Game Design – Week 8 – Logic, Flowcharts, and Coding

“Binary code” by Christiaan Colen is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

When asked the most important thing I should teach my students, the MIT student I was interviewing simply stated , ‘ teach them logic.’ – Mr. Le Duc

SUMMARY

  • This week was a week that I learned the most things that I can use extensively.

PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)

PlayCanvas

Screenshot from Sololearn.com

Unity

Screenshot from Sololearn.com

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

Image from https://monkeyblogmonkeydo.com/2010/07/19/so-duh-pop-quiz-classic-video-game-flowchart-edition/
  • Topics I want to remember:
    • Flow charts can have multipule endings
    • Flow charts can be used for a multitude of things
    • Each block represents an action that would be made in the programming of what it is being used for.
    • Color coded blocks help others understand what the blocks are for/what type of block they are.
    • Document blocks represent the saving of a specified data.
    • Two ending blocks can be used instead of one start and one end.

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

  • I learned that when creating a flowchart, you have to thing about every possible choice able to be made in the chart for whatever it is for.

OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)

  • When I create something, I should try to keep a stable mental state if it gains popularity.

STUDIO (GAME DESIGN)

I learned some PlayCanvas things.

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

  • Today I had to complete multiple assignments that I had to come up with ideas on, because of these assignments I am learning to get better at thinking outside of the box by solving problems I may have in my school.

WEEKLY ACTIVITY EVALUATION

  • The content in this weeks assignment was great and helped me learn more in the game development process and the way to do this was also helpful.

Game Design – Week 7 – Tools, Time, and Rooms

CreativeCommons image Tool Stash by Meena Kadri at Flickr.com

SUMMARY

  • A lot of work finished.

PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

  • All you want to do when you make your first game is to make the minimal viable product and then build off of that when it is engaging.

Game Genres from the Simplest and Most Difficult to Create

  1. Racing Game
  2. Top-Down Shooter
  3. 2d Platformer
  4. Color Matching Puzzle Game
  5. 2D Puzzle Platformer
  6. 3D Platformer
  7. FPS
  8. JRPG
  9. Fighting Game
  10. Action Adventure
  11. Western RPG
  12. RTS

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

  • Game designers need to know a wide range of tricks and functions that they could incorporate into their game(s).

OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)

  • When thinking of my life as a narrative I am the protagonist and my computer is my nemesis because of the problems I overcome during my journey as a game developer on it and my goal is to create video games.

STUDIO (SONGWRITING)

  • An Fps with a focus on movement, abilities, and vehicles, with unique visuals.
  • A 2d platformer with a focus on color switching and puzzles.
  • A 3d top-down shooter that is tough but is meant to have tricks to make the game easier.
  • A top-down racing game that has the players play many game modes made for party play.
  • 2d Rpg that has good gameplay but has more story and lore.
    • An Fps where movement, vehicles and abilities, are anyone’s best chance to win, but skill is a big factor.
    • FPS

WEEKLY ACTIVITY EVALUATION

  • Pretty interesting for a blog assignment.

Developing Quality Workflow

What is Workflow?

Image Creative Workflow from Behance.com, https://www.behance.net/gallery/27919515/Creative-workflow-GIF

Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/

“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com

What is a quality workflow?  How do we develop it?  Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something.  First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage.  Read on and find out!

Stages of Creation Development

Inspiration

How do we find ideas to develop?

  • Tools: YouTube, Google, Social Media, Other Creators
  • Process: Use the tools to learn about what you would like to create.
  • Measured Quality: Show what you’ve made to other people to get their feedback and improve on that.
  • Who Measures Quality: Yourself.

Intention

How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?

  • Tools: Sticky notes, Brain.
  • Process: Think about what you would like to create
  • Measured Quality: Use this stage to change the purpose of the project if needed.
  • Who Measures Quality: Yourself.

Pre-production

How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?

  • Tools: Sticky notes, Google, Brain.
  • Process: Use tools above to brainstorm ideas.
  • Measured Quality: Improve ideas you’ve thought of.
  • Who Measures Quality: Yourself.

Production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.

  • Tools: Game Engine, Teamwork, Time.
  • Process: Work on implementing and creating the ideas in to your project.
  • Measured Quality: Compare to other similar projects.
  • Who Measures Quality: You and your team.

Post-production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project.

  • Tools: Game Engine, Publishing location, Communication.
  • Process: Use the tools above to finish your project and find a place to publish it.
  • Measured Quality: Test for any bugs and change any thing undesirable by the Team.
  • Who Measures Quality: You and your team.

Presentation/Performance

How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?

  • Tools: Social Media, Hype, Family, Friends.
  • Process: Share your project with others for it to have a chance at popularity.
  • Measured Quality: Look for bugs, issues, or lower quality parts to fix.
  • Who Measures Quality: You, your team, and the community.

Feedback

How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?

  • Tools: Social Media, Forums.
  • Process: Research your game for any feedback the community may have.
  • Measured Quality: What people can see from your project.
  • Who Measures Quality: You, your team, and the community.

Recipe For Success: Shigeru Miyamoto

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Shi...
Image of Shigeru Miyamoto from Wikipedia.
Click Here for image.

Born: November 16, 1952, in Sonobe, Kyoto, Japan

Personal Success Definition

I define success as something that everyone can achieve but as something that everyone also has to work for.

Miyamoto changed the way Nintendo worked by using his ideas merged with some other influences to create great games like Donkey Kong. This lead Miyamoto to be a game designer for Nintendo instead of him being an apprentice in the planing department.

Skills for Success

Miyamoto is an 1) out of the box thinker, who 2) uses multiple inspirations 3) to create enjoyable experiences. Miyamoto created Donkey Kong using a new play style and his inspirations of the cartoon Popeye, the movie Kong, and Beauty and the Beast. He created legendary games that any person who knows anything about games knows about. (1)

How They Used These Skills

Image of Nintendo Entertainment System.
Click here for image.

Shigeru Miyamoto was successful because of his ability to create popular game ideas. This showed the people at Nintendo that Miyamoto had skills that would lead him to becoming game designer at Nintendo. Also, because of his non-stop hits of games, he still has his position as game designer.

Challenges Overcome

Shigeru Miyamoto had to face many challenges over his career when making games, like all game designers, but there were a lot in the game Super Mario 64. An example of this would be that when Mario in SM64 needed to make a long jump the game registered the jump if the player was close enough. (2)

Significant Work

When the Wii was announced, it was announced with Shigeru Miyamoto leading a orchestra of miis that would play at the speed of his conduction with the Wii Remote.

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Miyamoto
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/09/28/shigeru-miyamoto-on-the-challenges-of-making-super-mario-64-in-a-newly-translated-interview/#51b1dc086271
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CASFKO_enUS911&ei=w0h-X_DsE7HN0PEPuuqQyAQ&q=Shigeru+Miyamoto&oq=Shigeru+Miyamoto&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzILCC4QsQMQyQMQkwIyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BQghEKABOgUIIRCrAjoHCCEQChCgAToFCAAQyQM6BggAEBYQHjoCCC5Q9A1YpyBgtiVoAHAAeACAAXOIAccVkgEEMjguNJgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrAAQE&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwiw2pmOy6PsAhWxJjQIHTo1BEkQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&safe=active&ssui=on