To start, I will be utterly candid; getting reacclimated into Unity Game Engine has been a pain. So much of the focus revolves around planning to circumvent issues rather than solving them head on. This is because when Unity presents problems, it can be devastating and will suck away all hope like a dark spiraling vortex. That single problem could be arising from a plethora of different sources and it might be nearly impossible for an amateur to diagnose, yet would halt the entire game. Essentially, it all comes down to the concept that I apply to my game and how I strategize about avoiding potential complications. Planning for a large task and executing it are two opposite ends of the spectrum, with the difference between them further aggravated by the clunky utility that is Unity Engine. Creating a game is - without a doubt- very nuanced and requires a lot of thought from the designer. Ideally, the creativity would come as the forefront of creating something new and creating it would be without any huge knowledge or experience barriers. However, that is not the case; there is a large and deterring disparity between the opportunity of a developer that knows the ins-and-outs of Unity from years of experience versus someone trying to take it all on at once. Because of my limited experience, it is important how carefully and holistically I approach conceptualizing my game and translating that into a smooth extension of gameplay. As of right now, I have decided to do a color meshing educational game, similar to games such as Little Alchemy and an online color picking tool I played around with, which are relatively simple, but feel more like clicking rather than the player actually engaging and instilling knowledge from trial and error. Combining parkour-like gameplay with overarching color puzzles that teach a new perspective of viewing colors, color theory, and blending, creates a far more immersive and educational experience. Also, colors are simple and by doing my format of gameplay, it will be limited on coding and compiling; I can avoid a heavy amount of scripting by using object components and various controllers ingrained into the native unity assets. For example I plan to take advantage of rigidbodies rather than create a complex respawn mechanism, so the player simply falls through when they jump to the wrong color. Conclusion statements:
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By now I have composed a few projects in Unity, albeit with hiatus periods between those experiences. Even so, it feels like a slap in the face every time I try it; I do not think I could design a less intuitive UI and layout if I tried to. I spent 20 minutes just trying to figure out how to apply a static color to a model. Other problems were even more annoying, and they really shouldn't have existed at all. For a game engine where models and pieces are being compiled, it was shocking that dragging a piece into the scene spawned it a mile away and in a completely senseless scale. A top-end program used by major game developers should be able to automatically calibrate or proportion the units/scale of imported objects, and it should not be so difficult to initially place an object in the scene. Not only that, but many imported assets did not even retain their materials, even those downloaded directly from the Unity Asset Store. There are a lot of areas where Unity feels cumbersome, as if it is throwing away a potentially fluent and convenient experience for one overloaded with a superfluous cache of tools which could have otherwise been strategically hidden or integrated. As someone who can have difficulties finding motivation and with a preference for efficiently designed user experiences, rather than everything being forced onto the user (who has to constantly research or search up tutorials), it is a program that would likely deter me from trying to make my own games. Every experience I have had with it has been a nightmare, and overall it feels extremely outdated. In the future, I would like to see other, more modern, programs replace this obsolete hunk of software. TLDR:
Above is the final rendition of my parkour obby scene. It is broken into three parts, though I tried to make it so they connected into one realistic environment. Overall, I tried to make it simplistic and with a stylized theme using low poly models. The most difficult part of the process of making this game was spacing each individual asset to create the perfect difficulty, which ended up being a tedious task. It was also difficult to program the invisible barrier to prevent the player from digressing at certain points. Another coding feat was making a mechanism for the player dying when they fall off certain objects.
The player's next objective is the floating staircase in the mountain/volcano lair, underground. The steps are moving and shifting in opposite directions. They are also spaced further and further as the player goes down, and the jumps become steeper. Alas, after passing through all the obstacles, they will be greeted by a flag to signify their accomplishment and completion of the parkour obstacle course. Conclusion:
My game idea is for the player to navigate through three different levels which are essentially in an "Obby" format and involve jumping or moving between obstacles. The player will begin by jumping clouds which will be spaced apart to where the player will have to time their launch/release perfectly. The jumps will get harder and harder as the player progresses through this stage. They will then be at the top of a mountain/volcano. Their next steps will be to jump across the ledges inside of it in order to make it across without falling into lava. They will then make their way down the other side to reach an underground facility or "evil layer" which will involve various obstacles in the dark. Their final goal is to reach a "Lift" at the end of the facility and then surface back onto land, having gotten across the volcano. The players controls will be limited to basic movements (left, right, forward, etc) and jumping.
My design is meant to traverse multiple environments rather seamlessly, with some whimsical and fun aspects. I felt like a volcano would be a good parkour environment and a neat centric obstacle. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my level concepts and ready to bring it to fruition! |
AuthorMy name is Quinn Peterson! I will be reflecting about my art work in this blog! Archives
May 2022
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