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!