Mastery Journal

Here is my Mastery Journal. I will discuss small projects that I created and little things that inspire me. I am a programmer and a gamer at heart. You can find some of my code samples here: github.com/Tonykidv2. You can also find my LinkedIn profile here: www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-ramos-lebron-104613aa

[ajramos-fs]

What Have I’ve been up to?

Hello Tumblr,

It’s been awhile since I’ve been on here. I finally got a job as a Full-Stack Developer and had it for a while. I’m working as a web developer. Little bummed I’m not a video game developer just yet, the work here is a bit boring and not really challenging, but I guess I have to wait a bit more time before becoming one until some game studio takes the risk and hire me. Besides that, thanks to the light work I have in my job I have more time to do more extracurricular activities. While in that time I decided to do a number of prototypes using Vuforia and Unity. I created a few to understand how to create properly designed Augmented reality using Vuforia. I personally don’t have a mobile device that can run the ARCore and/or ARKit SDK to make scanning easier and more streamlined towards the user. At lease on the bright side, vanilla Vuforia is good to make simple augmented reality apps for most devices. The first one I’m going to show is a small project that displays a small portal on a scannable surface. 

As you can see in the video I scanned a surface which was my laptop keyboard to display portal to another room. I should have found a better detailed surface to reduce shaking/flickering of objects but I digress. As you move about it would look like you are looking through a portal to another world. You can’t see it in the video but the way I designed the game view if you get too close to the portal the camera won’t be able properly display the portal and disappear. Later on, I’m planning on doing a portal door that you can physically walk through and look around.

The next couple of videos that I shared is a solar system diorama Augmented Reality app. As you see, you’ll have to scan a surface (there are UI elements telling you if a surface is scannable) and move back to see our solar system rotating about. Currently the project only has the inner planets and the sun with an asteroid belt surrounding it. Given the right circumstances such as a properly lit up area and a detailed surface you can move your phone towards planets and see them up close. In later iterations, I want to add more detail to the project such as infographics (Planet Information) and more effects/objects like the rockets launching in space. If you look closely in the video you can see a rocket on planet earth. The rocket is a GPS marker showing where you are at on earth. The planets are indeed stylized but the artist who created it made it really close to the real one so it’s okay for now. It took a bit of work but I got it done. I’m not saying this project is done but I am planning on adding more. That’s it for now. I’ll try to add more updates here. If you want the .apk of any of the projects I shown or want to know how I did all this please don’t hesitate to message me.

[ajramos-fs]

Usability Engineering Retrospect

I believe I haven’t really learn much this month. There was some research and one sided conversations in numerous discussion posts. I felt I wasted a lot of my time navigating around dead links to complete assignments. It would have been better if there were other people in the class to talk to. Back to the discussion posts, the number of them made the entire class boring. The class should have been tailored if there aren’t many people in the class. 

I really don’t have nothing more to say besides this class has to be restructured. Make sure links are working and I shouldn’t have to waste my time looking for a research paper when the professor could’ve provided a direct link to it instead of the APA formatted reference. 

[ajramos-fs]

Agile Software Engineering - Retrospect

Interesting time this month. I had to juggle work, moving between Florida to Arkansas, and work on Full Sail projects. I tried to use all the time I had to do all my work. I even had to stay in a hotel between Florida and Arkansas to turn in some work. I wouldn’t say I learn ALOT this month because most of it dealt with paperwork and other things leading up to actual development. I am still confused with finding a capstone advisor process. I am talking to a couple people to get my capstone approved but it has proven to be annoying. If I could say I learn anything is how I can monetize my mobile apps quite easily. I thought it would be harder. Just a couple lines of code and you have ads on your apps. I was able to implement it in android studio and I saw how its done in Unity and it was even easier. Just import a unity package a game object that loads an ads and call a function to show an ads at a good time to do it.

I still have to talk to my capstone advisor so I can actually get idea approved because I really want to get into developing my idea.  I’ll have to draw up some mock ups to better present my idea so my advisor can approve it with confidence. I decided what I’m going to use for my project which is Vuforia with Unity3d. I was planning to using ARCore but because the SDK is still new and only a couple mobile phones support it, I decided I want more people to be able to play my game in the play store by switching to Vuforia. I’m ready to get into the next step just so can get past all this paperwork.

[ajramos-fs]

Reflection Game Development Frameworks

This was interesting month. I did have trouble finding time to work on my assignments here due to work but I did learn a bit. I learn that there other frameworks/IDEs that can also help you make mobile game/apps. Xamarin makes it easy to make mobile apps using .NET and C#. I tried to incorporate Entity Framework an open-sourced ORM for ADO.NET to load an online database but because of android’s runtime it wouldn’t be possible and I had to implement a RESTful Web service for the app to talk too. I did had a bit of practice utilizing the sensors on my mobile phone for one of the projects which is a good thing to learn because it’s something that most if not all mobile devices have and should to be use to some extent to make fun mobile apps. I did put in some time to research for my capstone project and researched on a bit of what king of Augmented Reality game I want to make. If all goes as plan I’ll use Android’s new AR Core SDK and a fallback would be using Vuforia SDK to implement AR. The kind of game I want to make shouldn’t require a Marker (or Image Target) because I want to make a game that can be played in 360 and doesn’t need a Marker to focus on to play. I’m ready to move on and hope I get a capstone adviser to help me on my capstone idea and possibly make it better.  

[ajramos-fs]

Approaches to Game Design Retrospect

So this was an interest month. I learned a bit this month. I could have rationed my time better. I often found my starting my work on a Thursday and working really hard till Sunday. I did felt the Twine assignment f didn’t fit well in the over all course especially when I was told to view a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbX08mBDFMo. The point of the video was to tell people that mobile game don’t need a big narrative to enjoy because user would most likely play in 5-10 minute burst maybe even shorter. I did like the programming assignment that was given because I actually got something to program and I learn a bit on the android run time pipeline with touch events.

In the end, the class did help me (maybe force me) look at popular mobile game from the past and I noticed trends that cause mobile games to succeed. I will start looking at popular mobile game and see what I can take so I can make my own successful mobile game.

[ajramos-fs]

Mobile Game Review

Hey Tumblr I have decided to move my reviews to a different blog dedicated for video game reviews here: 

https://ajramosreviews.tumblr.com/

[ajramos-fs]

Mobile Game Review 8

Dreammotion Inc. (2017, April 20). Gun Strider.

Hello Tumblr it’s me again, Anthony, with another mobile game review today. This time I’m going to talk about the Gun Strider. It’s a recent release that came out this past April. In this Free-to-play game you are the ‘Main Hero’ in some dystopian crime ridden world. As you play the game you have tap on enemies as you see them until they die and fall out of screen. depending on the game mode you have to survive the time limit or survive as long you can go. As you progress longer into the round enemies start spawning quicker and attack quicker so it’s up to the player to react quicker to take them out. As you progress farther into the game you can Upgrade your character with different weapons or perks and you can also change the way your character looks with different color palettes. There are in-app purchases and they either are to buy more weapon types or change character models. The game is very stylish and as you shoot you character will do a dramatic pose each time he/she shoots. There are two power moves the player can one being Bullet time where time freezes and the player can freely shoot enemies for a set duration of time this is good when the enemies are starting to overwhelm you. The other move you can use is a shotgun blast that clears entire side of the screen of enemies.

First off, this is a really fun game and a really good time waster. The game is free with a couple in-game apps to buy but they don’t really make or break the game much. There are ads in the game but they only show if you want to double the money you earn in a particular level so that’s really good in my opinion. I do like the weekly leaderboard challenges because depending where you reach by the end of the week you get a bit of gold to use to buy upgrades. The ‘story’ (there isn’t much story to them) missions are a easy way to get an understanding of the in-game mechanics. There are also daily challenges that help you brush up on your skill and if you pass you get a bit of gold for purchasing upgrades. The flashy moves and the use of quick reaction time really makes this game stand out. The simplistic character art really also stand out.

In the end, I found a game that I like that had a simple game mode but made it fun with style. Seeing the character move dramatically after each shot, the way the camera pans when completing bullet time were really nice touches to a game. Many games don’t do much after perfecting the main game because in the end it just felt stale or boring after a while. In my mobile game I’ll try to add a bit of side stuff that can really make my game stand amongst similar game. Usually other games has interesting music or pixel art or some other thing. But usually that’s all it has just one or two thing with a $3 price tag.

[ajramos-fs]

Mobile Game Review 3

Vlambeer (2013, March 14). Ridiculous Fishing. Vlambeer

The next game i’m going to talk about is the mobile game ‘Ridiculous Fishing’ by Vlambeer for Android and iOS. Its the first game I’m reviewing that is using motion. It’s another simple game anybody can play. Pretty much you’re a fisherman who is fishing. The goal is to reel in as many fish you can get for each cast. As you cast your line you have to guide the hook of your line as deep as you can get avoiding other fish before having to go back up. Once you touch a fish the line automatically goes back up and you have to now grab any fish you can get up your way back while trying to avoid jellyfish which can cost money instead of giving you money which you can use to buy better gear to dive deeper into the ocean. Once you reach the surface the fish are now flung into the air it’s up to tap each until they disappear so you can get your money from the cast or they will just fall back into the ocean and you’ll lose your chance to get more money.

It was fun for a bit until I started to notice the repetitiveness of it all. I noticed a couple of mobile games do this. You’re doing some simple task but overtime you’ll get better gear to the same task. in this case you’re a fisherman getting better gear to dive deeper into the ocean to get rarer fish for better cash outs. The motion control is good, I had no trouble with it was really responsive and there was no noticeable lag from what I can tell. Not many people utilize the gyro sensor to their disposal seeing as the sensor comes default in many, if not all, phone nowadays. I would to make a game that utilize everything the phone uses the camera the gyro sensor, the proximity sensor etc. It’s there why don’t designers use them they are hard to read from. I guess I have to do it. 

For capstone I was planning to add something some form motion control to a game. Maybe even the ‘Active Edge’ sensor that some phones are being equipped with. Now there are mobile devices that can even tell if the phone is being squeeze  from the sides. Recently Google Showcased their new flagship phone that has ‘Active Edge’. Google demo it by showing that it can open Google Assistance. I just hope that its not lock to just opening Assistance.

[ajramos-fs]

Mobile Game Review 1

Fireproof Games. (2012). The Room [Multi-platform game]. Guildford, UK: Fireproof Studios.

Hello Tumblr and gamers alike it me Anthony R. You know who I am by now or what I’m trying to do by now. This time around I’m looking over some popular mobile games over the past few years. In this post I’ll talk about the mobile game ‘The Room 2′. 

In this game you are some nameless person wondering around some ghostly puzzle mansion. The game doesn’t doesn’t give you much other than random notes left by previous people (not other players) before you. The game is split up in different chapters with multiple challenging puzzles in each one. The puzzles do get harder the further you go in each chapter.

Generally I’m not really into just general puzzle games but the way you have to look around an object to find something new and advance intrigues me. It’s not like other puzzle games where you have to always look at a somewhat 2d static screen and that’s all you have. In this game you actually have to pan around an object solving some 3d puzzle box touching whatever that could be a switch to something else. The only problem I have with the game is the fact I was playing in small screen, sometimes the game will register that i was touching something else or couldn’t register that I was turning a key or pushing a switch. I believed this game can be better played with a big screen besides a small iPod touch screen. The theme of the game is indeed interesting with eerie audio cues playing in the background and the just dark aura of the game does captivate you into solving the game. There is some story in the game to captivate the player but I feel there isn’t enough for it to be a thing and from I got in my play through I did started to question if there was going to be some great payoff at the end.

This has given me an idea for some type of AR puzzle game so instead of you swiping/pinching to move around the object you actually have to move the mobile towards an AR object in your own environment. For example, in the game you are viewing some puzzle box on some podium but in AR you can load up some puzzle box on some desk and you have to move around the box to solve it.

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journal - Interesting Find

Found an interesting site for creating .gitignore files for many different projects like Unity, Unreal and Visual Studios . I will make sure to keep this site handy in the future.

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journal - CSE Class (Computer Science for Engi.)

I am almost finished working on some my final work for this month’s class work called: Computer Science for Engineer. It was a pretty interesting class and help me get into Android development with android studio and a bit on IOS development. The assignments weren’t to hard thanks to my previous work I did during my time in Full Sail while pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree. Time Management was okay on my part. I made sure I started work early to get to any roadblocks I will probably get to earlier on so I can squash them early in the week. I learn a bit of android studio during the month. I has issue installing some form of source control software in my Mac and learn that android studio has built in Git functionality. I was able implemented a couple of AI algorithms I implemented in C++ and ported them in the Java language and have them run on my android phone which was cool to me because they were my first apps that weren’t just an app that just said “Hello World” but a bit more advance. I’ll probably used what I learn here to make a proper game loop because all I did up till now was wait for a valid touch event to hit to update the screen. I will most likely keep and use some of the implementations I made in this course and use them in other projects especially path finding algorithm which has also come in handy with my final project in the few final months when getting my Bachelor’s degree.

I will most definitely use what I learn here in this class for future classes and my capstone project. This class actually got me into Android studio and other mobile development IDEs and got me looking for SDKs that can help in mobile development. This class also got me thinking what I want to do for my capstone project and got me looking for help to make my project a reality. I’ve been for documentations for AR functionality and was able to find ARkit that apple created to make AR easy to implement. I found another AR SDK called VuforiaI that also helps in AR development that works in android studio and Unity. I can’t wait to find time to get into them and start developing AR projects

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journey - More Android Studio Projects

https://github.com/Tonykidv2/AStar_pather

Made a two more projects in Android both implementing some form of AI Algorithm. One using the Minimax algorithm and the other using the A* path search algorithm. I’m actually getting used to the IDE and Java in general. I’m getting used to Android SDK and there is a lot of documentation online and very supportive fanbase around it. I still have to figure out a bit more on the Java Language because it was a bit hard moving/copying memory and making sure I’m not messing around some other memory block. Other than that understanding and writing Java language wasn’t a problem for me. Next Time in Andriod Studio I’ll try to figure to make a proper game loop and make some animations on screen because up till now I haven’t done any animations and just quick changes based of user touch.

Here is the source code for both projects I made:

https://github.com/Tonykidv2/Tic_Tac_Toe

https://github.com/Tonykidv2/AStar_pather

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journey - Android Studio

Started Working on Android Studio and finished a small project to get to know how the IDE works. Was a little at first but I’m starting to hang of it. There is a lot of helpful documentation on the net to help you make your first app. What I created here was a small treasure hunting game where you just tap on the screen to find treasure hidden on the ground. The primary language I used was Java so to me it was pretty easy to start coding things. You can find my code on my GitHub here: https://github.com/Tonykidv2/TreasureHunterAndroid

[ajramos-fs]

Inspirational Post

Here is a video I watch every now and then. This pastor talks about tackling life in steps. You should take each step in life one at a time and once you get comfortable take another step and take in new problems to overcome.

Smith, C. (Uploader). (2015, Jun 11). Take another Step. [Online Video] Retrieved from  https://youtu.be/nAfgFaXzdq4

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journal - GOALS

In this post I made a short slide show in Youtube where I written down goals that I will accomplish once I finish each specific class. I set up 3 goals for each class and a strategy on how to accomplish it. 

Ramoslebron, A. (Uploader). (2017, July 30). Mastery Journal Timeline [Online video]. Retrieve from https://youtu.be/O589nDafPf8.

[ajramos-fs]

Mastery Journal Timeline

Here is a timeline of classes I will be partaking in Full Sail. I will put major effort in my classes and reach mastery. I understand this will be challenging but I know I will gain so much knowledge and become a Master in my field.

[ajramos-fs]

Inspirational Post

Here is a video of a game that my favorite developer, Hideo Kojima, is making, Death Stranding. Kojima likes to make eccentric video games since he started making them back in the late 80s. He doesn’t like making the same game like everyone else is but likes to go against the grain using filming techniques and epic storylines to make an interesting game. I would like to also make game that goes against the grain and make that other people try to emulate.

JeuxActu. (2016, Dec 2). DEATH STRANDING Trailer 4K (Jeu Hideo Kojima - TGA 2016). Retrieved From  https://youtu.be/fTqJ_Pm9BQo