Reading 8

The chapter I have chosen to write about is Chapter 13: Core Mechanics. Here is the table of content currently including the people who are co-writing the chapter with me.

Internal Economy	Ultan
Progression Mechanics	Ingrida
Tactical Manoeuvring Mechanics	Ingrida
Social Interaction Mechanics	Ultan
Core Mechanics and Gameplay	Pawel
Core Mechanics Design	Pawel

As our chapter is about Core Mechanics we will have to write an introduction that will incorporate all the chapters to let the reader know what the chapter is about, without overcomplicating it. Currently, I have this written for my part of the introduction.

In this chapter we will be looking at progression mechanics as well as tactical maneuvering mechanics. These are essential when designing your game and through this chapter you will learn why. By adding progression and tactical manoeuvring mechanics to your game it will help keep the player motivated and interested in the game.

When we are all finished writing our chapters we will add each others introductions to make it one introduction describing what we each will be writing about in more detail.

Next we need to add a conclusion. The conclusion will summaries each sub-topic briefly so the reader can easily remember what was talked about in detail above. When summarising, it's important to not write too much, it should be short and quick to refresh the readers mind.

My second chosen sub-topic on Tactical Manoeuvring Mechanics has been proven to be a challenge to find sources and articles that talk about it. I now have to visit the college library to find books about game design to find chapters about tactical manoeuvring as I have not been able to find little to none online. But, due to the coronavirus closing the library and college, I may have to try google a little longer to try find more sources.

Due to there being 6, in total, sub-topics the conclusion will have quite a bit of length in the conclusion section. However, I hope to keep my conclusions short. Here is what I have so far.

Progression Mechanics; is both the realised pattern of advance and the act of movement towards winning the game that are essential to an enjoyable experience for the player. The pattern or structure of the advance is what will ensure a rewarding experience during gameplay and will ensure the further continuation and replay necessary to turn renters into buyers.

Tactical manoeuvring; takes place in largely open or semi-open spaces. The rules must state which advantages each type of unit may gain from being in a particular location relative to another unit. It is about the challenges associated with moving units through a space, usually a space that contains other units that are both mobile and hostile.

I hope to add a little more to the conclusions, or maybe split it up a little more but it will all depend to what the other two members have written for their conclusions as I do not want to make it longer than needs be. 

Unity Tutorial 06

We are now starting a new Unity Tutorial. This time the outcome of the game is that the player will be able to press spacebar and make the character jump, as obstacles spawn at the edge of the screen and block the player’s path. Then we will make the background move flawlessly at the same time as the obstacles, and the obstacles will de-spawn when they exit game boundaries. Then we will make it that the background and spawn manager will halt when the player collides with an obstacle. Colliding with an obstacle will also trigger a game over message in the console log, halting the background and the spawn manager. Lastly, we will code so that the character will have 3 new animations that occur in 3 different game states. These states include running, jumping, and death, all of which transition smoothly and are timed to suit the game.

Lesson 3.1 Jump Force:

This tutorial was simple, or so I thought. Although I was writing in my C# code correctly, in my gameplay the game itself was very glitchy and not working as it should be. My player did not jump in my game. I had checked the code and followed the video tutorials exactly, yet why is my player not doing what he is suppose to do? This was really frustrating but I kept going with the tutorial in hopes that something would change and it would make the character jump. My obstacle did move as suppose to (even though it was extremely glitchy). The spawning of the obstacles worked well and later on I found my mistake in why my character did not jump when space was pressed - "Is Kinematic" box in the RigidBody was ticked when it should not have been. So now, my character jumps and the obstacles spawn as shown in the tutorials.

Unity Tutorial 3.1

Lesson 3.2 Make the World Whiz By:

In this second tutorial, we made the background repeat itself while the character jumps over the obstacles, we added a 'Game Over' bool as well as making the objects stop spawning once the game is over. And then lastly, we coded so that any obstacle that exits bounds is destroyed. This tutorial worked a lot better for me as everything went smoothly and I got everything to work.

Unity Tutorial 3.2

Lesson 3.3 Don't Just Stand There:

Moving onto the last tutorial. This is where we adjusted the characters movements and make them look like they're moving. Before even starting the tutorials, I received a red error stating something in my C# script was incorrect. This I fixed as the )) brackets were not correctly written in (according to Visual Studio anyway) even though it was the same code - the orange colouring was different and it triggered the error. We used the animator component located in the player inspector to make the character run in time with the background, then used the player controller script to code so that the character would not run while jumping over the obstacles. Lastly, we edited the code so that the player isn't able to jump while the character is "dead" at Game Over.

Unity Tutorial 3.3

Reading 6

This week I have begun writing out my headings, sub-headings and the content for my sub-topics. I have been typing out my research into a word document which I am now beginning to transfer onto the online Google Docs.

As time goes on I am finding it easier to write about my sub-topics. I still find it difficult to put all my research into my own words as I am not great at English and phrasing especially about game design as I don't know a lot about it and when researching I found it difficult to put it all together into my own words.

My Current Google Docs.

So far I think I'm doing well, however, I am still finding it difficult to find articles and journals on my sub-topics. I was lucky in finding two great sources however finding others has been difficult and is continuing to be tough. I have found some small sources and journals - however these do not give great detail on my chosen sub-topic.