As the name suggests, there’s been a huge pause. You’ve probably been thinking, Is he alive? Is he dead?

Not to worry. I’m alive. Since we last left off which was… Over a month ago… What’s happened since then. Well. To be honest, not a lot. Following on from Mid November, we had to work more on our Presentation which we had to show off the following week… scary. I showed off my five ideas, and trimmed it down to three later on in the presentation, to which I then narrowed it down to my final idea. I spoke about what would be my backup plan if everything went pear shaped etc, so i had something to fall back on, since it was going to be a built in “Contract” that we couldn’t change. I showed off my demo to everyone and of course had to talk about everything whilst being recorded so that was fun.

The next few weeks though… I haven’t touched my project. I’ve been working on my projects that I’ve been given by other lecturers and thus my project has fallen by the wayside. I’ve completed those projects by mid December, which was roughly when they had to be handed in, but of course, my “generous” lecturers decided to give us two new projects that have to be done by February… aaaaand its January… I’ll be fine, nothing a little bit of sweat, panic and motivation can’t fix.. right?

Anyway. So once we had finished our presentations, and had finished our older Projects, it was finally time to relax… nope! I had to go to work and then work on a project i’ve been slowly working on over the past few months, and it’s been difficult for someone who knows nothing about C#… groans I can see this is going to be great. I worked the two weeks I was off college till Christmas, and then took a well needed break, and as much as I want to work on my project at this current moment in time, I just don’t want to.

CHRISTMAS! That was fun… Sorta? I didn’t really get anything and to be honest, i just see it as any other day of the year. Maybe i’m just boring or miserable, but I only got one thing, and that was what I bought, a £180 racing wheel, which is pretty damn fun when you use it with your VR Headset, racing around tracks and drifting like PRO. Okay maybe not pro because when I first started… yikes. I was bad. I still am, but i think i’m slowly getting the hang of it. But yeah, Christmas was fun. Lovely food and saw my entire family etc. Then the next few days it was drinking and playing in VR, which can lead to  interesting experiences…

Hello again! Week 5 was really uneventful (yay). It just had me go over some of the necessary tasks. Excel spreadsheet, more of the actual power point presentation, and I’ve done some avatars that can be used for the game. Now ive started on some reload animations, which are proving to be a bit difficult. The current version of unity that I have doesn’t work with some of my assets, so I brought in my own version of unity that I know will work with my project.

We’ve got a base for our model! I spent the last few hours working on my avatar which holds a hand cannon (Desert Eagle), and it has recoil, with shell ejection and a muzzle flash. I’ve also got it so that i can move around with some head bob, but next week will be when i do my presentation.

 

Hooray!

Week 5 hasn’t really been anything worth mentioning, it’s been a slow climb from the other few weeks, as to where i’ve been working on creating a power point presentation going through both the pros and cons of my project, why i chose the project, what i can bring to the table, my other project ideas etc.

Week 2 was mainly me testing the waters a bit more, regarding my unity testing. I was seeing how the animations could possibly work, whilst narrowing down my search down to either Gun Range, or the 2d platform shooter.

I’m planning on working on my First Person Game, using simple animations along with C# to code my game, to which you shoot targets and and you get points based on what you shoot. You have a basis on a few weapons which you can use and shoot. Pistol, Assault rifle, Sniper and Shotgun. Some targets are special bonus targets which only give extra points when shot with the right weapon. There’s a timer as to which you have to generate X amount of points. Most points win.

The second idea, ie my backup, is a 2D platformer with 3D elements, like the platforms, models etc, where you run from A to B, shooting enemies in your way. Same weapons again, but  a grappling hook which pulls you to a certain direction, but that means you need velocity, weight and gravity etc. I started creating my gantt chart which will be shown later. I know that I will need to bring in all of my assets, models and shaders i have been using put into VRChat via Unity/Blender. I will use what I have here.

 

Last week (15th October) I didn’t do anything, just creating some models in Blender to use on Unity, to which they worked fine. I did some animating at home to possibly bring to college for my animation due to the fact that the actual models, even when in “Humanoid” mode being unresponsive to one of my assets which allows me to animate the limbs a lot easier than having to do it the unrefined way, and struggling.

This week, i’m finishing off my Gantt chart and creating a powerpoint presentation based off of the game I want, with hopefully a few design ideas etc to give a view of what I want to create. There will be another blog on Thursday 25th that goes into further detail.

PROJECT IDEAS:

Gun Range:

3d gun/tower defense:

2d/3d platform shooter:

Website:

2d platform runner:

 

Gun Range: A simplistic idea in itself, but you have x amount of guns, as to which you shoot targets at x distance and you get points, you have to rack up the most amount of points, and the longer a target is up for, the less points you get. Different weapons give different points and they all have different sounds etc. You can do simplistic things like reload etc. This is all time based, so you need to use the correct weapons at the right time to get the biggest bonus you can get, so that you may get a higher score. It’ll be a simple indoor/outdoor map, or a combination of the two, so that you may go between the two, or practice to get a feel of the guns.

Who is doing the project?

Myself. I’m doing this project as I want to learn C# and also use my animations ive been creating in Unity.

The target audience?

18 – 20 Year olds / Myself / FPS lovers (First person shooters)

Why: To be honest, this is to test all the skills i’ve cultivated over the half year i’ve been using unity and blender for. I want to give myself a game where I can utilise my animation skills and model making to see if I can create something worth good enough. I want to improve my skills and push myself and to see what I can do.

I have recognised that I do not have any C# coding experience, so there will be a lot of frustration and confusion, but that’s a part of growing and learning. To face the challenges and hardships head on and push forward.

Tower Defense: similar to Gun Range, but it’s a defense game instead (obviously). So in essence, you have your tower, which you have to defend from waves of mobs. The waves increase over time, becoming increasingly difficult to kill over time as they spawn. You’ll have a default weapon which will always have ammo, and it’ll upgrade over time.

Why am i not doing this project?

I didn’t choose this because there’s tutorials on how to create a game.

I lack knowledge in this field.

Too complex.

Platformer 2D/3D: Platforming! The idea here is that you play on a 2D plane, with 3D models. So the idea is to get from A to B using the weapons etc that you find/have on your avatar. This will also allow me to utilise the large amount of assets ive gathered over the months, allowing me to create something that both looks, and sounds cool when playing it.

Who is doing the project?

Myself. I’m doing this project as I want to learn C# and also use my animations ive been creating in Unity. I want to better myself.

The target audience?

18 – 20 Year olds / Myself

Why: To test all the skills i’ve cultivated over the half year i’ve been using unity and blender for. I want to give myself a game where I can utilise my animation skills and model making to see if I can create something worth good enough. I want to improve my skills and push myself and to see what I can do.

I know i have no experience with gaming but, I want to do my best because gaming has been my hobby for years, and i want to create something to get a new found appreciation for those who do this for years to make one game.

This will be my plan B.

2D platform runner: Similar to the first idea, this idea encompasses the idea of a side scroller, with 2d models and animations, where you have to run from a never ending doom wall which is moving towards you. As you get further, the you and the wall become faster, to the point if you make a mistake, it becomes harder to recover from it, to the point you’re eventually taken down by the wall and it’s game over.

Why am I not doing this project?

To be honest, this is just a variation of my plan B, and whilst it does offer some positives, I’d prefer to stick to my original idea as i personally believe it’d be more fun and engaging in the long run.

Web Project: I must admit, this has been on the back burner for a while now, as i have some knowledge of creating websites as I put myself through the gruelling task of making something that functioned properly and that had a full back end and front end that worked. Sadly those times have passed, and so i’m not exactly up to par with creating a website, plus… its a bit boring if i have to be honest here. I’d do it but it just doesn’t give me the satisfaction I want.

Why am I not doing this project?

Overall, im uninterested in what it has to offer me throughout the year. I’ve already done this before as a project at home in my own time, which to be honest, was a bit frustrating. Some things went well, other things didn’t. Like i say, i’m just not prepared to do another project of this magnitude whilst i do it at work and for other projects at college.