From Beginning To...

This week's task proved to be the toughest one yet. In fact, I'm afraid I didn't even begin what was originally scheduled for this week. However, I didn't do nothing! The Research Matrix has proven to be more time consuming than I originally thought. Last week, I had one source entered into my Matrix, and at the end of this week I have six. I was aiming for twenty; five on one subtopic and one on the other. So, what happened? Firstly, I am finding it hard to find suitable texts. I am trying to scan through texts to see is there relevant information to my research questions, or even the subtopic. If the abstract doesn't wholly convince me, I use Cmd F to look for some of my keywords. I download several pdfs at a time using this method. When I have a few promising papers, I begin looking a bit more thoroughly at them to enter some information into the Matrix. I believe this is where my time is getting lost. First look at Keanu Reeves in The Matrix 4 Most ...

This week, I created an interim mascot to learn how to animate characters using puppet tools and layers.  This is Aran, a character I created in Adobe Illustrator. First of all, I had to design and create a character using vectors in Illustrator. I based my design off of a children's nursery rhyme YouTube channel that uses similarly styled characters. As it is a temporary mascot for practice, I am aware that the resemblance is very obvious. I tried to make the design as three dimensional as possible, using highlighting, shading and textures to make the character stand out. Due to his wooly, fabric like textures, I decided to give him the name Aran - like the Irish knitted jumpers. I placed each limb and section on it's own layer to allow for more specific and intricate movements in After Effects (AE). Once the vector graphic was ready to go, I imported the character into AE. I followed several tutorials on YouTube to get some dynamic movements from the character a...

The D20 system from Dungeons and Dragons Source:  Wikipedia   Last week I started brainstorming potential video game ideas that I could make in Unity 3D. I have decided to continue researching my Dungeon Crawler RPG.   Some game mechanics that I have decided I would like are: - A Cursor   I like the idea of a point and click style of gameplay. When objects in the game world are hovered over, they will be highlighted, and can be interacted with by clicking on them. This may be used for doors, NPC's, treasure chests, and enemies. Clicking on an enemy would engage in combat. - An Inventory   Many RPG's have collectible weapons, armour and items. To be able to collect them, one needs an inventory. I would have a simple inventory that displays as either a grid or a list with a preview of the item. - Attacks   As I would plan to have enemies in my game, I would need to have a fighting system. This would go along with my cursor mechanic. When a...

Feedback works best as a dialogue Source:  Pixabay How does one give feedback effectively? "Put a slice of praise on the top and the bottom, and stick the meat of your criticism in between. It’s the compliment sandwich"   This is the piece of advice that I've often heard, but it is difficult to implement. The quote is from a very interesting article called " How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk ", written by Adam Grant . I found this article to be of particular use, as I often find it difficult to deal out criticism. Here the author states that the "feedback sandwich doesn’t taste as good as it looks". The initial praise can be glanced over; seen as a mere attempt to soften the blow of the upcoming criticism. It can come across as insincere. Alternatively, if the praise is believed, it can outweigh the negatives, leaving the criticism null and void in the receivers eyes. But the author has given some genuinely helpful advice on how t...

Sure, I get it... Source:  Giphy   This week on Unity - Some C# coding that I'm not gonna pretend I understand! I understand the functions that they performed, but the actual elements are going to take some time and practise to become as familiar as HTML and CSS. I've come across 'if' statements before, but I'm still unsure of what some of the more complex coding involving 'public', 'static', and 'Raycast' really do. I will definitely be researching some basic C# coding, to get a better idea of what these functions are doing behind the scenes.   I began by adding a sound effect to the gem I created last week. This was a simple process that involved creating some subfolders and ticking some boxes. I can handle this much. Adding water was a much simpler process than I expected. After creating a dip in the terrain, I dragged and dropped in the water prefab and adjusted the desired height of the water. To create a wall, I added some new te...

  All games have several formal elements, meaning that they can be defined. While some games will contain elements that are not necessary for functionality, there are core elements that are needed for a medium to become a game. A chess board set up for play. Source:  WikiMedia Players :   Without at least one player, a game cannot be played. It must be defined how many players are needed for play. Chess needs exactly two players, and it cannot function properly without both players. Solitaire needs exactly one player. and they play versus the system of the game. There are many games that do not need an exact amount of players. Many first person shooters do not need an exact amount, and the game can be played with either odd or even numbers. Once the game establishes how the players interact, the play is in motion. eg One v One v One - Free for All, Team Competition, Head to Head etc. Objectives :   For a game to be completed, there must be a scenario th...