Alex's Updates

  In this week's Unity Tutorials, I can feel myself gaining more and more knowledge and now applying self corrections. I do not spend too long when there is an error in my code, I mainly know where the error is and where I went wrong. The more coding I do, the more I understand what I am applying to my coding instead of just following the tutorial. At the beginning of this module I did not think I would gain that much Knowledge and each week I am enjoying doing these tutorials.  In lesson 2.4 the game is coming along beautifully, but there were few things I needed to include before it was finished. Rather of pressing S to spawn the animal, I set a timer for the them to appear every few seconds. After that I add colliders to all our prefabs so that throwing a projectile into an animal will kill it. Finally, if any animals get past the player, they would display a "Game over" notice to the player. Overall, this lesson went smoothly for me and the code in these will be benef...

Flckr  After receiving feedback from my lecture this week, I have researched and dissected my ideas I have prompt for this modules project. As I got feedback from Irene, based on my four ideas, I have made an executive decision to go down the path of an endless 3D running game. I was thorn between a bike game that had the element of loops, but It seemed too far advance for this project. The aim of this project is to have easy and functional game. Another reason I sided with the endless 3d running game was I found many resources and videos tutorials aiding you through the creating the game.These endless 3D games have always been popular in the gaming industry and still to present day, they are easy to play and addictive. I can also have a range  of audience to target for this game.  As I stated in my last blog post I would love to set the game scene on top of buildings, as the player runs.  The user will be running on top of building going through obstacles it may fac...

                                             In this week of unity tutorials, I constructed a basic game of shooting pizzas and spawning three different animals on the game. While doing this tutorial I can feel myself gaining more knowledge and understanding unity and C#. I also found storing the projectile along with all of its scripts and properties really useful and important for moving forward.  Adding boundaries to the scene, will be crucial and also useful in my project, so I really loved how easy and simple embedding it. New Capabilities are the player can fire a projectile prefab by pressing the Spacebar. The destroy out of bounds is also something you can use in any game, and is probably the most useful aspect of this tutorial-Projectiles and animals are eliminated from the scene if they exit the screen. As the weeks progress and the more tutorials I have unde...

Source:  flickr I read about the aspects that make up gaming MDA in this week's reading mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. The first article I read was " MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research "   by Hunicke, R. LeBlanc, M. & Zubbk, R.  Designers/teams of developers create games, which are then consumed by gamers. They are purchased, used, and finally discarded.The distinction between games and other forms of entertainment is that game consumption is unpredictable.The MDA framework formalises game consumption by separating it into its several components:  Rules,  Systems and  Fun.  As well as developing design counterparts: Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. The premise that games are more like artefacts than media. When describing the aesthetic of a game we want to move away from "fun" and move towards directed vocabulary. It is far more instructive to think about the aesthetic aspects. Another article I rea...

  Source: Link The first article I read was "The Difference Between Praise and Feedback"  by Anya Kamenetz I personally like the method to channel and transmit your genuine feelings to your children without harming them in the long run? Surprisingly, despite their opposing viewpoints on praise, Dweck and Deci agree on the best course of action. I agree with Dweck views Her goal in discussing process praising is to divert this impulse in a more helpful direction. Her advice is to get more involved with what a child is doing rather than constantly kvelling over every finger painting or math test — or even just asking kids to "try hard!" “ Thank you very much. Pose inquiries. We can inquire about a child's fascinating methods if we notice them. Talk to them about how they think and how they might learn from their mistakes." In order to grow and progress, encourage your youngster to actively seek both positive and negative feedback. I personally feel Paying at...

    Lesson1.4 In lesson 1.4 tutorials, we must get on the road and take command of the automobile. To accomplish so, we must first detect when the player presses the arrow keys, then accelerate and turn the car in response to that input. You'll be able to move the vehicle forwards or backwards and turn left to right using new methods, Vectors, and variables. During this lesson I had great difficulties with unity, again my laptop a heart attack and got overwhelmed when I opened my game on unity. At first my vehicle was moving left and right when I used the arrow keys, but when I had to apply the code to rotate the vehicle and gain control to move the vehicle up and down unity would not co-operate with me. It took a long time to figure out the problem, I had help from my lecture to ensure my code was correct, in fact it was correct.   Challenge 1   In this challenge, we had to fly a jet past obstacles in the sky using the abilities you learned in the driving ...

      Source: Link In this lesson, I learnt how to build a critical vocabulary for talking about games. We need a way to dissect and analyse a game by discussing its various components. This will come in handy when discussing creating our own game. I read the abstract " What are the qualities of a game" There is motifs that keep coming up: games have rules, conflict, goals e.c.t... Games are activities that take place outside of everyday life and are artificial/safe. The definition of “game,” none of them are perfect, we can identify some emergent trends that can shed light on the kinds of things that we as game designers need to build if we are to make games. Some of the things game designers might consider when looking at these atoms, are listed below: ● Players ● Objectives   ● Rules ● Resources and Resource Management ● Game State ● Information ● Sequencing ● Player Interaction ● Theme (Narrative, Backstory, Setting) ● Games as Systems Another abstract...

 This was my first time ever using Cheezburger Meme. It was kinda fun browsing through their large collection of the adorable cats and dogs. It was so quick and easy creating a meme and I wanted to created a relatable meme. 

  Source: The Blue Diamond Gallery  Giving feedback is an important aspect of corporate communication. It is a two-way process in which you can either give it effectively or receive it constructively. In business, education, and business training, feedback is critical. Feedback is really useful information that will be used to make critical or minor decisions. Personally, I kinda dread receiving feedback because I initially think its personal, which I know it not and is only there to help you.  An article I read was " Why rejection hurts so much- and what to do about it"  .  The most common emotional trauma we experience in daily life is rejection. Why does rejection hurt? Our minds are programmed to react in this manner. In a study it found, when we are rejected, the same parts of our brain that are activated when we are in pain are activated. Unfortunately, the most serious consequences of rejection are frequently self-inflicted. We may feel disguste...

Source: Wikemedia Commons Game Ideas Based on my reading in task one, The knowledge I gained about gaming is goals. What is the user trying to achieve ? A goal offers focus, direction, and measurable outcomes. A goal is a technique of determining the effectiveness of a gaming engagement.  A game needs to be provide an enjoyable experience for the users.   One of the ideas I have brainstormed for my game idea is an interactive mobile game. The reason why I picked this game is because I mainly game on my mobile device. Nowadays, kids have grown up in the era of social networks and mobile apps. Children receiving information from books and tv are now in the past. Gaming on a mobile device has become so popular in the last decade, and it would be more accessible to users to play the game, rather than play on a console or laptop. I think gaming on mobile and tablets are much more easier for players especially children, as it doesn't not involve using a mouse or controller just...

   Source: Link When I first installed and opened Unity I was overwhelmed when I saw the project, inspector and hierarchy windows. I settled once I start watching the tutorials which were uncomplicated and explained how to navigate the software really good.    In fact, I enjoyed myself during this task creating a game. At first it took me at least 30 minuets to get my head around Unity and I was using Brackets for the coding aspect. I found using the move tool and rotate difficult, it was not co-operating with me and I found myself getting lost, as I was zooming too far in and zooming too far out. Finally I got into a flow of things, and was starting to enjoy it.  I found it entertaining and amusing adding obstacles and reposition them to the scene in lesson 1.1.  Also, positions the camera, which I played around for ages. I enjoyed increasing the mass on obstacles and on the car.  Below is the layout I customised in Unity. My layout is relatively...