As I think more about what makes a good game I got to the music aspect of games. For me a good game has music that fits the style of the game. If it is an adventure game then usually it will have nice peaceful music to guide you on the path. If it is a sports game then usually it has upbeat music that raises the overall mood of the people playing the game. Music in games ranges almost every genre and it is something that a game designer needs to think about in order to make their game complete. I find that some games however don't really put much effort into their music or at least they don't listen to their fans. One of these is the games in the madden series. Madden is known for having music on all their menus and this music is a lot of the time rap music that is very upbeat. I don't have a problem with the actual songs they play but the problem I have is that when playing the game you don't get to listen to all the songs. This is because it always starts the game playing the same song and follows the same pattern. This is something that the madden community has expressed as a change they want but it is always the same. While the music isn't perfect in some games, when it is perfected it makes the game so much better. When I think of good music I always go back to Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii. This game has good music on all the menus and it is not overpowering. They also designed the game to have different songs on every track and they all match the style of the track. For example the coconut mall song is very upbeat which resembles the track in that there are a lot of turns and jumps. In contrast with this, the music for the map grumble volcano is slower and deeper which matches the gloomy and scary theme that the track has. Nintendo does a really good job in their games with the music and it ties the whole game together. Music in games is one of the most important pieces and bad music can almost ruin an otherwise good game. Music is something that usually isn't thought about a lot when creating a game for me but I now realize how important it is to the overall experience especially in a game that is more adventure and less pure action.
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As I have become more advanced in coding and we have done many more activities, I feel my skills at coding have become a lot better and it feels more natural. While sometimes I do get confused and have to look back at activities, I am really getting a handle on my capabilities at this point along with a great overall sense for what I can do with coding. This has really come into play during our project in which we create our own game. While we are not creating all the assets because that would take a long time, we are doing all of the coding and making the games by ourselves using our ideas. This has been a really interesting experience for me because it has shown me how much time and effort has to be put in to make games and how even though are games are very simplistic, they take a lot of work. Along with this, it helps me test my capabilities as a game developer and shows me how much I really know about coding. While this assignment has taught me a lot, I wish we had more time to work on it to not only make it more detailed but to also create our own assets as give a larger sense of accomplishment. Overall, while I am getting better at coding, there is still a lot to learn and a lot to improve on that will in the future help me create better games and be more successful.
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In the past couple weeks, we have been learning a lot more about the production process and we have started and now finished our own games. I have found this to be very interesting because I never realized how difficult it could be to create your own game. The game we were creating was called Magnet Attack. The whole premise of the game was that you have to launch magnets and land them in a pattern that matches the card you get. While this might seem like a pretty simple thing to make, we had a lot of struggles. The first problem we had was that we were making the game board using a 3D printer and midway through printing our board, the 3D printer broke and we could no longer use it. Because of this we only had 2-3 days to come up with a new idea for our board. We eventually solved this problem but the end product did not turn out exactly how we wanted it too. Along with creating our games, we had other classes play test them which was a very interesting and new experience. After they were done play testing, the feedback they gave was very helpful and we know what we need to change to make the game better as a whole. The act of play testing was very helpful because it allowed me to see that people actually liked our game and it gave a great insight into what needed to be changed for the better. Even though our game was not perfect, and I did not expect it to be, I was very proud of what we created and I thought my team members and I worked very well together which is the reason we were able to battle through the problems we had in the production process.
We have been working in 3DS Max for a couple of weeks now and it is getting really interesting. We have just started to learn how to animate models, which allows for all sorts of things. The basics of animation in 3DS Max are pretty simple, it is mainly using the auto key button which marks a movement and changes the object through multiple frames. This makes it really easy because if you just need one movement you can set a key at the end and change the object to where you want it to end, and it will automatically go through the whole process in between. The second thing that is really helpful, is the timeslider. The timeslider goes frame by frame allowing you to edit where the model is, with the help of the auto key. I think the most important thing is to always turn auto key off when you are done with your animation because it can severely mess up your animation and objects. Overall from what I have learned about animation it is pretty simple, but, there is always more to learn.
Links: knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-AAAA5C89-3711-4EDD-99FB-52B9AFD1EBC2-htm.html Summary:
So for the past week we have been learning about and working in 3DS Max. I find it very different than Photoshop or Illustrator because there are so many other options. So far we have only been using basic shapes which we have made a snowman out of. So far I really like 3DS max because of all the capabilities it has. 3DS Max has 4 view ports which show all the model from different angles in different ways such as realistic and wireframe. These view ports really help to see the model in different ways to make sure everything is lined up correctly. There are a lot of shortcuts in 3DS Max so instead of listing them all there will be a link to all of the command. Overall I think that 3DS Max has a really good layout and while some of the controls are kind of difficult, it is fairly easy to use and a lot of fun to use.
Links www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/autodesk-3ds-max-keyboard-shortcuts-tip7503 Summary
We are almost done with Illustrator and I am kind of happy because Illustrator has not been my favorite program to work in. The past two weeks we have been doing more activities involving the pen tool and align tools. These have been okay but they have felt kind of boring because of Illustrator making some things I feel, harder then they need to be. Anyway I feel like Illustrator has been getting easier which is nice as we still have a week to work in it. I have found it easy to use the pen tool which makes it easy to make any line because of how you can curve lines. This is very helpful for making almost anything and I have found it is a great skill to have. Another thing is the align tools which allow you to line up objects perfectly in one direction and it makes the overall picture better. Overall while Illustrator is getting boring for me I know that it is a useful skill that I will need if I decide to pursue a career in this industry.
Links: helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/drawing-pen-curvature-or-pencil.html Summary:
So for the last week we have still been working with Adobe Illustrator and now that we are doing more activities I am starting to realize how confusing it really is. The main activity we were working on this week was an activity where you create the incredible hulk out of just normal shapes using the shape builder. I had a little bit of trouble with this between lining everything up and just making it look right with color and added details. After this I found how difficult something so simple really can be troubling if not done correctly. Because of this I just wanted to explain what the shape builder does. The shape builder is a very useful tool because it allows you to add and delete parts of overlapping shapes and create one single shape. Overall after this whole experience I feel like once again Illustrator is becoming easier but I am not at the point where doing anything is really easily.
Resources www.dummies.com/software/adobe/illustrator/how-to-use-illustrators-shape-builder-tool/ Summary
Well the last week of school was pretty uneventful because we were only there for one day. While this did set us back I think I am still getting used to Illustrator very quickly. I think the main thing that I really need to get used to is all the different commands to switch between different editing tools. The main reason why I think this is so hard is because I am so used to the Photoshop commands that when they are switched it is hard for me to adapt. Some of the new commands that are really hard for me to grasp are the direct selection tool (shortcut is A) and the magic wand (shortcut is Y) as well as the lasso tool (shortcut is Q). While not knowing the shortcuts for each tool may be okay, I have found that you really need to know how to use the pen tool because it is useful for creating any shape that you may need and the shapes are very easily adjusted. Overall I have found that while Illustrator may be hard to get used to, it is one of the best ways to create vector graphics which really helps.
Resources: helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/default-keyboard-shortcuts.html Summary
-So again we have been working with bitmap editing but after coming back from winter break I realized how much I forgot how to do. As I needed a refresher and we had an extra credit assignment, I decided to watch some tutorials and improve my skills. I chose to do a couple tutorials that really were not very similar. I decided to do one tutorial about double exposure which I found very interesting because of what you can really do with it. I decided to do a double exposure with a bear and some mountains, and while I am not fully completed with it so far its not looking too bad. The next tutorial that I decided to do was a glitch effect animation which has to be one of the coolest things for me and it has been my favorite tutorial out of all of them. My last tutorial is a text portrait tutorial where you replace a persons face with words while still being able to see everything clearly. Overall I found these tutorials very interesting so far and even though tutorials are not super fun for me these are pretty good.
Youtube Links: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp1bjUZFnHo - Double Exposure Tutorial www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wX9iXmMKwA - Glitch Effect www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_iwNgv8aQ - Text Portrait Summary:
So this week and after we come back from winter break we are doing tutorials to learn how to make different parts of an animated landscape. Personally, I don't really prefer tutorials as I find them boring and they usually lack much enthusiasm but so far these have not been that bad. I have already done about half the tutorials and I have found that they give me a better understanding of what you can do with certain tools. We have been using the burn and dodge tools a lot and also the lasso but I think the one thing that really stuck out to me was that you can actually edit which areas you select without actually having to redo the whole thing. I know that may sound boring to a lot of people and to be honest it isn't super cool but I think it is a very good tool to know about. Another thing we learned how to do was to use filters which add a really great touch because you can make your item very pixelated or really do anything you want. I know that some people reading this might not know what some of the tools do (like me) so I will add a link to explain the basics of each tool. Overall while the next couple weeks in class might not be the most fun, they will be very interesting and helpful in how to editing and create different items using bitmap editing.
Hyperlink: www.agitraining.com/adobe/photoshop/tutorials/tools-panel-in-photoshop-cs6 Summary:
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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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