For this weeks Unity Tutorial we had to look up videos that would help us with our game.

I looked up on youtube how to add in small details such as adding colour to the star at the end of my level. I found this on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1X8ViWTCX0

This was on the official Unity's YouTube channel.

I then looked up on YouTube how to make a tiny little character for my game as I want him to be small and defined looking. I found this here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiIoWrOlIRw

This was helpful as it looked similar to what I want my character to look like.

I don't feel as if I need a lot but one more thing that I could use help with was how to make it seem bright and colourful, the tutorial does seem very advance and a bit difficult but after watching it and trying it out it wasn't too bad but it wasn't exactly what I was going for but I can take bits from it and apply it to my game. I found this on YouTube too:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C0zIvhYy6k

Alpha

Since the start I have been a bit behind with my game on Unity as I have been avoiding starting it as I thought that it would be really hard. I have been falling behind a little bit in relation to my game, I feel like I have been focusing more on my blog posts if I'm being honest.

I am getting the hang of Unity and am trying my best to add finishing touches such as nature etc.

It is a bit difficult for me to work on my game as I always use the Macs in college to do it as I don't have a laptop yet. I have a PC but it's too old to be able to handle the software. In any spare time that I get I work on my game in college because I feel that it's a lot easier to do it on the Macs. I am now looking back and forth from Unity tutorials that we had to do weeks ago to make sure that I don't go wrong anywhere and perfect it all.

I hope in the end that it all plays alright because it is so far but I want it to be playable and look half decent. From now until the last week I will put in a lot of time into my game to perfect it as much as I can. 

week 9 progress

After looking back through my blog posts and my assignments I feel like I have done well in keeping up the appearance of my blog and also making my blog posts long.

So far, I am happy in my progress with keeping up with this module. Although I am still struggling a bit with Unity and still trying to get the hang of it, I feel like the majority of my blog posts are up to date. From week one to now there is a few blog posts that I have missed. I have tried to make up with extra credit options if I have missed a blog post so that I can still keep a good amount of points.

The extra credit options are good and they give you a chance to keep up with the post the they are offering.

I feel like I have stuck with the schedule that I made for this module in week 1, but with a few down-falls along the way.

From now until the end of this semester I want to make sure that I do every single blog post and do them to my highest standard. The weekend readings is where I feel that I go down the most as I have work Friday-Sunday and try to get all of the blog posts done before then, meaning sometimes I might rush it a bit or not have time to do them at all.

I have really enjoyed doing this module so far and I like the idea of having a blog. I like that I can design it how I like and do whatever font/theme I choose. 

I want to improve more on my time-management skills for the second half of the semester so that I can make sure all of my blogs are done and submitted in time.

Unity Free Tutorials

This weeks task was to find videos about unity that suited well to our game. I looked up videos and helpful tips that link into what I want in my game. I just looked up on YouTube basic things that I need for my game to add in and I looked for the best ones.

I first looked up how to add in a star into unity as at the end of the level the player has to reach a star when they complete. I looked this up on YouTube and got a few good videos but I looked around until I found one that I thought was really helpful. This one was the one that I found was best : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0lx90n0s-4 

I also looked up how to add sound when you reach the star and this video helped as it was easy and not too long : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pFlnyfRfRc

I know that we have already covered sky boxes but just for the sake of this I wanted to add it in as I want my game to be bright and have a bright blue sky :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCW_T3ZDcBc 

These videos have helped me and I found them all very useful and informative.

Game fun

image:    uplayplus_hero.jpg

From this week's readings I have gathered a lot of information as there was a few readings to go through. 

From this article https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf it spoke again about MDA(mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics) and it is basically a formal approach of understanding a game and what works behind a game to make it function. Games are designed and made by designers/developers and played and consumed by players. 

I found it interesting reading through the different articles as they were all fairly different and focused on a different part of games.

From this link: http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm   I learned a lot about the different kinds of players. The below graph is from the blog post 'Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades: Players who suit MUD'S"

                    ACTING
                  Killers            |                  Achievers
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
          PLAYERS -------------------+------------------- WORLD
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                  Socialisers        |                  Explorers
                                INTERACTING

I found this particularly interesting and it put games into perspective for me a little bit. He said that the point of playing a game is to master the game and make it do what you want it to do. These kind of players are known as 'achievers' as they want to complete the game and do it as fast as they can.

The 'explorers' are those who are genuinely interested in the game and what to explore the world they are in.

It is cool to see how some people act differently in games, some want to win straight away, some like to explore the world their in and look around and some people like to interact with other players.

In this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041110/falstein_01.shtml I had a look around and went in and out from different articles just to give myself a bit of knowledge on different areas and get a feel for it. The main thing I have gathered is that you are making a game that you want people to explore, win, socialise and really get into the game.

Prototype

My game idea is a platformer game that will consist of a small man who tries to reach the end goal, which is a star. I have said that the obstacles will be:

• jumping over obstacles
• collecting coins
• jumping over water

Although these obstacles seem basic enough I want to make my game easy and done out well. I think I will get rid of the 'jumping over obstacles/water' as there is already the goal of reaching the star at the end of the level.

I have been finding keeping up with the weekly blogs, comments etc particularly difficult recently as I just find it hard to balance everything out. I have been getting into the hang of it more as I am going by the work schedule I made for myself.

I will say Unity is holding me back a bit as I find it really hard and just cant seem to get the hang of it so I keep going back and forth from tutorials to try and figure it out. That is why I have cut out a few things in my game as I want to be realistic about how it is going to work. I want the outcome to be a good game and not to focus to much on the little things.

Below is a rough copy of what I want the game to look like- I done this on canva but I dont want it to look the exact same just the same colours etc 

I want the colors the be bright and happy, and I am obviously not going to be using Mario in my game but its just an idea, and the star at the end is the goal.

growth mindset: 6 bad mental habits

6 bad mental habits that sabotage your success

I chose this article as I love easy and straight to the point 'tips' on how to benefit your mental health.

From reading this I have realised that your thoughts not only affect your emotional stage but also your behaviour. I will bullet point each stage and write in my own words what I learned:

• Making excuses

I learned that blaming other people for 'weighing you down' only harms your performance more.

• Catastrophizing the future

Don't look into a moment that isn't now too much as it will put you off and make you feel down and overthink loads.

• Seeking audience approval

Theres no point seeking for others approval as at the end of the day it is only you who matters to yourself. Don't care about anyone else opinions 

• Believing self-doubt

Insecurity sneaks in and kills your dreams. If you walk into a job interview thinking I'm  never going to get hired, chances is you won't. A negative mindset will never lead to a positive one.

• Putting yourself down

If you wouldn't speak to someone the way that you speak to yourself, then don't allow yourself to say it to you.

• Second-guessing yourself

If you think about every choice you make it will impair your decision. 

Learning challenge: the happiness jar technique

Happiness Jar

Lately I have been feeling very overwhelmed, down and unmotivated so this seems to be the perfect thing. I feel like I have so much work to do always, for college and for work, and also trying to make time to use relax can be difficult.

Every day when I come back from college (and the days I'm not in ) after work or wherever, I will write something on a piece of paper everyday for a week on something that made me happy that day. I have heard about this technique many of times but I have never actually tried it out myself. I am going to give this a go and report back after I am done and see what I think of it.

why sleep may be more important then studying- learning challenge

              Sleep/studying

I chose this topic as it actually really interests me because lately I have been looking into how to get motivated, what the best hours sleep is etc so this jumped out at me.

From reading this article I have gathered that no matter what if you stay up all night drinking/studying/reading, either way the next day your going to be so tired. So even if you have a big test tomorrow, go to bed early as you will not be able to function the next day. Dr. Matt Carter said 'the reason to get a good nights sleep is really so you can enjoy the next day' and I totally agree. I always make sure I get ATLEAST 7 hours, and even at that I would aim for 8. I feel you wake up more refreshed, ready for the day and more positive when you get a good sleep.

I never knew that if you don't get a good sleep it hard to learn new and more things as you didn't clear out all of the synaptic connections, which I never knew about.

Growth mindset: exploring growth mindset beyond school

              Growth mindset

I feel like when I am in work I experience the strongest growth mindset as after being in college all week and then having to go into work for 8 hours, it can be draining. But I go in with a good mindset and attitude to it as I know if I feel tired and unmotivated I will be in a bad mood all day and I like to be happy to customers.

I would also say just every day I use growth mindset as I feel that I have such a busy schedule and I need to make time for myself to relax and be with friends/family so whenever I feel down or unmotivated I will just remind myself that all of this hard work will pay off one day and I will have all of the time in the world (not really, kind of) to spend relaxing watching Netflix etc.

Tech tip: Blogger template

Blogger template

I set the theme of my blog to be a pink colour with floral designs on it but when I read through the article on how to change the layout of your theme I decided to change it up a bit.

I stuck with the pink theme but I changed the background, which was previously just plain white, to a light pink and grey.

I done this by choosing to 'change background' and then I messed around with the colour tool to get the perfect shade of pink and grey that I wanted.

Where it says 'main colour theme' I clicked the arrow down and thats when I chose the right shades that I wanted. These little tech classes are very cool and beneficial I think and after this certain one I feel my blog looks a lot more attractive.

Unity tutorial 6

This weeks tutorials we learned about several things, one of these main parts being skybox's. A skybox is essentially everything that surrounds the components in the game. A lot of space in unity/the game is taken up by the sky as it is the main focus in the background and it's very important so I want to give a sunset look to my sky in the game.

I learned about the wind-zones in these videos too and I found this particularly interesting as it makes the game itself look more realistic and it adds to the effect of the game. There were a few different ways to go about it such as having turbulence but I felt that a lower setting made it that bit more realistic.

It was useful to have the 3 different videos to look back from with so that I can see bit by bit what to do. The videos help me a lot as it goes into a lot of detail when helping you find your way but in general I still feel like it is a bit difficult to get the hang of Unity but I will keep trying and looking back on videos etc until I feel confident in it.