As one of our first real work periods, we've had one of our very first problems. This being the camera, with the menu and controls in place all we need to finish them up is a camera that can rotate around the player. This being how the player knew how levels were set up and how to tackle them with all their tools at their disposal. But guess what, our camera rotates around it's own axis, so the player can't properly move while looking around. We wanted to make the camera make more sense so we looked to a decision together. What we got is not much, tutorials and different unity scripts did not help at all. It wasn't until last Thursday that we thought of making the whole level rotate around the player and camera, which actually worked, with a catch. It needed to adjust to the player, which is what our residential programmer, Judah Free, is working on right now, just another day in game development. Next up is pretty much the last blog post of my high school career, see you guys in college.
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The last assignment we had to do was to make a game. A short simple platforming game that was actually really open ended, as long as it was textured and playable then it's all good. We didn't even have to submit the code and game, we just needed a video so no weird coding errors (everyone starting out has them) can be actively looked for. Sounds like a fun project, and it actually really was, considering I thought I'd never actually finish it. For one, the open ended part was really important, as long as our objects were textured, we can move, and we can jump on platforms, it's all right. So the best way I could think up an idea was, oddly enough, just looking through the Unity Asset Store had a lot of finds (for free). The one that really made me want to make a moon gravity game was a Planetary Walker script, it basically made the player stick to planets Mario Galaxy style. The second was a model for this small astronaut, he/she was short so it was easy to platform with, along with the fact he came with a walk animation meant all I needed to do was add a walk/jump script and two levels at that point. The funny thing was that I did all of this in one day, I wasted my time talking to Judah for the first week. But I actually really do enjoy this project because it really does feel like I made something, albeit pretty small and doesn't work half the time. whoooooa
As mentioned before, we have a new team to develop our new game. Now we have our groups and assigned roles, we can start learning all about them.
The past couple of weeks we've been putting together pieces of work to showcase our abilities and research to explain our role in the team (all of which is featured on my selected works). We organize into roles so we can best make the use of our time in one thing, and so one other person knows what to do in a certain part. This is done to make sure we all run smoothly to make our parts come together as one. So in order to show what I mean, I'll showcase my Producer role in my team. Judah - Modeler Our main man when it comes to the putting together the characters and environments. Along with talking to the programmer and artist on what everything will be like. Andy - other programmer Andy, who works together with Judah the most, is the one who actually puts all of our work together, in the form of anything script related. Jaiden - Residential artist Her main goal is to give all of us a sense of what it should look like. kidna like a preview to what the game is, that the rest of us bring to life. Moi - Producer My job is to keep the game concept the game concept, tell people what to make or what not to make, for the good of the game's original vision. This will require a lot of interaction with everybody's roles. That's our group, everyone does what there assigned, they tell others when they want something specific to be done, and I consult them throughout (or shut down ideas that don't conform to the story). Next year we are taking AGAD and I am very excited for what we will be doing group oriented work and bigger projects. All the skills we have learned over the years, with 3D software, digital editing, and coding all come really come together this year. Even despite the quarantine, virtual communication will be how we manage and check up on each other (if we check up on each other since we're still not in school). Along with the fact we have made video game concepts during the past school year. We are all set to make our very own games, for real this time. I feel that we can all come together because of how close we are, we were selected from the only people that bothered to continue with this CTE pathway. We're all doing what we usually do in therms of teamwork, we just have to put more in as we finally help each other out and communicate in a big group project. This year's group focus is what will be our strength for succeeding for this year, as we are close friends and are willing to work together. AGAD will be full of a bunch of like minded people that aspire for game design
Here's to Another Year “Digital Arts Classes.” MR. BOURGEOIS - DIGITAL ARTS: GAME DESIGN, DSA, mrbourgeois.weebly.com/digital-arts-classes.html.
In the past week I have learned that the various ideas and concepts I've made don't seem right after a while, and that they need a new makeover. The previous game concept I've made seemed a bit overbearing to make in completely 2D, so what's the best thing to do? Draw inspiration to make a similar and more grounded (literally) system. After doing a lot of research, putting off work and playing video games, the one change that speaks to me is making the game into a beat em up. Mostly inspired by River City Ransom and it's spinoffs, an open ended metroidvania beat em up seems the most logical, since it keeps the fighting elements and distinct characters, along with making a simple ground combo based system to keep the game entertaining. Even changing the design can have a big impact, which is helped by feedback from close friends (who have the same interest so they know what they are talking about). Many types of media go through different phases, from books to movies and especially video games. Many of them are made to simplify a system, appeal to different people, or just because what the team saw in their product just seemed better off being different, changes are what can make it much better. It sounds like a weird Frankenstein monster but that's what all games and art styles go through to become interesting. If you don't think whatever you've made feels right, change it!
In progress Redesign Nishiyama, Christine. “Artistic Style Isn't Static-It's Evolving.” Might Could Studios, 24 Apr. 2020, might-could.com/essays/your-artistic-style-should-be-evolving/.
ChristopherKerry. “4 Steps to Your Own Signature Art Style.” Copic Marker Tutorials, 7 Jan. 2017, copicmarkertutorials.com/how-to-find-your-own-personal-drawing-style/. After actually making the game in Unity, a lot of changes had to be made to better suit what can be done without headaches. A lot of ideas, like the aerial attacks and a lot of aggressive enemy attacks, are too hard to implement in a tiny space. Especially with pitfalls around a small building roof. So, the is not as complex as originally planned, which is most likely for the best as it makes it easier to explain how to play, and can be put into more situations with out feeling weird. But, it also allows me to put in different types of interactions, dialogue is easy enough to implement into anywhere, before fights or just in specific spots, it adds a whole new layer at the cost of designing a text box, some new portraits, along with writing dialogue, but it will be worth it in the end.
That's the changes and realism that I had talked about in the last blog post, with some better or worse, even the basic components are a little different, with the speed a bit slower overall, and wall jumps being stationary acts (especially since it's the only way to really go to another level it needs to give players some time to do that. Wow, I didn't even think about how death would happen. Guess I have to make that too. For the last project of the year, we have to make our own game idea, our own prototype, and our own assets and coding. Seems like the catharsis of the entire course, but having big dreams does come at the price of being realistic. Why do realistic matter? If you were to make a deep combat system with multiple damage types and scaling, that would be difficult enough to plan, but implementing is an even harder job when actually assembling the game. This is usually where many parts of the GDD are revised. Not really during, since a couple good ideas will come just by playing it out in your head. But making them real is where stripping down specific elements comes into play. Aren't you supposed to make your game as complex as possible? Well, I would love it to be but I need a finished prototype, not a fancy one. I can just work on it over the summer if I really did like it. A good example is the transform weapons, I couldn't make twice as much of a move set if I wanted to. So, just making two types of attacks, and only one real type of aerial and ground attack, would make it consistently fun and manageable-ish as possible. Really simple yet enjoyable, that's how a small game should be. I've adopted this idea from different indie games that take a similar approach, particularly Momodora and Luna Nights, both of which are metroid-vania games that take an exploration and combat gameplay style. Inspiration is a good idea for people making their first game, then branch out into different types of ideas their own. So, video games are best done as bite-sized and enjoyable as possible, while having different types of inspiration as possible, to make an impression for your first game. A small look into Machine Girl, taking place before going out and delivering groceries in the Cafe. A simple objective in a simple place, perfect for a game demo. After a whole week of just UNITY CODING, I feel like Unity is actually really useful in terms of game design. At first, Unity coding was basically 3DS Max. Then after a bit of practice throughout the units, it's really easy to see how coding really affects game development. With spawning and destroying, to scores and controls, when used right unity can actually make some cool things happen. With 3D and 2D game development being quite integrated, it's a good start to actually making a game of any type.
So that's the retrospect, now I want to talk about game development in this space. I think it will be integral. Since our next unit is going to be making our own game project (I already posted what I have to the portfolio archives), a 2D game can use all of the elements in the first coding units. I already have a head start next quarter, so all I have to do is make an even worse exercise game in the meantime, hoof. So spending time indoors due to our current situation gives you a lot of time to not do graded schoolwork. But, also a lot of time to not only play different games I never bothered to play and take a crack at, specifically ones my friends always told me to play but never got around to. This is (an excuse for) valuable information to someone that takes game design and understands flow and mechanics in video games.
A good example would be GTA: San Andreas, loaned to me by my older cousin on PS2. A perfect example of an homage to 90s gangsta era films (which is the theme for this game in the series), and is what many would say is the best Grand Theft Auto game in the series. The strongest part of the game is it's simple objective, which has always been the same from the first game (as it says in the original GDD for the game), to steal cars. But with so much other objectives to do like different missions to do from different people, different abilities to train and improve your character, and the resources like guns and money being limited enough to matter but not hinder progress. It's is a stellar example on how to make an open-world sandbox game with character. But there's also other types of games, from tabletop games to ACTUAL sports, there are so many other examples to take from. Sports especially, ever since my dad made me play him in basketball, it is easier to really see the intricacies in rules and expectations, like how you must dribble in order to move, keeping the flow of the game since you need your arms at all times, and so people could steal the ball from you at anytime. having many roots that also connect to game design. Which comes back to the title, when you have an activity that is just so you can challenge something, 9/10 times you can apply game design principles to whatever you are doing. 7For the past couple weeks, we have been finalizing our game for play. The long awaited step to making a game, or making an example of our gaming making potential. Which also means it's the one step that is not fully decided by us, but by people around us. This means that this is the first time we find out if our rules make sense with no explanation. This is the most difficult part to fully explain to people, as we made different mechanics that suited more to a video game, not a board game. This made it hard to really execute any game play, which I don't want to admit in the post-mortem, but we never had enough time or resources to remake certain parts, or make more than we realized. This is were we could've added a grid to the board and decide with how many moves we can make through what setting you had for the character. There could've been more pieces, especially for the boss and companion characters, but due to experimentation and unknowns as to whether we would use these pieces or not prevented us from making more, also I don't want Mr. B filling his schedule for pieces. We never had a way to show how much health was taken, given, or overall shown, it was just a number you felt. So may factors were made without explanation to ourselves for the most part. Not a good base for our game. Which would've meant, back to the drawing board, literally. If we were making a real game then this would've been the first draft, we work rework the whole combat system altogether, along with more use of the die in movement and a grid. The style we used was not what we planned for at all, since most of it was place holders, along with making multiple boards for different levels, along with different pieces, characters/cards, and different items. Not to mention the feedback we got for what we thought were good ideas, like the pieces (apparently one of them broke), the visuals which some saw and some didn't, and *sniff* the tiny weapons being unnecessary. But, that's the way of game design, people not liking it is good, since we know what is better, way better than having a good idea that means mediocre enjoyment. Our overall survey results, many were negative
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JamesHe aspires to be a game designer, let's just hope he gets there. He also happens to goes to DSA. Categories
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