Game Prototype

This week I began the prototype for my game. When I tried to start this, for some reason my Unity wasn't responding and it wouldn't load properly on my laptop, so this was an issue, I had to delete and re-download Unity, which took much longer than it did last time. Even when I downloaded it, Unity still wasn't responding on laptop, so I had to wait till the following day to use a Mac in college.

Once I finally got access to Unity, I started off by creating my terrain. This week I wanted to  just focus on the aesthetics on my game. My game is based in a forest as this is a monkeys natural habitat so I wanted to create a terrain that represented this. I started off by going back to the basic skills that we learnt in the first few unity tutorials, I used textures to created grass and I placed trees and pathways over my terrain to make it look like a a forest.

I then went to the Unity Assets store, and I found a fruits pack of 3D models, in which they have a banana and I think it suits my game perfectly, so I added the bananas into my game, and made the player be able to collect it when you walk through it, just like we did with a gem in a pervious Unity tutorial, I haven't done it yet as I couldn't find the appropriate noise for my game, but I will be adding a noise to the game when a banana has been collected.

3D Fruit Pack - Screenshot

So far I am happy with my prototype and I look forward to adding more features to my game.

Screenshot of my Unity

Unity Choice Tutorials

This week for our Unity Tutorials, we had to chose our own videos to follow which we felt were appropriate to our own game.

The first video I chose to follow was one which you learned how to made a health bar. I felt this video was appropriate for my game as this is a feature that I hope to have in my game as it will show the energy levels of the monkey, and will decrease when the monkey has not eaten any food. After following this video I am confident that I will be able to use it as it was a lot easier then I thought to would be.

Jimmy Vegas - How to make a health bar

The second video I have chosen to follow, is one which shows how to make a collectable and scoring system in #C. This is a technique which I am definitely going to use in my game, as my character will be collecting bananas, with a reward of energy and points. In this tutorial, we used some skills that we have used before, like collecting the stars to make them disappear and make a noise was just like the tutorial we followed with the gem, but it was more in-depth coding in how to make your score go up, and there is a lot of messing around with the code to get it to work. I am glad I done this tutorial as I learned skills that I will definitely be using in the coming weeks.

Jimmy Vegas - How to make a collectable and scoring system in #C

Game Fun

FUN AND GAMES, Source

The concept of 'fun' has been around since early pre-history, when humans were at the hunter-gathers had to learn many skills in order to survive and reproduce. If they found certain skills 'fun', they were more likely to practice them and pass them onto the next generation, we are still like this today.

According to Falstein, there are three kinds of fun;

• Physical fun  - useful for any physical feats that allow us to fight or escape danger.
• Mental fun - the problem-solving part of the brain that gave us such useful things as the wheel and fire.
• Social fun - the benefits of banding together in groups for mutual survival, and reproduction.

But this theory of fun can be separated into different categories of 'kinds of fun', 

Sensation - this includes physical movement and looking and hearing things that are interesting

Fantasy -  this allows our brains to come up with novel ideas as we think of the 'what-if'

Narrative - this is useful so that we pass on useful information such as survival skills.

Challenge - This is a way in which humans can show dominance over one another in a relatively safe way.

Fellowship - This opens up the possibility of new food sources, it also allows us to pass on genetic material.

Discovery -  this is what makes us want to explore our nearby territory, the more territory we know the more potential places for us to find food and shelter.

Expression - this is how we can communicate efficiently, through language and expression.

Submission - this demands the attention of the player.

https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-7-dot-1-evolution-of-fun-sans-pokemon?module_item_id=44564

I then read another article on the topic of 'fun' called Natural Funativity by Noah Falstein, this article talks about the differences between education and entertainment, and Falstein believes there are no differences.

Falstain talks about how we share basic drives or survival and reproduction with our fellow creatures. It is in both ours and animals nature to practice the skills that we have to survive. Animals will practice their skills to fight and hunt without a second thought, as they need these skills for survival.

As humans, a way in which we can practice our survival skills, in an educating yet also entertaining way is through games which allow us to use these skills in maybe situations that wouldn't occur in our everyday lives.