Game Feedback

Game Feedback

NAME THE BLOG POST: Your Game Name Feedback

ADD ARTWORK FROM GAME AT THE TOP OF THE POST – IT LOOKS COOL

INSERT LINK TO ITCH.IO PAGE HERE

DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s WORDS – WHEN YOU ARE DONE!

Summary

  • Write a brief description of your project
  • Include your logline
    • EXAMPLE: “SomeONE or THING fighting someONE or someTHING for SOMETHING.”
  • Include the goal(s) of your game (the win state)

Questions

  • Write two questions for the audience
  • What feedback do you want from the audience to help you improve your game-making skills?
  • You will post these questions to the Zoom chat before we play your game so people can focus their attention on your requested feedback when they play your game

Peer Feedback

  • Write the feedback you received from other students
  • After you receive feedback, add it to your post
  • Cite the student sources with only their first names
    • Citation with specific names is more professional

My Stretch Goal

Role – Character/things that move in the world programmer
SMART Goal – By the 26th, as part of my team, I will have completed research to make a functioning player and at least one AI with at least two different actions for this social distancing project.
Why – I want to achieve this because AI interest me, and I feel that by finding ways to get them to perform multiple actions I can better utilize them in future projects.
How – I will be looking at how to get AI to instantiate objects (allowing them to spawn in bullets, shields, etc. at any point in time), as well as how to get AI to pick an action at random.
When – I will be working on this for about 2-3 hours on Tuesdays and Fridays
Resources – Unity Manual (to look at instantiating and randomization), and Unity (Which I have installed)
Milestones – the main milestones are having a moving player, giving the player health, and one attack. For the AI, the milestones are to get it to move, perform one action, and for it to die.

Session 6 Production Project

SUMMARY

Role:

Level Design

Intention (SMART Goal)

by 3/12/20 as part of  the level designers, I will have completed AI & Randomization tutorials to be able to create AI that can do randomized actions for Project 6.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Dave Riller – one of the main level designers of Valve. He designed TF2, L4D2, and the half-life games. He worked on making Left 4 Dead look realistic and creepy.

Games should be fun to Navigate, note which parts of each level are observational, strategic, or navigational. Games shouldn’t focus on words. Give objectives to the player but don’t tell them how they should go about completing it. make sure the game is surprising and empowers the player.

Primary Source:

Secondary Source:

 

Notes:

Training Source(s)

https://mad-gfx.com/news/2018/7/15/10-principles-of-good-level-design

  • Levels needs to present the player with different vectors of gameplay (observational, strategic, or Navigational)
  •  Games should not rely on words
  • Provide clear objectives
  • don’t tell players how to complete the objectives
  • each level should showcase or highlight a game mechanic
  • take risks, and surprise your player. Otherwise the game gets boring
  • Allow players to influence the world and make choices
  • allow for both risks and rewards
  • experiment with hidden areas and visual cues
  • be aware of constraints
  • create emotion through mechanics (such as an AI that chases the player)
  • reuse and modify mechanics throughout different levels

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Random.html

  • lists all forms of randomization
  • most important form for what i’m working with is Range (as it will let me generate a random number which will perform an action)

Project Timeline

  1. Create GDD
  2. create flowchart of gameplay
  3. create all moving objects
  4. research tile map
  5. implement a tile map
  6. Research AI
  7. Research Randomization and generation
  8. Code AI
  9. set up action 1 for the AI
  10. set up action 2
  11. set up action 3
  12. Randomize actions
  13. ensure there is only one copy of each scene in the game
  14. Identify the rules of the game

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Session 5 Production Training

Summary

Role: Writer/Producer/Menus

Intention (SMART Goal)

During this session, I will learn how to use UI to cycle through pages (like a google slide). This goal will be measured by the number of training sources I find, and if I am able to create multiple slides. I am familiar with basic UI, and so this goal is definitely achievable. This goal is relevant for future cycles where credits menus will be required as opposed to a slideshow. The deadline for this is next Friday. This goal is realistic because although it may take some training and patience, it isn’t as complicated as things such as the self-learning AI that I was working on before production cycles began (Which basically was just cycling through letters until it learned words).

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Specific skills that leaders in Game Production need are: being able to be aware of what the team is working on, Producers need to be able to keep other members working and meet deadlines, and Producers need to be able to code and work on other jobs in case another member is unable to solve a problem with that job.

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ErnstTenBosch/20130912/200168/What_Makes_a_Good_Game_Producer_Part_1.php

Bosch talks about how producers need to be aware of what their team is working on because they are quite literally shepherding the developers throughout the project. Producers not only have to be aware of what is going on, but they need to be able to keep their team on task and get them to meet deadlines. Bosch also talks about how they need to be able to take over for other workers if needed or at least be able to find someone who can take over. This includes coding, art, and sound. This skill is important for keeping the development of the game on the schedule.

 

Training Source(s)

0:09 – Using prefabs can make the creation of a game easier by hand and is also easier to fine-tune.

0:35 – Making a procedural game can reduce the amount of customization you can put into its world and requires more coding than making a game from scratch.

1:01 – Updating a prefab will change all the objects that were copied from that prefab according to the updates made to the prefab.

1:09 – Clicking apply above a selected object’s settings will update all of the objects that are the same as that object.

2:11 – Two things that can make the creation of a game easier are the right view and the scene view.

2:24 – Clicking the cube on the view direction in the scene turns the perspective into isometric or flattens everything.

2:47 – You can add layers to the game scene by pressing layers in the upper right corner of the unity screen.

2:56 – By assigning an object to a specific layer and locking that layer, you can’t select it in the game screen anymore, making it easier to select other objects.

3:23 – You can select an object and go to edit and then snap settings to help control where you want an object to go instead of free-handing it, remember to use the control key to use the feature when moving objects.

3:39 – You can press command and d to duplicate the selected object you want.

 

Project Timeline

Step 1 – Create GDD
Step 2 – Choose fonts for game
Step 3 – Spell check menus
Step 4 – Unify all design elements
Step 5 – Research custom menu events
Step 6 – identify the dominant mode of interactivity
Step 7 – Provide proof of collab synchronization (Unity Collab)
Step 8 – Assist in the creation of credits menu (using fonts and design elements from previous steps)
Step 9 – Upload evidence of previous steps into menus
Step 10 – Add to GDD throughout the entire process (Daily step)

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

I was able to show some skills for my role, such as demonstrating effective communication and working with fonts.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

During the project I worked on coding dialogue boxes. This required some problem solving. During the project, I reused parts of a code I had previously written, but I was having problems with it, and needed to do more research into dialogue boxes to fix it.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

I communicated with my team effectively by checking the Unity Collab and asking members what they were working on.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I am able to effectively correct and check for mistakes in the media that my team creates. During the project I learned how to check fonts and make sure that all fonts in unity are the same, and that there are working animations in UI.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Overall, these skills will help me in my life and in my career. I will be able to communicate effectively with team members, and research problems I am having, as well as fix any errors in info or media that we produce.

Reactions to the Final Version

“Having the same font was helpful. Good evidence of organization. Maybe use a more interesting font. Fonts add a lot of Character to design” – Scott LeDuc

“Thumbs up” – Ethan

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I feel that although the prototype was ok, we definitely could have done better, and the project would have been easier had we had more time and more seats for Unity.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to better communicate effectively, and how to solve problems with code. During this project I reused old code from one of my previous projects, but it wasn’t working. I did some research and also had Sam double check my code, and the code was fixed pretty quickly.

Grammar and Spelling

I check my grammar and spelling with Grammarly, and get reviews from other members of my team.

World War Triangle/Square Production

Summary

Another production cycle was started, during which I was the UI coder. My goal for this session was to learn how to set up vertical and horizontal layouts.

21st Century Skills Demonstrated

I had to work heavily with problem-solving during this production cycle, as there were many difficulties with getting a proper functioning UI. I communicated effectively with my team by figuring out what type of font they wanted for the project and asking questions when needed. I used the Unity Manual to learn about vertical and horizontal layouts, and quickly fixed any problems I had with the code. This will help me in the future because now I know how UI functions and how to set one up.

The Game

Reactions to the Final Version

Drew said “It’s very good and simplistic. Please don’t consume my flesh.”

Evaluation of the Final Version

Our game was very simplistic, using basic shapes and easy to understand mechanics. The game has two stages, one in red, and one in blue.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

During this production cycle, I learned how to properly create UI. This included setting up vertical and horizontal layouts, and animating buttons. One problem I had was figuring out how vertical and horizontal layouts worked, but I quickly solved the problem by looking over the Unity manual.

The Undead Horde Production

Summary

Our team of four was given three weeks to make a playable game.

21st Century Skills

In my team, I demonstrated problem solving. I was the coder for my team, and had to fix a lot of problems with our code, including bullets not working. I had to communicate with my team effectively in order to figure out what codes needed to be made, and which ones were most important. I gained information through google and by asking Sam questions about my code and what I was doing wrong.

The Game

The game is a simple 2D top-down shooter. You use the mouse to shoot, and you move around with WASD.

Reactions to Final Version

We were told we had a good game, and presented well. Kenneth said our game went better than expected.

Evaluation to Final Version

Our game was simple, and straightforward, using only five buttons (WASD and left click). The game was concrete, and followed its own rules, not having any glitches or breaks in the realism.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to set up shooting to follow the mouse. There were many problems during this, but the most difficult one to deal with was getting the bullet to continue moving in the correct direction. I was able to get help from Sam, and he explained what was wrong with the code, and gave me an example to base my next try on. I was able to get the code to work during the end of production.

Alley Shootout Game Production

Summary

 

 

21st Century Skills Demonstrated

I was required to be in constant communication with my team in order to know what needed to be coded, what was being cut from production, and anything new I needed to implement. I demonstrated problem solving by efficiently fixing problems in my code, and researching similar problems. I had to research many different codes for the same code I was working on, in order to gather information for the game. I was able to stay on task and efficiently work on code throughout the entire project.

The Game

Alley Shootout is a basic one button shooting game. The player shoots at the enemy by clicking the left mouse button. If an enemy makes it to the other side of the alley, you lose health.

Reactions to the Final Version

I was told by the judges that I demonstrated good evidence of commenting my coding, as well as having a good overall product. The panel also commented the team on our professionalism during the presentation.

Evaluation of the Final Version

The final version is a very basic 8-bit game, however the simple mechanics and art style make it easy to understand and play, especially since it is a one button game.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to more efficiently comment in codes. This helped me during my problem with the enemy damage code, as based on my comments, the code was not at fault. This allowed me to fix the problem by adding rigid bodies to the enemies.

LinkedIn Recommendation

It’s rare that you find a coder as dedicated as Max. Max worked extremely well as one of our group’s main coders during the Game Competition. Max’s ability to spot coding errors not only helped with his own codes, but with the rest of our codes as well. No matter how frustrating a piece of code was, Max was able to persevere. Any team would be very lucky to have Max as a coder.