From Beginning To...

The progress that I have made this week seems small when viewing the exported product, but I have become much more acquainted with After Effects (AE). I spent a lot of time practicing using masks and pick whips to get smooth animations rather than jolted changes between poses.  I decided to use the robot illustration going forward as I believe that it a mascot better suited to CDM. I had originally created several different versions of eyes and mouths in different positions to animate motions such as head turns and blinking. However using masking methods and linking body parts together, I was able to get smooth results using the bare minimum of vector graphics. This made the animation process much more concise and responsive. If I move the position of the body, all other features move with it. The facial features move with the head, and so on, getting more refined as the details get smaller. I created an idle hover pose to use when the character is stationary, to always have some...

Artwork that I feel captures Inferno Lair perfectly Source:  UHD Paper This week, I drew up a Game Design Document for Inferno Lair, my top down Action / Adventure RPG. I used Dundoc for this task, which was a major help and time saver. Having the templates there to guide me kept me on track, and made me aware of all of the design choices I had to consider. Inferno Lair has already become a more refined, better planned game than it was before I started this document. I realised some features that did not need to be there at all, and also some features that I didn't consider that definitely SHOULD be there. Link To Dundoc GDD:  Inferno Lair As I was considering how my game would be created, I started downloading more Unity Asset packs. Character models, SFX, weapons and armour etc. All things that I knew I needed, but writing this document made it feel like the time was getting near to start actually building it. I've been looking into the coding behind the combat a...

Looking at the gem from a close distance changes the UI This week's Unity Tutorial takes me back to the world I have created following Jimmy Vegas' Cobalt series tutorials. I started off by editing the UI, so that when the player is close to the gem and looks at it with the crosshairs, an action command is shown telling the player how to pick up the gem. This was a simple enough process, made easier by Jimmy's very easy to follow tutorials. As per usual, there was some C# coding to be done. I'm definitely starting to get the hang of it, and the actual logic behind the coding is beginning to make sense to me. If / else statements now seem simple, and the tags are becoming familiar. Now after inputting some code, the gem disappears when the action button is pressed, the cursor reverts to normal, and a sound chimes to indicate that the gem has been picked up. After creating some fences, the next step was to create a weapon. Now it's starting to feel like a v...

Various coloured pieces from Settlers of Catan Source:  PxHere   An interesting article that I have read this week is “ Design Considerations ”, by Greg Aleknevicus. In this article he discusses the factors of games that he really enjoys. These all fall under the category of physical presentation in board games. He states that he limits himself to “ideas and concerns that do not (for the most part) require extra expense beyond time”. He separates his views into categories; Components, The Box, Cards, Theme, and Rules. - Components   The design of the components of a game can drastically increase the enjoyability and functionality of a game. Aleknevicus suggests making game tiles “smaller than the spaces they’re placed upon”. This leaves room for movement of the tiles without disturbing the other tiles around it. Making the player pieces easily distinguishable is another suggestion, albeit somewhat more difficult. Many people suffer from colour blindness, of whi...