Multimedia Development Blog By Samuel Carroll

 Game Vision Statement On my four game ideas from last weeks Multimedia development the one idea that stuck out to me most was my first idea that came to mind which is an endless runner game and hope to add the them of my fourth idea to it.  I believe that my game idea stands in the game genre of platform games which started in the nineties from games like 'Super Mario' and progressed on further to such games as 'Jetpack Joyride'. A lot of these games are in 2d but I am going to have it in 3D. This games in these genres each have their own specific theme to it as such like 'Super Mario' has is its own in the sense that he jumps and moves and can get powers and has to save the princess.  With the gameplay of my idea i'd be hoping to have it somewhat similar to the likes of 'Temple Run' or 'Subway Surfers' having a 3D perspective of the player running endlessly and being able to get power ups and having to dodge certain obstacles to do with the...

 Games MDA/DDE While reading the first article on MDA i didn't have an idea on what mDA stood for as now I know it stands for mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics. I also didn't know that it attempts to bridge the gap across game design, development and game criticism and technical research. While reading the article further I seen at how the mechanics dynamics and aesthetics each have their own job such as with mechanics which has the particular components of the game. Then with dynamics it has the run time and acts on players inputs and then for aesthetics it follows the emotional responses in the player. With all these components the add up to a finished game.  Mechanic Dynamic Aesthetics For the second article I learned something new also on what the letters DDE stood for Design, Dynamics and Experience and how its an advancement on MDA. It tells us at how aspects of MDA was criticised and at how it focuses too much on mechanics and at how it isn't suitable for every game...

 Feedback Strategies While reading the two articles on Feedback Strategies i found it interesting on how its a two way system with an employee and an employer and at how an employee can learn a lot from feedback from his/her employer such as maybe social skills or even on how to better you time management. The same can be seen with an employer and if any problems they may be having and on how they can improve as an employer this is known as downward feedback and upward feedback. It also talks about how feedforward is good and on why you should try it as one person says "It can be more productive to help people be "right," than prove they were "wrong." This I found really interesting and to rather try prove them wrong you should try help them for the future.  Feedback For the second article it talks about students mindsets and how some progress further on because of their mindset such as a growth mindset which I have talked about before. As it says in the articl...

 Game Idea Research Last week we thought about our own game ideas and wrote out brainstorms about each game idea that we had. For mine I had four ideas of thinking of doing but narrowed it down to my favourite idea which is a 3d stick person puzzle game. The main part of the game is that you've to solve how to get across to the next room, stage or section while only being allowed to use what's around you for example there's a drop between two rooms to get across you should look to put something down such as a plank of wood. This would be one of the game mechanics as the player is performing an action using tools such as on they keyboard they'd use the arrow keys to move the 3d stick person. Other game mechanics that id like to use is that the further the level you go that a timer starts and you must complete a certain task within the timeframe to get it done or else you must restart the section. I would also hope to use the keyboard to pick up items in the game such as ...

 Unity Tutorial 02 While working on the Unity Tutorial week 2 we began by creating the horizontal axis and vertical axis so that we were able to move the vehicle in unity. When I began this I struggled an awful lot with it and wasn't working for me with the horizontal axis as my vehicle would not turn for me whenever I pressed play on unity. While putting in the CS for unity in the C# box it was simple to follow and easy to do and although I followed it step by step I still had problems with it and it would not work at times but eventually got it working and I ran into the same issues with the vertical axis as well.  Mobile Apps While this weeks Unity Tutorial was hard I believe that the first tutorial was easier and although it took longer it was more clearer and easier to understand than week two's. Im hoping now that I've gotten used to Unity and learned about it a lot more and that it'll be easier to use in the up and coming weeks as it reminds me of the first few w...

 Game Elements While reading the articles for the games for week 4 I found it interesting when it talks about "What are the Qualities of Games" and found at how each and every game has its qualities such as decision making and so on and thought about the question when it says "Think for a moment about what other things are common to all (or most) games." I thought about this and in my opinion I believe that the most common aspect in games is the that every game has a task for example we see in the mobile game 'Temple Run' that its endless and that your task is to survive and then the same can be seen in the game 'Cyberpunk 2077' where you must complete tasks such as completing a mission by going to talk to someone and so on. I liked at how it talked about game feedback and you gotta use critical analysis for a game as telling someone they like or dislike a game without explaining doesn't help the game developers.  While reading the second article...

 Feedback Thoughts While reading the article 'A fixed mindset could be holding you back here's how to change it' in here I learned about how praising someone constantly can actually put them into a fixed mindset and they won't be able to achieve their full potential. In the article it even says "It turns out that's kind of backfired on us" meaning you think that'll work but really it doesn't. While talking about how people with a fixed mindset who take criticism usually blame it on a setback and look for excuses while then a growth mindset would say to themselves ok how can I improve and achieve what needs to be done. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/fixed-vs-growth-mindset-at-work-and-in-life/9897782                'A fixed mindset could be holding you back here's how to change it' by Anna Kelsey Slug and Ann Arnold 26/6/2018 The second article that I chose it talks at how the critical voices in your head and at how this can effe...

 Original Game Ideas  While I was thinking of original game ideas for my multimedia development project I thought of what might interest people and how they could have fun enjoying the game. For my first game idea I was thinking of simple ideas and came up with action based adventure game and having a sprinting race or car race. In the game you'd face challenges such as dodging obstacles, jumping over obstacles and trying to reach the finish line first. I remembered at old games like 'Temple Run' and 'Jetpack Joyride' and reminded me of how much fun they were to play. I am interested in this idea as I would like to see at what I could create and see how its made.  For my second idea that I had I thought of doing an arcade design based maze system. In this game there'd be locked doors and to unlock these doors you must answer general knowledge based questions to get passed these doors. You'd have to get the question right or else wouldn't be able to get t...

 Unity Tutorial 1 With my first week at using Unity I found it quite hard at the start of 'Lesson 1.1 Start your 3D engines' as it was confusing using unity for the first time and something that I wasn't used to. The most difficult part that I probably had was using Unity without a mouse with my Mac as trying to zoom in and out of the game that I was creating was frustrating and irritating but eventually got the hang of. I know now that I need to invest in a mouse while using unity in the future. I also really struggled with the camera and the moving of the obstacles while creating the game and positioning them in certain places. When I had completed Lesson 1 and had move on to Lesson 2 and 3 it was much more easier to follow and understand and I could do my work while listening to the video at the same time and I believe that my experience with web dev from last semester helped a lot and made it easy to follow. I believe that the other two lessons were quicker than the fir...

 Game Design While reading the first article I found out at how hard it can be to actually give a definition to a game and that if you tried make a definition of yourself that it can be as the article says"Imperfect". Although it is hard we do know what is in a game such as it says in the first article "rules, story, action" while this is true it can also contain horror, drama and many other topics. While reading further on the the Reading One article I found at how you compare games to other games in the industry like for example you could compare Call Of Duty to Battlefield and so on. From reading the article I found it interesting on how simple it is actually to make a game which I created myself on a piece of paper that took less then fifteen minutes. You really think it's hard to make a game until it can be done rather simply even if it is a basic game. What I also found very interesting was the Games Defined section of the reading where it says" Games...

 Time Strategies My thoughts on time management strategies for in class and outside are that with multimedia development labs I can pursue what has to be done for the weekend in this class and can progress over the weekend for next weeks tasks this then gives me more time over the weekdays to pursue the labs and assignments throughout the week and if I get stuck I've the weekend to try figure it out. after reading the articles '3 Steps to Recapture time by @JoynicoleM' are that there millions of people who work everyday and who manage to get into work on time and manage their time that suits their day and shows that their time management is really well done and she talks of three rules which can help recapture time and being able to achieve more in the time frame. The first rule is "Rule 1-Refuse to yield your 1st 15 minutes." In this rule she is saying that you should relax and do whatever makes you comfortable as she mentions some examples like 'Pray' or...

 Technology Tools My first impression of TUD Blanchardstown is that it seems like an easy to get to and well equipped campus being close to Blanchardstown centre and having the technology, equipment and service's that you need on campus. Having being at home for all of year one I had to learn a lot of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on my own and having gotten a Mac last year I know my way around the MacBooks on campus.  While learning a lot of these technology tools at home the environment is a lot different compared to last year while if you ran into trouble using the online tools you had to email the lecturer hoping for a response while now you can simply ask the lecturer in class. Its quite unlike it as its very more social outside the online class as people didn't turn their cameras on and didn't really socialise outside it while its much more social on campus. Some technical skills that id really like to work on this year are that of Adobe Illustrator, to improve my c...