For the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about UI and UX or User Interface and User Experience. While we have focused mainly on UI but we have also talked some about UX. Both of these are very important but also commonly perceived as the same thing. UX is the user experience and it is how the player gets information and what they do with the information. In the design process, a UX designer will go through and basically layout where each element will fall. This could be deciding what the HUD layout will be or where the informational text will fall. After this comes the UI designer. UI is how everything looks and how the player is able to see and interact with the elements. After a UX designer makes his concepts, the UI designer is able to start actually designing what the art style is and how it will be reflected in the menus and HUD. A lot goes into this design process. The UI designer needs to be consistent with their art style which is supported by the UX designer having a consistent layout. The UI is very important in every game. Having a common theme and a correct layout makes the gameplay smooth and informative. This allows the player to get the best experience from the game. UI can be as simple as a coin counter but it serves almost no purpose if it is not in the right place or doesn't flow with the rest of the game. The menu system is usually something where people confuse UI and UX. While they both contribute to the menus, it is the UX designer that chooses where each button goes and what the flow is. After, the UI designer is able to change the font as well as how smaller text is laid out. Overall, both UI and UX are very important for every game and can make the gameplay feel smooth and interesting if done correctly.
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Recently, as I have gotten back in to some of the games that I haven't played in awhile, I began to think more and more about esports in our society. It seems like anyone who has played video games feels like esports are worth while and are good for our society as video games become more and more popular. Others however, have almost the opposite view. There are a lot of people who feel like esports is a waste of time and that it encourages kids of all ages to play more video games. I recently watched a short interview with two players from the Overwatch League. In the interview they brought up some really good points about their particular esport but also the system as a whole. One of the main points I took from this was when they were talking about how they got into esports and how they had to get their parents approval. This really spoke to me because they mentioned a lot about managing your time like any other sport and how it should be the same that if you have bad grades you should not be able to play video games until they improve. They talked a lot about this topic and I truly realized how much it related to me. I am someone who loves to play videogames but just like them, I have learned to manage my time with school work as well. I think that this is a big problem that society has with esports. People generally think that playing video games is a waste of time and that it could be focused more on school or other more worthwhile activities. I however disagree with this. I believe that once all your work is done for the day that you should be allowed to do what you want to do. You shouldn't be forced to go do something outside like soccer or any other sport when video games give you the same sense of pride and accomplishment. While I am one who loves to play sports and go outside, I realize that it is not for everyone and that is a major factor to consider when trying to limit screen time for kids and teenagers. Going back to esports, I think that it will not only continue to grow but I hope that it will be a more accepted activity than it is now. I am one who loves to play video games and I wish I was good enough to play them competitively. I think that esports and video games in general needs to be accepted into our society because it is very interesting for some people and it is a good paying job if you are good at video games.
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,So this previous week we were assigned to firstly revamp our portfolio, and secondly create a resume and a cover letter to apply for a job. While doing this assignment I really figured out how important it is to have a good portfolio. Firstly and mainly, when people are hiring they look at your portfolio to see your past work and also what skills and experience you have. This makes it crucial to have updated work and your updated set of skills. Secondly you also want to make your portfolio look very nice and clean because when businesses will look at it, they want to see that you keep everything organized and that you know where things should go and where they shouldn't. Thirdly you want to show the company your best work so if you have random things scattered around or it just looks bad in general, you probably will not get the job. Last and not least you want to keep all your work in one place so it is easily accessible by the business that you are trying to become a part of. This really helps because if you have good artwork then it will all flow together and look very clean going back to my other point. Down below I have also included some links where I got some of my ideas from and also some other tips to help make your portfolio great.
Summarry
So recently as you may have seen in my last posts we have been doing a lot about bitmap editing. Right now this class is at a great level in terms of what we are doing because while we are learning a lot I feel like we are at a good pace because it allows me to put in my best effort while also allowing me to do some of the things I really want to do. So far I am thinking about sticking with this pathway for all of high school but I can never be to sure. At first I kinda found myself bored with the work but now that we are actually creating our own things this is probably my most fun and interesting class. I also feel that this could really help me later if I want to pursue a career in the game industry because right now it is expanding a lot and over time these careers can really take off and I think that it will really help. Overall this class has really gotten into this progression that really suits how I work and so far it has benefit me immensely.
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I know I have been talking about Photoshop a lot lately (I mean what can I say I love it), but some of you might not know what it is. Photoshop is a program that allows you to draw and edit images to use for so many things. Photoshop is very helpful for any digital design project because it allows for so many options because you can easily import an image and start working on it. I find myself usually just messing around creating anything I feel like using the shape tools and paintbrush tool. The only thing I find quite annoying about Photoshop is while it is a great program you do have to pay for it. Although you do have to pay for Photoshop, there are many other programs like it. For example GIMP which has many of the same functions as Photoshop and it is completely free. I wish that I had known about programs like GIMP because it would have given me a lot more experience on what we are doing now in class then I had when we started. Overall Photoshop and other programs like it are great tools that everyone should try and experiment with because they can be really fun and very helpful.
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I just started my Scientific Visualization class 2 weeks ago and this is my first blog post. So far this class has been a great learning experience for me, and probably my favorite thing that we have learned is all the different careers there are based on this subject. For our project on this subject we each chose a career and researched what the career is and the history of the it. I chose to research the User Interface (UI) Designer career because it is the career I am most interested in. In my research I found that UI designers are responsible for making the story or plot of a game easy to follow and also making sure that interactions between the user and the game are smooth. I also learned that another big thing they do in terms of games is that they design the Heads up display (HUD) which for example is the map of the area the player is in, abilities they have, and their health bar. After we finished our projects we all came back to class and got ready to present, although I did not present to the class, I got to learn more in depth about different careers people were interested in. Overall the career project we did was a great experience for me and I feel like I like I learned a lot about the different careers I could go into if I continue with this pathway.
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AuthorHi, my name is Nick Bayer and I will be posting blogs about every 1-2 weeks in the 2020-21 school year. I am doing this for my Advanced Game Design class at Durham School of the Arts(DSA). The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Categories
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