My Multimedia Journey

  In this blog I will be discussing my vision for my game 'Escape the Mansion'. In this vision statement, I will detail Escape the Mansion's genre, gameplay aspects and resources, and include relevant links and images to help flesh out my plans.  I wanted to create a game that had a very simple play style for casual and experienced gamers alike. I didn't want to overcomplicate the game by jam-packing it with features, but to make something anyone could pick up and enjoy. When researching what to do I felt that the best games with simple concepts had a thought-out theme that made the player create the world themselves. The original Mario game had very limited capabilities by today's standard but had the player make up their story for why Mario saves the Princess.  I want to try create a similar theme with this game to make the player ask these kind of questions in their head and create the answers - why am I trapped here? Who are my captors? What threat looms around ...

Unity Prototype 2   For this weeks Unity tutorials they took way longer than I intended on spending on them. I kept making minor mistakes in the coding which cost me a lot of time as I couldn't find what it was that was stopping the game from working the way it is meant to. In the first tutorial I learned how to move the player from left to right like last time but the difference this time round was that I stopped the player from going off the edge of the screen by adding an 'if-statement'. This piece of code says that if that player is gone too far to the left or to the right that it will automatically stop.  The next two tutorials I completed I found much harder than the first. In my head I am still trying to make sense of the Unity interface and the basics of making a game. As the tutorials get progressively harder I am finding myself finding it more and more difficult to complete them by the suggested time.  However I know how important it is to complete these tutoria...

  MDA image This week for my readings I look into the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics (MDA) framework of game design. The first reading I delved into was  MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research  by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek. This was a very in-depth look into what the MDA framework is and how it is applied to the majority of aspects in game design.  'Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms. Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each others outputs over time. Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system.' When setting out to design a brand new game, game designers often take inspiration from games of a similar nature and add aspects of that to their own game. When doing so you have to ask yourself 'what is it that makes this game fun?' ...

  Escape room game  After receiving feedback from my game ideas, I have decided to follow the path of my 'Escape the Mansion' concept. While I was told that my other three ideas had promise, I found feedback for Escape the Mansion to be the most positive.  Although I liked the concept of the shooting game, looking back  it did seem quite far fetched for my current level of skill this semester, and while both my Cloud Surfer and Getaway ideas weren't poor, they may have also been difficult to programme as they require a high level of skill for designing the aesthetic of the game worlds.  Delving into research for Escape the Mansion, I felt the most important aspect to make it a good game was a solid theme. I would like a fun, but pseudo-horror theme in both the map-design and aesthetic, very similar to the GameCube classic Luigi's Mansion. Luigi's Mansion is a game is I was recommended about by a friend when discussing my project. Upon researching the game, I fou...

  Unity screenshot (my image)   Firstly for this weeks Unity tutorial we had to finish our car game that we started last week. When I first started the Unity tutorial I never would have expected that I could make the basics of a game but with the tutorials I found them quite easy to understand. We ended up with a working basic game. I got the car to move around the obstacles and travel at a certain speed. For the second Unity tutorial we were thrown into the deep end as we had to fix problems in the game by applying what we have learned already in the previous tutorial. I found this very difficult at first but I used the first tutorial as a reference to look back on. I was able to move the camera angle, make the plane go forward and also make the plane respond to my keys. I am still getting used to the fact that the slightest mistake in the code can make the game not work at all. It is easy to get very frustrated at yourself and lose patience but hopefully I will learn in time...

  In a previous blog post I made, which can be found  here , I talked in depth about What is a Game? Today I looked into different elements within a game. The first article I read was  What are the Qualities of Games?  by Ian Schreiber. In this paper Schreiber explained that elements of a game include: Players Objectives  Rules Resources and Resource Management  Game State Information Sequencing  Player Interaction Theme (Narrative, Backstory, Setting) Games as Systems He also goes into critical analysis of a game and why it is necessary. Upon hearing the word critical many of people assume that it is a negative look into a game, pointing out it flaws, but in fact it is not. Critical analysis is in fact an in-depth and unbiased look at the game at hand. This is important for game developers because if a game is fun, they want to know why it is fun so they know that that element of the game works and can be carried out in their future work. As well as p...

Positive thinking The first article I read this week regarding feedback was  this  New York Times article. It was short and sweet yet had a good message and made me look at negative feedback differently. I found it interesting that most of us find it hard to accept negative critique because we are so afraid ourselves to give it to other people. I personally would cringe at the thought of sitting someone down and tell them everything I think they're doing wrong but if I approached the situation with consideration and constructive criticism then it would be much easier for a person to handle.  'you can retrain your brain to actively seek out that feedback so you associate it not with anxiety, but with opportunity.'   - This is something that I am going to work on for the future. When I receive negative feedback I take it quite personally and it gets me down but if I change my mindset to see it as an opportunity to grow and learn then I will become a better worker....

Game developing for me is something I have never considered doing as a job as I am not much of a gamer at all. As I explained previously in my post about my favourite game, which can be found  here , I have only really played GTA V so I found coming up with new game ideas quite difficult to be honest. Game Idea 1- 'Cloud Surfer'  The first game that I came up with was inspired by Doodle Jump, the game application where a cute alien hops from platform to platform collecting extra points and avoiding enemies. I had an idea to have a similar  'cloud surfing'  where you have to jump from cloud to cloud dodging various obstacles in the sky like planes, birds, hot air balloons and so on. Even though it is quite a simple idea it is something that I would be interested in playing. It would be an easy hop-on hop-concept which would function as a (hopefully) infinite platform, where the player tries their best to score the highest amount possible. I would enjoy if there was a ...

  (screenshot of unity interface - by me) I have just completed my first set on Unity tutorials which surprisingly enough, I enjoyed! At the beginning it was quite intimidating opening up the Unity Hub as I have never used it or seen it before but the tutorials were very helpful. In the tutorials they explain how important it is to watch what they are doing first and then do it for yourself after. At the beginning I had to stop myself from going off and doing the work as he was doing it but when I watched the tutorial in full first I found I understood it a lot more.   To start off with I learned the basics like adding a folder to the programme and how to add a car and obstacle but as the tutorials went on I learned how to move camera angles, change the mass of an object and even get the car to move which was very cool.I didn't realise how much work goes into the basic movements but I suppose the more I learn the more things will come naturally to me. The coding side of t...

  What is a game? If you put this question to a hundred people you would, without doubt, get one many different answers. Before conducting some research on the topic I would have said it an activity that involves making choices which results in either winning or losing, but I know realise it is much more complicated than that. The article linked goes into much more depth about what a game is. Even though there are many different answers to the question, there is not one exact right answer which should be used as there are so many various ways to answer it. There are however facts about what games are which include: Games are an activity  Games have rules  Games have goals  Games involve decision making  In order to make your own game or to explain a game to another person it is important that you understand the correct vocabulary to use as it shows a greater understanding of what you are talking about.    Game controller Moving on from a what the defin...

  (Clocks -  https://www.needpix.com/photo/1558910/twelve-time-time-management-stopwatch-industry-economy-self-management-business-structuring  ) Time management is going to be extremely important this year. Deadlines can creep up on top of you so easily leaving you panicking and stressed at the last minute. That is something I am definitely going to avoid doing this year. To help me find a more productive way to use my times and creative a balanced work plan I read these two articles: Realistic Study Plans  by Amanda Collins https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/blog/2020/08/11/build-a-realistic-study-plan/ Time Management Tips Just for Creatives  by Amanda Oliver https://www.canva.com/learn/time-management/ I found the both of them very insightful and I gained some great tips from reading them. One of the main things I am going to try to do is to make a to-do list before I work and also turn my phone off so I don't get so easily distracted. I find it very hard to si...

https://pixnio.com/objects/computer/mobile-phone-restaurant-portable-computer-business-notebook-computer-personal-computer-laptop This semester is going to be all based online using technology which is going to take some getting used to. Even though I use technology everyday and am extremely comfortable with it, it is more the fact that we don't have the luxury of physically going to labs and lectures and being shown what to do in person. Since it is only our second week back everything is still very new but I know with time it will become the new norm.  In terms of the technology tools we will be using I am familiar with several of them. Blogger.com is something I gained experience using in first year so I am comfortable using it. The only tools I have never tried using before is Unity 3D and the graphics creating tools but nowadays there are thousands of YouTube videos and tutorials showing how to do certain tasks which will be a great help.  It is difficult getting used to ...

After reading through what to expect for this semester I am eager to get started! One thing that stood out to me was the option to do tasks for extra credit. I think it is fantastic to have this opportunity and have the choice to do these tasks, especially if you are struggling a certain week and missed out on submitting something you are then able to do some extra credit tasks to make up for the points which eliminates a lot of stress. I personally am intrigued by the growth mindset and H.E.A.R.T options for extra credit, I am looking forward to exploring these more.  I love how everything for this module is laid out very clearly and that we can work ahead if we wanted to. In these particular times there is a lot of stress about working from home but I feel this is the only module that has made me feel at ease in terms of knowing what we are doing and when it has to be done by which is greatly appreciated.  UNITY is a major part of this module and it is something I have never...

For this post i've decided to give you an insight into the person behind the blog!  Let's start off with the basics - My name is Leslie McCue and I just turned the ripe age of 22. I am now in my second year of college studying creative digital media. It is definitely not the most normal start to a new college year since we now have to work online but you have to make the most of it. So far I am loving the course and it is great to be able to trial different aspects of media without being stuck doing one thing in particular. I am still trying to find my feet in terms of what route I would like to go down on but everyday week I am slowly realising what I would like to focus on in this course.  Looking back on my first year my favourite class would have had to be photography. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. For one of our projects we had to do a project design shot which I really enjoyed doing and was really proud of the work I produced. Here is a picture of m...