Picking up from where we left off in pre-production, my team needed reaffirmation on the roles I previously dished out, and the expectancies related to each role. I did this by speaking with each member, as well as with the group holistically. I considered all of our talents, experiences, and interests; from there, I did my best to reach a fair compromise with each member and to utilize everybody efficiently. My goal was for each member to have a similar stake in the project and for there to be some semblance of equity. However, I settled on it being imbalanced considering a few of the team members have stronger abilities and more commitment to the project, while others have significant responsibilities outside of this class and/or less incentivization to put in as much effort to the project. There is a limited degree to what I can enforce and how much influence I put forth without access to a grade book or individual salaries. To clear up some confusion, I made a document outlining the specific responsibilities affiliated with each team role, and I carefully thought out the amount of time each part would take. A lot of changes were made. The original roles I assigned did not account for each member's intrinsic motivation, and how much I can really count on them for. With the changes in the available timeline, we needed to adjust the overall plan and create a more realistic goal; to do this, Xander and myself partitioned the game into segments and decided on a reasonable portion of the game we could complete, now that we are down to half of the time we originally expected. Rather than a fully working version of the game, we have changed it to a "Beta Prototype," essentially serving as an introduction to the game rather than a fully-fledged playthrough. I also took into effect my new knowledge of the game design pipeline and my recent experience in Unity. This involved rethinking some of the initial priorities of the game, such as implementing whiteboxing and prototyping. As a team we have begun with outlining the map visually, as well as piecing it together in Unity using ProBuilder. Once it is set in Unity, and the file is shared across all members, we will begin implementing some scripts we have gathered as well as begin playtesting the physics and player controls. Once the basic mechanics are in place, we will add more detailed assets, which are currently in the works, and start on mapping the User Interface (UI). After that comes the more difficult and niche aspects of the game, such as custom scripts and audio + environmental effects. This week has been productive in terms of getting all members on the same page and creating reasonable goals. I was able to mete out responsibilities tailored towards each member based on personality rather than only the logistics of their role and the expectations that come with it; this was improvisational, and not what you would find at a professional company where expectations are rigid and come with a contract attached, which is unique to working with a team in a classroom. I anticipate social loafing to occur and a skewed workload -especially towards the more competent and involved members - to surface, but I also expect the bare minimum out of each member; a game is a lot to accomplish and we each have to play a part so that the game is working from all ends. In the future weeks I hope to add a bit more substance to the group's accomplishments, especially considering the tight deadline and project window, however this was a necessary start to ease into the progression/flow of things and to make sure we all know what to do going forward. Next week I will begin creating the UI predicated upon the prototype from pre-production and the input I received for revisions. I will also be supervising to make sure everybody is on track and knows what they are to be doing. At this point we all have roles to be fulfilled and ways to be getting a headstart. Responsibilities document: Organization of the shared Drive: TLDR:
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The Gallery Newspaper revived something within me. Following the recent issue's release, I ruminated upon the culture present at DSA. How much have we missed from walking on a tightrope around Covid, with activities being safeguarded - a euphemism, considering that no more than 10 people have been allowed in a club room indoors, significantly less than a classroom- and limitations surrounding everything we do? On that note, there is a blatant contradiction between friends sitting next to each other at lunch with uncovered mouths, versus coordinated seating spaced six feet apart in the classroom, with masks required. A double standard is being unequally applied. The constraints on extracurriculars are accompanied by the tragic loss of our favorite and frequented coffee-shops nearby school, as well as a farewell to significant school events; two integral parts of DSA culture. The newspaper highlighted many of the shortcomings evident from the last two and a half years, along with the discrepancies between the present and the years prior to the outbreak. Nearly half of the school has yet to experience the full extent of what earned DSA its colorful reputation; rather, they've been left with the barred remnants. Reading the Gallery Newspaper instilled a great deal of nostalgia in me. I reminisced, and realized that I had forgotten what the school previously felt like before the world collapsed. I was once again integrated into the DSA culture that I walked into when beginning Freshmen year, in the form of student-hosted talent shows with bits of humor overarching a culmination of talent and a show of hard work, teacher-involved pep rallies that broke through the student-teacher barriers into a fun and accommodating event for everyone - while celebrating the athletic talent belonging to such a well-rounded school- , and the remarkable artworks posted in rotation on the walls and in the atrium's glass museum by your friendly neighborhood art teachers. This school's veins flowed with genius and artistry. At lunch you would hear melodies produced by adroit fingers strolling along piano keys, outside you would witness artistic murals in the making just across the street, before and after school you would find peers having study sessions at Kaffeinate or Parker & Otis, and teachers in line to order their morning coffees while talking to kids they've taught in the past, topped off by first-period announcements highlighting the incredible accolades and achievements produced by our very own. This is what the DSA Gallery Newspaper represents. This is what it means to the students of DSA. It is made special by the fact a collection of our own peers created it and composited their works, fueled by passion and engrossing interest, covering topics regarding the social atmosphere at DSA, how things have changed, and the unprecedented obstacles that our class has faced. They challenged various inequities in the classroom by placing them in a light of exposure. This is what will incite the reformation of Durham School of the Arts into DSA again, by connecting us all through our shared intrigues and social presence. We will not remain downtrodden, merely a sad reflection in a sad puddle of what this school once was and the extraordinary it harbored in a bygone era. The sentimental weight of the newspaper in my hands was everything that I desired when I came to DSA; a school I viewed as an art exhibit pinpointed in the center of downtown Durham; a symbol of artistic fervor and an immersion of culture from a plethora of talents and backgrounds; a melting pot of individuality. The newspaper was made by students, for students, with the editor being a friend of mine. Undoubtedly, it was the first-step towards recovering what was lost; to reviving and reintegrating back into the swing of things from before, prior to the dramatic changes in administration, the surrounding controversy, as well as the global pandemic, the explosions, flooding, power outages, campus intrusions, and the subsequent changes in the atmosphere at DSA. We are no longer breathing in the rich air exuded by the old walls of our historic campus, which have framed countless paintings and jaw-dropping creations throughout their residence; no, these are walls we now hate, albeit ignorant of their greater meaning. Will this stagnancy endure? Will it continue to permeate these walls with mold, or will they once again showcase the inspiration and raw emotion of our talented pupils? We have treated masks -a necessary safety precaution - as hazmat suits. We have been toeing the edge of nothing; bereft of commonality; bereft of school spirit; bereft of the bright culture DSA once displayed like a neon sign in the midnight city. We are letting these masks obstruct us from the all-encompassing air we once breathed in; an air of curated talents, of expression, and an air polluted by the exhaust of indulging in our creative outlets. DSA once housed all of these properties in abundance. This school will become reacclimated only once students are heard and seen again. This involves the lost pieces of our school's identity, such as the Gallery Newspaper, that once brought us together. Similar to the football games that upholster the community of other schools, DSA has its art; and neither of which are simply for entertainment or show. They are at the heart of the school's spirit. Even with the lack of pep rallies and talent shows, we can find ways to display our accomplishments and cherish what our school was built off of. We didn't come to DSA to perform in private and endlessly practice routines that never get presented. Nor did we come to write without publication, or to paint in reticence without positing a stance. We came here to be involved and to imprint ourselves. To disseminate our individual messages through creation, and to challenge particular subject matter meaningful to ourselves. To cast exposure, creatively. Not to remain in obscurity. Durham School of the Arts will revitalize. Art and culture are in the very fibers of its being. Students have already found ways to output their creativity through social media, for example @dsa.trashcans. It is just a matter of how much effort we pour into making the recovery expedient, and how much attention we put towards celebrating each other's work. Join clubs, collaborate, get involved despite the hurdle it currently takes. The Gallery Newspaper is just the first piece of the disassembled puzzle; it provided us with insight into concurrent issues at Durham School of the Arts that we were likely unaware of, and that needed mentioning, leaving strong impressions in its wake. That's good. It's a start. Now lets extrapolate upon what it commenced, and provision these gaping holes -leftover from sweeping and overwhelming change- with our own sutures. Conclusions:
Throughout the process of developing my educational game, Color-Code, I faced many obstacles especially regarding coding, as well as physics and aligning the camera. I was able to use youtube tutorials and peers to help assist me in creating the fundament of the code. However, the teleport-upon-fall script gave me more troubles and was a big pain in the butt. Another difficulty that came up in my process was aligning the color objects to be reachable but not too easy as to defeat the purpose of the parkour aspect. I achieved this through trial and error, and tediously moving the objects. I also had to create a plethora of materials which I assigned custom colors, and then applied to every duplicated sphere. I chose the colors by using a color mixer/picker website and typing in the given RGB number values into the color assigner in Unity, which was a more convenient and accurate way of choosing the colors rather than "eyeballing" them, because it is an educational tool. In terms of creating the scene and assets, I was able to find everything in the Unity Asset Store, and I tried to stick with low poly so that the style was consistent and cohesive. One of the main obstructions in creating smooth gameplay was the player controls. I struggled to create a moveable camera view, where the player could hold down right click or shift their mouse to change their viewing angle, similar to navigating in Unity Editor. After peer review and suggestions, I decided to completely revamp the perspective and structure of my game, and I made the camera look down from a birds eye view; this solved a lot of problems and was a very convenient change. It also made the best use of my script, whereas the standard Unity FPSController would have been better for first-person gameplay. Lastly, was the challenge of making it so the player would fall if they were to choose the wrong color. I had to apply rigidbody components to each of the correct orbs and remove them from the incorrect ones so that they still floated in the air but would not be substantial in holding up the player. Despite the purpose of my game being an educational experience for others, it has served as an extension of learning and experience for me as well. Through creating a new game on my own, and doing so with the Unity Game Engine, I developed valuable skills regarding creating an original game and composing it natively in a game engine. I also acquired more experience with designing a realistic and manageable concept, and then executing it in a playable fashion; even though I was able to make some semblance of a properly working educational game, I know it is far from professional. My updated game is closer to what I think represents my abilities. There are still kinks to work out and ways I could polish it to be more friendly towards new users, but it is a large step up for now. In the future I would like to grow my knowledge in scripting with C#, as well as improve the visual appeal and natural feel I apply to my games. For now, I am proud of the concept as well as my recent updates, and I blame Unity for most of my problems. All in all:
As a class, we are nearing the finish line of our educational game PBM assessments. Everyone has turned in the current state of their game and we are now in the stage of creating a second, updated, iteration based on peer feedback and suggestions. Although, admittedly, mine as more of a placeholder than anything and isn't a project I am proud of, at least it is working. I consider that a win over Unity. My game, as it was, had many problematic areas that were not "turn-in" ready. For example I still hadn't solved the issue with my respawn/teleport-upon-death script and my player controller was a bit clunky to move around with. The colors being spherical also surfaced some problems with traversing across the parkour aspect of the game, which was more difficult than if I'd used a polygonal shape. I have worked through some of the issues and revamped a lot of the major aspects of my game. For starters, a simple but effective change I made was to use a top-down camera perspective from a locked birds eye view. This helps the player move along and see the colors far more intuitively than using first person controls which wasn't very compatible with my game concept. Another one of those changes, which took significantly more time, was completely redesigning the color shapes to be squares and then re-applying all the materials and rigidbody components. I also decided to make the spacing between them a bit less difficult, to keep the focal point on color learning. Lastly, and most importantly, is that I was finally able to get a working respawn script. I had to sift through the comments on various youtube videos illustrating how to create a respawn until I finally found the bug. It made me want to laugh, while also cursing out the *people* who designed the Unity Game Engine. It all came down to a little unnoticeable and super specific setting under the engine physics system which required me to enable some sort of syncing. It didn't really make sense but it worked! I also had to apply the respawn point I created and the player object to the "Death" plane that I made, which is transparent and encompasses the bottom half of the map, so that a respawn is triggered when the player collides with it. In a nutshell:
Diverging away from my game development process, I would like to spend this blog post talking about my experiences with art in the last month or so. Recently I have been demotivated, and frozen from being so overwhelmed. Taking on large art projects, experimenting with new mediums, and continuously setting a higher bar for myself whilst challenging my limits has been exhausting and kind of threw me into a rut. I have been unable to really focus on art and feel as passionately or confident as before, as I am going further and further into uncharted territory. Usually I am able to come out with something that I made work and I have already tackled through new challenges this year, but there is something particularly scary about watercolor; one of the last mediums left that I still have no experience with. As an artist, it is undeniably a crutch to be able to "go over" my mistakes, which is a luxury I've enjoyed with almost any other medium. However, watercolor is one-and-done and every detail counts, which is scary as can be. I am not sure what I will do to rebuild confidence and force myself to reconcile with the inevitable mistakes that will arise, but for now I will try to weigh less on myself with my own thoughts and expectations; I shouldn't expect to do everything perfectly or very well off of limited experience. I also am working to appreciate my bravery in taking these challenges on, and building faith in myself after emerging atop these challenges in the past with works I was proud of. I also need to remember that my first acrylic painting wasn't amazing, but 2 more attempts after that lead to my favorite project of mine and clearly shows improvement. Overall:
Following my previous post about plotting out a manageable game concept, and how that was going to be the most conducive to my success, I have begun implementing parts of my idea in Unity. Above is a progress photo of me arranging the color sphere platforms, which has been monotonous and aggravating, but most of all it has been remarkably boring. I have had to make micro-adjustements while aligning every color sphere to be an appropriate distance away from the next so that the player can reasonably jump between them. I also created a rudimentary player movement script which allows the player to move with simple WASD/arrow commands and the space bar. Through this script, I also have more control over the players' physics, specifically a menu of their speed, jump force, and gravity which I can numerically adjust. I applied rigid bodies to various spheres along the "correct path" so that the player doesn't fall through when choosing the correct orb. By the same logic, I did not add rigidbody components to the incorrect ones so that the player can't continue forward and will fall to their death. However, in its current state, the player isn't forcefully respawned in the same instance of the game; it requires the player to refresh the play page to try again at the level. This is a problem and I am working on fixing it by creating a simple on-trigger respawn script with an invisible death platform that initiates the respawn to a designated respawn point. However, despite my following of youtube tutorials step-by-step I have had difficulties getting my script to work. Overall, I have made strong headway creating my game, but I am still working on designing a second level as well as implementing a respawn into my game which is essential for the proper functionality. I was able to align the colors by tediously adjusting their location, and I assigned specific RGB values by using an online picker tool and transcribing those values directly in the albedo of custom materials by inputting the numerical R, G, and B coordinates. In conclusion:
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AuthorMy name is Quinn Peterson! I will be reflecting about my art work in this blog! Archives
May 2022
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