Digital designer

[julieeebabe]

Sustainability

In order for people to access my game, I publish the game to the website of itch which people can free download from the link I provide above! 

Whenever the Mac or windows, it’s all available to be accessed on! 

[julieeebabe]

Final Critical Reflection 3

Through the production, I also discover there’s something I lose referring to my course teacher’s feedback. 

Even though I focus on atmosphere design, the aesthetic of my game should be more consistent as the look of the player character is a bit at odds with the NPC. I focus on other atmosphere designs of the scene but forget to pay enough attention on the player character. This is also an important part as it can influence the whole game experience! 

Also, even though I find out the balance between the design area and technical area to have my design area focus on the whole atmosphere, my game is indeed lack of some interaction element. Its quite boring for the player just go into the square, watch people and collect stones. I need to do more to make the game more interesting. 

So, after the final presentation of my project. I do some further extensions on my game.  Originally, I create some objects for the players to destroy. In room 1, it’s the music box. In room 2, it’s the rose. In room 3, it’s the lollipop. There’s nothing happens when the player destroys them. I think my extension of my game can focus on this. Then I add a bit coding to set some of the game objects active when the player destroys music box, roses and lollipops. In room1, there are some further dancers appear when the player destroys some specific music box. This improves audiences’ interest as they don’t know which music box can trigger the interactive moment and pushes them forward to explore more. In room 2, there are some further food appear and further couples appear.  

Except those, referring back to some of my classmates’ feedbacks, I can use more lights to increase the whole quality of the game. I add more lights on the scene and turn my game quality to medium. 

[julieeebabe]

Final Critical Reflection 2

Continuing on my last post of my final critical reflection, 

When I am doing my game, from setting the storyline to building the scene, from building the scene to creating interactive elements, from creating those interactive elements to having different animations and to final UI and sound stuff, I realise the thick connection between public square and people, world, society nowadays more and more. 

My first room records teenagers dancing and releasing their free styles on public square. This leads me to think except public square, are there any physical spaces for them to release this kind of active and youthful energy? This thick connection somehow not only comes up to youth’s physical behaviour, individual activities but their psychological stage and even their influences to society nowadays! 

What’s worse, my second room records couple developing their relationship in federation square. There are some shops, restaurants and bars on the square. As the public square is so important and central to us, shops and restaurants attract people at every Age group not merely couples. Those economic managers own a lot benefit because of the public square. It’s the public square, contributing to everything around us. 

Hence, as COVID-19 event goes, people starts social-distancing and they start to abandon and forget public square. I am afraid if it goes more and more serious, this important connection will break up. Public square symbolises many things so it can result in losing of a lot of things not merely a physical square. 

Hence, I hope to develop this game to help people record back the public square and maintain this thick connection!

[julieeebabe]

Final critical reflection 1

It’s important for me to do a summarised critical reflection after the completed production of a project. Even though I have included a short project reflection in my previous project demonstrate, I still want to point some of them here as I find myself improve a lot during this process. 

Through the production process, I one thing I'd like to say about my improvement here is problem-solving skills. I am not saying my technical skills of unity improves a lot but my more positive and active attitude when facing some challenging coding, technical problems improves a lot. When dealing with those challenges, having a more positive and active attitude and enough patience is more important. At the very start, I am quite nervous and restless. This really has a very bad influence and sloggers my production. When I keep a right mood, I gain more ideas of solving methods, I gain more patience to try again and again to solve a coding problem. That’s really an important thing I learn through doing my project!

[julieeebabe]

FINAL Project Demonstrate 2

I took a short quick screen recording video of my final RPG game. 

This game not only contributes to my brief of supporting public space but also comes out to the extend criteria of cross space which I explained at the end of the video. 

[julieeebabe]

Final Project Demonstration 1

As I have completed the whole game, I also wrote a demonstrate document to show my conceptual outline, development, design criteria, technical process, personal reflection and project sustainability . 

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 8

I have ever discussed the final exporting process of my game with my course teacher.  There are many ways to set up the game through unity. 

My course teacher gave me the tip of ‘Sustainability” again! 

At first, I wanna export the game through Android or IOS form for people to download on the phone and play but people only can access my game through only one type of mobile. That’s not sustainability enough.

As a result, I decide to let players access on computers. I decide to export the game through the standalone PC platform as Mac and windows computers have a quite large user group now. I am gonna export it into the windows form and the Mac form. That’s sustainability enough! 

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 7

My course teachers also organised some studio work shops for our students to discuss and help each other with the works. As the deadline of my project is coming soon, I have ever ‘get lost’ through the development of my project. 

Some of my classmates decide to design web using javascript. Some of my classmates are doing 3d work through unity as me. But it seems they all achieve a very high designing criteria as some of them draw the scenes by theirselves through 3d modelling software and some of them design and create animations by themselves. I look back to my project, I feel like I didn’t actually design something but a game. 

I asked my course teacher about this problem and he told me to find this balance before the deadline. 

As I am continue on doing my project, I am exploring and finding this balance all the time.

One day, I looked back to my previous blogs and notes. I looked back to my previous production diary and find myself going beyond my brief too far. At the very start, I have recorded some notes outlining my game is not focused on technical processing but the atmosphere development. Yes, Right, my focusing point is on the atmosphere design! I didn’t do too much on the technical design including designing models, and animations but on the atmosphere design! Also, I achieve a whole UI DESIGN! 

[julieeebabe]

Game logo!

Right now I have almost finished building the game scenes and rooms, game animations. I start to work on game UI which is also an important part of a game. I didn’t struggle too much through this part but just use Adobe illustrator to quickly draw the UI image of the game logo based on my ideas. 

For the game logo, I use the background gradient colour mixing with dark green and black to represent the background game setting under federation square as this colour is similar with main colour of feds square. Then I have a simple image of a girl’s back symbolising the girl is watching the back memory of federation square reflecting back the game storyline! I draw her hair with some different colour. This comes out to the idea of presenting some main color of the room to create a more interesting and colourful logo! The capital letter of F and S just symbolises federation square! 

This looks like a very representative game logo!

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 6

I have ever discussed with my course teacher with the game sustainability. He told me to think about how to improve and maintain game sustainability. 

At first, I focus on thinking about the game sustainability though game contents. I try to find out some idea though building a player communication platform to main the game sustainability under the connection of communication. Then, I find myself drown into a deep mood as I don’t how to build this platform through unity. So I emailed my course teacher again and asked him about this.

He helped me a lot and told me to change my focusing point on resources and work practices such as to put the poly count run as low as possible and use less processing and electrical power. 

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 5

There are also some corrupted but happy moments full of victory I wanna record. 

When I am building the scene, I am not only building the view of the scene but also make character interaction elements. For the character, I have a  girl with some ‘Lolita’ dressing. For this character to walk around the room under the real but fantasy environment. I set some colliders on the floor, walls of the room so that the characters wouldn’t walk out of the whole scene. For objects inside the room, I don’t set colliders as the memory space should include some fantasy elements such as characters can walk ‘into’ the object. 

But through the process of setting those colliders,  I find the characters sometimes hit the wall but fell down on the floor so that the game cannot continue on. I try to check the position of the colliders. I ALSO try to increase the mass and the drag of the characters but still useless. I have some research online of similar problems and the online tutorials taught me to freeze the xyzzy position under the rigidbody setting of the character, however, when I freeze the poisition, those colliders becomes useless. MY teacher gives me an idea of making the whole scene moving because it can be quite easy but I just want to work it out. I finally freeze x positions of the character and turn down the mass and create a return button beside. Even through this bug is still not solved but anyway, I find out a way to turn down the those influences on game experience. 

Except this, when I am creating animations for the door automatic open when the characters walk close to, I meet some animation errors. For some weird reason, the door animation fails to be automatically opened. At first I am trying to check the code, then I start to check the animation setting but found nothing weird. It took me a whole afternoon to solve this problem and finally finds out the animations have to be set as legacy clips. 

Generally, those moments makes me restless and corrupted but the moment finding out the way to solve it is happy and full of victory. I just need to have more patience mood to face them.

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 4

Today’s weather is quite good, sunny and a bit hot. I quickly eat some breakfast, sit in front of my Mac and start work on my game again. 

My production goes quite successful those days, however, there’s a complicated thing struggling me today. A beautiful room should not always be static. A more interesting and successful scene should be dynamic, I think. SO, ANIMATIONS！ 

I have watched some tutorials on youtube teaching some simple animations doing in unity but making the characters moving and doing some relating gestures is not an easy thing. I can make some small game objects rotating and moving and that it. 

In order to solve thing problem, I ask my another classmates studying IT course for help. He told me I don’t need to create animations by myself, that could take  me a lot of time and I might not complete the game on time if I focus on too much thing on this. But, animations are important for me room building! Luckily, he told me a free animation website ( “Mixamo.com”) for users to upload the rigged model file online and download free animations. This idea really helps me a lot. 

For the first room building, I should have some teenagers dancing on the square. I choose some different kinds of dancing gesture including Santa dancing and different Kpop dancing. Teenagers nowadays are a wide and colourful, I should choose a wide type of dancing. 

There are some error through the process of uploading the models. I had some research and careful checking for several times, finally comes out with my model is not rigged. 

Technical production is really a very careful thing, it has to develop through the correct process for the successful result. The process of solving those error is boring, tough and makes me restless, I just has to build enough patience to solve and face them. 

Through the same way, I start to create more vivid scenes. 

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 3

Currently I plan to build 3-4 rooms based on different topics for players to experience. I need to set a different topic for each room. I also need to make those topics expressive, beautiful and impressive.

In my opinion, one of the most important thing when making a project under a specific brief is to not go beyond the brief too far, always come back and exaggerate and present it. So, I go back to my previous research, notes and blogs again. 

I had a careful looking of my previous notes of my creative thinking again and those notes of how people use feds square for their different uses reminded me some tips. I quickly set out some topics for different specific groups which is teenagers, family, couples and students. MY project is making for everyone, so it’s great for the game to cover some brief elements relating to some specific criteria during their age group. 

That’s also a good way to remain sustainability!

According to those topics, it’s easy to set up the room view. The first room is for teenagers. They are active and lively. Referring back to my previous observational looking notes, I have recorded some of the teenagers rehearsal and dancing on the federation square. SO, THE first room is a space recording teenagers’ dancing. There are also some hidden elements here. It’s not to show the simple dancing, but the active, vivid, and cute using and those active, vivid and cute connections between the square and teenagers. What's worse, the second room is a space recording couples showing their love and develop their relationship. Referring back to my previous observational looking notes, I have recorded some of the couples hugging, sitting on the square, laughing , talking and drinks on the shops on feds square. Its not to show their simple talking, laughing and good relationship, but to show this thick connection between the square and their development of love. 

Through the same way, I simply finish setting up the topics and view of each room.

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 2

I have finished choosing the scene. Then I begin to concern on building the scene. My current scene, is just, a prison. Not too much fantasy, not too much scene quality, not too much relevant things relating to my original game set, but it’s the easiest scene and the smallest scene. 

I need to consider how to turn this scene into my own style. Now it’s just other people’s scene. 

SO, my style, is not to create models by myself, it’s not to import some extra relating models according to federation square. My way is to change the texture material of the floor in the prison into the same texture material of federation square’s. Also, I think it can develop into a better game sustainability as it can achieve a better character experience as when player moves around the scene, it’s better for them to actually ‘feel’ something under their ‘feet’ instead of having a building look like federation square in front of them.

In addition to this,  At first, I only plan to create only one part of the game experience for players to go into the memory space of federation square to feel different kinds of people. But, as there are many rooms in the prison scene, I think it’s better to set different topics to different room and create different atmosphere relating to these topics! This is also a better way to  not only develop into a better game experience but also game sustainability as players will gain a more expectant mood after experiencing the first room! 

Now, I am pushing myself to ‘get used to ‘ this scene through game development instead of looking for a suitable scene ‘satisfying’ me!

[julieeebabe]

Production Diary 1

I have done a full preparation. Now, time to start!

According to the previous timeline I have made, I decide to choose the game scene first. Based on the game background, It should include something fantasy and also like a fantasy environment. I find a Chinese 3d website “Love to the net “ and discover there are a lot of fantasy game environment free to be downloaded there. 

I chose a scene which is a simple fantasy game environment with some shining lights and dark forests. Well, for the fantasy criteria, it’s totally fantasy and for the federation square game set background, I can simply just change the material of it. Sounds quite easy. Then, several problems just come. The whole scene took me around ten minutes to download. When I imported into unity, the environment is so large that I have to zoom in and see some of the scenes. This scene is not easy for the characters to move around.

I chose some another scenes, same problem. At this state, I feel myself should abandon something I want and choose the most important to focus on, I want the scene to be fantasy enough, I want the scene to be high quality, I want the scene to be more likely to set in a city, more real. But in order to make a quick and good start of my project, I cannot demand too much things. Game development is more important. 

At the same time, I emailed my digital media teacher and he told me I should pay attention to the game sustainability several times. So, I think game sustainability and social sustainability of the project is more important. My teacher has been reminded me to keep poly count as low as possible several times, I should not care too much. 

So, finally, I just choose a simple old prison scene with some small rooms and downloaded it. The scene seems small, only took me no more than 30 seconds. I successfully imported into unity.

I feel a bit stressed, it’s just a start. Many challenges behind. 

[julieeebabe]

Reflection1!

I have summarise things that may affect my game here.

Firstly, it’s the 3d model. the project may be better if I create the main moving characters of the game by myself, however, the time is not enough for me to do this. So, the only way for me to solve this problem is to turn those free model online into my game environment, into my game scene, to let them felling into apart of my project and to turn them to my own things. 

Secondly, I am not professional and skilful enough to unity, I feel myself don’t know how to build and create animations for objects and characters in unity. I am going to try  my best to learn but I don’t know whether I can achieve of not in the end. If the animations cannot be achieved, then I should add some sound to replace this ‘error’! 

[julieeebabe]

Final Planning!

Before I begin to actually do my game through unity, there’s one thing I need to set up is to have a basic project timeline. I like planning things first before starting so that the project is not overdue. 

I plan to have ‘Memory Capture’ to be totally completer for around a month. I divide to do 3d modelling and scene setting at the first week, game interactions such as some coding stuff at the second week, Designing and completing game UI at the third week and final week is only for doing some sound adding stuff and some game bug solving. 

I cannot control what kind of problems I am going to meet during making the game, I only have to try my best to set everything up before starting. 

And before starting, I also want the relating software to be fully downloaded. For the 3d model, as I am not creating models by myself so I don’t actually need some 3d modelling software like Maya, only unity is enough. For the game UI part, probably some UI TOOLS such as Adobe illustrator involving and also for the sound part, I may also need to so some professional sound editing so I think some sound software such as Adobe Audition CC. 

Now, everything seems to be set in the right position!