This is the last post of the year as well as my game design Pathway at Durham School of the Arts. This has been a long 4 years and I have had a lot of fun in the process. I am sad to leave everyone and scared to move on from learning to making. So for the last post of the year, I have a few questions to answer for my teacher.
1.) How has your understanding of the game industry and the necessary skills needed to work in it changed as a result of being in this concentration? When I first came to school and started the Game Design pathway, I had no knowledge of how the game industry functioned or even how i could become a part of that machine. By going through each of the classes, I have learned everything about what it is like to be a game maker or even how to function in that industry. I learned how to use tools and programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to edit and create images and logos, Unity for actually making games, and other such tools for video, sound, and 3D editing. I have grown a lot as an artist and Game Designer these 4 year and credit that all the the work I have been doing in class. I don't think I would have even considered this pathway in life if I had not taken this class. 2.) What skills that you gained and lessons have helped you the most along this path? The skills I have most been able to develop in this pathway would have been the ability to use digital art programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop. Through those experiences, I have found other programs that interest me and help me even further to improve my artistic skills. Today, I mostly draw digitally for things such as my personal web comic or animation projects. I am going to further develop my digital skills and artistic prowess in university as an art student. I again credit my fondness for digital art to the Game Design Pathway. 3.) What information or skills have been the least helpful over the years? The information that least effected me over these years would have been how to function in other areas of the game design field that I would have no interest in participating in what so ever. Things like game producer or manager I have no interest in going into in the future as I am too soft and disorganized to manage a group of people. Though, from those class projects where we had to do this, I did learn that I want nothing to do with it, so there was something to be learned from it in the end. 4.) Are there any skills, tools or techniques that you wish we had included or spent more time on and how would doing so have helped you? In terms of skills that we did not spend enough time on, I would say that we should have spend way more time on learning how to code than some of the other things we prioritized. Instead of spending most of the year on 3D modeling or video work, we could have dedicated some time to understanding code as to help us move into making our games instead of taking the time on our own to understand and learn it while neglecting our games. This would have helped me immensely as I was struggling all year to solve many code issues that I had no idea of where to even begin on fixing them. I would like to thank Mr B. for all his hard work with us and putting up with my sillyness these long 4 years. I am thankful for all that I have learned here and all that there is come in the future as a game designer. Thank you all and goodbye!
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The other day we presented our games for staff and parents and I feel as if I did not do the best I could have. For starters, I fudged the while speaking part as I was really nervous and worried about time. My mother made the mistake of planning for dinner at 6:30 somehow mistaking the time frame of the prenentation. That aside, I feel as if I was able to convey my message well enough to be understood. I am somewhat proud of what I have accomplished this year in terms of my art and my game is at a point where it is almost done. I am ready to wrap up this last part of the year with confidence that everything will be A-Okay!
We are wrapping up on our games and I am so very close to being done. So far I have all my levels set up and ready to go with the coding and animations in my game. The only thing I really have left to do is the text boxes, some minor assets and animations, and a few final details to touch up on. I am more than excited to have people play my game and see what I am capable of in terms of making a game. I have been lucky so far not to have run into very many problems regarding my game as of late other than the issue I had with someone messing with my game and forcing me to restart my computer, but other than that it has been smooth sailing. The only thing I am nervous about is whether or not it will build properly in terms of how many assets I have in some levels and if the lag will be too much for the game to run... I will have to build and test the game multiple times before I finish it and get it ready for presenting on the 15th. I have nothing else really to report so I will end this here.
For Next week I will...
Only a few more weeks to go! I say this as I sit here without my backpack, of which I forgot at home, and an IPad on 20% battery... This can go without being said but I am a little disoriented and a little more stressed than I would like to be at the moment. For some reason, all my teachers thought it would be a dandy idea to throw a bunch of huge projects at us at once. Along with trying to finish my game I also must work on my many essays and slideshow projects that are all due in one week. That being said, I am actually making a lot of good progress with my game. I have already set up the first 4 levels of my game and finished all the assets and coding in each. I only have 4 more levels to finish setting up before I can start the tedious process of building my game.
This past week I have been working hard on setting up and refining the different levels of my game, which includes asset polishing and finalization as well as actually putting things together. One thing I have noticed about my game is that the player seems a lot smaller than I originally intended which may require some further scaling of objects. I have gotten the enemy and player scripts to interact properly so that they attack and take damage in the way I originally intended, so I am happy to say that I finally fixed the enemy problem! I cannot yet say the same for the get key down script but I am still working on it with much optimism. Though I have the player script working, I still need to finish the player and enemy animations before I can actually build my game. I hope that I will be able to finish all the individual assets before I must build my game because there are quite a few smaller aesthetic items that I would like to include but am focusing on completing my game first. I would also like Mr B to know that if there are sentence errors and run-on’s, please know that there were like 5 screaming children back here and I can barely hear myself think so please have mercy on this post. for next week I will...
I have made some good progress with my game in the past week and over spring break. As I am not yet where I hoped to be I am turning the corner in development. So far, I have most everything that I need in relation to scripts and physical objects in my game with the exception of different enemy levels. All that is left to do is fix the few errors I have left and finish game assets. One issue that remains in my game is manipulating the input for the game. I cannot seem to figure out how to code different key codes as different actions in my game without using the "GetKey" command. This has been causing me a lot of trouble with game functionality especially with pausing and quitting the game. Problems aside, I am getting close to close out my game as finished and plan to have it so in the next two weeks or so. I have been making a real effort to do my best work both in and out of class while also having to keep up with my job and other homework. I am more than ready to get the HECK out of here and get off to collage because I know there I can really do work that makes me feel good and feel like I can be safe in any given space. Though this may not be directly related to GAD, this year has been really hard for me emotionally and I am ready to move on. I have been trying really hard not to let my emotions and trauma get in the way of doing my best work but it has been hard. I know that I have drawn out game production to the point where I am rushing it near the end but so long as I can get it done in time I cannot complain. I understand that my past work ethic in class may have been frustrating but just stick with me here because I think this can be really big and I am in a place where I can finally devote all of myself to this project.
For Next Week I Will....
And as a final note, if you are reading this and are not supposed to be, Please leave, you don't belong here. You know who you are. My game is finally working! I have gotten it so that the code is no longer breaking the game! The new script manager is nice in the way that it not only tells you that you are doing something wrong, but also how to fix the problem. In this week I was able to solve one of the biggest problems plaguing my game involving input and GetKeyDown. I was able to fix the error itself but still need to figure out why it is still not quite working on game. I have been doing some more research on smarter AI in unity and really want to get it so the enemy can evade some attacks and attack at logical intervals. My research has not come up with much in that but I am still looking for more things I can do. Really the biggest thing left to do in my game is asset creation and implementation because I don’t have much really that I can use in my game and want it to be more visually pleasing. I am happy to say however that I am starting to animate my character and have the first set of animations ready but not yet exported. I plan to finish the game over spring break and spend the rest of the year working on asset creation and touching up my game.
Next week I will;
Today I presented my project to my teacher in all it's broken glory. My game is a clusterfudge of broken scripts, non-functional items, and sitting assets, and that's just the first problem! I have been struggling this entire quarter with both personal and game-related issues that have severely delayed the development of my game and set it in a state of disarray. All I can think of is when we were making games from tutorials and thinking, why was that so easy? Why cant I do this now? What is wrong with this stupid line that breaks my entire game and stops me from moving on?? I can at least say that I am over the curve of problems and can finally get back on top of what I need to do in regards to finishing my game. I have always been ambitious and a procrastinator. I come up with these fantastic ideas of what could be, yet never seem to measure up to those goals. I want this to be one of those few things I am able to make amazing, because I am really passionate about it. I don't want these problems and frustrations to weigh me down and discourage me, I will overcome this and get back on top of my work.
I will say that my plan for 4th quarter is to finish this game and make it spectacular. I will be on top of everything from here on out and work day and night on this to fix the errors and move on. I believe that in the next three weeks I can have my game set up and ready to put in the assets. And the time remaining I will refine and build my game for presenting in May. I am ready Next week I will... (be on break but still working!)
I am happy to say that I will soon be taking a trip to unc Asheville to go to the admitted students day. I am so very ready to go to school at Unca because the school offers clubs and other opportunities in game design. I am excited to see what that is all about and if I can get some contacts in there for when I am going to that school.
Last week I did basically nothing besides freak out and cry. I have been trying really hard to keep it together and it is not working all that well. I am seeing a therapist and doing what I can in class but still it is really hard for me to function. All I can do at this point in class is draw what I have been working on for art class or work on already existing assets. The classroom setting is really hostile right now and I don’t feel safe here all that much. There is nothing that can be done to fix it so I just have to learn how to avoid the bad feeling and malicious glares from the problem student. At home I have been working on the enemy scripts and researching how to make my player fight and use weapons as well as enemy AI. I have found some helpful tutorials that deal with AI but I’m still looking for how to access GetKeyDown in unity as it still doesn’t work. Next week I will
I really don't have anything new done this week, I was mostly working around of a bunch of different small things involving art. I really don't have much to say or even to describe of what happened during the week because honestly I don't remember much of it. I have been looking into animation programs and doing a little bit of research on which would work best for my plan but even that was not much. My work is really behind because of all that has been going on and I am trying really hard to find out how I can effectively work in an environment where i am that uncomfortable. Most days it proves too hard to handle, but I am muddling through it. I am really appreciative of the people who are around me being really patient with me as i struggle to keep up. Thank you.
For next week I will
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AuthorMy name is Anna Marshall, nice to meet you! check out the 'about me' page for more information about me! Archives
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