Unity Tutorial 05

In this continuation Unity Tutorial we learnt how to create a random spawn of animals in our game but this time we used code in order to help spawn the animals at random times without the player having to click the 'S' key on their keyboard as the game will do that automatically for us.

Next - the animals spawn perfectly and the player can fire projectiles at them, but nothing happens when the two collide, so this is where we learnt how to add colliders so that the projectiles and animals get destroyed on collision. Moving aside from using C#, we move onto Unity to add these colliders to the game. A problem I encountered while applying the box colliders was - when overriding the animals my moose did not have a button for 'Apply All' - yet the other two animals did.

Adding colliders to Animals and Game Object.

After adding the box colliders to the animals and the object (in my case - steak), the tutorial then went on to show us the code for this collision to work and when made contact the animal and steak would disappear from the gameplay.

Reading 5

Lock-and-Key Mechanisms.

The impact of progression mechanics on gaming has been shown to be popular although to make the game intriguing and playable you must make the game unpredictable. Research has shown us that unlocking mechanisms is the most popular type of progression mechanic. Lock-and-key mechanisms are more common in games than actual locks and keys (according to Joris Dormans; Ernest Adams), the lock-and-key mechanisms could be characterised as something else - such as a power up for the player, switches etc. When creating your game, because gameplay is created by mechanics, the creator must design lock and key mechanism that interact/are based upon the game's core mechanics. Using permanent abilities can create difficulty for the player, therefore you must be careful when creating a single key that is used for multiple locks as you could unintentionally create unwanted shortcuts. When designing the game, you must plan how you will display the locked areas clearly - this will help the player go in the direction you wish them to, rather than going in the direction they feel is right or may be shorter. A great way to plan your lock-and-key mechanisms is by using a Machinations Diagrams to represent it.

Figure 1.1 - Mechinations Diagram.

In Figure 1.1 example of a Mechinations Diagram, we are shown the bow and arrow in The Legend of Zelda combines a regular key (the bow) and a consumable skill key (the arrows) mechanism. The bow and arrow are used to open doors by using the bow to shoot the distant switches. Almost all the games and levels in the Legend of Zelda series are good examples of games of progression.

Unity Tutorial 04

We have now gone onto starting a new game tutorial. I have stuck with coding versus the VR tutorials and I must say that the coding is going well so far and I am somewhat enjoying it! Aside from my problems earlier on with the coding, now I don't mind it. We are now moving onto Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay.

Lesson 2.1 Player Positioning:

Starting this tutorial proved difficult as at the very beginning my game begun glitching. It wouldn't be the first time I've experienced problems with Unity on my Mac (if only my Mac could handle Unity...), but I went ahead and tried to complete the tutorial nonetheless. The tutorial worked fine aside from the problem of having my character go left then appear on the right - rather than keep in the bounds of the left!

Unity Tutorial 2.1

Lesson 2.2 Food fight:

In this tutorial, I made the Spacebar that launches a projectile prefab into the scene, which destroys itself when it leaves the game’s boundaries. I then coded so that when the animals leave the game boundaries they are removed from the scene. Because some of the script is Windows and some is Mac, this causes some minor errors in my game (hence the glitching).

Unity Tutorial 2.2

Lesson 2.3 Random Animal Stampede:

In this last tutorial, we added random spawning of animals in different directions when the player presses the S button. In an earlier tutorial we made the piece of steak launch when pressed. So now in the game the player is able to spawn animals and launch steak. We also learnt about camera perspective and the different types of view. In the second image we can see the orthographic perspective of the game. Depending on the game you are creating you can add this perspective. 

Unity Tutorial 2.3

Orthographic Perspective.

Reading 4

After finding a few online articles and sources about Progression Mechanics I was able to write up part one of my Matrix. As progression mechanics are quite straightforward there is not much I can write about. I have written up on my Matrix the sources and information I have collected so far.

My Matrix Part One.

Game progression is the ongoing procedures after the game's set-up, leading to a desired resolution. You can track progress with scores, levels, improved skills or abilities etc. There are many different ways to make a progression more engaging - character development, provide consistency, add a strategic component etc. 

My second topic is Tactical Manoeuvring Mechanics. Tactics are actions carefully planned to achieve a goal or subgoal. This goes hand-in-hand with game progression mechanics. Units are groups of elements under the player's control that lets them perform actions that influence the game world that they are playing. For gaming you need enemies, avatars and units hinder the players quest to complete their goals. To add an enemy you must consider: number, placement, abilities, tactics to overcome etc. Not only will you want to add enemies but you need bosses - a more powerful enemy for the player to overcome before they reach a certain goal in the game.

My Matrix Part Two.

Unity Tutorial 03

In this weeks Unity tutorial we learnt how to control the moving vehicle so that it will hit the road but then we gain control of the vehicle. We will program the vehicle so that when the player presses the up/down arrows, the vehicle will move forward and backward and when the player presses the left/right arrows, the vehicle will turn.

Because my code was unsuccessful the last tutorial it made it difficult to continue the coding in this tutorial as the vehicle was already meant to be moving forward, but in my game, that is a problem. Although I have my code as needed be, my game correctly set up as shown in the tutorials - there is still error but I am hoping to fix this.

Unwanted errors to be fixed.

After many attempts at trying to fix this code it did not work. I will, however, try to make a new project and hope to restart this tutorial in hopes that it will fix. But for now, my coding is not working as errors are there and my script is not working with my game. I then went and uninstalled Unity and installed the newest version.

By installing the new version I was able to start the tutorials again. This time my coding worked perfectly! I followed the previous tutorials and ended the tutorials with the exact game. I am very happy with my finished tutorial game and look forward to trying the next tutorials.

Game fixed and working perfectly!

Finished game.

Reading 3

I have come to learn that my learning style is passive reading. I used this method when doing my researching on my topics. When I started doing research it was difficult to find articles and sources that linked to my chosen topic, as quite a lot of it overlapped with the topics other students had chosen and not so much on my own chosen topic.

I had to learn about core mechanics to better understand the topic as a whole. I found a great article on the topic. In this article, on chapter 14 we are told all about the core mechanics of a video game.

What are the core mechanics? (Source)

I skimmed the article to help me better understand the core mechanics then followed with highlighting the keywords and paragraphs that would help me with my research for my own topic.

The three-pass method is then used to help extract the information that is relevant to you. If you are to read the article three times throughly you will be able to identify different questions and have more information at hand to help you with your research. 

You need to make sure to highlight and copy any quotations, while keeping the source, so that you are able to collect relevant information. This will help you in the future when you are writing your own article about the topic.

Unity Tutorial 02

Before beginning our first Unity tutorial for the new semester we were told to choose between two options to explore this semester.

1. Unity Design, Develop and Deploy for VR.
2. Unity Create with Code.

At first I thought of trying out Unity Design, Develop and Deploy for VR - however, for some unknown reason I was unable to get any of the tutorials working. I tried setting my Unity ready for VR but nothing worked. So I moved onto Unity Create with Code instead.

Lesson 1.1 Start your 3D Engines:

This was the first tutorial was to import a vehicle, obstacle and moving the main camera to the back of the vehicle. This was a simple tutorial and I had no problems with it (besides adjusting the camera properly).

Unity Tutorial 1.1

Lesson 1.2 Pedal to the Metal:

Midway during the tutorial my Unity decided to stop working. Not only did this happen once, but it happened three times. Yes, three times. Whilst working on the second tutorial (when my Unity was not crashing and allowed me to work that is), I came across quite a few problems whilst working with C# script. One problem I was able to fix however there is still a problem in the script which I am hoping to fix with the next tutorial.

Unity Tutorial 1.2

Lesson 1.3 High Speed Chase:

In this last tutorial, upon starting the tutorial I was already faced with issues once again with the C# script. I received quite a number of coding errors and my vehicle did not move (nor could I play a preview of my game because these issues needed to be fixed before I could play). This tutorial overall seemed far more difficult than I had expected. A part of me still wants to try do VR rather than coding. I hope I am able to figure out the issue with Unity so that I am able to try VR next Unity Tutorials.

Unity Tutorial 1.3

Reading 2: Semester 2

After a long break away from college we are finally back to college. This semester we are going to be working on not only designing a game but also we will be writing a book. After hearing that we're going to be writing a book I felt a little overwhelmed. I feel as though it will be challenging, but that's what college is all about.

This week we are preparing our research questions for the book.

The topics I have chosen from the outline for the proposed book are:

Progression Mechanics 

Tactical Manoeuvring Mechanics

 Both of these topics come are from Chapter 13: Core Mechanics.

Tactical Manoeuvring takes place in largely open or semi-open spaces. It is critical in most strategy games but also features in some role-playing and simulation games.

Progression Mechanisms is how a player can move through the game world. The progress of the player is restricted by a number of mechanisms that block or unlock access to certain areas in the game, for example levers and switches.

Both of these topics are necessary when designing a game, they are important topics to be educated about as they will provide guidelines in your game. Progression mechanisms are an important part to a game as they allow the player to experience new areas by completing certain tasks and/or quests.

The first step is to create a research question. Before creating my question, I have to create a Search Strategy.

1. Highlight keywords in your research question - the keywords in my question would be Progression and Manoeuvring Mechanics. 
2. Identify synonyms or other words that can be used to search for the same information:

Progression: development, advance, movement, growth, evolution.

Manoeuvring: navigate, pilot, plan, steer, manipulate, move, guide.

For my research I will need to look at open source books online as well as trying to find any relative books/articles in my University that will help me with my research. Before writing my question I did some research online about my topics - it was more difficult than expected to find information about my chosen topics but I hope that after doing more research I will be able to gather more information.

My current idea for my research question are:

"Why Tactical Manoeuvring Mechanics are critical in your game"

and

"How Progression Mechanics can unlock a whole new world in your game."

Example of Tactical Manoeuvring (Source)