Week 09 - Reading and Writing

 

(dog is squished between two pillows and has fallen asleep, helpguide.org)

Starting off, I think that this image above is probably the most accurate example of how I feel at the moment. I'm struggling to find motivation and I'm finding that everything is starting to pile up. Because it's a lot, I can't keep up and I just want to lay in bed instead. That's not exactly how it works, I've still got to do this, but it just makes it harder to want to do. Also with the lockdown, I'm going back to work soon and I just wish I could have the extra two weeks to not do hours of Christmas retail because it makes everything harder to juggle. But also, I need money. I think lecturers really struggle to understand that because when most of them were students it was far easier to be a student than it is now; there's fact and figures to back that up, I promise.

Reflecting On What I've Done

So far, I've really struggled with following the Unity tutorials. Initially, I had issues with getting the application to run on my laptop and so I had to use someone else's laptop. That caused issues just because it was a different OS and the keys were even different. It was just like I had issues before I started and was a bit of foreshadowing.

The first few tutorials were okay. They took a bit of trying but eventually they worked out. As we got into the more complicated stuff, I really really struggled. Still, I struggle. CSS and HTML is really easy for me - it clicks quite fast. But I've done PHP, SQL and now C# and even though it's at the most basic form, it just doesn't go into my head and find its way to the right place. It just doesn't work for me. But I know that, so I try to not give myself such a hard time about it. I'm not looking to be a game designer but the basic knowledge is handy and that's how I'll always look at it.

I have found some of the reading quite interesting. As I said about though, I'm not a game designer so I try to take things from the readings that can be applied to other areas. I think that's kind of the point of this module - game creation is just one medium we could've used. I did struggle with the academic papers because we have never read them before like most other college students would have and so I didn't know how to extract the information in a useful way. 

Looking Forward

I'm trying my best each week to not stress. I think I've done quite a lot to get a good grade and I think if I keep up, I can still get that grade. If my game isn't great, so be it. I'm not a game designer and I really need to understand that.

I have noticed I write more things out since starting this module and have found it much easier so I may continue, in some way, to talk about what I do and don't struggle with in other modules. 

I don't have suggestions, I think Shaun has been incredibly helpful as I've had a few struggles and he's been really fair in how it's been handled. I didn't feel like I was going to fail and he was always happy to help or extend deadlines. Any suggestions I ever made before were taken on board when I said them and I really appreciate the way this module was laid out and can tell it took a lot of effort and hard work - things other lectures don't always put in.