"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!!!.

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..