This week in game design disaster struck. Steam got updated and when it did our game suddenly stopped working on the new version. To remedy this we had to update Unity and VRTK. While we though this would be a quick fix, it soon became apparent that just attaching the updated assets to our old project wouldn't work. We needed to create a new project and work from the ground up with the new VRTK set up.
This had several annoying repercussions. The lighting in the building had to be rebaked and now looks much worse. We decided to skip fixing this for now as it's still functional and right now we need to finish our game before worrying about aesthetics. We also have to make all of the intractable game items work again. Once we have that done it will be a race to make the game winnable and check up to make sure the menu and credits scenes still work. Next Week I will: -support Ryan in testing and fixing the game
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This past week I buckled down to make the Main Menu and Credits scenes work. Originally when we made the Main Menu scene we only had a start button and so when the player clicked the button all we had to do was write a code that loaded the next scene in the build. Unfortunately when we added a credits scene this no longer worked as we needed the player to be able to get to either the Credits or the Main Game from the Main Menu scene. After a bit of tinkering around I got a new system to work based off the string names of each scene. I still need to do some work making the credits scene look nice and professional as well as adding sound to both scenes but by the end of next week the starting UI scenes of the game should be nearly done. Now that all the coding is done I can simply focus on making these areas of the game look good.
Next week I will: -work on beautifying the Main Menu and Credits areas of the game This week in advanced studies I focused on creating a script that would revive you when you died in our horror game. We decided the best way to revive a dead player would be to create a timer that’s automatically reloads the scene a set time after death. To create this script I mostly used my prior knowledge of coding UI elements as well as a code for a timer that I found online. The code was worked and I was I able to hook it up to the proper UI elements and finish my scene. Next week I can work on hooking it up to our game and fixing any resulting bugs.
I also made artwork for our credits scene which I can create next week as well. Next week I will: -Put the respawn script into our actual game -Create a credits scene off the main menu This week I continued to work on creating a Menu UI for our VR game. After a lot of research and package downloading I finally created a version that worked in first person mode. From there we needed to make sure the menu would work in VR. My teammate and I spent the last part of the week making code so the menu will load the next scene when we click on it. This took a bit of research and a touch of original coding but eventually we got it to work.
Next week I'll focus on creating a Credits scene to get into VR sometime next week. Next week I will: -Create and implement a Credits scene This week in Advanced Studies I focused in on creating a UI Menu for our game. Along the way I discovered several challenges in making a working menu. The first was that I had never used buttons in Unity before./ I had to acquaint myself with this new component using sample codes and prefabs I found on the Unity standard assets package. I also found several tutorials to teach me about making menus but unfortunately they were all blocked by our school's security net.
The next step was trying to figure out how to make my menu work in Unity. I found several assets on the store that claimed to have examples of UI in VR. However I kept getting errors when I tried to import these assets and could never fully find an example that would work. Next week I will: -work with my UI menu in world space to make it interact-able in VR -work with Ryan to import the menu assets into our game and make sure they work This week was filled with a lot of random ends to tie up and projects to start. I finished all of the pig animations. There is now a running pig animation as well as a pig attack animation. After that I decided the best thing for me to do would be to start working on UI. We're going to need several types of UI for our game including a menu and a score keeper.
To start, I looked on the asset store to see if there were any free menu scripts I could use. Eventually I found that in the standard assets there was a menu and I was able to track it down to it's source script. From there I spent my time trying to understand the script and get an idea of how I would have to adapt it to work in VR. Next week I will: -Work on adapting the menu script to fit our needs -Create 2d assets for our menu and score This week is the start of a new quarter in our school year. Accordingly I am starting some new things for our group's game. Now that we have a good play area for character's to move around in, I can start to work on scripts that add some functionalities to our game.
Namely the script I'm am starting with is the enemy movement script. We want the enemies in our game to move around randomly, then attack and follow the player when they get too close. To do this I'll have to write a script that uses the Nav Mesh Agent component in Unity. To research how I might do this, I've been searching online for suggestions on various forums. I also downloaded one of the free unity tutorial games to look at how the Nav Mesh Agent component might be used in a real game. The Chicken model is currently being simplified so I hope to have a working code in place before that's done. Then I can just focus on animation and give the code to another of my teammates to implement into the game. Next Week I Will: -complete an enemy movement script for our game -work to add in the scripts I create This week in Game Design we started learning the C# coding language in Unity. This has been both a fun and frustrating trip as I have learned a lot of new things about coding but have also had to learn how to be detailed when writing code. So many things can go wrong when you make a new code. Anything can throw off the whole script from something as big as using out of scope variables to something as small as forgetting a semicolon or capitalizing a letter that should be lower case. Throughout the week I have been using a simple checklist method to check my code when I get a bug since my codes are still small and simple. First I check for the most likely things such as missing brackets of semicolons. If that doesn't work I usually go back to the tutorial video to compare my code with a working code. This helps me pick up any other mistake that might have occurred such as misspelled words and capitalization. Using this two-step checklist I have been able to solve all my bugs so far but in the future it will becoming harder as I don't have an easy-out with the tutorial. In the future I should work more on defining what exactly is wrong with my code and then work logically to fix it one step at a time until I get to the root of the problem. This method will not only help solve problems quickly but since it gets to the root of the problem it will help prevent the same kind of bug from appearing in the future. Other than the occasional bug however, I have really enjoyed coding and am looking forward to getting better at it so I can start making real games with coding.
Yesterday, 12/11/2015, my class started to learn a little about coding by taking part in the annual Hour of Coding. This was a fun, but rather easy way to learn the logic of coding using a block method and being able to look at the underlying code without really messing with it. I must admit that I was expecting a little more from the program seeing as I do not consider myself a serious programmer and could have practically done the activities in my sleep. I t was however fun and would probably have been more beneficial to me if I had not already spent a long time designing a simple game level on MultiMedia Fusion. In the end I do not believe it prepared me personally to learn any higher coding.
I think that the next thing I need to do to improve my coding skills is to learn a good coding language. This will help me to have more freedom in my coding and make it easier for me to learn new languages in the future. |
AuthorSamuel Henry is a Senior at DSA in NC. He has 3 years of prior experience in the game design pathway and he's looking forward to becoming a great game designer. 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 Categories
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