After my second year working in Unity, I am proud to announce that I have learned something. This blog post will discuss a few brief functions that are commonly (and frequently) used. If you want a start screen in your game, do it fret since making one is super easy. You want at least three buttons: an Open Gane button, an Instructions button, and an Exit Button. The exit button requires an “On Click” event that calls the function:
public void FunctionName(){ Application.Quit(); } This will, in essence, quit the application when you click the button. For your start button, you need to add all of your scenes to your build (but do not build yet!). Then, add an “On Click” event with a script containing: void OtherFunctionName(){ SceneManager.LoadScene(“Name of Scene”); } but make sure you put “using UnityEngine.SceneManager; at the top of your script! The last component you would definitely want in a start screen are instructions. These are the most simple since they do not require and extra script attached; make a separate UI image with a UI text attached and write out your rules. For your main “Instructions” button, call “On Click” and then “GameObject.SetActive.” Drag your instructions object and check the box. Make a separate exit button that pops up with the instructions and call “On Click… GameObject.SetActive,” drag the instructions object into the box, and uncheck the box. This ensures that your instructions are able to appear AND disappear. For a basic start screen, that’s all you need; I have also made a (single) settings window in the past to deal with background music. To conclude:
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Currently, I am in Raleigh as a vendor at the anime convention called and Animazement. Getting here has been quite the struggle between creating artwork to sell, printing the artwork, driving everywhere, and sitting at the booth for hours on end as people come by and vaguely glance in our direction. However, I’m finally living the dream that I have since I was young: I’m selling my artwork, and people seem to really like it. since this is currently my job right now, I’m going to relate it to some technical career issues. As I said before, creating artwork to sell has been a huge issue. A couple of months ago when I was starting to prepare for the convention, my tablet got to the point where it would not connect to my computer. This discouraged me from making art as I could not complete it on the computer. However, I was able to check out a tower problem getting design a couple weeks before the convention, and I was able to complete some sticker designs. I decided to print some old drawings (my crystal, moon, and water witches) since I had absolutely no time to draw additional prints. I last-minute made some stickers from a show called Little Witch Academia and got them printed alongside some repurposed Pokémon stickers from several years ago. This process was stressful— cutting out each individual sticker was time consuming and the scissors hurt my hand. Also, my health took a hit since i was staying up so late in a high-stress environment from the late-night preparations. Learning from this preparation experience, I have concluded it is better to work all year to make art I am proud of so that if I get the opportunity to sell somewhere, I am not completely stressed at the last minute. No money is worth the serious toll this amount of stress can cause on your body. Additionally, since this con is at the end of the year, I have also been swamped with school work and had to tightly budget my time. Earlier preparation would have definitely helped me balance school and college as well. It has only been my first day, but I have learned a lot and more importantly I have been having a fun time meeting new artists! I will continue to go through this weekend as a huge learning experience.
To conclude:
About a month ago I interviewed with Game Designer Marlena Abraham about morality in gaming. Here's the questions I asked and her answers:
Me: What are some various creative ways you have seen human morality incorporated into games, whether it be your own project or someone else’s? Marlena: Papers please is a good example; it called out a lot about own personal well being versus job and duty. Some games better about it than others and use this to draw you in. Undertale is very solid in what is talked about with morality. It is momething people are exploring more and more and it’s nice. Me: What do you think about games that break the fourth wall, especially in recent years? Do you still think it is creative or is it beginning to run its course? MA: It's certainly fun when fourth wall gets broken. Any trope can be used in an interesting way. Doki Doki and Undertale did good with this by putting a new spin on it. The break in the fourth wall has been a big genre Japan and certainly has not run its course there. There's definitely more stuff to explore there. Me: Why do you think violence in video games is so appealing? MA: It’s easy to make the physical game and' its easy to make satisfying. Historically, it's much easier systems-wise to make a platform-style game where you hit guys… other types a lot harder. Look at what already exists-- there are way more violent games. They're very easy to make with good tight, juicy gameplay. Me: Let’s say the government is trying to find a new way to address prison reform. They decide to turn to a serious game development team. Do you think that it is possible to create a game that calculates a person’s morals? Additionally, do you believe that it is in the government’s right to use this as a way to “fix” a prisoner’s moral compass? MA: Educational games are harder to make than entertainment games. It's even harder for them to accomplish what they're supposed to. They can be a tool for psychoanalysis or self esteem or coping etc., and it's definitely possible... it just needs a lot a work. It's not a bad idea since there are already reform games; they're testing around new games for people who have been stuck in prison system for a while. The prison system useful? It could be helpful but it's a lot of discussion. Me: Since you are looking onto more interesting ways of using virtual reality, do you have any ideas of how to make a successful and immersive game that pulls morals into question? MA: We need specific targets. A lot of VR games that throw people into a situation and have them experience awful... experiences to empathize. Those have mixed success because they feel too education-y and dramatic (which is not what we're going for). Certainly plenty of opportunities surrounding behaviors and correcting, and there are absolutely ways to turn to games/simulations for better skills in the long-term. Me: Having read "A Clockwork Orange," could someone attempt to use VR like they did with Alex's morality conversion? MA: Extreme version scenario… there are ways in our world where we could build a VR tool for clinical psychology working to help fix “that thing” but we cannot put someone directly into something to instantly fix them. You have to supplement VR exercises or informational somethings. It could not exist on its own because people are aware enough and VR is new enough so AI is not smart enough yet to directly address this issue. Humans are better professionals who can deal with this. Thank you to Marlena for helping me out with this! It was excellent to hear a professional opinion about my questions. Pokémon holds a large part of my heart, and the Mystery Dungeon games are no exception. Over spring break, I restarted Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon for the 3DS since I had no memory whatsoever of what happened in the story; I ended up finishing the main story last weekend and absolutely loved it. The story was both pleasantly sweet and full of danger as it followed around the main character (in my case, a human-turned-Cyndaquil named Cloud) and their soon-to-become annoying best friend (in my case, a Pikachu named Lux). Past games also rested on the human-turned-Pokémon aspect, but this game introduced a new spin when it was learned the MC was destined to save the world from hurtling into the sun. The mechanic of the game that bothered me the most was the fact that the player was closely hand-held most of the game compared to past Mystery Dungeon games. In past games, the player could choose if they wanted to advance the story or not; however, this was not as prominent in Super Mystery Dungeon. Past games allowed for grinding between story missions so that the player could be of proficient level for the dungeon. Super Mystery Dungeon doesn’t allow for this, so most of the time you have to buy numerous reviver seeds and oran berries just to make it through the dungeon — this doesn’t allow for much pick up during the exploration. One of the new features of the Super Mystery Dungeon game is an item called a looplet, which allows for crystals called emeras to be placed on it. Emeras are helpful because they allow the player to gain new abilities like “barrage” (the player attacks a second time), “lullaby” (the enemy pokémon get put to sleep), and “trap proof” (the player will not trigger any traps), among others. Having enough emeras throughout a dungeon can result in a significantly easier bossfight at the end of the dungeon. Super Mystery Dungeon gets rid of the friend areas; however, the player can call on any connected Pokémon at any level for any dungeon without having to buy a specific location. This is helpful for very difficult exhibitions in which a level 50 or higher Pokémon can clear the dungeon with ears. well this game is definitely a kids game, it was still highly enjoyable for me and even brought me to tears at some point. I will continue to play the game past the main story just to see what happens with Lux considering that he was lost to the ambiguity of time.
Although 2D games and 3D games experience a lot of overlap in the Unity engine, the difference between dimensions still makes for quite a few differences. First, for whatever reason I have found it a lot easier to learn coding in 3D game development this year. Personally, I believe this is a result of my mind having a better time wrapping around 3D physics. After working in Unity for a little over a year now, though, the coding is easier to understand in general. In terms of the two spaces, arranging game objects in a 2D space is more simple and allows for higher precision (which is likely why you can snap between 2D and 3D views in the scene space). 3D games also have a lot more opportunities for error since you then have to think about interactions and timing in a 3D space on all three axes rather than just two. This definitely brings about more development issues as more constraints have to be applied in 3D code, but it also makes for a good challenge. Despite this challenge, developing a 3D game feels significantly more rewarding when a script works. This feeling is a given when creating any game, but when I tested "Tanks!", I felt a greater sense of accomplishment when it all came together. Holistically a 2D game seems like it is simpler to develop since the developer does not have to think about rigging or special lighting, but I have not encountered problems in that area yet. Each type of game has its own aesthetic graphic qualities that makes it unique, so in that regard, neither is better.
To conclude:
Independent, or "Indie," games are those that are not made by AAA companies. They usually com from small development groups or single developers. That being said, it is extremely difficult to make a super successful indie game because the outreach is so limited. A lot of the time, developers just upload their game to Steam and hope that people stumble upon and download it. A large part of this has to do with business -- indie developers tend to not know a lot about marketing and it takes a while for a business to start making money. People tend to want to give up early when their business does not immediately start making money; however, this goal is simple unrealistic. Indie companies also have no previous reputation, which means two things: one, their free to do as they please on their first few games, but on the other hand two, no one has any expectations for them and therefore do not care. Those who start an indie business also must adjust their view of success. They cannot continue to watch numbers and base their success of of that. Rather than focusing on sales figures, indie developers so way attention to how their limited audience handles the game. As long as it makes people happy, their game did well. Paying attention to audience also will result in receiving feedback to make any future games more "successful" in all iterations of the word. Indie companies have the pleasure of being their own bosses, so it is important that they make their working environment one they enjoy. If you do not enjoy your job in a high-stress environment, this will just result in more stress and those around you will feed off of that. It is important to not be overworked yet maintain a productive and enjoyable schedule.
To conclude:
I vividly remember, as I was growing up, laying on my parents' bed and watching my dad play video games while he listened to Nirvana or Foo Fighters. The most memorable games were Civilization IV and Kingdom Hearts I and II. Civilization is one of those games that brings about a lot of nostalgia for my childhood which was why I was excited to purchase Civ V at a very discounted price. I bought it on a Friday night back in 2018 and the proceeded to play it until about 5:00 am the next day. I enjoyed it so much and even figured out how to play it during class when I ran out of work. There was enough of the same aspects to Civ V as to Civ IV that brought me childish glee, but there were also new aspects that kept me hooked.
The mechanics were still basically the same: you settle, you explore, you build tons of roads, you fight other countries for territory, and you advance. The new character models and animations were cleaner and more detailed in the later game, which was very nice. Additionally, the UI seemed a lot more pronounced from what I remember and it was also easier to see your world standing. They also changed up the world leaders in Civ V and added a few more countries; however, I wish Joan of Ark and Cleopatra had stayed. As far as difficulty goes, Civ V was noticeably more difficult than Civ IV. In Civ IV, I was easily taking down countries left and right and able to take over their land. I could not do that as easily in Civ V, plus there was the added annoyance that other country leaders would become offended as you waged wars. I do not remember other country's perceptions of your own country in Civ IV, so it was nice to have it there to think about as you continued to make decisions. Further, it was a lot harder to have a lot of cities within your civilization; I remember in my big Civ IV playthrough I had this thumb-shaped peninsula littered with white dots, but I had only about eight mainland cities in my Civ V playthrough. Finally, one of my favorite touches that came from Civ V was the world leaders speaking in their native language. When Julius Caesar hit me with that "salve, Napoleon," I nearly lost my mind. To conclude:
Our time in 3DS Max was quite brief this year as our experience with it comes to a close. Surprisingly, the only time it crashed for me this year was on startup the last day. Everything else worked smoothly, even on the higher poly count models. I think the biggest struggle this year was following the tutorials when our program and the one in the tutorial were two different versions. This was difficult because it was harder to follow along when the man used features that were not available in our program. The only other issue I had was how tedious the normal mapping was. In addition, I did not understand it well enough from the tutorial to even begin to apply the same technique to a pyramid.
I did enjoy some aspects of 3DS Max this year. The last UWV mapping assignment we did was cool because of the process we had to go through. When doing that assignment, we had to create our own brand of canned drink and wrap it around a cylinder to make a game asset. When in the UVW editor, you can stretch or shrink the textured area until it fits perfectly with the texture you made. This process was cool to me because it blew my mind that you could just do that without some sort of extra funky thing to get the texture just right. The overall feeling of accomplishment that comes alongside finishing a model was also very pleasing during this unit, Conclusions:
If you have ever seen a wireframe 3D model, it can be pretty confusing with all of those crossing lines. If you have seen a model with he greyscale polys, you may wonder "how does that turn into colorful objects?" The answer to that is simple: texturing. 3D texturing is essentially taking a 2D image and wrapping it around a 3D object to give it "skin." This is normally done through UVW mapping. UVW mapping takes the basic parts of a model, breaks them down, and allows you to custom fit the individual pieces to your 2D texture. There are other effects you can add to your texture. For example, bump maps give the appearance of depth within your model without adding all of the extra polys to your base. In games, models with a large amount of polys can slow down how quickly your game runs. You can see textures at work when you start loading into games. If you are like me and you do not have a fantastic machine, you can usually see the grey base models load in before the textures do. The difference between these two are like night and day, as the textures provide so much more detail to your surroundings and help give the game life. You can also use normal maps to texture your models; like bump maps, these help to give the appearance of depth within an image. However, normals need a projection and use a specific set of colors to reflect the depth. Texturing is overall very useful in conveying what the target audience wants to see.
Conclusions:
Just as quickly as it started, we have come to the end of our 3D modeling unit for the sake of starting programming sooner. Our focus for this unit was making game assets, like board games and soda cans, but what else can 3D modeling be used for? In addition to the gaming industry, 3D modeling is used in the film industry, for architecture, for advertising, for engineering, etc.
Any atypical character you see in a live-action movie is likely brought to life with a 3D model bound to a person who acts in the shot and is wearing a special suit with points on it. Architects use 3D modeling to plan out what they plan on building. This can help save time during the actual building and also help to find structural errors. Animators sometimes make 3D animations. These are usually not as detailed as game animations or movie animations (Squarenix being the exception), but still use the same techniques. 3D modeling is used for all sorts of advertising, whether it's that new Childish Gambino emoji feature or the Monopoly Man is talking to game players in real time while working with Fortnite. As advertisements grow to be of a higher production value, so does their use of 3D modeling techniques. All in all, 3D modeling is used in so many other industries than just the gaming industry. Conclusion:
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AuthorHello, I'm Madeleine Jenks. This blog focuses on my experiences with what I've learned in GAD over the past week. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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