Games MDA

 

 

This week’s reading task had a focus on understanding the MDA framework.  The term MDA stands for mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. My understanding from these reading sis that the MDA framework was created as a formal body to be able to help understand games. It was created to help connect all the elements of game design, development,  criticism and technical game research.

 

I learnt that this framework is used for game developers and designers because it helps them to understand how gameplay decisions can affect the user experience of the game. Which can also be useful to make changes to the game further down the line of developments

 

Another thing I learnt about the MDA framework is that it has limitations and is often criticised. This is because it neglects many aspects of game design and has a focus on mechanics, making it unsuitable for all game types. I learn that there are alternative design frameworks that can be used.  The other two frameworks can be described as follows:

 

-          Elemental tetrad – defines mechanics and aesthetics as central components similar to the MDA framework. however, it does not agree on how they are connected

-          DDE framework – Design dynamics and experience – this overcomes MDA frameworks weaknesses and is therefore used in place where it is limited.

 

I enjoyed learning about this framework and its uses and it limitations, I look forward to progressing more with my knowledge throughout the course and applying it to my future game projects

 

Below are links to resources I used to create this blog post

 

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

Design, Dynamics, Experience (DDE): An Advancement of the MDA Framework for Game Design

Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design

source

Reflective Blog Post-The Game Jam

Introduction

I participated in the University Game Jam last week.  A game jam involves students of different backgrounds coming together to form a team and create a game, the game jam was a fun contest with prizes awarded for the top games created. The jam was structured as follows; I was assigned to a multi-disciplinary team where we had about the whole weekend (72 hours) to produce a game. We were tasked with creating a language learning educational game, and it was a language of our choice or based on the expertise we had within the group. What was great about participating in the game jam was that you did not need to have any coding or advanced coding game skills as there are multiple game formats that can be created.

 

Team

Upon signing up for the game jam I was assigned to the team called Kangaroo, which consisted of four students including myself. 2 of the students were studying the international business and languages course and myself and another student in the Creative Digital Media Course. Once we were assigned our teams, we virtually introduced ourselves to one another and began discussing our background and our skills. Once we established the skills that we would like to contribute to the team, we assigned roles and began the brainstorming and planning stages. My role was the game production and export, whilst other students’ roles where, game design and graphics, language structure and language scripting for the game.

Organisation and Planning

Once we had our team’s name and team roles decided and assigned, we began the organisation and planning of the game. Our first group task that was assigned to us, in order to break the ice and get to know each other more was a logo creation task. We were tasked with creating a logo that represents our team and our team’s ethos, we were given about 20 mins to create this logo in our teams and then present them into the main chat. Our team did a quick brainstorm on names for the logo, after quick deliberation we had decided on the abbreviation CPL which stands for Creative language providers. I then used adobe logo creator and typed in some keywords suggested by the other team members, such as avatar and speech bubble, we then decided on colours and we were then able to cultivate the logo which can be seen below.

source: team logo created by adobe logo maker

After the presentation of the logo, we were left to our own devices to create the game. Firstly, we discussed our educational background with one another, we also discussed our skills and the skills that we are confident in regarding game creation. Other members of the team had a vast knowledge of the Spanish language in reading, speaking, and writing, so it was quickly affirmed that we would be creating a Spanish language learning game.

Whilst continuing the group call, we began discussing popular language learning games that we could reference to, Duolingo and Babbel were the top two language games that we could think of, however considering the complexity of these game designs, we decided to opt for a simpler route. After numerous discussions and a presentation from one of the game jam participants from last year, we opted for creating a memory matching card-board game. Once established the game type and format was decided, we assigned game roles, planned to meet virtually later in the day and then individually went about creating our individual parts for the game

 

Process/Production

I was responsible for creating the final game in our group. My responsibility involved collecting all the information and graphics provided by other team members and putting them into a game. As we decided on a board game, the final game output would not have been interactive. I decided to research online on how to create an interactive board game. I came across this video below. This method of using PowerPoint to create a game was something I had not seen before, and since my skills using unity and C# were not that strong , this was the best route that I could have taken for the group. The process of creating the PowerPoint game started off smoothly, I was able to quickly assemble the game from the graphics created by my fellow classmate, and I was also able to smoothly include the Spanish learning phrases provided by the language students.

              

 

Lessons Learned

I was very happy to participate in the college game jam and found it quite beneficial not only for college practice, but also for future workplace practices. The main takeaways that I got from this weekend’s game jam was the importance of teamwork and communication within a team. I believe our team worked very well with each other during the game jam. There was adequate communication and continuous updates and efforts from each team member all the way up until the final game jam submission. I believe we all communicated well, and we all took time to learn from and listen to each other’s points

An aspect of the game jam that I thoroughly enjoyed was the time limit factor, the pressure put on us to create a final output in 72 hours, this was equal parts enjoyable and stressful as we worked closer towards the deadline. I found it challenging creating the actual game format, I think this is due to the fact that I was placed in a group where the members where not confident in their gaming skills, so I took it upon myself to create the game. Something else I learnt from working as a part of a team in this game jam is learning to take a step back. Oftentimes I like to assign myself the role of the team leader and split the roles and structure of the team amongst myself and other team members, this time I was able to take a step back and allow the other team members to lead and learn to follow in a supportive way.

source: game world map created in adobe illustrator

source: Snippet from memory game-beach themed level

 

Game Vision Statement

Flying Bird

Game vision statement 

The purpose of this document it to outline the plan for the upcoming game that I will be designing for this module, this document will provide a detailed outline of what is involved in the game, the game description and genre, concept art, information on how the game will be made, resources used, recommended platforms and a brief outline of my current game design skills.

Introduction:

“Can You make it through the Concrete City?”

Flying bird is the latest immersive platformer game, fly high through a city of skyscrapers of different lengths dodging the buildings as the game proceeds as you build your high score.

 

Description /Game Play 

you will enter the world as a bird, you will be playing the game in a city simulated environment, there are buildings, skyscraper of various heights and width, your objective? Keep flying, keep flying through the world and avoiding the buildings, as you continue flying and as you pick up points you also pick up in speed, this new speed obstacle may make it difficult for you to progress. What happens if you crash? Then you start again from the original starting point, that’s as simple as it is, your aims and objectives of the game is to keep flying whilst increasing in speed and increasing your high score and flight time with each game. 

Game genre –  

Flying Bird is a platformer game, this game is heavily inspired from the original platformer game “Flappy Bird” the genre of platformer allowes the player to control a character whilst moving through a world, in this case we will be controlling an animal/ a bird flying through tall buildings in a city. The purpose of a platformer game is to conquer the obstacles, earn points and build on scores.

This game style originates in the early 1980s, this platformer games consists of  4 main characteristics, these include an interactive environment, a third person perspective, vertical and horizontal movement, and controlled jumping. 

 

Platforms

This game will be mainly designed for a desktop or computer platform. I would like for this game to be used on mobile devices but due to my limited skills in game design, it will be designed for a desktop.

Conceptual Art 

Below have some rough mock-ups displaying how I would like my game to appear, I have the flying bird asset which can be bought from the unity asset shop, and I also have an image of an animated city skyline which I have Photoshopped the 3D bird onto, these design mock-ups best represents how the game will turn out.

source: photoshopped image of ideal game world

Resources required

In order to create this game, I will be using the unity hub, however as I am still in the early stages of game development, I will have to complete more unity tutorials in order to build my skills and understanding of game design.

Unity- links to create a platformer game 

This source that I found on unity provides a guideline how to complete a 2D platformer game, of course in this case the game will be a 3D platformer, but the tutorial still proves useful. I will also be able to buy and create assets for the game on the unity store, these assets will include a city/skyscraper background environment, and 3D- flying bird. This unity tutorial  will be useful as it gives guidelines on creating your own desirable game environment using the Tile map editor, this is essentially an artistic tool which allow users to paint directly in unity and to be able to create vast and complicate tile maps within unity.

 

Conclusion

This vison statement clearly outlines it purpose, which is to create a platformer game called Flying bird. The game will be presented in a third person view and the player will have control of the bird, moving it forwards and backwards and up and down to doge the obstacles. The purpose of the game will be to continue flying until you crash and with each flight you aim to beat your high score. In order for the player to record their high score I will put a timer within the game, so that witch each play the player can see and record their scores. I will create the game environment using the unity software. I feel confident in this game idea so far, I believe that I have the basics skills to create and set up he game environment and as the weeks progress I will gain more skills and become more confident using unity. 

Unity Tutorial 03

 

This week’s Unity tutorial involved building and creating a whole new game with completely new assets, the game had a downward Arial facing view and it involved the player moving side to side to avoid moving animal obstacles whilst throwing an object at the animals. This game design was a little bit more complex than the other game completed last week, it required a lot more code that the first game as it had a lot of sections and attributes to it.  

 

I learnt many things in this new tutorial. Firstly, I was able to practice and repeat some of my skills learnt in the last tutorial, such as changing the camera view and moving an object horizontally. I learnt how to reposition objects and players in the game in an accurate way using the x, and y axis tools, I learnt how to resize an object in the game, i.e., to make it bigger or smaller, I learnt how to create code to keep the game play within the designed frame and prevent the player from going out of the boundaries of the game. I learnt about prefabs and how to create one to make an object repeat which is important for this style of game and will also be important when it comes to creating my individual game.

Although I believe that I am getting faster at completing the unity tutorials, I am still finding the understanding part of the code quite hard to grasp , there are a lot of new words and technical terms when it comes to coding that will take some time to learn and get comfortable with. Other than That, I find I exciting to be able to create these game in unity myself and put it into play!

screenshot from my unity programme- Tutorial 03