Doing Research Work

 

This week’s reading involved collating a list of research topics and using different methods to evaluate the reading and asses the suitability if the text.

One thing I learnt from this week’s reading is the importance of active reading over passive reading.  In previous research assignments I would often collate my sources in a passive method by just accepting the text and sources that were found, I had never really taken the time to analyse the work and to question the validity of the text or the paper.

 

For the research portion of this week’s reading task, I managed to collect several credible sources relating to my topic of “Gamer Psychology”. I included each article found relating in my topic in a review matrix, at first, I found the layout of the review matrix to be a bit confusing, but after a couple of read- through’s I was able to tailor it to my advantage and structure it in a way that was simple for me to use. Whist filling out my review matrix I used the three-pass reading method. Something I like about using this method for the research papers is the thoroughness of the method, and how each step of this method is a driving force for whether the next step will be completed.

source

Sample Review Matrix attached here for reference.

Links to the readings I have completed

Understanding Gamer Psychology: Why Do People Play Games?

Understanding serious gaming: A psychological perspective

The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning 

Unity Tutorial 02- Decorating the Game World, Game World Interactions

This week’s unity tutorial involved building on the 2D game that I started last week.

The tutorial had two parts, part one involved decorating the game world and part two involved game world interactions.

I learnt quite a lot of useful skills from this week’s Unity. One skill that I was able to practice more on was the design and creative aspects of game design, being able to practice this especially by using tile maps and positioning tools within unity was quite useful, it also useful as it allows me to brainstorm the type and style of game world that I would want to create for my final game project.

The second part of the tutorial involving world interactions was a good refresher from the skills learnt from last term. This was my favourite part of the tutorial; I enjoy learning about making the game world realistic in unity especially where the physics element is involved. I believe that this small sector is something that I now have a good knowledge in and I can definitely say that I am becoming more confident in this section.

One thing that I found difficult and that I am continuing to find difficult is the scripting aspect of unity, I am able to work through them and follow the tutorials, but I still lack much understanding and would find it difficult to compile one on my own. However, I am looking forward to learning more throughout this tutorial and eventually getting to that stage and skillset.

Source: screenshot from Unity Hub