The Weekly Developments

For my extra credit task this week, I changed my theme up and added my spirit animal as my header image (Captain Raymond Holt from 'Brooklyn Nine Nine').  I liked the Soho theme before I saw it was recommended and to be fair, it does look pretty decent on the mobile and desktop. I picked that particular image of Captain Holt because it never fails to make me laugh. I love it so much that I had it on my phone case for years. I also think it's a fantastic summary of how 2020 is going. To be fair, I just find Captain Holt hilarious in general. His character in the show is so serious that it work so well for comedy. 

The first article I read is from ideas.ted.com , which talks about the reason we feel so bad about rejection and what leads us to feel so terrible. I was interested to read about this because some days rejection really can get me down and other days it's so simple to brush it off. It's all according to how everything else is going, I assume. The article says that our brains react to rejection the same way we react to physical pain. To add to this pain, we also continue to kick ourselves when we're down. Though it's not discussed here, I feel that another reason as to why we beat ourselves up further is because we need to justify everything that happens to us. We search for reasons and answers. It's a further coping mechanism. The suggestions are quite helpful but for me, I've found that reminding myself that the rejection isn't about me is most helpful. For example, if I submitted a game idea and was told it was bad. That doesn't mean I'm a terrible,...

As someone who enjoys gaming but really doesn't get that deep into it, I want to keep my ideas as simplistic as possible so that they're actually do-able. I don't want to do something so far out of reach that when I get feedback I have to rethink everything. Hopefully these are simple enough! My first idea is, at its base, very much like every other game. The first idea is you're a human that's given daily tasks like go to the shop, exercise for 30 minutes, etc, but you live in a zombie virus world. It's not a game about running away from zombies but you have to do your tasks while avoiding pathogens that are trying to catch you. It's a simple dodging kind of game. Beano.com has a similar game called Virus Attack. In terms of actual story, it's much simpler. You're a person on a line that forms a square and you travel around to reclaim territory while the virus tries to attack you. The mechanics were difficult and I couldn't get the hang of it b...

  I'm not sure if it's my aversion to coding languages (my year dealing with PHP and SQL was not pleasant), but I couldn't quite get to grips with Unity. I didn't enjoy the mechanics of it and how basic it was. Granted, it's free, but it just seemed slow and a bit of an eye sore as a programme. I didn't think the tutorials were bad but I found that it took me three or four videos before I fully understand whatever was mentioned before those three or four videos. Maybe because they were quick videos and one after the other, but I definitely felt like I struggled to have it sink it. That may also change as I get my comfortable with the programme. I'll be able to mess around and see what I can create.  The video tutorials were pretty helpful but I came across an issue that I wish I could ask straight away. That's the struggles of online learning and using different learning techniques. But it's something that, again, I'm sure between Google and me m...

 After reading these articles and applying my own experiences, I came across some interesting points. thenounproject.com The first article talks about the importance of vocabulary when it comes to gaming and game design. Having worked in a games shop, I realise now that this is something we don't even realise. So often people would come in to discuss games and often compare each one or relate each one when they don't realise that someone else may not understand them. "It's like Fifa but..." Whenever I heard this it was usually met with me explaining I'd never played Fifa. Or most games. Parents would come in at Christmas and ask what games were similar to so-and-so because that's what their son liked. Games aren't always comparable in that way either. Just because you like one game doesn't mean you'll like another. Some prefer particular mechanics, some prefer a type of storyline, some prefer certain graphics and unless you know what part of ...