Unity Tutorial 06

Unity Tutorial 06

In the first lesson of the Unity tutorial series we started to create basic game play for this project. The first step was to open the project and to change the background. For these side scrolling game types it is important to have scrolling/repeating backgrounds to give the best effect. Next we chose our character and refined the settings. Next we made a script in order to make the character jump by pressing space bar. We also tweaked the gravity and jump settings. We also added a spawn manager to make obstacles spawn at different intervals. 

After completing the repeat background the next step was to add some script to end the game. We done this by adding a colider to the character and the obstacles. When the game is over the game restarts by moving the player back.  A script to destroy the obstacles after they go through the scene is added also. 

In the next lesson we added more refinement to the game. We added a jump animation and a fall animation to make the jump look more smooth.  We also made the player start the game at running speed. 

Image Info:

Screenshot from unity website: https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/lesson-3-3-don-t-just-stand-there?courseId=5cf96c41edbc2a2ca6e8810f&projectId=5cf9639bedbc2a2b1fe1e848

Unity Tutorial 05

Unity Tutorial 05

In this weeks Unity tutorial we made more improvements to our animal defence game. The first thing that we did was instead of using the button S to spawn in animals, we now want the animals to spawn in automatically in timed intervals. We done this by rewriting some code and use the InvokeRepeat command.

Next we added the collider components to our animals. We need to set the box collider as a trigger for the animals and the projectiles so that we can make them both disapear when they collide with each other. By using the OnTriggerEnter command we will destroy the 2 game objects when they collide. 

Lastly we will edit our destroy if out of bounds script so that a Game Over messege will display if one of the animals makes it out of bounds. 

For the second tutorial I found it a bit more of a challenge. The aim of the tutorial was to use the same methods as the previous tutorial to complete the tasks but I found it alot harder because there was less help. i think that this was a good idea though because it makes us think for ourselves instead of copying the tutorial. 

Image info: screenshot from unity tutorial

Unity Tutorial 04

Unity Tutorial 04

In this week's Unity tutorial we create a new project that allows use to use players to feed animals in our game. We begin creating the game by adding the player, the animals and the food. Once we have added these game objects we can then start working on the C scripting. In the script we coded the players movement inputs. We added movement to the player by giving up forward, backward, left and right movement. We also added variables to the code to clean everything up. 

Next, we then added the projectile prefab. A prefab is a "prefabricated" game object that is already made for us and is ready to use. Once we added the prefab into Unity it was ready to use. The function of the prefab is to launch a piece if food through the scene by pressing space bar. 

The next step was to add in the spawning mechanisms for the animals. For this tutorial we were working with prefab game objects that functioned as animals. The first think we did was created a spawning manager for the animals. We created the object and script so that an animal would spawn in when the player pressed S. 

Coding and other game development tasks are not really my strong point but I felt in this tutorial that I did not struggle too much. My understanding of the Unity engine is getting better. 

Image info:
Screenshot of Unity Tutorial

Reading 03

Reading 03

For this week's reading task we learned how to do our research for the project. After creating my research strategy and searching for documents on Google Scholar last week, I had 10 sources of information on my subject which I put in my documents folder. I divided my documents folder into 2 sections; read and unread. This way I can find PDFs that I have analysed and then after I have filled out my research matrix I can keep the document archived with the notes I've taken. 

I was really overwhelmed with this work but the more I read the readings the more I understood the process and what I had to do. I found that using Adobe Acrobat HUGELY helped me. I found that this software makes it very easy to edit, highlight and take notes on the PDFs I was analysing. Then, I can open up my research matrix, take down the relevant information by using the THREE PASS METHOD. This was a great way of working through the information and creating notes that I can easily come back to when writing my literature review or my work for creating the text book. 

Although I struggled, I am now starting to understand how to properly research for relevant info, analyse and record the data in the material and then archive and store the documents alongside their relevant notes. It is rewarding to be improving in a skill like this where I would usually struggle. 

Image info: 

Screenshot in Adobe Acrobat of the review matrix I filled out for one the documents I reviewed

Unity Tutorial 03

Unity Tutorial 3

In this week's Unity tutorial we learned more on how to take control of an object in order to play a game. In the tutorials it shows us how to use the Unity engine and C Script to control the object.

In the first tutorial we learn how to add controls so that the player can control a car. We do this by creating the car by using game objects. We then attach a C Script to the game object and write the code that makes it controllable by the player. The objectives of the tutorial were to:

Make the car turn left and right with the arrow keys

Make the car go forward and backwards with the arrow keys

Control the car's speed

Make the car rotate

The second tutorial was a similar lesson where we learn how to make a plane controllable by the player. The idea of the game is that the player can control the plane by using the arrow keys. The objectives of the tutorial were to:

Make the plane constantly move forward

Make the pitch controlled by the arrow keys 

Make the turning controlled by the arrow keys

Make the propeller rotate

Make the camera follow the plane 

Image Info:

Screenshot of tutorial on Unity website

Reading 02

Reading 2

I am not going to lie, when i started this week's readings I felt very overwhelmed. This type of work is completely new to me so my natural reaction was that I could not make sense of any of it. After going through the reading material and after watching the video things started become a lot more clear. What I took away from the material was that it was a guide on how to appropriately plan a literature review. We will then use these skills to research material in order to create our textbook. 

The first step to prepare our approach is to choose and analyse your research topic. It is important to fully understand the topic. Then the next step is to create your search strategy. This is something that is a bit unclear to me. I think what we are supposed to do is to identify our keywords that we will use to find out material. Once we have prepared our research matrix with our different folders we are ready to start gathering and analysing material. 

At the start of this task I felt very overwhelmed but I am happy that I starting to understand the topic. Hopefully I can keep up with the process. 

Image info: 

Photo of sign saying research: https://www.picpedia.org/highway-signs/r/research.html

Unity Tutorial 02

Unity Tutorial 2

This weeks Unity tasks were a nice little refresher on the basics of unity. I didn't struggled with Unity THAT much last semester but I am not extremely interested in V.R and I think Unity is a really great engine for making games so I wanted to sharpen up my skills. I really enjoy making games in Unity so I would love if by the end of the semester I become really comfortable with the Unity engine and the C script. 

The first tutorial is a very basic into into the Unity engine. It shows us how to create and position game objects. It is a good starter to get us back into the swing of things. 

The second tutorial gets a bit more in depth with the scene. We learn about how to make the car drive. We use the C script in order to make the car drive down the road. We then learn about the difference between the game view and the scene view. 

In the third tutorial we learn how to make the cars speed variable. We use C script again to add some code that will give the car some laws of physics such as gravity etc. 
Image info:
Screenshot of tutorial on Unity website