: Cast Heal II to heal 20 HP.  However in a more realistic survival game, healing is more complicated: Bleeding requires bandages to heal and poison requires antidotes to cure. Both of which requires to be crafted or scavenged in the game world.

This can immerse the player just enough because it plays to their expectations of what the game is and what they expect to experience through the use of themes as a guide.

'Rules'

Rules are important in any game because they set a limit to what can be and can't be done within the game. Rules should be clear and concise as to avoid confusion to the players. Vague rules are particularly dangerous because players are imaginative. They can come up with thing that can completely disregard the rules and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

It's best if you set the rules to be very clear and see players either break the rules in creative ways or play around them in really imaginative methods. This shows that the game has some dynamics in which the players are investing time into to explore what they can and can't accomplish.

I know this blog isn't too related to the reading but I intended to apply these subjects to video games, wherever relevant. This way we can link certain aspects of these tabletop games to video games in order to understand these rules a bit better.

I hope you enjoyed my late night rambling.

Have a nice day.

Game Vision Statement

Week 5 :Game Vision Statement

The game that I wanted to make as this year's Multimedia project is a simple, high-octane dodgeball video game. ‘Ultimate Dodgeball Deluxe’ is the name that I have given to the game.

‘Ultimate Dodgeball Deluxe’ is a first-person shooter where the player is put into a 3v3 dodgeball game with minor RPG-like customization options to spice up your gameplay.

Here I will explain to my best abilities how the game will progress.

At the beginning of the game:

l The player will pick a character out a roster of 6 different characters to choose as their team captain.

l You will then proceed to pick the two other members to make your team. The team’s composition will be entirely up to the player’s choice. You cannot pick duplicate characters on your team. However, the enemy can pick a character that you have already picked.

Eg. You have Character no.1 in your team and cannot pick another. The enemy can pick the same Character no.1 in their team.

Each character have different stats affecting their damage, defense and speed.

Certain traits can either help or hinder your gameplay, depending on how you play.

l You can then customize each character with gears and equipment that you acquire from completing levels and leveling up.

l Then both teams are put into an arena where the game will take place. The match will last 3 and a half minutes.

- The stage will comprised of two platforms on both sides of the map while a ditch in the middle separates the platforms.

- The two teams will be playing on their respective platforms.

- Anyone who tries to walk across the ditch in the middle will fall through it and be damaged. The individual will be sent back the their teams spawn point after falling through the ditch.

The game itself:

Player will able to perform the following actions:

l Attack: Players attack in various ways.

--A Normal Shot is fast to throw but weak, dealing little damage.

--A Charged Shot is more powerful and deals more damage but requires time to charge and easily predictable and avoidable.

l Defense: To counter the enemies’ attack, players have various ways to reduce the damage they take.

      --Dodge by simply moving out the way of the incoming balls. This is the most basic form of defending your health from dropping. 

      

      --Block reduces damage from incoming shots. However, since you move much slower in this stance, a charged shot can be very devastating.

Four mechanic (technically three) to use while fighting the other team.
Use them to your fullest.

l Movement: the movement is very standard in the game. WASD for movement and space for jumping. But here are some points to take into mind:

       --Jumping will help avoid shots coming towards your lower body, but beware of players trying to aim while you are vulnerable in the air. 

       

       --There is no sprinting in the game but everyone will be moving at a relatively fast speed at default (very much like DOOM).

Simple yet solid movement system. No sprint button, because constantly
hitting shift can hurt your hand in the long run.
I play Warframe. I know what that feels like.

Characters and Customization

All 6 characters play a role within the team. The roles can range from running around, sniping, tanking, etc. Their attack power, defense ability and movement speed all vary from one another and since you can pick any character to be in your team of 3, you can change your playstyle to great degrees.

The characters can be given equipment on the body and items to use in battle. Equipment can change your outer appearance and they can affect your stats positively and negatively. If you have a set of equipment of the same design/theme, you may even gain bonus stats or special benefits. Items can be used to give your character a temporary boost/power-up to assist you in the game.

Mix and Match your gear or gather sets to improve stats further.
*This is a reference that took too long to draw.
No points this time.

After the game:

After the winner is decided, the player will gain some EXP points. Every level increased will reward the player with equipment, items and even some new characters. This will give players further options to play around with in future playthrough. You can also earn credits based on the mission itself and your performance which you can spent on one-use items. This should encourage players to come back and play another round.

Resources required (may change in the future):

The game will be made entirely in Unity. Each character available could either be colour-coded or have unique textures, depending on the eventual scope of the project. However, their physique will be very apparent, ranging from large to petite so they may be easy to identify from a distance. The balls launched from the characters should also have a distinct colour depending on who fired them.

As of now there should be 4 maps to play around with with one tutorial map. The tutorial map should be as plain as possible. But it should be a playing ground where the player can test out characters, playstyles, items and general movement.

The other four maps should have a central theme around the design; elevation, maneuverability, cover, etc. Which should affect the player’s approach to winning the match.

This is all I can offer for now. If you have any opinions of what to improve or change please put a comment below.

Thank you for reading.

Have a nice day.

(if you notice something weird with the format, it's because I typed this in Word and pasted to the blog. Word can be used as a cheap proof-reading tool, if you want to now. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Unity Tutorial 3

Unity Tutorial 3 - Week 5

Ok, we were using a tutorial from a different site this week and I have to say, 'it's not the best'. This dynamic clock that we're making is alot harder to follow compared to the tutorials we had before.
The clock itself is mainly comprised of the normal shapes we can simply add in like cubes and cylinders. the indicators and the hour indicators are the same as well. Although the clock hands had some positioning issues at first for me, it was immediately resolved.

The making of the clock face, the hour indicators and all the arms was fine up until the part where I have to put in the script where the many issues came up.

First of all, the codes were too long and repetitive to a degree. Perhaps it's just that I'm not too fond of coding, I couldn't follow the tutorial very well.

There's also the case where because perhaps due to the older 2017 version of Unity not containing the codes necessary for certain parts of the tutorial. Check out this image below:

11 errors. Doesn't it just look wonderful...

There are certain codes that visual studio doesn't recognize and they appear as red-lines on the studio. I just don't know why this is going wrong. I downloaded a new version of visual studio and that didn't work so I assumed that Unity may not have the codes in its files and therefore cannot recognize it. 

If you're having the same issue, give me a comment talking about this problem or give solutions in case anyone in the comment have the same issue.

Thank you for reading.
Have a nice day.

Games MDA

Games Mechanics Dynamics and Aesthetics

Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics are what makes up the entirety of a game.

Mechanics serves are the gears and bolts of the game. They have a defined role in setting up the premise of the game, giving players the idea of how the game works and how their actions work and affect the game.

Dynamics comes from the things that happen during gameplay when the mechanics are set in motion. The strategies players use, what actions they choose to take in certain scenarios, etc. How players interact with one another under certain events and circumstances.

Aesthetics is what makes the game stand out among its own genres with similar or identical designs. Visual elements, responsiveness, narrative, etc. This affects the player experience of the game, whether if the play is fun, difficult, boring or interesting.


I had very little idea of how to actually define fun in games. I had the idea that the game create different stimulus for different people depending on what they love. Eg. If you are stimulated by Role-Paying Games but aren't stimulated by First-Person Shooters, You won't find FPS games fun as much as you do with RPG. It's a simple way of understanding.
From the readings, it's nice that the " Eight Kinds of 'Fun' " points out in a simple manner what people look for in a game and what people find fun.

Do you recall the game 'Dark Souls' and its famously known difficulty? Surely a game that's difficult is not fun right? It's like saying you have a hard job but doesn't earn any income with it. This is simply not the case. The MDA of 'Dark Souls' is reinforced in its difficulty. The game's MDA all compliment its bleak, distraught, fantasy world and people really enjoyed it.
Here's a video by Extra Credits talking about difficult games and how they can be fun:
Link.

I have a personal ideal that I stand by. Unlike most product models, where people ask for something, the designer researches a product  and delivers them accordingly. 
Games are different. The designers have to come up with an idea for a game, design it well in their vision, and deliver it to the public while people play it. They will either universally agree that it's good or bad, some split between the two opinions. 

This is how when game companies make sequels they either make a masterpieces or flunks completely. Their quality in design either just replicates what they did before with little to no originality of any scale. The Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics of these games either never changed or changed in the wrong direction to the point where the game fails to deliver the feeling that they once had delivered. These game are then no longer "fun".
One of the worst examples of games which went down this path is Fallout 76 and it's various shenanigans: Here's a video by the Internet Historian on the subject.


A game with a solid Mechanic will function like a knife through butter: It's satisfying to play because it works and it works well.
A game with interesting Dynamics will make player feel like they're figuring things out and using that knowledge to play better or differently.
A game with wonderful Aesthetics will be stuck in your head long after play by striking an incredible impression on you.

Despite Blizzard's controversies over the few days, I can not deny the fact that some of their games are just very good and worth talking about. One awesome example is Starcraft 2, a great sequel to the previous one. This game has a solid Real-Time Strategy mechanic that has improved on the past. The dynamics will show itself as you become more an more familiar and proficient withe game. The sci-fi aesthetic of the game is almost grandeur because of the detail they put into the games's design, artwork, lore and backgrounds. 

The Starcraft 2 Field Manual showing you some detailed and informative images along with interesting background info. It's a really fun and amusing read because you can see the details and thought that was put into the game. Check it out here: Link.

Page 11 of the Starcraft 2 Field Manual.
There so many pages with this level attention and care.
What's not to love about this?

I hope you enjoyed my nonsensical rambling at 1:46 AM in the morning.
Hope you liked my blog.
Have a nice day.

Game Idea Research

Game Idea part 2

On my “Game Ideas” blog, I have four ideas for a video game:

1. First-person shooter

2. Dungeon-crawler

3. Anime Story RPG

4. Ultimate Dodgeball

Of all the ideas, the dodgeball one is definitely the more manageable one in terms of scale.

The core pieces of the game will be that:

1. It’ll be in a team of three (instead of four)

2. Unique team members with strengths, weaknesses and special skills

3. Two platforms for two teams, separated by a ditch.

4. Several ways to launch the ball and several ways to dodge them as well.

5. If possible there should be power-ups on the ground that drop randomly.

The first mechanic I have in mind is a standard first-person shooter mechanic. It will have the player’s HP, abilities, cooldowns, etc all visible within this viewpoint. The movement system will be as expected from any FPS: WASD keys and Mouse. The dodgeball shooting mechanic can have an instantaneous attack that deals little damage while a stronger charged shot is easy to predict but devastating to get hit by.

This is mainly based on a actual dodgeball video game called:

“Robot Roller Derby: Disco Dodgeball”, an awesome dodgeball game made by Erik Asmussen.

Its FPS mechanics is really solid and the feel of gameplay is great. However it does take some getting used to its slightly ‘floaty’ movement in some occasions.

Here's the link to the game's Steam page.

A hectic dodgeball game taking place in a colour-saturated disco accompanied by heart-pumping techno.
What's not to love?

The colours are very strong in the game but the UI did its best job at making sure the player doesn't get confused on what their seeing. 

The second option is to use a third-person perspective. This is only a variation from the first mechanic. Everything is the same except for the purpose of the third-person perspective. It can offer the player a better sense of the surroundings and locations of everyone on the field better than first-person.

The second mechanic changes around the core mechanics I mentioned in the very beginning. The team members will have customizable equipment that slightly affects the stats of the team members. Depending on the customization, the team member’s stats will show during gameplay, eg. Faster movement, charge attack speed, jump height, etc.

This will allow players to improve the stats of which their characters are lacking or improve on stats that their characters excels at. Offering options to player to change how they play is important in offering variety to gameplay. The different upgrades can be earned by meeting special requirements, completing challenges, leveling up, etc.

There are some game with fully customizable features that work quite well. “Loadout” is a third-person shooter with weapons made from individual parts that the player can pick freely (as long as they have to in-game money). Barrel, stock, magazine, sights, firing modes etc. Are all free to customize and it can drastically affect their playstyle.

I prefer to not drastically change the playstyle with customization, but only use it for giving players options in gameplay variety.

To know more about Loadout, here's the link to the steam page.

"Loadout" has weapons that are fully customizable which can change your playstyle completely depending on how you build them.

If you build a gun that fires flame projectiles, of course it will burn your enemies alive.
Your fights are about as creative as you can make it.

The third mechanic is adding moving and destructible environment to either side of the platforms. They can serve as covers and vantage points but due to their destructible nature, they won’t last too long. This is to offer players several approaches and tactics when dealing with the enemy team. This is heavily leaning towards map design in terms of designing this game as it will play an important role in the gameplay. Although depending on how many areas are destructible, it might make production difficult. However, it is an interesting mechanic that can be used.

I can't think of any games that has this kind of destructible but in terms of how this can affect the game, I'm thinking of a game series called "Men of War", a WW2 strategy game where any form of destruction can affect the map in small but significant ways. For example, an explosion on the ground can create craters where soldiers can use as defensive covers. Your own destroyed vehicles can be used as temporary covers during advances. etc.

Unfortunately there aren't any clear video gameplay of this game that I can find to prove this point but I know a modded version of this game called "Faces of War" (real creative, guys) that might be better. Here a gameplay footage of this mod: link.

Trust me. This modded version looks and feels a bit better than the original.

"Men of War" is an old game but it does have some unique things about it as well.

That's all I have to say about my game idea so far.

Hope you enjoyed my nonsense rambling.

Thank you for reading.

Have a nice day.

Unity Tutorial 2

Week 4: Unity Tutorial 2

In this week's tutorial, I learned about a few thing that adds on top of the tutorials from last week and a small, simple debug feature called raycast.

The first lesson was allowing the gem to disappear when the FPS controller touches it and trigger an "ding" sound effect. This a staple in many games and will often feel off when not applied to picking up objects. The collision mesh of the gem had to change to a smaller normal box model so the player can easily walk through the gem and trigger the events.

Second was some graphical add-ons. Adding water to the terrain, using a different stone texture and making walls with the cube model. Nothing too special, just some extra features to make the game look better.

Just a wall to keep the player in.
It didn't work.
It never works.

The second lesson was more or less about adding a few functions, a cursor in the player view and raycasting. 

Cursors are important because they show players exactly where they're looking at using a single point on their screen to use as reference. There are rarely any games which doesn't use a cursor of some kind.

The next one is a script for raycasting. Raycasting is a tool that's attached to the player model which can track the distance of the player from the object/terrain that the player is currently looking at. This  is just one of the debug functions that many games would've used during development.


This is it for this week's tutorial blog.

Have a nice day!

Game Elements

Game Elements

Games are very fun to play. Everyone knows that. However, often the case of 'why' it's fun to play varies from person to person. Often times we just talk about what the game offers, its mechanics, the thing you can do, etc. and the discussion often just ends there.

Preferences of games will differ from each individual but the principle of what makes the game doesn't. It all depends on the creative input of the creator and the work they put in.

There was a certain element not mentioned clearly in both the reading or the articles, which is Game Mechanic.

The game mechanic is the basic rules and procedures of how the game will be played and how the game will respond to the player's actions. Essentially, game mechanics are simply 'gimmicks' of which the game itself is based around.

'Undertale' is a RPG game that claimed itself 'the friendly RPG where NOBODY has to DIE' It has an unique mechanic in the game of which you are fully capable of completing the game without killing a single enemy. This is a polar opposite approach to your standard RPG formula.

Its gimmick is that the game itself plays around the mechanics of a normal RPG and tells a compelling narrative with it. Battles, EXP, dialogue, endings all change depending on how many enemies you kill which meant that every single action you take is very consequential. 

"If I started spending money on old branches and used bandages, I'd be out of business in a jiffy!"
The response of a shopkeeper when you want to sell something to her.
Clever.

Game mechanics can ground a game with its theme and core gameplay. It can shape a game to something unique among the same genre and make them stand out.

If you want games with some unique mechanics, here are some games below:

1. Patapon series on the PSP: 
You command tiny black-eyeball people with a sequence of drumbeats to command them. Quite addicting.
Check out its trailer on the PS4: link.

2. Any Mystery Dungeon games: 
Mystery dungeon games were famous for its procedural generating random dungeons of which you can explore. I would recommend Etrian Odyssey Dungeon for starters. It's an RPG with the mystery dungeon mechanic on the 3DS. Simple but solid game mechanic.
Here's the trailer: link;

3. Factorio:
You are trapped on a planet and needs to use the resources around you to build a rocket to escape. How do you do it? By building entire factories and logistical systems to manufacture the parts you need to build that rocket. A solid management, building and survival game for those who like intricate factory lines and production cycles.
Want to see how hectic it can be? Here:link.

3.5 Satisfactory:
It's very similar to Factorio, except things are more sci-fi and in awesome 3D graphic. This game is still in its early stages but boy would I be wrong if it doesn't look and feel good.
For good vibes, double link: link 1, link 2,

Besides game mechanics, I think that everything else the article has included in alright. How many players can be playing in a session? The goal of a game and how to achieve them? What you can get in terms of resources, weapon and gears? What are the limitations of the game and how do you address them?

These are all important elements in a game that must be implemented to make a game feel complete.

I hope you enjoy my random rambling in this blog.

What else do you think is crucial in a game? You can tell me in the comments if you want.

Thank for reading my blog.

Have a nice day.