Challenge 1
"tell us about your favourite computer, video or 'other' game"
I don't know if I have a favorite game but I remember one that cost me $$ millions of dollars.
You see, when I was in my 1st year of College at the University of San Diego I was a Computer Science major. The "Work/Study" job that the school gave me to help with the tuition was a computer lab technician. I basically, filled up the paper when the printer ran low.
Anyway, one of the other technicians gave me this 1st Mario Bros game bootlegged on a 5 1/4 floppy disk. I became so hooked that this is all I did with my lab time! Can you imagine, at the genesis of microprocessors I was caught playing Mario Bros? Well, that's exactly what happened. I used none of my lab time to work on code or develop YouTube, FaceTime, or Google for that matter.
Class 1 Homework
Textures
Very fun way to make a texture. I feel that Photoshop is a very sophisticated software program with a lot of components. However, the way that these textures were created was fun and totally obtainable by even a novice user. After the lesson I really felt confident that I could make my own texture with just about any substance.
Class 2 Homework
Unity Island with Terrain, Water and Textures
- What was your experience of trying to build your world? What was easy? Hard? What surprised you? What did you wish you could have done that you could not?
I originally tried to use my Wacom Intuos pen tablet to construct my island in Unity. I was have serious trouble trying to move around, use shortcut keys and generally view the scene. I just stopped using and just used my keyboard and mouse pad and everything started to move easier. What surprised me is how my textures fit on both the mountains and the cube. That was truly magical! I wish I would have made my box texture lighter so the details would show up more.
- How might you use what you've learned in this class?
I have already started to implement this class in my video game design class. My students were very anxious to start using a game engine and when I mentioned that I was taking this class, they immediately wanted to follow what I was doing. So I just loaded it onto the computers and let them watch the same lectures that I was watching. They were very attentive!
- What new understandings or questions do you have after Live Class 2?
After class 2 I am well on my way of not only understanding the importance of a GUI based program, I am welcoming it! This abstracted version of game design is truly amazing! I am a big proponent of coding, and usually shied away from GUI game engines, but this has really opened my eyes to the shear magnificence of this type of development. My only question at this point is: What will the coding look?
Class 3 Homework
Create a Unique Game Character
- What has been difficult about playing working with logotype?
I was amazed how easy it was to apply a logo to the shirt. I used Photoshop to apply my personal logo to the characters shirt. I did not change a lot of the conditions to the logo but I was amazed how responsive it was to the original file. Without saving the logo changed an moved like on the Diffuse layer. That was really neat!
- What new understandings or questions do you have after Live Class 3? How can your peers help?
After Class 3 I was wondering if I have to add the character in each position to make him jump, fight, or die? Also, I am wondering what the code or script looks like? This part of the course brought about a lot of thought and I am in amazement that Adobe has made all these tools available to us. They work seamlessly! In the future I am going to try to offer this type of character design to an colleague of mine that teaches digital art. I would like to team teach with him and create a gaming class. For me, a programmer, to do all of this, not that I couldn't do it, it would be a nice division of labor between an art teacher and a CS teacher.
Class 4 Homework
Add third-person controls
What parts of your game do you feel still need work? What questions would you like your peers to help you with?
My game definitely needs more environmental features (Waterfalls, pits, cliffs). I would love help to put in items like ships, snow, and traps. Also, I would love to see different character reactions, like dying when colliding with "Dead" objects. I need to also get better at adding tattoos and logos to characters' person.
Describe how you’d add challenge and skill to your game in order to get the right level of flow.
The right flow can keep people interested in the game. If it is too complex, players will become too anxious, and if it is too easy, they become bored. I put in the "Dead" script in my game to be ran when my character collides with certain objects. This gives obvious feedback and helps players quickly learn game boundaries and parameters. I feel this type of flow is both easy because the result is immediate. However, it is also complex and can cause anxiety as the player tries to discover a new environment. I would like to put rewards into the game, which I believe will be added in Class 5. Skill could be added by giving my character vehicle to move in. I always enjoy this when playing games.
What new understandings or questions do you have after Live Class 4?
I have a whole new understanding of Game Design and also Class Design. I can scaffold the Unity Engine to be used in several classes (4 of my preps could use this engine). The complexity of this game can keep students from becoming board and can be utilized in my highest level DOK class. However. if I have a low DOK class, they could easily get started with game design with out becoming too anxious.
Class 5 Homework
Collectibles and Win Screen
The collectibles on my screen were coins (each worth 1 point). I put the coins into the prefab folder and cloned them using a spawning script. It was neat how the coins, when being cloned, kept their original parameters such as collision detection and added to the score. I added a level of difficulty by also cloning the cubes and making them fall from the sky. When a cube collided with my characters head, he would die and the game would start again. I ran several simulations and found that collecting 25 coins was a good amount before you get clobbered by a box.
Unity is a great tool for teaching almost all my classes, and I teach a wide spectrum of computing classes. From Multimedia to AP Computer Science Principles, AP CSP, AP Computer Science A (CSA), and Game Design, Unity is a great hook to get students coding. I introduced it to 2 out of my 4 preps (CSP, and Game Design), and I showed it to my CSA class. I am considering using it in all my classes. Both classes that I used it in need to turn in a game scene for their 1st semester final.
My students that are struggling with coding enjoy the character design, and my coders are enjoying that they don't have to use a lot of resources on character design. I have them work in pairs of small teams and they seem to really enjoy it.
Achieving Accreditation - Reflection
Taking this course from the learner perspective has allowed me to feel how my students are going to feel when learning this content. As a learner, I benefitted from the online content, videos and social networks. I was also able to learn by viewing other student's work. As a teacher, I need to incorporate all these types of interactions. I already incorporate video, and I know how valuable that is, but I would also like to allow students to share ideas in a social network. Our Adobe Pro Generation Facebook account became useful in finding help to my problems and sharing scripts. Also, having students reflect with a site like Spark I think can be very useful.
Technically, I have been able to run Unity on my computers, but my while my district administrators consider going away from computer labs, it becomes necessary to convince school leaders that powerful computers are still needed in a school setting.
My creativity was called upon with Unity Engine even though most of the production work was done for me. The story that my game told could only come from me. This benefits students because as machines take over more and more of the production, creativity will be the only thing differentiating us from these very machines. I feel storytelling is something students enjoy and is attainable by all. Therefore, game development, is a great way to tell a story and allow students to become more creative.
A new learning and teaching experience for me was teaching design and coding together. This has been a dream of mine for many years! I have taught Web Design courses before where this takes place, however, HTML and JavaScript are merely scripting languages. I have also taught Flash Game Design using ActionScript however, both the design component and the programming is somewhat out of reach for a lot of young students. Teaching a full fledged programming language along side beautiful design techniques is powerful and new to me. I really am excited about these possibilities.
In the future I could see students working in groups with strong designers and programmers working in unison. The designers will have great avenues for creativity and the programmers will be able to view Unity prefab scripts, alter them, and write their own. However, this program allows both types of students to reverse roles. Design isn't too far out of the reach of programmers because of the beautiful abstraction of Adobe Fuse, Mixamo, Photoshop, and Unity. Programming isn't too out of reach of Designers with pre-loaded scripts that can be utilized by designers with little thought. This creates a great hook and can drive students into Computer classes at a greater number.
In my school I have requested of the Administration that they pair the Digital Art teacher and I to teach Game Design the same period. He can stay in his room and teach a class of designers and I will teach programming. This would be a beneficial and a great collaboration using Unity as our medium.
Assessment will be conducted using rubrics and project based learning. Most of my classes are done this way, and I try not to teach the software, but composition. Game design would then concentrate on what makes a good game instead of step by step Unity software instruction. Along with rubrics, I feel reflection and peer assessment is vital. I learned so much by looking at others work, in fact during my first assignment of my first Adobe Pro class I did the assignment totally wrong. It was looking at what others were doing that truly helped me change my learning experience and get on the right track. Our students need this in classes of the future.
Lastly, I am the S.T.E.M. Coordinator at my school and part of my responsibility is to share technical education to all disciplines. I plan on teaching my colleagues Unity Game development and let them come up with curriculum that would benefit their students. They could easily do a time period piece using the Adobe Fuse and/or Unity. I think the ease of design could turn more teachers to use these tools. Student outcomes could improve in English by allowing students to tell stories and in Math by programming character interaction.
A student story that has excited me is what one of my students has done with a Fuse/Mixamo character and a Unity Scene in only two weeks. His environment terrane is magically beautiful and he has been able to add (2) character rigs to his character. His character now animates a "die" action when triggered. All in 2 weeks of letting them loose with the software. Simply outstanding.
Please feel free to contact me for further. I can go on forever.
Thank you!
Credits:
Hummingbird - Adobe Stock Filter - Photoshop 5