Unit 1 - History, Career and Ethics
The main career that I am interested in the game industry would have to be lead designer. This is because my goal was to become solid at everything related to the game industry which includes programming, designing using 3D Studio Max and just general teamwork skills. Finally, my knowledge of the design pipeline makes me a prime candidate for this task.
During this class, I learned not only the artistic and programming skills to create a game but the design components as well. One such thing that I learned more about was the ratings system, the ESRB, which is used to rate video games on a scale of Everyone to Adults Only. This is very important for marketing because it helps to determine who your general audience will be. I also learned about other things in ethical design such as the importance of ensuring that your materials are made in-house, which ensures that you will not run into legal issues down the road.
During this class, I learned not only the artistic and programming skills to create a game but the design components as well. One such thing that I learned more about was the ratings system, the ESRB, which is used to rate video games on a scale of Everyone to Adults Only. This is very important for marketing because it helps to determine who your general audience will be. I also learned about other things in ethical design such as the importance of ensuring that your materials are made in-house, which ensures that you will not run into legal issues down the road.
Unit 2 - Game Theory
After we finished learning about the topics discussed in Unit 2, we learned more about the decisions made into designing a game which would become known as game theory. There are many topics that we discussed in this unit such as game mechanics which involve things like chance and time and the importance of a good story in developing a solid game. In short, in this unit we learned primarily about mechanics through playing games on the free tabletop game website called Tabletopia.
In any successful game, the game must be mechanically sound, which means that the game mechanics must work together which in turn will create an enjoyable experience in the form of "Flow" which is the term used to describe how tuned in the player is to the game they are playing. One example of a game mechanic would be chance which involves the use of a Random Number Generator to generate a series of events or outcomes that may occur. This works with procedures because in a specific game, for example at the end of your turn you may be required to spin a spinner or draw a card like in Oregon Trail, which may have drastic effects on the game.
Another important interaction that is necessary for the creation of a well-rounded game would have to be between time and resources. This could be in the form of a "capture" game where your task may be to rescue the princess from the evil dragon in a specific amount of time. This interaction between time and resources is important because in this case your goal is to get a number of resources which would be boring and really easy without the pressure of a time limit and the same goes the other way.
In any successful game, the game must be mechanically sound, which means that the game mechanics must work together which in turn will create an enjoyable experience in the form of "Flow" which is the term used to describe how tuned in the player is to the game they are playing. One example of a game mechanic would be chance which involves the use of a Random Number Generator to generate a series of events or outcomes that may occur. This works with procedures because in a specific game, for example at the end of your turn you may be required to spin a spinner or draw a card like in Oregon Trail, which may have drastic effects on the game.
Another important interaction that is necessary for the creation of a well-rounded game would have to be between time and resources. This could be in the form of a "capture" game where your task may be to rescue the princess from the evil dragon in a specific amount of time. This interaction between time and resources is important because in this case your goal is to get a number of resources which would be boring and really easy without the pressure of a time limit and the same goes the other way.
After creating this artifact I learned that the mechanics in a game must work in order for the game itself to be enjoyable.
Unit 3 - Pre Production and Prototypes
In this class we expanded on our knowledge of the design pipeline that we learned in our Digital Design and Animation classes. At the beginning, the basic storyboarding is done for the game which involves creating the plot and the key events in the game. Once this is completed a simple prototype can be created with little to no programming. After the prototype is completed and the changes to it that need to have been made are done then the design team begins to create the actual game in a phase called Production.
Once the game is in production, it needs to hit a few key milestones. Once the game has been whiteboxed out inside of a design program it is considered First Playable which means that while it can technically be played it will not look anything like the finished product with many characters being just simple boxes or spheres. Once more textures have been added and the models have been created, the game is considered to be in Alpha which means that while there may still be some large bugs in the game, it looks much like how the game will look. After alpha, the game goes into Beta which involves the removal of large bugs while small bugs may still remain. It is also during this time that the game is often sent out into the public for testing. After beta, most bugs are fixed and all new code stops during Code Freeze when it is then considered to be finished and is shipped to the stores.
Creating this image helped me to visualize what the general layout of the game would look like in terms of actions.
Creating this image helped teach me how to storyboard a level on paper.
Creating this image helped me learn how to create a digital storyboard for a level
During this class I learned quite a few things about the production process, particularly about pre production and its individual phases. It begins with storyboarding out a game on paper then often but not always moves to digital. Then, you begin to construct a physical prototype using the storyboard as your guideline and then change it as need be. A virtual prototype will often be completed in addition to help the programmers know what the code needs to look like.
Unit 4 - Game Production
After we completed our unit on pre production, we moved into actually creating games using a game engine called Unity. Unity is a game engine that is used by many professional game developers in order to get their games out to the public. The Unity engine uses the coding language C# in order to make a game in the engine, which makes it more difficult to use than Unreal in many ways which does not require coding unlike Unity. While working in Unity, we worked on the non-coding Unity essentials pathway first and then moved into the more challenging and lengthy Junior Programmer pathway which involves a heavy dose of coding.
While working in the Unity essentials pathway, I learned a lot about the interface of the Unity engine including how to maneuver in it and where to go if you want to change specific items. To learn this, we created microgames such as the LEGO one which involved a game that was mostly made but it was up to me to fix a couple of things such as adding in a new area and changing the height of platforms and adding in an enemy. After completing the first microgame, I got into working on creating a pachinko game and a few other games which helped to give me a general grasp of the game engine.
After completing Unity essentials, I moved into Junior Programmer where I learned about a new coding language called C#. I began the pathway by creating a simple driving game which felt complicated at first but then I got through it as I spent more time on it. I then moved into assignments called Labs which involved me fixing bugs such as movement of a plane's propeller and a soccer game which helped to expand my knowledge of the language. I then planned out how I could make these games even better by adding a scoreboard in another activity. I then moved into creating UI for my game at last.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/soccer-scripting-4
Fixing up this soccer game taught me how to create levels in Unity.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/fetch-game-5
This basic fetch game taught me how to simulate a dropping object and make an object catch it.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/escape-the-bird
Creating this Lego microgame provided me with a great introduction to the Unity engine
While working in the Unity essentials pathway, I learned a lot about the interface of the Unity engine including how to maneuver in it and where to go if you want to change specific items. To learn this, we created microgames such as the LEGO one which involved a game that was mostly made but it was up to me to fix a couple of things such as adding in a new area and changing the height of platforms and adding in an enemy. After completing the first microgame, I got into working on creating a pachinko game and a few other games which helped to give me a general grasp of the game engine.
After completing Unity essentials, I moved into Junior Programmer where I learned about a new coding language called C#. I began the pathway by creating a simple driving game which felt complicated at first but then I got through it as I spent more time on it. I then moved into assignments called Labs which involved me fixing bugs such as movement of a plane's propeller and a soccer game which helped to expand my knowledge of the language. I then planned out how I could make these games even better by adding a scoreboard in another activity. I then moved into creating UI for my game at last.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/soccer-scripting-4
Fixing up this soccer game taught me how to create levels in Unity.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/fetch-game-5
This basic fetch game taught me how to simulate a dropping object and make an object catch it.
https://play.unity.com/mg/other/escape-the-bird
Creating this Lego microgame provided me with a great introduction to the Unity engine