Game Vision Statement

 "Game Vision Statement"

"Run Quest" is a first person running and obstacle dodging game for the PC and all mobile devices including IOS and Android. The players take the role of a hiker as he makes his way through different environments that all have different obstacles for the hiker to prove his ability and boost points to level up within the game. There is no end game, you level up play by play by achieving the necessary points attainable in that level.

Run Quest has taken inspiration from other games with a similar theme and game play. Temple Run and Subway Surfer and two games that fall in the same genre of Run Quest. Both "Temple Run" and "Subway Surfer" are 3D endless running video games. Another genre you could put these games in as, is platform games, what the "platform" in platform games means is that, it involves jumping between platforms or over obstacle, and the player controls the running and jumping with the goal to avoid their character from tripping or falling in the process. A platform game can also be known as a "jump "n" run". These types of games do extremely well especially on mobile gaming platforms where this type of game seems to be more fun to play on small screens as it enhances the gameplay experience and game quality of trying to fill a big screen with random design to fill up space. The market needs a game similar to the games listed above as the mobile games store is lacking diversity, so it's a perfect time in invest and develop a game like this right now in time, it would be a lose to not go ahead with this game as a new no new trends seem to have the growth and popularity as platform games right now. 

Gameplay:

Run Quest is a single player game where the player is avoiding the computer and the tasks its put in the players way. The player can choose from three different environments to start running in which all have different obstacles related to the theme chosen. When the character is running the player can use the arrow keys to go from left to right and up and down. To gain points the player can run through objects along the track that are also related to the location of the character. How the character look and move around the game environment will be basic there will not be a wide range of characters to choose from because it's not necessary and for my level of coding it does not seem attainable to complete within the short time period I have to finish the development of the game before gameplay is possible. Similar platform games have a variety of maps or locations to choose from, for me two to three is attainable. Although the design of the game alters the gameplay the majority of timi will be spent of the development of the game functions, moving, use of arrow keys etc.

Resources:

The resources required for the development of this game are very minimal, as this game is going to designed for function, not aesthetics. The only equipment needed for the game development process is my laptop, the HP Envy 360 13inch and the Unity gaming engine. "Unity" is a cross platform game engine founded in 2005, it has a great record for being a useful and effective program for game development. The other recourses needed for this game to be made are all free, them being my time, energy and effort. Those three combined will be the backbone of this project, along with a little bit of coding. If the national situation changes due to the pandemic and there is an easing of restrictions a great resource for the completion of this project would be the ability to go to the college campus and work with more experienced coders from other years and also lectures who have field experience and gain ideas and bounce things back and forward from one-an-other. 

Additional Links/Resources:

Below I'm going to leave links to different articles and websites that have helped me write and prepare for typing my vision document and that I think can be useful for everybody, hope these websites make this work easier and more understandable, when you understand why you need to create a vision document, writing it out will be a piece of cake. These can be applied to all aspects of creative genres such as music, art, graphic design and video, these principles can be applied as life tools to make projects more achievable. 

Link 1 is from gamescrye.com:   https://gamescrye.com/blog/why-your-game-needs-a-vision-statement/

Link 2 is from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/10/08/five-reasons-why-you-need-a-personal-vision-statement-and-how-to-write-one/

Link three is from juegostudios: https://www.juegostudio.com/blog/need-precise-game-design-document

Image Source: pxfuel

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and it helped you in some way, shape or form, from writing this blog post I've learned more about the game development process, so I hope you learned something new from reading it too!!!.

Unity Tutorial 03

 "Unity Tutorial 3"

For this weeks unity tutorials we had three different programs to complete, basic gameplay, food flight and the random animal stampede. Each exercise took me around one hour to complete. Most of the time I don't enjoy doing the tasks each week, when I'm doing them!!! When I finish them however, I get a sense of achievement when there all complete. Each week I procrastinate for hours before, during and after doing the weekly unity tutorials.

I enjoy the tutorials when there going well, like most things you feel good when things are working as there intended to, when I encounter a problem I just have to rewind the video and watch it back very carefully to see if I made a mistake or not, or to check if some tools on the program in the tutorial are not in the program on my laptop, maybe it could be an updated or outdated version. Most of the time I've just missed something or forgot to add a bracket or coma at the end.

Image Source: Ctrl Blog

Overall I haven't found the unity tutorials very difficult, they just seem to drag out and take a long time and it can get repetitive after a while. What I found difficult about this weeks tutorials was just the work in the Microsoft Visual Studio, the coding just takes massive mental concentration. 

 

Games MDA

 "Games MDA"

Each week I prepare myself for more reading, when that time comes around I tell myself I'm prepared, but I'm not, this is mainly because what I'm reading is new to me. Game design and development gets more in-depth each week, as I start to wrap my head around what we researched last week, my brain gets left hooked with more in-depth information about the next stage of developing a game. This week we had to read about "Games MDA", which stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. The two articles to read were both very long, so getting through them both took me a while, I find it hard to concentrate.

Both articles went very in depth into what Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics meant. One of the biggest things that was repeated through both articles and the provided YouTube video on the "cdmonline" site was that no of them work without the other, they all need each other to function, if not it's back to the drawing board and you will have to start from scratch. The video explained it very well, other than the mans voice was a bit hard to understand. He said that the mechanics will directly effect the games dynamic, which will in had play a part in the games aesthetic. In the video he made a point about horror games that sums up the whole message of the MDA frame. He said if the horror game is not scary enough, you can't directly create scariness by changing how the player feels during game play, you have to go back to the basis of the game and re-think how the mechanics are interlocked together with the dynamics and how that translates to the aesthetics, which will in had change how the player feels.

From the reading and watching this week, it made me start thinking about how I want the player to feel during game play because then I will now how to design the mechanics and dynamics to how the game should make you feel, which was a completely different approach to the one I was planning on taking, I was just going to jump straight in to how it worked without thinking about other factors and how they would effect the final product.   

Image Source: Gamasutra

I'm going to leave three links to websites that can help you understand the games MDA frame work, and just links that I find informative for the topic we are doing currently.

Link 1: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LuizClaudioSilveiraDuarte/20150203/233487/Revisiting_the_MDA_framework.php

Link 2: https://medium.com/swlh/applying-the-mda-framework-for-video-game-design-to-productivity-8329115ce30f

Links 3: https://gamedevelopertips.com/mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics-game-design-theory-behind-games/

Feedback Strategies

 "Feedback Strategies"

I like writing about feedback because it falls under the umbrella of mindsets and motivation, both two topics I'm heavily interested in. The two articles I ended up reading were the "Be a Mirror" and the "How To Give Feedback Without Sounding Like A Jerk" article, both I found very informative and I agree with all the methods that they say are good for developing growth mindsets, and in a nutshell not sugarcoating things that may be hurtful which I do a lot and the person on the other side isn't normally happy because they just want to be praised.

I found the " Be a Mirror" article very informative, the writer listed very easy things you can do that can have both extremely positive and negative effects of kids mindsets and self esteem. Simple things such as saying" You looked at the cover and title", instead of just saying "You Predicted", these small things can be  deciding factor to whether or not these kids develop a growth or fixed mindset.

I related a lot to the second article I read because situations described in the article happen in my daily life. I'm very open to criticism, mostly if it's delivered in a beneficial way, just as explained in the article, the delivery plays a big part on how the recipient will move forward with the feedback. Some people I know get offended when they are told they do have the time to get that done or "go to the gym" but they are just procrastinating with themselves and they know it, that's when people get offended, when they know their in the wrong, but they don't want someone else reminding them.

In the article he describes delivering feedback like a sandwich, bread on the top and bottom, that being the sugarcoating positives and the filling, the lettuce, tomatoes and meat being the nitty gritty, not negative, or positive but realistic necessary truth, that will benefit that person in the long-term.

I think feedback is necessary, if you aren't told the truth about what you need to fix to make the product or yourself a better version than it was before. Another reason honest feedback is important, especially from a young age is if a kid hasn't been told they need to work harder or try again, when their older and there told "that's not right", or "work harder", they'll take that as an insult and get mad or worse give up.

Image Source: Flickr

Game Idea Research

 "Game Idea Research"

The game idea I have chosen to focus on for the next couple of weeks is "game idea 3", my third game idea is based on sports, I have decided to focus on specifically running. In my previous blog post I gave examples of three games that have inspired to make running the theme of my game, those games are Temple Run 1 & 2, and Subway Surfer, both these games are "running" games, and they both have similar game goals and objectives depending on your level in the game.

For this weeks task we were told to examine three different game mechanics that we could use in our game, before this week I had no idea how game mechanics effecting a game, I had no idea until about an hour ago!!!, but I do now. Both games have similar game mechanics, this makes sense as both games follow a certain theme and objective. One game mechanic they both have is the mobile mechanics of both games, the fact they are both mobile games means they would work differently to tabletop and video games. The mobile mechanics are what make both the games very interactive. When playing you can tilt you phone from side to side to avoid obstacles and gain points in the form of coins or spray paint cans.

From what I've read online, the interaction ability of the game mechanics, is what determines the level of player interaction. A gaming mechanic that appears in both games is "game performance", meaning your character has the ability to power up, and change the player ability.

I found it hard to really get three types of game mechanics, mainly specifics of each and what they are, I found a website, which has made it more clear as to what kind of interaction I have will influence how the game works, it split it into four, Socializers, interacting with players, Explorers, interacting with the game world, Achievers, Acting on the games world and Killers, acting on other players. This made it more clear as to what will influence my game mechanics. 

Image Source: Flickr

The links to where I found helpful information are going to be listed down below, thanks for reading.

Link 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics#:~:text=Game%20mechanics%20are%20%22systems%20of,player%20and%20the%20game...&text=In%20other%20words%3A%20what%20happens,the%20player's%20moves%20or%20actions%22.

Link 2: https://uxdesign.cc/designing-your-game-mechanics-based-on-player-types-b16a95fb7f60

Link 3: https://trianglejump.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/game-mechanics-of-temple-run/

 

Unity Tutorial 02

 Unity Tutorial 02

This week for the game development task, we moved on from our first unity tutorial to the second. Instead of driving cars around boxes on the road, we started on Challenge 1, being plane programming. This weeks task was set up completely different to the first one. Instead of just watching step-by-step video tutorials and following along, this weeks task explained what was wrong with the game, and what needed to be fixed and we were left to figure out how to solve the problem, without following along a video tutorial for guidance. When I first say that's what we were to do, I was very concerned whether or not I'd be able to complete this weeks task, at all!!!.

Image Source: Ctrl blog

I watched the start video on the unity site and went over the tips as they said to in the provided video, with the website tips alone I couldn't figure out where to start, so, I took to the internet to help. I skimmed through google and found a video tutorial on YouTube going through the whole process from start to finish. In the video he started on the unity website, then moved into the unity game design program. Most of this weeks task took place in the Microsoft visual studio, where we just had to change and edit the code to make changes in the game.

 

Learning About Game Elements

 "Game Elements"

Prior to this weeks reading, after completing last weeks research on gaming I knew how complex and time consuming building a game was, however after reading this weeks reading it broke down all the elements of designing and developing game into even more sub-sections, that makes you aware of the time that is to be dedicated for the early stages of game development. The first section of the allocated reading broke down the sections very well to understand what each stage in the process of developing a game is.

From the reading I've learned that the qualities of the game are what make the game what is is. I learned that creating the players isn't as simple as just coming up with names, then straight to design, no, it's choosing is it a multi player game, single player, multiple players against the system or free-for-all, which send the developers down multiple avenues to decide how the game will be played which can be extremely, which can make or break a game, being if it's best suited for single player ore multi-player mode. Then things such as the games goals have to be decided, which can change depending on the player scheme. Then you have to discuss the games theme, the state of the game, being all the data recorded during certain game play, sequencing, player interaction, and resource management.

Image Source: Flickr

After going through some of the reading, I came to a section on "critical analysis", before reading this section when I heard critical and analysis I shied away from them because, commonly that means paying attention to the faults or mistakes made in an almost finished or finished projects or task. From this reading in the world of game design and development I learned that's not all it seems to be. It's not looking at the game and saying that's all wrong, it's an unbiased over look at the product, in this context, that being the game.

I've learned before I start trying to jump in and design some basic game layouts and elements is to take my ideas and thoughts for my game to paper prior to my laptop, which before I would have laughed at.

In a provided video two game developer said that bringing the idea to paper is just one of many steps, they then start to use real life objects and activities to gain inspiration for how they want there game to be played and how the layout can be interchangeable. All these task surprised me and took away a fear of the beginning steps of the game development process. 

Below I'm providing some helpful and informative links that relate to the processes that I've written about in the above blog post, which I hope you viewers fins somewhat helpful.

1. "The Game Development Process" 

 https://www.cgspectrum.com/blog/game-development-process

2. "Essential Stages of Mobile Game Development"

  https://medium.com/@vivekshah.P/8-essential-stages-of-mobile-game-development-9c0d3399357f

3. "Pre-Production" By Juego Studies pre-production process:

  https://www.juegostudio.com/pre-production

     

"Feedback Thoughts, Hurtful but Necessary"

 "Feedback Thoughts"

The two articles that I decided to read from the list we were given are "A fixed mindset could be holding you back", and Neil Gaiman's speech on advice for the creative life, I also watched his speech he gave at the University of The Arts in 2012, just to understand more of what his thoughts, opinions and ideologies were. I really enjoyed reading the first article about mindset as it's something that I've had to work on in the past and I'm working on it a lot currently at this moment. I'm going to start of the post saying that I agree 100 percent with everything that's said in the article, and if you don't your in denial.  The current generation, being my own, the kids growing up online, in the digital age are a lot more fragile and easily offended than any other generation than before expecting to be praised and rewarded for the most simplistic tasks and if their not being praised, they're giving out or complaining. We live in a time where this generation of kids is one where each kid gets a trophy, the meaning of first, second and third is going out the window which is leaving kids with no hunger for competition which is leaving kids with little to no work ethic. So when they just take part they are rewarded, they expect things for nothing.

You can't grow or fix your mindset if you don't recover from failure or mistakes, which in this case isn't happening because of constant praise. If you don't develop a growth mindset you will struggle in all aspects more than others who do develop their mindset and are open to criticism. I think the article has everything correct down to a "T" 

Image Source: Pixabay

I really enjoyed reading the article on Neil's speech,  "Make Good Art, Advice on the Creative Life" it was nice that it was completely different to the first one I read. He made a point of saying no matter what challenge, or what's going wrong, always make art, being creative might be the answer on how we can deal with anything. The biggest thing I took away from reading was the emphasis he made on making mistakes. He's right the only way you are going to get better at anything is by making those mistakes , failing over and over until you get it right. If you not making any mistakes, your not learning, growing or getting better because your afraid to mess something up, and you can't advance in any field if you choose to move like that, it won't work. I love how he say's to make "glorious, amazing mistakes",. He is someone who has a growth mindset, even though he doesn't mention mindsets what he suggests let's us know what kind of mindset he has, he has a growth mindset, we know that from him saying "whatever it is your scared of doing, Do it!!", or "Make mistakes nobody has ever made before". Everything comes down to mindset, but sometimes even when your aware of this it's a hard thing to navigate.

For a longtime feedback was something I didn't look forward to, mainly because the only experience I've had with feedback was in school and 90 percent of the time it wasn't good because I found most things hard and it took a while for my brain to get up to speed. Even when you got the feedback it was more of a "what to do next time" session, not giving any help on how to improve next time. But feedback is hard, when you make something and you've spent hours making it right and you want an opinion but you only want to be told that its "amazing" or "crazy" you won't seek advice or criticism because you don't want the feeling of" oh, that's cool, but change that, or that doesn't work". Feedback can be scary but if you want to  grow and get better, in anything you have to be able to take it, in the long run it will be more beneficial for you.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, hope my thoughts on this topic was just a little helpful!!.

 

Brainstorming My First Game

"Brainstorming My First Game"

Before I start this blog and go into depth about each game idea, before I started brainstorming game ideas I was putting off starting to do this because I actually don't play any games at all, I haven't had a single game on my last two phones, there just not something  that interest me, that's why I was so eager to keep putting this off.

Game 1 Idea:

So, for game one I decided to make the process of making a game less stressful and more fun, that I base the game of a real hobby that interests me and I really enjoy. I thought about  what games and sports I could use to develop a game that would match the levels of game development I can reach over the course of the semester. So, I came up with using one of my favourite sports to make a game that I think could be easy compared to others. I chose basketball as the theme and idea to base the first game off because you can limit all the actions of the game down to three or four steps. I made a list of bullet points of how the game would be layed out and the basics of it would work. The layout would be based off the arcade game basketball hoop shooting contest, where the whole aim of the game is to get the ball in the hoop as many times as possible, before the timer runs down to zero on the clock. The game starts off by scoring as much points as possible within the time limit, after that the goal of the game becomes to beat the previous score from the last game you played. The game would have a timer, when the timer runs out the ball doesn't come back to you until you click" Play Again". It would work the same way the real arcade game does, you get one ball and when you miss the ball roles back then you continue to shoot, when the time runs out, the games done. The layout of the game would just be basic, the hoop, the ball, the score tracker, and a timer clock, I'd like to think this is a basic level of game development that can be reached over the semester.

Image Source: Pixabay

Game 2 Idea:

Going into the second game idea I decided to keep the same level of coding that I think is required for the first game for the second game so I wasn't shooting above my level game idea by game idea, getting ahead of myself. The layout of the game would be as basic as possible but contain as much detail as it could relative to my level of coding as time goes on. In my head the layout would consist of very little, as I don't really think the aesthetic of the game at our level would be the end all of the marking scheme. There would be a foot, to kick the football, the football itself, the field, from one side just being green and the football net where the objective of the game was just to get the ball into the net. I haven't looked into how difficult it would be to develop a person, as a goalie in a lot of depth, I'm going to assume that it's very difficult, if I'm wrong, you'll see a goalie in the game. The options and how the game would work would be very minimal. One key would give you the ability to move the foot, another to kick the football towards the football net. Another way that you would navigate the game is through direction selection keys, so using different letters on the keyboard to change the direction of where you want the football to go, the middle of the net, the corner, right or left side. The game would also go off a point system, just like the basketball game, the first game, you would set the high score, the game is then based on beating your previous games point, game after game. It would be a very basic game nothing crazy, right now something like kicking a ball into a net seem almost impossible form my experience with unity 3d.

Image Source: Flickr 

Game 3 Idea:

The third game is continuing with the theme of sports and hobbies that I find interesting that will make the whole process of creating my first game somewhat enjoyable to do considering all the time that's going to be put into the creative process. The only experience I've had with game development is the unity 3d tutorials that we have started to complete week by week as preparation for developing our very own game based on something we find interesting or based off games we like to play already. My third game idea is one that seems simple and easy to create as it's based entirely off running. There have been very successful mobile games based off running but are a lot more technical than what I plan on doing such as Temple Run 1 and 2 and Subway Surfer. My game would be similar to the first unity game tutorial where we place a car on a road and drive through the obstacles we put in it's way. My game would be a similar concept. It would be completely based off running and having different obstacles put in place depending on the chosen landscape I decide to go with as the theme of the game. The options I gave myself for the theme were sand, running track or grass as the basis of the game, which then would narrow down the list of different obstacles possible to be created for the game. I f the game was based on the beach, the obstacles the character would have to jump over would be rocks or small streams. If it was on grass, the obstacles would be fences, if around a car park or office, it would be a carboard or wooden box. Which is something we did in the first unity tutorial, put a number of boxes in the cars path.

Image Source: Flickr

Game 4 Idea:

Number four, and I'm already finding it hard to come up with ideas. I do think that for me the aim of the project is to make a game that aesthetically pleasing, it's to make something that's functional and looks, just okay, or better depending on how I advance over the next ten weeks. So, with that being said I've tried to brainstorm game ideas that I'm familiar with and have seen or played recently, which is the car game that was completed in Unity, very basic but functions as it's supposed to, which is what I'm aiming for as of right now. However that game was very basic, there are a lot of car games that follow a basic theme, which is four cars line up on the road or track, the timer runs down, then they drive around crazy maps, in customized cars. I'd like to follow the general theme of those are games  but obviously as time goes on, make changes as they come to me, so it's not a replica of another racing game. The game would start maybe just with one car, doing a straight lap of a track or also including obstacles and the objective of the game would be to maneuver the car around them, or maybe even park the car between the obstacles. To make the game for functional I wouldn't focus on making a crazy selection of cars, for example there would be one car in the game and one course, but there could be more than one task to complete on that one course, it's not crazy or impossible and is 100 percent possible to complete in the time frame, maybe even earlier so I could make the game more advanced after building a strong leg to stand on with a game that actually works how it's intended to.   

Image Source: Flickr

Thanks for reading my blog, hope you had a ok time, that's all good bye for now!!!.

Unity Tutorial 01:

 Unity Tutorial 1:

Woo!!! I just finished the first set of Unity tutorials we were given to do for week three of our multimedia tasks, completing these tutorials tuck me a very, very long time, it probably took me between six and seven hours to finish them all, I'm writing this at eleven fifteen, so it's actually been longer than that. But after finally finishing all that I actually feel pretty proud of myself for the determination to get the work over with. To kick off this blog post I have to say as of now, gaming design or game development, what ever it is, I'm not looking forward to doing it.

 

Even though this task took me a long time, I didn't hate all of it, the moments when I'd finish a lesson, or one of those videos that are way to long than they need to be, I felt a sense of completing cool and that wasn't easy to do.., for most people anyway. I enjoyed the end product, not the process, I think if your going to spend a lot of time doing something you have to enjoy the process, I resent the process of game design, quit frankly, I never want to do it again, but that's just not how college works, does it???. No, Aaron it's not.

I found the majority of the lessons difficult, but the fact the I found it hard made me want to complete it even more, even more than if my feelings were the complete opposite, if I loved it I wouldn't really care when I got the work done. But through out the whole time I was just thinking about all this being over. What I found difficult about the process was navigating my way through the editing suite, it was a new program for me, so that's just how it is, I could follow along with the code, but sometimes I was just getting tires and missed small things, but after little breaks, those were corrected.

What I'm looking forward to most about this part of the module is the day I submit it and never have to go near it again, I can't wait for that day, I can see it now and it looks class!!.

As usual thanks for reading, and coming back even though it says no one has read any of my latest and greatest blog posts, anyway here's the link to the photo I used so I get marks for the blog.

Peace, have a good one!.

What I Learned about Game Design

 Game Design:

First of all before reading the articles we were given to read this week, I've always had respect for game designers I wasn't blind to the fact that the job was not difficult, or was a person who say "Stop complaining, you only play on your computer all day". But after reading those articles and studies I have more respect for game designers than ever. What I got from "What is A Game Anyway" was that everyone has a different opinion on what's a game or what isn't, like the ongoing argument that dance isn't a sport, I never didn't say scrabble is a game, Grand Theft Auto is not. I think anything that makes you think or challenges you is some sort of game, or as it says in the article, " it' within a game".

 

After reading the study on the ideation of game creation, I realized that a lot of game designers have the same or not similar routines to other creatives such as actors, screenwriters and directors. However, most people wouldn't put the best game designer on the same level as an award winning director because they don't know the process. From reading how these people come up with ideas, like their brainstorming, just getting in the shower and hoping  for and idea or having brainstorming sessions make me want to see how I can text my creativity and see what ideas I can come up with, whether I'm just standing in the shower or just out for a walk. Also, it seems like a carrier that if you had a very creative and wild childhood, it would be an advantage to your work but would be great to always try and remember t he fun times you had a a child to build a career.

The last article was good in different ways as it gave you the tools to be creative and come up with ideas, rather then being told what others have done. Listing what you can do under each ideation strategy was good to read, explain  different methods to expand your mind to come up with something new is something you can do for any industry not just the gaming, or "new" industry. The Ramsey method was something I've never heard of but seems very interesting and I'd love to learn more about it, it's basically becoming obsessed with something until you realize something new or find links connecting it with something you've already known or something similar.

Thanks for reading, hope you liked me talk about something I don't know much about, until next time, Peace!!!, here's the link to the photo..