Beta

 After weeks of work and editing and writing and rewriting scripts I can successfully say that I have successfully completed my game!

This week I was able to implement any final changes for my game. These changes involved including a score board in the game and a game over screen. I was able to implement these UI elements using Text mesh pro and canvas. I had learnt how to do this from the unity tutorials advised in week 9 and 10.

I also carried out some user testing of my own. I was able to have my game tested by two separate individuals one o f which was a friend, and the other was a family member. Both individuals enjoyed playing the game and found the game functionality smooth and easy to use. One piece of feedback I was given was to provide a reset button at the end of the game to allow for the player to restart. Another piece of feedback I received was to provide a lives option for the player, to give them a chance to resume at the point they left off at when they lose or die in the game.

Carry out this player testing was beneficial as it gave me more insight into how to create a more user-friendly game experience for the players.

 

After weeks of work and editing and writing and rewriting scripts I can successfully say that I have successfully completed my game!

This week I was able to implement any final changes for my game. These changes involved including a score board in the game and a game over screen. I was able to implement these UI elements using Text mesh pro and canvas. I had learnt how to do this from the unity tutorials advised in week 9 and 10.

I also carried out some user testing of my own. I was able to have my game tested by two separate individuals one o f which was a friend, and the other was a family member. Both individuals enjoyed playing the game and found the game functionality smooth and easy to use. One piece of feedback I was given was to provide a reset button at the end of the game to allow for the player to restart. Another piece of feedback I received was to provide a lives option for the player, to give them a chance to resume at the point they left off at when they lose or die in the game.

Carry out this player testing was beneficial as it gave me more insight into how to create a more user-friendly game experience for the players.

source: game over screen of final game 

Playtesting

It is coming close to the end of this module and this week the focus is on playtesting. Game testing or playtesting in a crucial step to help ensure optimal performance of a game before it is published.

There are multiple factors and particularities to consider when it comes to game testing, I learnt that it is not only about the functionality of the game, that it is about other things, such as game fun, human interactions, human behaviours, game fun reactions, and entertainment factors. All of these and so much more come into consideration when implementing a Playtest

The multiple gam testing types can be listed below:  

• Functionality testing
• Combinatorial testing
• Ad Hoc Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Clean room and Tee Testing
• Regression testing
• Performance Testing

Based on my current game structure and design I believe that functionality testing would be the most appropriate playtest for me to use. This is simply because the aim of this testing method is to hunt for generic problems within the game such as asset integrity, stability issues, audio visual and game mechanic issues.

I learnt that there are different types of play testers

Myself, close friends and family, experiences gamers and complete strangers.

For convenience will be playtesting this game myself, friends and family and other strangers. My purpose of doing this is to gain a well-rounded body of feedback from the testing phase of my game and hopefully implement may changes accordingly

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Sources 

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source 3 

Game Stories

 

This week I learnt about game stories. This was an interesting read because I was able to learn not only about the importance of storytelling within games, but also the structures that some of them may follow.

I was able to gain some knowledge on what a story is and how they can be narrative focused, or character focused. Both of these affect the way in which the player interacts and engages with the gameplay.

I learnt about the three main frameworks that game designers refer to when it comes to implementing storytelling within games.  

This can be listed as follows:

•       The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

This puts emphasis on myths and heroes within mythology. This framework establishes a common structure found between mythological stories

•    Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

This framework discusses how storytelling is not about formulas, it is about forms. And each follows a similar form.

•         Poetics, by Aristotle

This framework is not about poetry as the name would suggest, it Is actually about tragedy and the inclusion of tragedies within storylines. It often represents stories that replicate real life, rather than supernatural, mystical or romantic endings #

 

I found these readings quite interesting and beneficial. It  is good to have a academic knowledge of how stories are told and the different framework bodies used by game designers.

 

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Sources 

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Tutorial 10

 

This week’s unity tutorial I was able to learn many new game design and coding techniques that I can and will use to apply to my final game. Some of the new elements learn can be listed as follows:

I learnt about using 2D and 3D view.

I learnt how to create a game manager object instead of a spawn manager which would have been typically used. This allows us to control the state of the game as more features are being added to it.

I learnt about mouse events this entailed how to make an object destroy itself when clicked. 

I leant about the platform Text mesh pro and canvas. These platforms allowed for the me to add in some UI elements to the game improving the experience for the player such as a score count ad player score board.

I learned how to create and manage game states to make it a smoother game experience for the player. I was able to do this by providing player feedback using the game over and reset button.

I learned how to use buttons in the game and make them active by giving them a command in the code, I was able to use the UI library used to help interact with buttons in scene.

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Alpha

This week I am continuing to work on my platformer game called “Flying Bird” so far, I have completed the all the basic fundamentals required for game set up. I have all my scripts created with all the functionality applied to them. I have my player controls implemented onto my avatar and I have also completely set up my game world. 

This week I am working on creating a score board for when the player dies in the game. The purpose of the score board is to inform the player of their final score and also inform them that thy have died and that the game Is over. I am also working on including a score board at the top of the game which can allow for the player to keep track of their score and even beat it with each game round. I am finding it difficult to implement these new changes to my game, however I have found useful video tutorials online which I am currently working through. 

My current goal for next week is to have all these changes implemented and completed so that I can  begin game testing by next week’s project task 

The link to the video I am referencing to can be linked here 

 

Unity Tutorial 09

 I continued working on the game prototype tutorial from last week. some new functionality I was able to learn and add to my game in the tutorial can be listed as follows:

I learnt about four loops- this keep control over the number of times something needs occur. This is useful in game design where you want something to spawn several times, this coding technique can be implemented.

By the end of this prototype, I learnt how to include a countdown timer in the game power up. I was able to learn camera control in the game and learnt how to use vector math to control the direction that the enemies are moving towards so that they can eventually run into the player. 

I was also tasked with completing a challenge task relating to this tutorial. This involved fixing a corrupted game file with bugs. The purpose of this game challenge was to test out the skills learn from the previous challenge. 

I found these game challenges to be quite useful, although difficult they are giving me a winder knowledge of coding and using the unity hub for game design. They are also quite useful for the production of my game as there are specific skills I can use to implement in the scrips of my final game

source: screenshot from unity hub 

Reading and Writing

This week’s reading task required a review and reflection of all the work done so far and the work left to complete 

Looking back

I am reflecting on all the previous reading and writing assignments I have completed for this module thus far. I have found every single ready assignment to be very useful and beneficial for the module and for the game design process. In the first week I named my favourite game, this simple brainstorming task of choosing my favourite game allowed me to think about the many games and game genres that are available.  I was able to learn many new skills and terms, from time management strategies to technology tools and even learning about the growth mindset and how they can help me with this module. Some of the more recent reading assignments gave me a deeper understanding of game design and how games are made and what components make up a game. The readings were about game design, game elements, game design documents, game fun and game decisions. These most recent readings helped give me a good knowledge of everything involved when it comes to game design. So far, I would say I am happy with my game project. I have a clear vision for how I want the game to turn out, but I am confident that with my current unity skills and knowledge that I will be able to complete it to the best of my ability.

Image 

Below is my chosen image. I chose this image from the reading task from week 2. I chose this image because this was my second ever assigned reading for this module.  Tis image is of significance to me as it as my first ever knowledge of learning about the growth mindset theory. Learning this growth mindset theory has change the way in which I approach not only my studies but my daily course of work and other aspect of life. It has taught me that in order to succeed at something you have to allow for failure or mistakes to happen, which in turn leads to learning from them and thus growth.

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Looking forward 

I believe that moving forward, it would benefit me to carry out some extra reading material or more specific unity tutorials to refine and complete my game. I want to add in some art features in my game, such as a scoreboard and a results page for when the game ends. I believe it would be beneficial for me to do some extra reading material and unity tutorials around this to enhance my game. Moving forward I also plan to be more strategic with my time management and planning for the game. Each week I decided to allocate 10 hours to this module and the module task, this included the tutorials, reading and the project work. I also plan to liaise with my cousin regarding my game and outputting my final game, as he is a game designer and is quite familiar with game code, I plan to ask him for tips and tricks that I can apply to my own game design.