First Playable

First Playable

I am relieved to finally have a version of my game that is somewhat playable. At this point, I have the fps controller and terrain of my level completed. I have created the majority of what I want to do with the terrain. I have created the landscape, the trees, the grass, the fog and the rocks. One more thing that I want to do is to create the boundaries of the level. I hope to do this by creating a denser border of trees that will act as a boundary and a guide towards the end of the game. I also plan to add a mountain into the map. 

My next step is to create the HUD and to create the AI characters. Then, after that I have to add in the weapons and inventory. This is the most daunting task for me. I am a bit worried that I will not be able to integrate everything that I plan to have in the game. I hope that I not falling behind. 

I am also a bit worried that I will not be able to create the opening and closing scenes of the game. I am completely new to the Unity engine so I do not have a clue how I would go about doing this. I will definitely need to watch a few tutorials.

Whats working well for me at the moment is that I have the basics started and I know what I need to do next. What I am struggling with is time management. I really hope I can get all this done in time while I juggle all of my other assignments. I am enjoying this module so I am going to push through. 

Image Info:
Screenshot of my game in Unity engine

Unity Free Tutorial

Unity Free Tutorial

The name of the tutorial I watched was "Creating a Survival Game in Unity 2018 | Part 1 - Health, Thirst, & Hunger". I thought that this tutorial would be relevant to me because I am creating a survival game that contains all of the factors covered in this tutorial: thirst, hunger and health. I am glad I watched this tutorial because there is a lot of C# coding that needs to be done so at least I have somewhere to go to help me do this. 

Another reason why I am glad that I watched this YouTube tutorial because it is a part of a unity tutorial series. In the other tutorials it covers items and inventory and also covers animal U.I. I am so glad I found this series because it perfectly suits the game that I want to make.

In the C# code, the tutorial basically runs through how to set up the health system and how taking damage can cause the player to die. Then, it runs through how to set up hunger and thirst. Both of these levels slowly degenerate over time and have to be replenished. One thing that I am still unsure about is hos to integrate these into the HUD system. 

Image Info: 

Screenshot of YouTube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhkoYxuZ2UI(link to tutorial)

Game Fun

Game Fun

The first article that I read was "Natural Funativity" by Noah Falstein. This article talks about what we humans would consider 'fun' and how we are always trying to define what 'fun' really is. The author talks about how the maker of tetris would ask his staff when they presented game ideas to them, what is the fun part? 

The author then talks about how games and human entertainment trigger our human instinct. Before modern society, games were a major cause of the development of our brains. The technology of game development has progressed this childhood urge into adulthood. 

The next article I read was "Player's who suit MUDs" by Richard Bartle. What MUDs basically are are MMOs.

The four things that people generally enjoy about these games are: achievement, exploration, socializing and imposition. In the article it says that these are the main drivers that cause people to enjoy these games. These 'types' of players all enjoy different aspects within the game. Also, they all interact with each other in different ways. 

The last article I am going to be talking about is "MDA Frameworks" by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek. In this document the authors talk about this thing called the MDA Framework. This stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. In the document how different combonations of these three game development factors are what make games diffeent but also how these factors are what can creat what one would call 'fun' games. 

Image info:

Screenshot from MMO game: https://www.dualshockers.com/tera-is-half-off-on-amazon-today-go-get-your-mmo-on/