Feedback Strategies

The first article I read this week was called 'Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset', by Gravity Goldberg. I found this article quite interesting as it made me think about  my own mindset and how I feel about my own abilities. In this article Goldberg talks about how many of us have a fixed mindset on how well our abilities are, and this often stops us from putting in extra effort as there is not point because our abilities what allow us to achieve this high anyway. In order to change this, he speaks about idea of being a mirror when giving feedback. One of the strategies Goldberg talks about is to focus on what the reader is doing and not what is missing, as a mirror cannot reflect back what is not there.

I enjoyed this article as it made me think about my own mindset and abilities.

https://literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2015/12/08/be-a-mirror-give-readers-feedback-that-fosters-a-growth-mindset

The second article I read was 'Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise' by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman. This article was interesting as it spoke about why feedback is often not given, one of the reasons is because of the anxiety behind the answer and response that they may get back. It was interesting to see how many people avoid giving positive and. negative feedback, when feedback can have such an effect on how people work.

https://hbr.org/2017/05/why-do-so-many-managers-avoid-giving-praise

Game Idea Research

The game idea that I have chosen to go further with is my fourth idea, which is an open world/ role play game. This will be a one-character game, where the character has chances to collect gems and build up the strength of their character by completing in-game relevant games. The character will be free to roam the world as they please.

Game Mechanics I will be using:

1.     Goals: Short and long-term goals can be achieved

I hope to have challenges within my game, this may include such things as collecting a certain amount of gems which you would receive rewards for. By taking this approach it will give my users a purpose for interaction and ‘educate users about what is valued and possible within the experience’.

Level-Up

2.     Levelling Up: Status within community

The further you get in the game and as you reach different goals, you may be able to unlock new parts of the world, this will give you a chance to find more challenges. This will also show your status in the game as you may have more of the world unlocked than maybe your friends who are also playing.

https://www.bunchball.com/gamification/game-mechanics

3.     Instant Death: Something causing the player to die.

By doing this, the player will have to go back to a certain point in the game, and they must reach a target so information that they have gathered will not be lost after that point. Death may be cause by something like spikes our falling into water that is too deep.

https://inventwithpython.com/blog/2012/07/30/need-a-game-idea-a-list-of-game-mechanics-and-a-random-mechanic-mixer/

Unity Tutorial 02

Unity Tutorials

This week I followed Tutorial 4 of how to use Unity by Jimmy Vegas, this was just a continuation on what we done in the tutorials last week. Within this weeks tutorial Jimmy talked more about audio and more coding, as I followed it, I added a ding noise to my gem when it was collected by a player. After this I changed the texture on the block and duplicated it to create a wall. We then used skills that we learned from the week before, making a dip in the terrain, Vegas then showed us how to insert water, which was already built into unity, into the dip we created, making a small pond. I really liked how effective the water looked. The final thing I learned in this tutorial was how to create a shadow, when a shadow was added to the trees, it instantly improved the look of the game as it made it more realistic looking. As I was following the steps within the tutorial, one thing I found quite challenging was that I was just using my touchpad, where as I was using a mouse last week and it was much harder to move around and do things with the touchpad. I am still really enjoying Jimmy Vegas' tutorials and I find him very helpful and easy to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=961&v=zS3YO5eCQ5o

Game Elements

For this task I read an article called 'Formal Abstract Design Tools' by Doug Church. I found this reading very interesting and informative as Church first spoke about all the different elements it takes to make a good game; design, art, audio, levels, code. Church then went on to talk about the importance of how we actually talk about games, and how we need a shared language of game design. This language is important in understanding someone else's game and also to explain your game to others. "Formal Abstract Design Tools" is an attempt to create a frame work for this shared language and a way of going about the process of building it. This language would be useful as it would also help us give feedback to other game designers, instead of just playing a game and saying 'I really enjoyed that',  a new vocabulary would improve our understanding of and facility with game creation. This article gave me an understanding of different tools for games and how to talk about games with a more appropriate vocabulary.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131764/formal_abstract_design_tools.php?page=2

The Blue Shell
The second article I read was called 'The Blue Shell and its Discontents' by Ian Bogost. This is a reading about the history of the 'Spiny Blue Shell' which is a power-up from the game Super Mario
Bros that has taunted players for years now. The Blue Shell has been around since 1990-1, when a Koopa Troopa with a blue shell first appeared in Super Mario World, but it has always been associated with speed power, and security. What thing article really made me think about, is that so much thought and time has gone behind such a small element within such a huge game. There are so many small components in most games you play that you just take for granted which could really play a huge part in the succession of the game. So what I have learned from this article is to really put thought and time into each element of my game, no mater how big or small.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/218696/the_blue_shell_and_its_discontents.php