Jack Roche CDM

 Ladies and Gentlemen, I have indeed completed the Unity tutorials for reading week, it has become increasingly obvious sinking hours into following step-by-step guides is nice but when none of the knowledge sticks or we can't talk and develop ideas and things naturally like in a classroom, the knowledge is simply not retained.  That isn't to say I struggled with this weeks tasks, they simply took a long time and I am unsure of what I will remember for next weeks tasks, I am taking a shot in the dark and estimating they are 250 mins long, and we will learn how to use F to pay respects in them using Vector.GetComponent<myButt>. .... I am sorry, it is 3 in the morning an I am very tired, I simply wanted things to be out of the way for Halloween so I can be spoopy. I am going to bed now, goodnight whoever bothers to read these and/or Irene if I am unlucky enough that you pick this blog while we're in class in the future and now I will be told to redo this blog post cau...

 My Game Concept Idea: Game 4 (Name not decided yet) "Game 4" is a 3D third-person, stunt-car platformer for PC that is based on  the very first Unity tutorial we finished  and the success of other stunt car games such as Riff Racer, Hot Wheels Unleashed and the award winning Rocket |League. Introduction Game 4 will be a fun addicting platformer in which the game tasks the player with the goal of racing to the goal as fast as possible in a multitude of levels requiring precise jumps, fast driving and quick instinct-based decisions. Armed with abilities such as jumping, wall running, boosting and drifting, players will jump from platform to platform, planet to planet in hopes to memorise level structure and make it to the goal, signified by a finishing line, in as quick as time as possible. The game has no plot, instead playing more like an arcade-based experience, substituting time to complete values for points on the high score board, and on provoking an accomplished fe...

 This week we were tasked with creating a game in which it was a topdown perspective, we could move left and right with an invisible wall, there was an ability to throw food with spacebar and there was a randomly spawning set list of animals heading towards us. We learned a great deal in this weeks lesson, we learned how to move and clone objects, destroy objects, create rules or restrictions to players movement, give our player an ability, change camera perspective, instantiate property, etc, etc... It was a lot! I am not usually one good with memory but I am at least beginning to gain a comprehensive library of basic properties and tags now, for example transform, Translate, rotation, Vector3 and so forth, however it feels like just when I am beginning to internalise and remember an old property, 10 more are introduced in the process! It's safe to say I will be spending a portion of my reading week working on this and the ability to recall and understand unity. Pepe the frog Gif ...

  The types of games The MDA Framework From reading this text, watching the accompanying video and from my own additional research I have learned of the importance for gam developers to design games around the MDA framework. It has also been made abundantly clear that these mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics are decided on very early in a games ideation/ creation phases, as if something is requiring change later on down the line say in a triple A horror game, it takes a lot to go all the way back to the core mechanics and rework a game. Additional Research-  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDA_framework https://medium.com/@jenny_carroll/using-the-mda-framework-as-an-approach-to-game-design-9568569cb7d https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-4-dot-1-process-of-design-and-mda-framework These resources reminded me just how vital the first few steps of the MDA process are, to quote the third additional resource " Design is not just a matter of coming up with a “Great Idea” fo...

 I have researched from: http://marshallgoldsmith.com/articles/try-feedforward-instead-feedback/ and https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2015/12/08/be-a-mirror-give-readers-feedback-that-fosters-a-growth-mindset  and I have learned of the importance in ones interaction of giving feedback, or as these texts compel me to call it, feedforward. The way in which this text truly makes me thing is during the second text it is explicitly mentioned for teachers to stop using personal pronouns (I) when giving feedback to students as then it comes across as what we need to do in order to appease the adults and not actually gain feedback, this reminded me heavily of my secondary school English teacher who would constantly use the personal pronoun I whenever I wanted feedback and it very much felt this way. When giving feedback I feel it is very important to substitute words and thoughts that would usually disgruntle or negatively impact a person with ones feedback that can...

 It's funny, I am currently writing this post and I am trying to figure out as I go, which game idea I will go with as I actually cannot pick one. Does that mean these ideas are bad or bland? No! It means I want to do them all and I know I only have the choice of making one! A quick catch up Game 1- A 2D obstacle course clear game reminiscent of Geometry Dash where you must build enough momentum to catapult yourself right into the next level! Game 2- A comedically tuned horror game where you are stalked by a chicken, let the poultry frights begin! Game 3- A 2D platformer in which you play as a candle who can jump, run and light his way through levels of traditional platforming goodness with a twist. and Game 4- A 3D high-speed game in which you must race to the finish of a level, oh except you are a car, and the level is a series of floating platforms suspended in space. By picking through strengths and weaknesses, positives and negatives, and overall evaluation (I picked one at ra...

A screenshot of code In this weeks Unity tutorial I learned how simple it is to use code to create a vehicle you can control and make rotate as you control... which is what I would say if I didn't crash and burn trying to complete the plane challenge! Upon learning about the rotation and subsequent code techniques I was very interested in taking control of the little car, I increased speed and tested with rotation speed to make is easily controllable at a higher speed, I can make it to the end weaving around the obstacles now in an admirable time :) However upon being thrown into the plane challenge I have been made very aware I have a lot more to learn before I can progress to my next step in securing a substantial amount of knowledge. I am also finding it quite difficult and troublesome to retain said information as it all seems very random when I don't know the reasons for certain actions, I know the difference between some code such as transform and Transform, but why is t...

  A page from my sketchbook to do with Yoji Shinkawa, an art director for some of my favourite video games, most well known for the Metal Gear Solid series with legendary director Hideo Kojima, his artistic touch has always been a driving gaming element in all games he features his expertise in. I have read this weeks reading tasks focused on Game Elements and also focusing on what these elements are. The documents we have been given are broad and talk of "game design", research, art design, history of design, what design is, the templates of rules and mechanic and more however I feel the element most focused on during these documents as well as my class in this stage of the year is research therefore I will give my thoughts on this. The research made for a game is one of the most fundamental building blocks in a games creation, and if done correctly can be an element that makes or breaks a game, currently we are researching what kind of games we would like to design. both re...

 The two links I researched: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/44408/how-to-get-past-negativity-bias-and-hardwire-positive-experiences https://spencerauthor.com/seven-ways-to-crush-self-doubt/ While researching these links I felt I was becoming more aware of how the human brain perceives positive and negative experiences, while i don't believe myself to be a negative person I admit I can recall receiving constructive criticism once before back in first year and not knowing how to handle it, believing whatever it was I made to be simply not good enough. The brain fixates on negative experiences but I believe I have come a long way since first year, I have attended an Art Course and created multiple artefacts from last year that I poured my heart and soul into of which I asked feedback for and it was never all positive, that's not what you want, feedback is always going to be negative first but it's how you use this information that can improve mentality and also improve the art...

For this project I have been thinking of and taking note of games I came up with that are all original, not realising it would be a task to show these games off so soon, here are the games I have come up with. Project 1: For my very first idea I actually came up with it earlier this week while making a blog post about ideation and listening to music. It is a 2D Platformer in which the character is a slime/sludge Alien. The mechanics are you can jump, move left and right, upon jumping onto a flat surface you can stick to said surface and continue to move left or right or jump to a new surface, gravity is present, the main camera follows the player as is with platformers such as Sonic and Mario. The main draw point of the game is there is a momentum meter at the top, you are tasked with continuedly moving to reaching maximum velocity throughout the level. The level design compliments this, most enemies are easily dodged, obstacles are jumped over, platforms in the air can be used as runn...

  A screenshot of my first Unity project in progress I have just completed my first Unity task for this module and while it was very long and a bit tedious at times having to manage all the windows on my small laptop screen in order to receive information in an effective way, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I have more questions than answers, How do I take control of the car? Does the Unity UI not feel a bit cramped to others? What are some important tips and tricks I should know as a beginner? I actually have delved into some external research on that last question but I cannot wait to study and discover the answers to all these questions. As for the three tutorials I completed I found them all quite easy to understand and fascinating, the code itself is very different to coding I did in Web Development 1 and 2, however I am excited to learn it all off, however I am finding it a lot harder to memorise the important methods, tags, names and overall wording to be used in this c...

 Oh my lord I just read so many words, gimme a minute to reconcile with myself..... Ok. A game of Tic-Tac-Toe Link- https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/tic-tac-toe-products/ Links-  https://tudublin-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/shaun_ferns_tudublin_ie/EcSiRbHfhxtIpGcxOZ5VgesB7DX60CROzijV77hw7S7qtQ?e=g5pQGz https://tudublin-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/shaun_ferns_tudublin_ie/Ec8n4j4YSM1AqpVEAUlJgNkBfE2phZaI7xnPy7Wpi6mUvg?e=QRoyOI https://www.gamedev.net/tutorials/game-design/game-design-and-theory/four-basic-methods-for-generating-ideas-r4759/ Here I have included the links to the very first three texts of which I read in their entirety, while I skimmed through additional notes I believe these links to be the most beneficial. The core objectives of these texts where to make me consider and think more on the topics of what is game design, the terminology of game design, the process of the ideation phase, what ideation techniques are used in the world of game design and ...

  eg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"> Checklist Graphic Link: https://blog.planview.com/10-point-checklist-for-better-project-estimates/ Links to resources: The Important Habit of Just Starting- The Psychology of Checklists- When it comes to time management I have always used checklists for everything, in primary school, in secondary school and now in college, at one point I even wrote my morning routine on them! Imagine ticking off mentally "Got out of bed" every morning, strange. Well, anyways, the point im making is I have always elied on checklists to manage my time without really thinking of them, even mentally when I am making plans or I know I have things to do I would say the tasks are all a part of one list in my head that im ticking off. Sometimes when I am doing tasks simultaniously I'll break them down into percentages as well which makes me feel rewarded for the progress I may make one day, for examp...

 The technology landscape, I have such an admiration for people who know a great deal about technology and modern technological breakthroughs. The people testing out the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3900 Graphics Card in the gaming scene to the people creating their very own computers, it is all so deeply exciting and fun... Too bad I'm poor! GeForce RTX 3900 Graphics Card Link: https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/graphics-cards/30-series/rtx-3090/ But in all seriousness I have always been interested in the technology behind some of my favourite gaming devices and while I'm no wizard that can tell you my PC can run on 120 terraflops a nanosecond MB (thats a joke) I do still keep myself acquainted in technology, even in technology I probably shouldn't be in acquaintance with. For the technology tools I am expected to use throughout this module I can safely say, I do know how to use Blogger and Wordpress, save bookmarks in folders on my laptop and I am aware of the very basic construc...

 My thoughts on class assignments: This course is broken up into a lot of little pieces that add up to make a lot of learning and fun, I feel this will lend a great helping hand in the furthering of my education and while completing every task possible is optional I plan to complete this course 100% (Hopefully I didn't just jinx it), I plan to charge head first into these extra credits tasks at the end of the week starting week 3 and I also plan to be able to draw every tool and learn every technique I can to create the best possible final project that I can.  When it comes to  assignments I am most intrigued by, I cannot wait to make a video game in Unity, like physically cannot wait, its still jarring to think about (I didn't think game design was an assignment I would face this year! I thought that was saved up for third year or something.) I have LONG had a huge love and passion for Video Games ever since my very first game (Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles port fo...