All About Mimi

  Wikipedia Trials From Unity to VR For my first Wikipedia trial, I chose my starting point on what we are developing our games on;  Unity . I figured I should learn about the software that is necessary for me to create my game. Unity was announced and released in 2005 on the month of June at Apple Inc's worldwide developers' conference as a Mac OS X exclusive game engine. This cross-platform game engine was developed by Unity Technologies. The software's easy to use mechanics make it a great choice for beginner developers. A popular game developed by Unity is  Pokemon Go , which brings me to my next page.  Pokemon Go is a free play mobile game developed and published by Nintendo, Niantic and Pokemon. The game was made for Android and iOS devices. The aim of the game is to find Pokemon to capture and train them to battle against other players. By using GPS players can locate and capture Pokemon in real-world locations. This is called  Augmented reality . Augment...

Growth Mindset  This week I watched a TED Talk video on  The Habits of Original Thinkers , The talk was given by Adam Grant an organizational psychologist. Adam Grant explained three unexpected habits of originals.  This talk was very interesting. I liked the talkers delivery and his stage presence was engaging. I learned a few new things that I will take away with me. One thing I had previously known about was his statement on self-doubt. Being in a course where your own creativity is marked it defiantly is a breeding ground for self-doubt. I have had this conversation with some of my classmate's self-doubt is a paralysing mindset and can hinder your work if unchecked. What I didn't know was at the other end of the spectrum is Idea-doubt. Adam says that idea-doubt is energizing and motivates you to test and experiment. The key to changing your mindset from Self-doubt to Idea-doubt is to be content in the fact that the first few attempts will always be rough. This shift i...

Week 9 Reading and Writing Overall the reading I have been doing this semester has been really resourceful. I found it a very interactive way to learn about game development. It was a unique way to write notes, what I learned stuck because I had to write in my own words and opinion for the source material. I enjoyed the reading task more than others especially the Game MDA task. It was my introduction to the headspace and framework of a game developer. Hearing the intricacies of game development was interesting as I didn't think much thought of it before. The amount of detail and thought that goes into developing a game turned out to be way more than I had expected. The Game MDA really helped form a skeleton for my game. I used the three tools; Mechanics, Dynamics and aesthetics to really bring out the best game I could materialise. I have unfortunately fallen behind on some of my tasks which makes choosing my best accomplishments a little more difficult. Hopefully, I will use my r...

Comments and Feedback Throughout the semester I have been receiving useful comments from my peers. If it was not for the comments from my classmates I would not have been confident in my game design decision. I have stated before in my past blogs that I am not confident in game design nor am I a gamer. This made it difficult for me to even think of one game that would be interesting let alone four. Having classmates that are interested in gaming comment on my blog gave me the insight I needed for my game. I would give a high rating to the other students in my class. The types of comments I found most helpful were the comments for my first blog post idea generating. I was given the feedback to merge two ideas into one to give a more fleshed out idea and I really appreciated that.  I have been a little shy sending out feedback given my lack of expertise but have been commenting on other students introductions and feel I have been getting to know the other students better. Iknow see t...

Games MDA Games MDA This week we are talking about Game Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics framework. It is the most accepted game design. It was designed by Robin Et Al. MDA framework helps designers consider the players perspective as well as their own. This encourages experience-driven design. Aesthetic - "describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system". Aesthetics focus on what makes a game enjoyable in great detail. Through direct vocabulary eg. discovery, challenge, expression, a designer can understand what about their game is "fun". Dynamics - "describes the run-time behaviour of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each othersí outputs over time".Dynamics work to create an aesthetic experience eg. adding time pressure to a game creates the aesthetic experience 'Challenge'. Mechanics - describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algo...

  Game Idea Research For my game, I have chosen to focus on my firefly idea. As a recap, the firefly idea is a game where the aim of the game is to fill a map by exploring a dark location with only a fireflies light to illuminate your surroundings. Upon thinking on it further I have thought up some more ideas to develop on the game. The aim of the game is, as we know, to fill a map. I needed to know if that was possible for a beginner programmer. I have already found a mini-map to watch my motion. I found a video showing how to make a  map showing the location  here . I then researched how to make a firefly. Unfortunatly I could only find a video tutorial on  how to make multiple fireflies  not just one. I did however find  this video  onhow to make an immersive light which I hope will do the trick. video game spider With the game objective made all that was needed was an antagonist or some way to lose the game. since the area will be dark I was hoping...

 Unity Tutorial 2 With week two's tutorial, I can finally see the skills needed for me to create my very own game. I've made quite the improvement with last week's sample game. This week I learned how to move my vehicle left to right and forward and backwards. I enjoyed seeing the game come together nicely and had fun  playing with the car during the previews.   Keyboard arrow I had some issues with the code. I had misspelt forward and it took me some time to realise my error.  Other than that my tutorial went smooth. The last thing I had to do was organise my work, that was an easy enough task. During the task, I noticed how handy having notes in my code would be. I appreciate that feature a lot!  The tutorials are becoming easier to understand and follow. I use my phone to read the tutorial instead of switching from window to window. I find it easier to stay focused when I don't have to close and reopen my tab. I am feeling more confident with Unity the more I...

 Game elements L earning about game elements made me realise how complex a simple game can be .  Game elements are the components  that make up a game.  I learned that there is no set in stone description of what a game is. They came up with common themes when describing a game.  Some  of the themes would be, a set of rules, a goal, conflicts and decisions that lead to  an uncertain outcome.  Next, the blogger writes about 'atomic elements', a term I first heard today. They are named as such because when isolated they are the smallest parts of a game that can be studied individually. There is no exact definition for an atomic element but once you look at each element a theme starts to form. This helps game designers know what they need to build their very own game. Atomic Elements      Players         Resources Player     Interaction  Objectives      Game State...

Gamestorming This week was particularly difficult to complete. As I've said in other blog posts, I'm not that equated to games. So I had to do some research just to see what was possible with Unity .  This really helped with the brainstorming process, having an idea of what was possible gave me a clear view of what I might base my project on.  Idea One, My first idea is to create an escape room.  An escape room is basically a game where you try to escape a room or any space through clues. You usually have to complete a number of tasks to escape. I searched if that was possible through Unity and found this video on Youtube. I brainstormed some ideas such as basing my rooms in a shopping centre closed for the night. I feel that would give me flexibility with themes for the rooms. I could have a room in a fitness shop with sport themed tasks. I could then have a room in the canteen with food based tasks.  Idea two, My second idea would be more aesthetic focused. A g...