Week 10 - Unity Free Tutorials

Week 10 - Unity Tutorials

If you want to look through this Unity blog, you might find some tutorial that may help you. But, no guarantees though. Just saying.

I have selected a few tutorials on YouTube that will help with the tasks I need to do for the game as of right now.

The first is the Health UI tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W0xLonwbLo ----- by N3K EN.

This individual's tutorial is very helpful because it's a very basic Health UI system that can be easily implemented into the Unity version we're all using.

In the tutorial, he talks you through how to create a Health Bar UI that is responsive to the damage and heals you get in your Unity Project. The code is very easy to read and use. It fits really well into Unity itself and the code has no unwelcoming error/issues even when implemented correctly.

The second is the Enemy AI that makes them fire at the Player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvgjnwP6qg ----- by Stephen Karr.

Unlike many other tutorials, Stephen actually provides his script in a downloadable manner through his Google drive link for students like us to download. With this it means that all we have to do is to change parts of the script applicable to our project at will. This should've been something that everyone doing Unity Tutorial should do. His tutorial involves the use of prefabs and 'Instantiate' which are common elements in firing projectile and applying them to an AI who will detect if the player is in range and fire projectile at them accordingly.

A rather short and helpful video for anyone looking for a bit of challenging coding because his tutorial is easy but the codes isn't. As long as you keep track of where in the script you should replace with your own assets and entities, you should do find. Then again don't expect it to be easy.

These are the Tutorials I found most useful in the sea of YouTube Unity Tutorials. I hope you might find these tutorials or the people responsible for making them helpful.

Update on my Project:

Added a health bar. Just need to apply damage system and it should be fine.

The damage system will need some time to clean up before it's fully functional but besides that, I made some good progress.

But that is all!

Have a nice day.

Week 10 - Tech Tasks

Oh yeah,meme time.

Week 10 - Game Stories - Narrative

Game Stories - Narrative

Narrative is often neglected in games that seemingly need a story to drive the player forward. There are reasons that games like these fail worse than games that might not even have a story at all.

Narrative creates the world of which the games will take place in and within this world, we see characters grow, worlds change, and story take stage. Without narrative, there's nothing that can drive the player to play, the world to change, etc.

The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell is an example of a common narrative tool present in our world due to how applicable it is. The classic of a hero being called to action to a journey to defeat a great evil is almost omnipresent in media today. Of course there are variations of this classic motif but it serves as a great tool of which people can compare their own stories to as a means of reference.

The hero and villain are just characters in a story. Their impact to the world of the story and to its people are all means of enhancing the world their in, so to draw the players in and immerse them in the game's world.

As listed in the article, heroes have the essential good traits while the villains are their complete opposite. The villain will serve as the driving force behind the hero's motivation to fulfill his destiny. This story structure is so easily understood and offers a lot of leeway for the story-writers to put in their own unique input.

For an example of the Hero's Journey applied implemented very well in the story, check out these episodes by Extra Credits on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWKKRbw-e4U - Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVqT8s7bOTQ - Part 2

This game literally has the word 'Journey' as the title.
It also follows the Hero's Journey formula pretty well
while implementing their own take to its formula.

Narrative isn't just dialogue or something trivial to the game's progression. It is an essential tool to create a cohesive and rich world of which the player can play in and experience. Without story, games will be just a shell with a few interactive buttons to play with.

Here's an example of an story that is told by merely the context of the game and the player's assumptions of which both creates a natural narrative in their minds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJA5YjvHDU - 

Narrative Mechanics - How Missile Command Tells a Story - Extra Credits

Week 9 -Tech Tasks

Week 9 -MEMES!!!

A SUPER SPEEDY MEME 3 MINUTES BEFORE DEADLINE!!!!!

ENJOY!!!!

WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Week 9 - Alpha

Week 9 - Alpha

Ok, my game is definitely not close enough to an alpha version yet but I have made some progress.

Here were some of the progress I have made over week 9:

1. I have fully implemented a working shooting script.

Originally, there was an issue where the projectile will not come out forward towards where the gun is facing but instead is shooting at the ground. I only realized the issue one day which was the orientation of the bullet spawner which was facing down the entire time.

The current shooting script is a simple "press mouse to fire and destroy enemy entity" script and as much as it is functional, it's not exactly what I'm looking for.

Number one, the projectile must deal exactly 1 point of damage. The enemies will have varying amounts of health: Red is average, having 10 HP. Blue is weaker but fast-moving, having only 4 HP. Green is the strongest but slow-moving, having 15 HP.

I have looked for many tutorials regarding Health and Damage and Health UI etc. and is currently having trouble putting them in Unity due to previously required elements from the earlier tutorial videos which can mis-match with my current codes.

2. I have made models of the three characters that will be in the game. RED, BLUE and GREEN. So far they only have different sizes. BLUE being the smallest, GREEN being the largest and RED is in between. Once I implement a functioning HP and DAMAGE system they will each have varying amounts of Health corresponding to their playstyle.

However, I don't have a script where I can get it working and there are no tutorials that I can find that makes the progress any easier.

Finally, I can do revenge to those pesky dummy models.
The shooting script finally being fixed definitely
felt really nice for once.

Future Tasks that I need to do in Unity:

Enemy AI and Stats: The enemy entities need to move within the given space while shooting at the Player. If the script can be manipulated to some degree, the same script can be used to make the allies' AI to shoot at the enemy.

One-Shot and Recharge: The gun needs to fire once and recharge automatically with a 3-second recharge time. The recharge time may change in the future. There also needs to be a recharge indicator on the UI.

More UI and Features: A Health display on the players UI, a timer UI to indicate the duration of a match, Recharge indicator for the gun... there's a lot that needs to be done as of now...

If you have found an Unity Tutorial video that might be helpful to someone, please send them that video and give them a hand.

Hope your game is coming along nicely.

Have a nice day!

Week 9 - Progress

Week 9 - Progress

So I looked at my points up until Week 8 (the week 8 and week 9 grades were switched. Keep an eye out), I have a drastic drop in the early weeks but that is explained through some email. It was because I was intending to use the mercy period of which I have no idea how to activate it. I did tell Shaun about it so he may have a different record of the grades.

Overall the weekly routine is manageable. I messed up on the early weeks and had to rely on the mercy periods but eventually it became more and more easy to deal with. The Unity tutorials definitely was the most enjoyable part because seeing progress being made and things coming together is very satisfying. Although the Thursdays where we have to pick our own tutorials were definitely difficult, due to differing versions, incompatible scripts and several visual studio breakdowns. But again, once I get Unity working and made a bit of progress, the accomplishment feels really good.

I haven't had the chance to do any of the extra credits but I've only started recently and I have to say that it's rather entertaining to do. And since I am going to need some credits, they might become mandatory.

I think this current system is manageable and fits easily into the schedule of the semester. Of course, that will depend of the schedule and timetable of the new semester. After all, it could be better or worse. I want to try and do some extra credit tasks more often this time around for better grade/safeguard against missed marks. Adjusting to college after Summer was probably one of the primary reasons for my lack of effort in the first few weeks but I can change that. When talking about something new, I think that a basics class for Unity and C# every now and then can help out really well. For example, a lot of games may require a basic health and damage system, damage, movement speed. Even something slightly more complicated like Enemy AI, enemy attack AI, are all essential in Unity and having just one class where we can learn these basics can help really well.

Best quote I've ever heard. 

This is all I have to say for my own progress so far.

Hope you had a nice time up to now in campus.

Have a nice day!

Week 9 - Review Week Comments and Feedback

Review Week Comments and Feedback

In this blog, I will discuss what I think of the Comments and Feedback that we had to do over this semester.

Overall, I find the feedback quality to be very nice. People are all very supportive and offered great advice and proposal to changes. Such feedback are excellent for anyone building a game as it offers insights and ideas that may not come across your mind at times. These can help the game grow little by little with reassurance and constructive criticism results.

The most useful kind of feedback are definitely the ones that offer new ideas, mechanics, etc.

which can make nice additions to the game. Of course, the decision to add those additions are up to the individual but the option being there is rather nice.

My feedback strategy is loosely based on the articles I read in Week 4. First giving praise to the idea/progress made by the individual, offer insight and ideas that can help reinforce the mechanics they intend to use, then give criticism and offer changes that can help improve the game further. There are times that I didn't give any criticisms because it appear that people already have a solid idea of what they're doing and my criticism will decrease their work momentum. This is because of the effects of last-minute changes made in game development often result in disturbance of work momentum. It's easier for people to point out mistakes and fix them after the progress is done and the "bug-fixing" period starts.

The comments are always a great way to communicate on a daily basis but I feel like that it may appear forced at times but that's just how I feel. If we can use these comments for occasional talks and idea sharing, but the weekly assignment to comment takes the value of commenting away to a point where the feeling of discussion fall apart due to people just writing random stuff in the comments. Although if that's the purpose, then that's alright with me.

I think this system is very nice because the assignment are always consistent during the week that we can always slot time in to do them when other work starts to pile in. After fixing my game in Unity, the consistency of these assignments schedules can help greatly in the future.

That's all I can think of right now.

Have a nice day.

Week 9 - Reading and Writing

Week 9 - Reading and Writing

On average, the reading and writing fr this week isn't entirely bad. There are times when certain readings seems repetitive or as if we have already read them before. Besides those points, the reading are very constructive in how they gave us information and insights into how a game work and why they work.

My favourite reading so far is the one on Week 5, regarding game development. It was simple video about the three components of a game: Mechanic, Dynamic and Aesthetics and what roles they play in a video game's design.

Mechanics are the rules and constraints in which the game operates.

Dynamics are the flow of play within the game, mainly based on the player's inputs.

Aesthetics are the elements of the game which gives the player an unique experience, ranging from landscape, design, music, etc.

All of these play an essential role in creating an interesting and enjoyable game.

The video also talks about the Eight Kinds of "Fun" which outline what kind of fun people seek in a video game. This show what kind of preferences people have in choosing a game. From these preferences, we can see what are people looking for in a game that intrigues them and entices them to play it. For Example, a competitive game like DOTA 2 will entice players who seek mastery and also the feel of winning.

To be honest, the reading only helped during the early research and development stage of the game, where the understanding of what makes a game tick really helps solidify the foundation for the game. However, afterwards, due to increasingly demanding deadlines and upcoming projects, going back over the reading is nearly impossible when doing the project straight away is always faster and more efficient time-wise.

The biggest accomplishment done in this class is definitely getting Unity and the first models working. It was less of a hurdle but more like a wall to get the models working properly. The weird bugs and code warning that frequently pop up later on really damages the progress of making the prototype. 

Unity is a great tool but not a consistent one. If there were less versions of Unity and instead implemented an update system where the most recent version is always available, people who have to constantly switch between version or find themselves limited due to the versions they're currently using can feel a bit at ease.

This was the intended HUD for the game I'm making.

The picture above is my favorite from the past weeks. This vaguely displays what the game will look like. It's a little window to see what the future can hold for the game in development which I think is rather nice.

In conclusion, it's best that reading should be kept minimal but very concise so we may have more free-time to work on Unity itself. By the end, the amount of time available for Unity can open up people's schedule during the week and make things less pressuring from a day-to-day basis.

That's all for today.

Have a nice day!

First Playable? / Prototype 3

First Playable? Barely...

Unity, is working like a coin in Venezuela's economy. Utterly, Unnecessarily. Useless. As much I've tried excavating the internet for useful guides in trying to find a proper script that lets me launch a projectile without causing a sharp drop and sudden drop in the integrity of game files.

There are things that I knew I cannot use. The Raycast method, instantly causes damage to the area where the Raycast is projected over. I have tried inputting a projectile time script to it put it just ended up messing with the other codes.

The Projectile method was the one and only option. One issue. Many of the guides online are either way too outdated; where the codes will not work in the recent Unity editions. Two things will happen. One, Unity doesn't recognize the codes used and refuse to work. Two, Unity DOES recognize the codes but doesn't know how to initiate them.

This was after the fourth tutorial I followed.
One pack of noodles was not enough for me to make it through this.

Hope you had a nicer time than mine.
Anyway, have a nice day.

Wikipedia Trail - From 'Comics' to 'Kamishibai'

Wikipedia Trail

So due to a missed reading assignment, I had to use an extra task to make up for the lost points.

I started this Wikipedia trail from Comics first.

On this page it talked about what kind of medium comics are, its history throughout the world, the many artstyles etc.

Since comics came up, I knew that manga would definitely be in the article. And I was completely right! Next it was the history of manga.

Manga is essentially just Japanese comics, but its conception from the very beginning of its history and its eventual development made it so unique that people nowadays consider the western comics and Japanese manga to be entirely separate. It had history based from since in the 17th century but the time where it had the most drastic change and development was after World War 2, during the occupation (1945-1952) and the post occupation years (1952-early 1960s).

It was a very interesting read. Next I found the history of anime because well, it was on the same page so I assumed: why not?

Anime is essentially any show that has been shown using animation. Yes that includes 'cartoons' because in the Japanese dictionary, the word 'cartoon' doesn't exist and is substituted by the more accessible term 'Anime'.

Anime has its origins as early as the early 1900s. The article goes through the decades in Anime's history where we see the many changes in the industry, artstyles, trends etc.

After reading I found an interesting article on an old form of storytelling on the article called:

'Kamishibai'.

Kamishibai is a form of Japanese of street theatre and storytelling that was quite popular in the 1930 Depression and post-war period in Japan before the introduction of television later on. The story will be displayed using images slotted into a stage-like device while the narrator tells the story to the audience.

Image link
A kamishibai artist performing in Tokyo.

I found this simplistic yet interesting form of storytelling to be reminiscent of puppet shows. It was a great early rendition in trying to combine picture and text to tell a story.

Tech Task - Memes?

Tech Tasks

So everyone's doing tech tasks and like the cultured individuals we are, we were all making memes.
I had to make my own.

With a combination of a gif maker, a tool to add text and lack of sleep, I have created this:

"I'm gonna lewd that thing, and nothing can stop me" - Weebs.

Hope you enjoyed it.
Have a nice day!

Unity Tutorial 6 / Prototype 2

Unity Tutorial 6 /Prototype 2

Since we're told to find our own tutorials, I went to find an Unity tutorial which helps me make a weapon fire and in essence, fire the dodgeball launcher in the game.

(A ball-throwing animation is too time-consuming to make, so I made a ball launcher for convenience.)

The tutorial I was using is this one: here.

In this tutorial, Brackeys showed how to set up a script for an entity to take damage and use the Raycast script we learned from Jimmy Vegas' tutorial for where the projectile will land when the gun is fired.

However, this only applies to guns and hit-scan projectiles, which are projectiles that instantly reach the spot you're aiming at. My projectiles needs to have a travel time so I picked another video.

Here's the link.

BurgZerg_Arcade does a tutorial on how to create projectiles and make them move forward. There is a bit of scripting but it seems manageable.

If you need help in either making a ranged weapon work or want to how to make a projectile, these two can help you out quite a lot.

This is the first person view.
I haven't fully implemented the projectile script yet due to some errors that
occur everytime I tried to move my character model.
It was a real pain in the a**.

Often times, the character model gets stuck just a few pixels below ground everytime I want to edit the camera slightly. Fixing it was easy but because it happen frequently, it can be a headache.

Here is the character model,using Seth Ward's "Sleek Toon Bot" asset.
It's a decent model suitable for any use.
Animating it isn't too hard to understand once you get the gist of it.

I had to remove the original animations that came with the model so I can make my own simpler animations. Eg. the right arm with the weapon needs to be up at all times during all the animations. 

Besides all that I hope you find this useful (to whatever degree...).
Good luck on your prototype.

Have a nice day!

Prototype part 1

Prototype part 1

As of now I can't get much done on Unity because there are many elements and assets that I can't import due to it needing to be paid or not usable in the current version of Unity.

Since bouncing the projectile could be a mechanic,
the environment should also cater to this mechanic.

So far this is what the first tutorial map should look like.
Simple layout and colours  which gets the job done.

Here's the ditch in the middle, to act as a kill pit if players tries to rush and jump
across to the other side.

The map has one high ground on each side and all flat terrain everywhere else. Besides the ditch in the middle, this map is very simple and needs to be very simple.
This map is to act as the very first map that the players sees and act as a practice map to understand the movement and mechanics of the game.


The issue I'm currently having is the fact that this map was made using nothing but 3D cubes. I want to know how to make a custom brush to use on the terrain so the process of making maps is lot less tedious.

Also I need to know how to make my own character models (simple ones, of course) so they can be used as character assets in Unity. The third-person model in Unity was wonky to use at best and I couldn't get it to work properly.

Right now, a third-person model (with first-person view), custom brush in Unity to use on terrain and maybe making my own character models is top priority so far. Implementing custom character models into the third-person mode while using first-person from the player perspective.

Not much progress now but I hope you're doing better!
Have a nice day!

(P.S. Hope the x-large images are very visible because there are a lot of details. Sorry if the blog layout looks funny.)