Game Stories

For this week's reading blog, it was about stories in games.

For the article I read, A Practical Guide to a Hero's Journey was about how myths help us create stories for games. Myths help convey the values of society and teaches people who they and how they should behave. A myth can be brought to life in a game which would make you feel you are seeing what might these myths might have been. There are a few steps we can take when creating a story for a game:

Step 1: Pick your premise which is a theme or myth. It will help decide what your game is about and how people behave and think after playing your game.

Step 2: Create your main character that embodies the premise. Also create a enemies that will help further the premise.

Step 3: Create the character's world.

Step 4: Disrupt the character's world. You have to force the main character into action to help the story.

Step 5: Create levels that takes the player from one place to another. Each level should show some incremental growth, or struggle in the character's development.

Step 6: Confront the main enemy/main boss of the game.

Step 7: Collect your prize from winning the game.

These steps bring the story all together help create your concept.

Article Link

In the article, a person named Gerard Jones is talked about. He has book called "Killing Monsters" and in the book, Gerard wrote about how playing violent games actually helped one young boy named Johnathan: "Games gave Johnathon control over events where he and others felt none and, perhaps even more important, they gave him control over his own feelings. With these games Johnathan no longer felt as helpless. He was not as scared of others or his own feelings". This is fascinating and I was interested to learn more about Gerard Johns.

Gerard Jones

Another interesting topic stated Rollo May postulated that narcotics are myth-substitutes because they allow people to assert control over their environment even for a short period of time.

Rollo May

I enjoyed reading this article and learning about stories in games. I hope it will help me with my game project.

                                                      

                                                                  Image Link

Week 8 Progress

For this blog, it is about my progress in general so far.

Looking Back
For my progress so far, I feel I'm at at decent point with my marks and if I continue to do the upcoming assignments in the next few weeks, I'll be happy with my final grade in the end. I have missed a number of assignments which has caused me to miss out on some marks like the project blogs which has a good number of marks each week. My daily routine isn't like I planned back in week 1. I leave most of the work to the last minute which can stress me and cause me to make mistakes when doing my blogs. I always say to try and get the work done a day before they are due but don't always do that. Other module work has also caused this I feel and I need to plan better.

The class assignments I have enjoyed the most are the Unity tutorials. I like learning how to make games but I have missed some Unity assignments. It great to see that we can make games at home. Unfortunately I haven't been doing the extra credits options even though I keep saying I will. It would benefit me a lot more and I do hope to try get some done in the coming weeks.

Looking Forward
There are some changes I want to make. For my project, I've thought of making a 2D game but I'm thinking about changing to it to 3D first person game. I feel a 3D game would be the better option as I have watched a good number of Jimmy Vegas's tutorials while I'll need to watch a lot more tutorials for a 2D game. Some blogs I haven't published need to be done and I need to get back to doing the project blogs. I will try to know what I fully want for my final game soon.

                                                                     Image Link

               We're nearly at the end of the first semester but we still got to keep doing the work.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

For this blog, it is about the blog commenting and feedback assignments I've done so far this semester.

Feedback In
Receiving comments from others doing the same work is very good. I like seeing what people think of my work and what they think I can improve on. I've been receiving some good feedback that has given me ideas for my project. Thinking of new ideas from the comments is the best thing about receiving them as others will help give ideas I never thought of. Hearing positive feedback is motivating as I do get this feeling a lot which is that people are not going like what I have but I feel a lot more comfortable now.

Feedback Out
I hope my comments are helpful. Reading other students work is very interesting and its great to see the great ideas others have for their projects. I try to give my best opinion and ideas that may help others to improve. When giving feedback, I've noticed some things I have missed in my work which helps me learn more. I do feel I should be a little more critical as this could help others improve more. For the quality of me giving feedback, I would say they could be better but I am happy with feedback I have given and hope it helps.

Blog Comments
For the first weeks, I didn't do the feedback comments for some reason and I don't know why. It is an easy task and can help a lot. Its good to learn more about people and even discover what I have in common with them. I've seen some great introduction blogs and looking back at mine, I should have added a lot more. I feel when people look at my introduction blog, they may feel it is a rushed blog and they won't learn a whole about me. Even when looking at people's favourite game blog, they have talked about why its their favourite game while I only show an image of my favourite game and not let people know why its my favourite. When commenting on project blogs, getting my word count to 150 has taken me more time than I thought it would but I still manage to get 150 words in project blogs.

Looking Forward
I feel more comfortable commenting on other student's blogs now and look forward to seeing more of their progress. I'll try critique more when commenting on blogs. More blogs on my game project are needed for viewers to see and help give more ideas of what my game will look like in the end. I'm thinking about doing some new updated blogs for my game as like I said in my reading and writing blog, I have mixed feeling towards my project and I need to fix that. The blog comments and feedback have been helpful to me and I hope my comments have been helpful to others.

Enjoyed doing this blog and look forward to doing the next assignments in the coming weeks.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

For this week's blog it is about looking back at the reading and writing in blogs I have done so far in this semester.

Looking Back
There has been a lot of reading posts this semester and its probably the most reading I have done since secondary school. I think its interesting reading about games but to me I find reading difficult.  Reading is something I say to myself that I need to do more but I just never get around to it and I get distracted easily which takes me away from the reading. I'm a very slow reader as well. Learning new things about games is good as I feel its gives me better thoughts when making my game and when playing games.

 I've been doing most of the reading blogs the last few weeks and every week the readings are about something new.  Some readings have been missed. The readings included what makes games fun, learning about MUD games and cozy games. My favourite reading was the games decisions article which talked about cozy games. I liked learning about what makes a game cozy and when reading this article I thought of games I played that makes the player feel cozy. Some things I learned from the blog was factors that negate coziness and ingredients of coziness aesthetics.

When done doing the reading blogs each week, I feel I should get back to the readings a lot more to help me for my game project. I think some readings on Unity about the coding for example would have been useful to help us learn more about it as it I did encounter some problems in coding while doing the tutorials.

For my project right now, I have a mixed feeling towards it. I feel I have a good idea but not quite sure how the end product is going is to be. Maybe I'm thinking too big for my game but I feel with all the other module work, I need to do more on my project.

Biggest accomplishments so far in this class have been learning more about games through the readings and learning how to use Unity.


                                               

Image
This image is probably my favourite. It was used in my game fun blog and I feel it fits the title of the blog. The image I feel is good for our project as we should be having fun making our game in Unity and making it fun to play. Relaxing is something I need but work comes first.

Looking Forward
Looking forward, I hope my game turns out good. I've missed a few recent submissions for my project and need to get back to submitting them. Hopefully the remaining reading tasks will help me learn more. I'm thinking more about my project plus what to do with it and how the final game will look in the end. When first starting this module I was a little worried but it been an interesting module and I do look forward to see what happens next semester.

Unity Free Tutorials

For this week's Unity tutorials, I have begun working on the game I am going to make. The game I am making is a 2D platformer game and I have watched some tutorials for starting my game. I found a Youtuber name Brackeys who has some tutorials for making a 2D platformer in Unity.

For the first tutorial, it was the basic starting point of getting my character to move and the camera to follow the character. I downloaded the 2D assets pack to help me make my 2D platformer. The pack came with a character design and prototypes for the ground which the character walks on when in play mode. The look of this character will not be the final look in my game. At first everything was going well but when I first tried to enter play mode, once again I encounter errors again with the script just like in other tutorials. I was frustrated at first but I got it working by editing the script of Platformer2DUserControl. 

The Platformer2DUserControl script needed fixing with these these changes below:

In the script, delete the namespace reference 'using UnityStandardAssets.CrossPlatformInput;'
Finally: under 'Update' and 'FixedUpdate' replace 'CrossPlatformInputManager' with 'Input'. They should read: m_Jump = Input.GetButtonDown("Jump"); and float h = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");

After this, I focused on the main camera to follow and be in the same position as the character. I worked on how smooth the camera would be, meaning how focused it would be on the character. It can help for player direction to see what lies in front of them when moving forward.

For the second tutorial, it was about adding art environment. I've used some artwork from the asset store that fits the idea of the stage level I have for my game as I didn't want to use artwork from the tutorial video. The tutorial helped me learn how to use the artwork for foregrounds and backgrounds. The tutorial also showed how the add grounds that can be used for platforms but I haven't added any yet.

I feel this was a good start at making my platform game and look forward to continue working on it.

Tutorial 1
Tutorial 2

                                                       
                                                                  Work in Unity

Game Fun

For this week's reading, the articles were about fun. Two articles I've read are by Noah Falstein and Richard Bartle.

The first article by Noah Falstein is about fun and what makes a game fun. Fun is described as a source of amusement or enjoyment. A paraphrase used is "we may not be able to describe fun, but we know it when we have it". Each person has their own way of having fun. The article talked about how human evolution over the last thousands and how humans maintained their place in their families and communities.

There are different types of fun explained and why people may like these.

Physical Fun
There may be a connection between our evolutionary heritage and games and entertainment in physical form. Our primary urge of survival instinct. Anything that threatens our survival gains our attention. Anything that involves threats to survival and countering those threats will gain an audience. Hunter gathering is compared to fitness sports today as they involve body fitness and good coordination.

Social Fun
This is about meeting new people. Online multiplayer and even single-players games in group settings have helped. New technology devices like phones have helped put people in contact with new people that is also likely to further the social aspects of video games.

Mental Fun
This would involve using our intelligence to focus on mental fun. We practice and improve our mental abilities. Our ancestors would think of how they would survive, what animals would that hunt for food and how will they hunt them. They learn from their experience and use for future events and us humans today learn new things that may benefit us in our future.

The second article by Richard Bartle was about MUDs which I have never heard of. MUDs have been active since 1978. From the reading, it discusses four types of players who play MUD games. These approaches may arise from the inner-relationship of two dimensions of playing style.

Achievers 
Regard points-gathering and rising in levels as their main goal.

Explorers
Like exploring the world to discover new locations.

Socializers
Interested in meeting new people.

Killers
Prefer to kill instead of focusing on a objective.

I enjoyed reading Noah Falstein's article as I liked it discussing how people from thousands of years ago are compared to people today. Richard Bartle's article was interesting at first but my interest declined through reading.

Noah Falstein Article Link
Richard Bartle Article Link

                                                                   

                                                           
                                                                  Image Link

Unity Tutorial 5

For this week's Unity tutorial, I focused skybox plus winds, fade screens and work on environments of a game.

The first tutorial focused on skybox and winds. First I started off with the skybox which is basically designing the sky that surrounds your game. This will help for the to look of your your game as your game may be in dark or bright setting. The lighting also helps with the shadows of objects in your game like a tree for example. I tested different colors sources for environment lighting to see how it would affect the game.

Next part of the first tutorial was on windzone which is controlling the wind for the environment of the game. I feel this is very useful for those who are making open world games as it will help give life to their game. When editing the turbulence and main wind, if you set to a high number, it gave a crazy look to my trees in Unity. We would need to keep the settings for the wind low so it won't seem broken or have a crazy look to it.

The next tutorial was creating a fading in the screen and creating a script which allows me to pick up an axe from a tree. First part was picking up the axe which was stuck in a tree. A cube with an invisible box collider was then positioned over the axe. Finally I added a script to the "TakeAxeObeject" which allowed me to take the axe from the tree. This part of the tutorial was very helpful as it is useful for a game that has players able to pick up weapons.

The final tutorial involved fixing bugs but it also involved adding a house and editing its look. I enjoyed working on the house to give it a look I liked. I had to edit the lighting on the house as well so it would look like it fits in with environment around it.

I enjoyed doing this week's tutorial and these tutorials are close to the end. I start working on my main project soon and I'm looking forward to it.

                                                                   Axe in the tree

Game Decisions

For this week's reading, it was about what productivity applications we can learn from games. The article focused on cozy games and how to design them. Coziness is a state or quality of being in control but still being engaged during times of rest.

Coziness itself refers to how strongly a game evokes the fantasy of:
Safety: A cozy game has an absence of danger and risk.
Abundance: A cozy game has a sense of abundance. 
Softness: Cozy games use strong aesthetic signals that tell players they are in a low stress environment full of abundance and safety. 

Factors that negate coziness include:

• Extrinsic reward: 
• Danger, fear, threat: 
• Responsibility: 
• Unpleasant distractions: 
• Intense stimulus: 
• Distance
• Confinement:
• Deception, betrayal, lies, insincerity 

Cozy games can fulfill player needs. They can create spaces for higher order needs like mastery and self-reflection.

There are a number of highly specific design patterns for each domain of game design. 
Ingredients of cozy aesthetics:

• Abundance: a theme of plenty and generousness assists in player calm and security. 
• Smooth Transitions: Gentle gradients between states, colors, or environments within the cozy area.
• Protection & Support: Clear signals of strong safety and comfort, from the environment and characters around the player, signal that this is a safe place in which to explore higher-order needs.
• Focus: Elimination of interruptions, pressures or sources of unwanted distraction, allows the player to feel a place is knowable and thereby becomes familiar and comfortable.
• Refuge & Escape: if there is an “outside” to this space, it is contrasted in its discomfort or danger. 
• Human-centric: The comfort and ease of humans in this space or system is apparent.

Cozy visuals cam help give games a sense of safety and comfort. This be achieved with bright colors, bright lights, natural materials, open space and contrast.

Cozy locations are places without danger and the player can do what they want. It can also allow creative expression where players can design the location to what they want.

Two examples of cozy places are below:

• Places that fill basic needs, including food, rest, warmth, and opt-in sociability. They should include visible places to comfortably sit, eat, drink, and view beauty.
• Transition spaces without danger or obligation: trains, backseat of a car, slow-moving spacecraft

This was a very interesting article as I feel it gave a good look as to what can make a player enjoy a game they play. I never really thought about coziness when playing a game but this article has help me think more about it when playing video games.

Links of interest:
http://www.lostgarden.com/
This week's article

https://medium.com/@kitfoxgames/designing-for-coziness-d33d2519a59e
Similar article

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-05-how-to-design-for-coziness-and-kindness
Interesting perspective on how to design coziness in a game

                                       
                                              This would be a nice cozy place to relax in
                                                                  (Image Link)