Learning challenge: Health and Happiness: Principle's for Success

This week I was tasked with reading an article based on the theme of health and happiness.

My chosen article was from Entrepreneur Europe’s magazine.

The article is titled “The 9 Principles That People Who Feel Successful Say They Live By”

One thing that this article had confirmed for me, something that I already knew was that the people who are successful are hardworking and often creating things, such as concepts, business ideas, art and so much more.

This was an interesting read as I was able to learn about the necessary steps for success, something which I had not considered before was the ability to be “resilient” which is necessary for overcoming obstacles and bouncing back from setback positively, something that will occur on the road to success

 One thing that I am going to take away from this article is the term “Pursue Meaning”, the article recommended different methods of pursuing meaning such as volunteering, or joining a humanitarian group, for me to pursue meaning in my career it would look something like taking up an internship or an unpaid role in order to gain first-hand experience in my desired sector.

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Analysis of Research

Continuing from last week, this week’s reading task involved building upon the already established list of articles collected. I now have several solid articles relating to my chapter topic of the “Psychology of why people are playing games”

 This week my focus was to work more on understanding specific psychological terms relating to why people are playing games, delved more into the topics underlined below:

Direct causes of gaming on psychological wellbeing

 Pathological factors involved in gaming

     What is internet gaming disorder?

 Why do individuals continue to play games?

 Gaming addiction

At this stage in my research the quality and number of articles that I am sourcing are beginning to come more limited, the more defined my chapter topic is becoming by researching articles, the less material there is out there to support the claims.

I used the three-pass method and my review matrix to sort and analyse each paper to assess its validity.  So far, I am finding this method of research and reviewing articles quite useful I have been able to critically assess each article in detail and can now decide which articles that I will want to use and the exact direction I want to take when it comes to writing my chapter.

 

My Review Matrix can be found Here

 

My Annotated Bibliography can be Found Here

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Beginner Scripting: Scripts as Behaviour Components

 

By attaching the script to the object, you can add a value to a specific object and decide how that value will affect that object, this value may be speed, colour, or movement. I have been using scripts in unity for a while now, and I am just beginning to learn that they are behavioural components and are essential for game development. This was a useful video tutorial providing a good refresher of the scripts.

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Game Idea Research

 

The Game “flappy Bird” is something that I would like to recreate , however I would recreate this game using a paper plane of some sort and the plane would have to fly though and avoid obstacles similar to that in “Flappy Bird”

Game Mechanics 

Platformer Mechanics 

I’ve chosen to look at platform game mechanics because it aligns with the type of game that I would like to create. Platform games allow the player to control a character in another world, this usually also involves other elements such as conquering obstacles, collecting coins and earning points. There are 4 important features required when it comes to designing a platform game, these can be listen as follows: the game must have an Interactive environment, Third person perspective,(i.e. the player can see the character their controlling in the screen in front of them) Vertical and horizontal movement and controlled jumping.

 

Scoring Mechanics 

Scoring systems are another system in which I wanted to implement my game, as I would like to make my game a neve ending style of game. The main purpose of the game will be to keep playing each time and achieving a higher score than the last time. The scoring mechanism Is a way of measuring success within the game. By having this quantitative scoring system its adds to the enjoyment factor of the game whilst also enhancing the gameplay (Lee et al 2017).

 

Movement Mechanics 

Movement mechanics are important within a game, by impending enough controls the correct amount of movement in a game can help improve the player experience, this video discusses the importance of movement mechanics using the example of tomb raider. It can be seen in the earliest version  of the game when the player is jumping, that it requires more buttons and more inputs in order to jump, such as running building momentum, jumping, then using the hands to pull up over the edge. But in the newest version of tomb raider it is not quite the same , instead of the various inputs that were required to jump in the old game copy, the game developers changed this, instead all you have to do is simply press one button or input and the player will complete the whole processes of jumping , I personally feel that this creates a disconnect between the player and the Gameworld, this shortcut of jumping takes away from some of the fun and reality aspects of the game, it can be concluded that movement in a game is important and this is a game mechanic that I will definitely implement when it comes to designing my game.

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Unity Tutorial 02

 

This week’s unity tutorial involved building off the skills that I had learnt from this last week. In this week’s tutorial I learnt how to take control over the vehicle and give it instructions to turn left or right. I learnt more about using the unity interface and about inputs and how they work, for example to allow the vehicle to move left or right, we had to input values which allow the user to make these moves using the left or right arrow keys.

 

The second part of this tutorial was a challenge and involved putting into practice all the skills learn thus far without any instructions, I found this challenge quite useful as it allowed me to really evaluate what I had learnt thus far in unity and what I needed to work on. I still find the coding language quite difficult and technical; I am beginning to understand that when doing the coding part of the game that figures need to be exact otherwise the game will not operate (I learnt this the hard way!)

 but I think that will develop over time, I am a looking forward to working through more tutorials and improving my skills in unity and using the code to develop a game of my own.

screenshot from my unity programme - Tutorial 02

Game Elements – Week 04 Reading

 This weeks reading involved the game elements and what elements make up the components of a game

 

Game Elements

The article summarises the qualities and elements required for a game, there are some fundamental elements that are required for making games and these can b listed as follows; The game objectives, players , game state , information , sequencing, theme, narrative , setting and the player interaction. These are often referred to as the atomic elements of games as they are the smallest parts of the game and can be isolated and studied individually.

Another factor to note from this article is the importance of critical analysis in relation to game design. Its important for discussing or comparing games in a non biased way. Something important to take away from this article is that in order to design a successful and functioning game, all the formal game elements must be predefined.

Prototyping

This informative video gives a good introduction into the methods involved in game design prototyping.

Game design prototyping can be described as an experimental process where rough ideas are iterated either digitally or onto paper.

This process of prototyping is an important one especially when it comes to establishing the mechanics, it act as a starting point and help to develop the game and add any additional changes which may be needed.

     

Formal Abstract Design Tools 

This article emphasizes the importance of setting up a common vocabulary for game design.

The benefits of creating a design vocabulary can allow for the following, it can act as a tool kit to help game designers refine how games work. These tools are an important aspect when it comes to understanding game design, they are also important for maximising the players feeling of self-involvement. Some examples of some formal abstract design tools can be listed as follows:

 Intention- this is the first abstract design tool, it involves understanding the world of the game, making a plan and acting on it, it is a means of getting the player invested and involved in the game

Perceivable consequence- this is a defined reaction from the game world from the action of the player

Story- this is the thread-narrative, it can be designer-driven or player-driven, it is an element that binds events together to allow players to forward to the completion of the game.

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