Multimedia Development

The genre of this game is a 3D platformer, I'm making a game in this genre because a lot of games I played growing up were in this style and I have very good memories of these, I took inspiration from games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers. The game will be based in college and the aim is to make it to the end of the level while avoiding enemies and dodging obstacles. You have a HP bar that slowly decreases as you run through the level, however you can gain some HP back by picking up collectables such as coffee cups and energy drinks along the way. The HP bar can also be decreased by enemies you meet, these can be lecturers, students or the cafeteria staff chasing you down for your covid cert.  The level design will be based in a typical college consisting of corridors, courtyards and cafeteria areas. The camera angle will follow the player from behind as you navigate the world, you cannot stop the character from moving once the game starts but you can hop from side to side as we...

 The MDA framework is an approach to understanding games by bridging the gap between game design, game development and technical game research. The intention of this methodology is to make the study and design of different games a clearer and stronger process. It was introduced and taught at the game design and tuning workshop at the Game Developers Conference between 2001-04. You should be working towards a final framework from the start of development, this is because seemingly small decisions you make early on can make a big difference to your end product. In MDA the mechanics are the components of the game decided and designed by the developer, these could be as simple as running and jumping or as detailed as a gun swaying as you aim down your sights. The dynamics are the different behaviors that emerge from the combinations of your game mechanics, an example of this could be drawn from monopoly, two mechanics in monopoly are moving spaces and buying properties, this leads to t...

 So last week I brainstormed 4 different game ideas for my multimedia project this semester, this week I'm going to pick one of the ideas and focus on this. The game I'm planning on sticking with this semester is the 3D platformer, they are popular and fun games so I'm excited to make my own. Temple Run So my goal for this week is to look at game mechanics and decide which mechanics I'll need in my game. Since my game is a platformer I am going to need to have running mechanics, that goes without saying, also the player will have to jump over obstacles and enemies so I will need jumping mechanics. I remember in temple run you had to slide under trees, I think this would be fun to add to the game so I would have sliding mechanics. There are going to be enemies on the course that the player can jump over but there will be bigger enemies too so for these the character will be equipped with some sort of long range weapon, not specifically a gun but maybe a gun. Also there w...

 I read an article this week called "How to give bad feedback without being a jerk" by Adam Grant. He opens by discussing the sandwich method of feedback, this method involves opening and closing with a positive comment and giving the bulk of bad feedback in the middle. Grant found that there were a lot of problems with this method, firstly you can come off ingenuine with your positive comments if they're followed by negatives, another problem was that people tend to only remember or fully take in the beginning and ending of a conversation so this meant that the feedback wasn't being received to its full extent. Grant followed this with four steps to successfully give constructive criticism. If you explain why you're giving the feedback and tell them you have high expectations that you believe they can reach, they now feel like you are supporting them rather than attacking their faults. Another step is to take yourself off a pedestal, if you express that you ae st...

 I learned that the first thing you should do when making a new game is to start prototyping as fast as possible, you can do this physically or digitally. A fast way of prototyping is to use paper cutouts to replicate your game environment, this way you can chop and change all the different elements of the game to see what works and what doesn't. Its also likely that you will make some discoveries about your game that you wouldn't have made in the concept phase of your game.  Critical analysis isn't for finding faults in your game, its more supposed to be a thorough, unbiased study of your game. There are a number of questions to ask yourself when carrying out a critical analysis. Firstly, what challenges does the player face and what can they do to overcome these challenges? How do players effect each other? Is the game fair according to the players? Is it replayable? and what is the core audience of the game? Once you have asked all these questions and figured out the cor...

I think feedback is very important, whether its in your studies or in work it can help you to recognize mistakes and improve in all aspects. I read two articles this week relating to feedback and how you can use it, the first was   'A fixed mindset could be holding you back — here's how to change it' by Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold. This article related to my readings last week on fixed and growth  mindsets, I found it interesting how they discussed that praising your child for everything they do can create a brittle and fragile person although that is what parents were told to do for years, it leads to a fixed mindset. They also discussed how people with fixed mindsets can struggle at work because of the new technological  changes we see today. Naturally, people with fixed mindsets wouldn't adapt well to change because they shy away from challenges so I can see how it could affect you at the workplace.  Another article I read was 'Why rejection hurts so much...

 This semester I'll be creating my own game, this is very exciting for me after years of gaming I'll now be able to make my own. It'll be interesting to see how it works out but anyway these are my initial ideas for what type of game I want to make. The first game I would be interested in creating would be a platform game. My previous knowledge of games like this would be all based off Super Mario Bros . I'm interested in making this because I spent days playing these on my gameboy when I was younger and I still play from time to time on my Nintendo Switch. My game would start off in a cell and your protagonist has been captured by a group of Trolls and they are holding him on an island. Your goal as the player is to escape the island by reaching the port and sailing back to the mainland. You'll do this by completing different levels of the island, all of which will get progressively more difficult, as well as facing enemies of all sizes. I'd like to have a boss...