The end of the year is a hectic time. Mission three is proving difficult and there aren't enough artworks to post on this website. Coding is really difficult but sometimes I can make it sort of work. The trick to it is writing out the code given in the lessons and then frankensteining it into a different project. Like I said, it doesn't always work but it certainly gets the job done most of the time. I'd say this probably isn't how you're supposed to do it, but from what I see of actual coders this is a pretty common occurrence. I think I'll be able to exempt myself from the final exam, I just need to finish up this portfolio and complete mission three, which will definitely be difficult, but at least there's only one coding exercise to take care of. I realize it's been a while since I've talked about the gaming industry, so I think it's worth mentioning that game production seems to have recovered fully. The few games that came out during the pandemic really skyrocketed a few indie developers reputation. Games that were really subpar in retrospect were very popular since there was almost nothing else to play. At least things are back to normal.
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Understanding the coding of this mission was fairly easy for the most part. I think I could make a very barebones prototype of some kind of simple game at this point. Movement is really simple, especially if you use some common tricks to give more of an illusion of movement rather than full mobility. Hud is also easy to wrap my head around as long as it's fairly simplistic. The one thing I still struggle with is integers. It always feels like I get what the instructor is talking about when he references some specific numbers, but when I put them into practice they never seem to work. The same goes for the symbols associated with integers. I can never remember the command for "same as" or "equal to or less than". Regardless, coding is becoming slightly more understandable with each new lesson. Eventually I'll have enough resources to make something of my own. The WebGL upload error persists on this computer, so I had the challenges checked in class.
The new Unity coding course was waaaay easier to follow than the Linkedin course. I now think I could easily make a player controlled character, a moving camera, basic movement, and minor behaviors. I think I could make a simple game from scratch now, albeit with a little copy-and-pasting from other projects. The easiest topic for coding is surprisingly player movement. Making something move is as easy as putting a couple lines of code for player input and defining some variables. The trickiest topic is implementing randomness. It's still a little unclear to me, but everything else seems to be fairly simple. I wasn't able to upload the final product to the Unity store because of some weird build issues, but Mr. B saw it working just fine so everything should be okay.
Now that we've started over with coding, everything seems so much easier to understand. I still don't think I could code an entire game or anything, but I think I could make a few minor things work in Unity. Unity in general has become a lot easier to understand thanks to this coding tutorial. The Linkedin course was alright, but it was a little difficult to work with in some regards. In gaming news, Elden Ring has just come out and it's the biggest thing since sliced bread. Not surprising, given FromSoftware's reputation. They're what I aspire to be one day, a well respected game company known for quality and pushing boundaries. Although, they haven't pushed the boundaries much since their success with Dark Souls. It's to be expected, I guess. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
To make a long story short: I don't get it. From an overall perspective I can understand the steps taken when coding. I've had very limited exposure to coding, but I can understand the process and design behind it. Patrol states and state changes are the elements that I think I can comprehend the most. Working in level editors for premade games in the past is a little similar to it. Creating AI and changing states seems fairly simple, and problem solving for it is much simpler than creating a system or UI. The part that I'm really worried about are the commands. I have no idea how I'm supposed to remember all the little key words that make up C#. This is especially worrying since the game I've chosen to create has next to no AI and is entirely menus and systems. What's more, I didn't really get any information on how to create the kind of game I have in mind. In short, I think I'm gonna need a little help on the specifics of my game, but I think I could create a standard game with minimal help.
Creating a GDD was harder than I thought it would be. I've always had trouble translating ideas into real concepts, as represented here by the many holes in the idea. Honestly, I think this won't really look like a game until I have a full prototype. As a procedural thinker, things will get more fleshed out when I have something I can physically grasp. Luckily, this game will easily translate from a board game to video game. As it stands this game will need it's basic loop finished, then comes the random events, then the upgrades system. Where I'm really struggling with this idea is visually. How do I represent patients and buildings? How can I make a mostly text game look good? My notoriously bad drawing skills certainly don't help. If only I could enlist help. I believe I could make a playable board game prototype in a week, but who knows how long a Unity version could take. I've only really been taught how to make first person games and use the assets store. I think a simplistic game like this would be easy to make, but I have no evidence to support that claim. My experience in making board games will certainly come in handy here. The worst part about this whole game concept is that I really wanted it to be a sort of atmospheric experience. The game itself is basic, it's the context that would draw people in. Tycoon games have a major disconnect from players. The direct decisions of Awful Apothecary would hopefully be what makes people feel involved. I don't know.
This is a list of idea I came up with for a potential fantasy game. This is my ranking of the ideas:
1. Form a fantasy band of bards 2. Create a medieval hospital 3. Steal the crowns of every kingdom 4. Tame monsters to become a dungeon master 5. Organize a skeleton union party 6. Play as a member of an adventuring party who died and wants to protect the party as a ghost 7. Fantasy zombie apocalypse 8. Create a new fashion trend in armor 9. Starts out as a normal fantasy game until the payer realizes that the map keeps moving around 10. Visit every region as a tourist As you can see they're not all winners, but I think there's some pretty good ones in there. The one I'd like to focus on specifically is idea number two: create a medieval hospital. I think that a highly underutilized part of fantasy games is healing, which this game would focus on. The player would create a hospital, tycoon style, and be asked how to treat certain ailments that adventurers come in with. The hospital can specialize in several different forms of healing centered around magic, dark magic, prayer, and practical medicines. Each specialization offers new ways of healing certain ailments, some much better than others. The better you do in healing adventurers the more money you can make, which you can use to buy upgrades. I imagine the finale to the game would be something like a massive outbreak of the black death or maybe a curse put upon the land by a major villain.
I'd say that creating this game actually went really well. It was difficult to create the game from scratch with no good ideas for it, but I eventually came up with something that I feel makes it stand out. Since the enemies and health portion of the project got taken out I decided to focus on atmosphere first and foremost. Although the game is small, I tried my best to make interesting and thought provoking environments that will give a player a certain vibe. There's no direct game overs or anything, but there are certain rooms in the maze that could be considered a bad ending of some kind. The 2D assets were made in Photoshop. First I took some spooky silhouette pictures, spliced them together, and then edited them so that they would fit on the tunnels (it's still pretty stretched but I think it works). I also edited some of Winston's textures so that they would work as a spooky wallpaper, giving some rooms a fleshy feel. The statue created in 3Ds Max is meant to be comedic, like a file failed to load. I simply made the letters for the error message, imprinted some text on the base (which is an altered cube), then imported it to Unity. This project was a lot of fun.
I must say, Unity seems at least ten times easier than 3Ds Max. Granted, it's not the software you'd want to use to exclusively create 3D models. The interface is much more user friendly and the ability to drag and drop items is satisfying and easy to do. I can definitely see how it could get complicated fast with all the potential properties you can assign to objects, but for now it seems fairly simple. What I really struggled with was the packages editor. It's nothing complex, but there's a lot to take in when you open/use it. I like the hierarchies window and how organized all the content is, I like how simple it is to edit a specific object with the inspector window. I have to say: I'm a bit worried that we were looking at specifically 3D stuff. No 2D game design at all. Anyways, the Unity Game Engine is pretty cool in my books, but I know this class is going to screw me over somehow.
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Cole ThomasInto video games and the likes. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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