The Weekly Developments

Sadly, this week was a bit of a non-week again. As I mentioned in my tutorials post for week 10, I was hoping to change the timer from seconds only to minutes and seconds. I was determined to just edit the code as best I could after watching three different tutorials, but they just kept showing me errors. However, because the timer is the first thing I did, I knew where it was and how it was fitting in with the rest of my scripts. I didn't want to get rid of it because if I did, it could mess something up or  the new one may not work. As I've said before, because I haven't got a great grip on C#, I also know that I'd have no idea how to fix something or to tweak things to suit what I have already. ( flaticon.com , sad face icon) I did, however, get to edit my questions which is a huge part of the game. I went through several recipes for Whiskey Old Fashioned drinks and tried to throw in obvious false answers, false answers that have to be thought about and obviously tru...

Last week, when I was doing my project, I realised that my timer was set at 59 seconds and that I couldn't add minutes - I thought this needed changing. I found three tutorials to see if I could find a way to add to the timer I already have rather than to completely change it considering it took me quite a bit to get it to work. I selected three tutorials to try out separately and then I'll try and incorporate them into my project on Friday when I do it.  ( pinterest.com , digital alarm clock showing 9:24am) Firstly, I created a 'slider' timer which was really cool. It worked after the usual bumps along the way. I also felt more comfortable with the code than I have been because I'd used most of it when I was doing last week and the week befores' work on the project. However, I don't think this timer would suit my game. I just wanted minutes and seconds, not slider or anything fancier. I also don't need hours or milliseconds but  it was interesting. Then...

In the first article I read  (Sutherland, 2005) , the author discusses what makes a story in a game work and what it took to get to a place where they can be done well. He made a really interesting point about story being conflict. Conflict is just as important as the rest of it. It gives us drive to want to play the game, progress to the next level, get the job done - whatever it is, it makes us want to do something . I also liked that he pointed out that to have a good story, it has to be simple and it has to work. While you're gaming, you're often learning new mechanics and adjusting to the new world you're in. If your story is really complicated, it can overload someone's brain. Although a story often determines chapters, levels, etc (which is why it's done at the beginning, according to the author), nobody wants to watch a movie when they buy a game.  The next reading was a paper  (Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum, 2012) about what makes Mass Effect 2 a highly regarded...

This week I decided to do a few of the tech tasks at the bottom of the list marked as miscellaneous.  Firstly, I confirmed what I already knew - I type fast and well. I did this typing test where you type a paragraph in a minute and it scores you. I did it twice because I'm competitive and have to beat my own score. (screenshot of my typing test results; 53 words per minute with 97% accuracy) (screenshot of my typing results; 56 words per minute with 99% accuracy) I then used Google's Define features to define a few relevant words. Multimedia:   Multimedia is a form of communication that combines different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings. Gaming: 1.  the action or practice of playing gambling games.                   2.  the action or practice of playing video g...

This week, the main aspects of my game are mostly done. It's not at all refined or even filled in with the correct questions but it does work. A lot of this is with thanks to the Brackley tutorials on YouTube. They're completely made for beginners and everything is explained a lot better than the Unity tutorials, I found. So the game works! Next week I'll be: refining it looking into more details I could add possibly adding mood music trying to change the timer from seconds to minutes trying to add more randomized elements On that last point, I currently have it so that the same is being made and it's a basic true or false system. This is fine and it works well in my opinion, but  if I can add more answer choices or randomize the drink then that would be great. Not a top priority as I want the game to run smoothly before I decide to overcomplicate.  (screenshot of my screen in unity once I finished putting the quiz elements in) In terms of plans and scheduling, I'm ...

 This week, I attempted to add my twitter into my sidebar but it just wouldn't work. I think I need to mess around more to find the right theme but the three I tried just did not co-operate.  Instead, I went on to Fotor to create a collage about gaming. I liked looking through the different templates, it really helped with inspiration. I think when we're used to using Photoshop and Illustrator, it's hard to stare at a blank canvas every time because it can be quite daunting. I definitely thing I'll explore more things with templates for inspiration and ideas.

  (kid playing with a soccer ball, freedesignfile.com ) I 100% had war flashbacks for this last lesson. It didn't help me much having a bit of experience with for loops though. They're still just as confusing now as they were two years ago, but that's okay!  It did come back to me and I wouldn't say I struggled in terms of following along but I wouldn't say I'd be confident in doing it myself with no direction or pre-written code in front of me just to edit. The latter part of the last lesson was a bit easier as it was back to stuff we'd kind of done so I felt less out of my depth there. No pun intended, but the for loops kind of through me through a loop. The challenge was manageable but I did find myself, as usual, going back and having to look through the previous lesson. I used to try and do it without looking through the explanations below the video but I found it too frustrating and I'd rather give it a proper go then just look at everything and ge...