Hi. This website was for a game design class in high school. I don't use it anymore, and no one looks at it anymore.
It used to say I had 100 visitors a week and now there are 0. But if anyone does come looking here, I just want to say thanks. I'm in college now, but this class gave me a lot of really useful skills. I'll be making a new portfolio for myself soon, I'll link it here. Maybe check it out?
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The GAD Pathway I want to start off by saying, in the end, I loved the Game Art and Design pathway. There were rough patches where this class stressed me out more than anything in my life and I almost wished I had dropped it, but there were also beautiful moments of collaboration and self-improvement. I would not be where I am today as a digital artist, have any experience coding, or probably even know what I want to do with my life if it wasn’t for this class. That being said, I honestly have no idea how this class has prepared me for the industry, and I don’t think I will know until I get into the industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was great preparation, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if I was blindsided by a lot of things in a real life game design career, whether that’s volume of work, how work is actually split up, or whatever. Obviously, it’s very difficult in a classroom setting to prepare students for the real world, especially one as hectic as the game design industry, so any preparation is better than where I started with zero idea of what the game industry was like at all and with no experience in any similar scenarios. I definitely do have a better picture of what a career in the industry might look like (even if that picture is still a little blurry) and a much better idea of how interdisciplinary the whole process is, and why it’s good to be a bit of a jack of all trades in terms of the skills that you can bring to the table, even if you play a very specialized role. However, I think it would be beneficial to hear more from young game designers just getting into the industry about what they were surprised by after going into the industry after school, that sort of thing would help me understand the industry a bit better (we did have some guests, but they talked more about what life is like once you’re in the industry, not the transition from learning to working). In terms of skills though, this class has been incredibly helpful for me. I was amazed looking back through old work at just how many skills we learned in just the first year (photoshop, 3D modeling and texturing, making a board game, it’s a lot!) and how much we’ve improved since then. I learned a lot about principles of design through the infographics (even if they did feel very tedious after a while,) got better at drawing from 2D art assignments (especially the one over spring break where we had to follow traditional drawing tutorials in our sketch book in GAD), learned so much in 3Ds Max, and got my first real coding experience in Unity. There were also smaller skills like audio and video editing which I had had some experience with, but they were definitely skills that these classes helped me hone. Then there were also some more abstract skills, like how to manage my time, how to work on a team, how to not stress out over an assignment to the point where I am cursing under my breath for the whole class because I am so worried about failing this photoshop test where we have to recreate an image and I haven’t learned any of the keyboard shortcuts yet and how the heck do you make a star with the shape tool!? (Yeah, 9th grade Abi did not know how to deal with anxiety…) All jokes aside though, these more abstract skills are just as important as the concrete ones. I’ve been able to complete a lot of bigger personal projects because of my newfound organizational skills and planning abilities. I wouldn’t say any of the skills that I learned have been unhelpful or a waste of my time (except for how to use Chronozoom, RIP). However, one thing that I really did not like was a lot of the reading that we had to do for this class (I’m talking random articles and The Art of Game Design). I feel like a lot of it was irrelevant to our work in class, and just tedious, and didn’t deliver the information well. Yes, it’s important to know about target audiences, but it was so much more effective to teach about that when we pitched our game ideas, as we can see through experience and learn. I know that Mr. B does not like lectures, but I find a lecture from a fun teacher much more engaging than a book or article. Now, there can be fun articles, and some of the ones that we read were really cool, but overall, I just didn’t get a lot out of the reading material for this course. In the same vein, I feel like doing research into careers in the earlier years of this course wasn’t the best for me personally. I feel like if this lesson had come later, I may have had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do and could have focused in a bit more. However, I do really appreciate the idea of trying to show kids that there are lots of opportunities, so maybe I just would have wanted to revisit the subject in a mini-lesson in later years, but still keep the majority of the lesson early on in the GAD pathway. Luckily, one of the cool things about this class being on computers is that if you want more knowledge on a subject, google is your best friend and will help you learn more about anything. For this reason, I don’t really feel like there were any topics I needed to spend more time on in class because I could always google something if I didn’t understand, wanted it delivered to me in a different medium, or was just curious about learning more. I just hope that most kids are resourceful enough to do so when they want to learn more, otherwise, I’d say more time needs to be spent on understanding coding, because that took me some time and resources to figure out. Advanced Studies Our project this year was creating a 3D model of our school and creating a virtual reality non-violent horror game with the model of the school as the map. I modeled and textured some objects and simplified models so that the game would not be too laggy. It was definitely a struggle sometimes. We had a lot of issues with file format, transferring files, and programs updating so files didn’t work anymore. This was solved through the use of a flash drive, redoing work, and communicating about what files formats would probably work best, as well as just through some trial and error. I personally had some issues in trying to figure out how to work efficiently (not deleting unnecessary vertices one by one) without losing the quality of the original model (the automated vertex merger would sometimes make things look a little funky). Overall, I solved this by using a combination of the two methods, and I feel like, for the most part, I was able to effectively simplify the models without overly distorting them.
The thing I am most proud of with this project is just the amount that we were able to get done. We had a functioning game (for the most part) and a whole building of the school modeled (for the most part). While we had had some big dreams in the beginning and would have ideally liked to accomplish more, for 4 high school kids we did a pretty great job getting done as much work as we did and bringing 4 different people’s work altogether in one game. This project taught me a lot about time management, working on a team, and how to not be a complete perfectionist and still be proud of my work. In terms of technical skills, I got much more familiar with Trello, and learned some new 3D modelling tricks. I think in anything I do in a group setting now, I will be able to communicate with others a lot better. I feel like I have improved at knowing how to praise and respect other people’s work while still being able to address any flaws that need to be addressed, and how to ask people to get things done by a deadline. As for the perfectionist part, our game was not perfect whatsoever, and past me would have been incredibly bothered, but current me couldn’t be happier with our game. It was never supposed to be perfect and never will be, games, and experiences in general, rarely are. They’re always works in progresses, or pieces of art with something that could be improved, and this project has helped me not only accept, but appreciate that. I didn’t learn as much about my independent work this year (though I have from all other years of GAD) but in a way, I did learn how I function as an individual in a group, and how that has changed from the last group project we had in AGAD at the beginning to the year. I do feel much more confident working either independently or in a group now though, I feel like my work is useful and like I can actually produce amazing things. My biggest takeaway from CTE Advanced Studies personally is just that I, with a group of people can do things. This may sounds like a lame take away, but it’s really not for me. This year really proved to me that I have what it takes to accomplish things, maybe not on my own, but I can certainly contribute to big projects in meaningful ways. Before this year, all of the assignments in my Game Art Design classes had been things I HAD to do. If they didn’t get done, I would have a bad grade, and they were all set out by Mr. B, he expected us to be able to do them. This project was different. Yes, I would have a bad grade if it failed, but it was no longer an assignment that I HAD to do. It was a project that my group WANTED to do. There was no expectation other than that we go for it. It’s no longer “complete these parameters,” it’s “what could we do?” The lack of a “read the rubric,” was incredibly freeing for me and created a space about just experimenting and going for it, and trying to make the most awesome game that we could, and we did it, we really made something that I am genuinely proud of, that I had had no idea whether or not we could realistically create and we did it. I was part of that. We are capable of doing things, not because they are expected of us or because we have to, but just because we have the ability, the willpower, and the passion to do things. I know that’s really cheesy, and sort of rambly, and pretty abstract, but I really am glad for this first opportunity to work in a creative space with others to do something big. It’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, and now I feel like that’s possible for me. This is it. The end of the year. Time to say goodbye to high school. So I'm not sure that I have time to really get into the sappy stuff properly in this post, so instead, I'm just gonna talk about my main takeaways from this class.
1. Anxiety Ok, yeah, this one is a little unfair, because I definitely had anxiety before this class, but let's just say, those photoshop and illustrator quizzes in 9th grade? They taught me what real panic is. But what I really mean by this is that this class has shown me a new kind of anxiety that I'm going to be very familiar with assuming my career goes as planned: anxiety over meeting deadlines of creative projects. And for this, I'm really grateful, because if I hadn't experienced it for the past four years, it would hit me like a ton of bricks in college. Also, providing these stressful situations has allowed me to see my improved anxiety management as I've gotten progressively more on top of projects and less worried about perfection. GAD has honestly been one of maybe three major things in my life that have helped me with anxiety. 2. Mad Skillz When I started out in GAD, I had used blender in a summer camp, but I had never touched ANY sort of programming (other than maybe one day of code class,) any of the programs we use like 3DsMax and Photoshop, or even really thought about what it truly takes to make a game. To have gone from essentially nothing to working in VR in 4 years (especially those years being highschool) honestly is a little wild to me. I don't really think of myself as very skilled since I still have so much to learn, but actually I have developed so many skills in this class that i may not have even tried to learn if not for GAD. Not all of them are skills I will definitely use, but the majority are, and most of the rest are ones I would love to continue using, even just as a hobby. I like being able to make digital art, 3D model, sound design, edit my own videos, manage my projects, and program things, and because of GAD, I can, at some level, do all of these things, and I know where to find other resources online to learn more. 3. Friendship This one is a bit sarcastic but also in another sense very genuine. I don't know if we, the advanced studies kids, will actually stay in touch after high school, but I can say it was really great to work on a team, and it taught me a lot about working with other to create collaboratively. So, it's sarcastic in the sense that, I may or may not take my current friendships with me, but I will take the people skills that I've learned here with me, and that will help me both in professional settings and casual ones. I started out high school being very quiet, not really fully believing that anyone would want to be my friend, and GAD in part has helped me in being a space where I can belong as part of the team, which does wonders for a kid's self esteem. I feel much more confident presenting my ideas to others and knowing that what I'm saying is worth others hearing, and that didn't come from teacher praise, it really came from the unique environment that GAD creates in having such a tight knit community of peers who are, for the most part, incredibly supportive. Overall, I'll glad I was in the Game Art and Design pathway. I had my regrets in the middle for sure, but getting to create on a team this year has been so gratifying, and I really think the class has dramatically changed me as a person and helped me figure out what I want to do with my life. If you made it this far, thanks, Mr. B. So as the end of the year approaches, I have come to the realization that, I'm about to lose access to a lot of my files. I'm talking files from up to 7 years ago, they're all going to disappear in a puff of smoke unless I transfer them. This is because I'm gonna be kicked out of schoology, my school google drive account, and possibly even my laptop because it is getting old and I'll probably get a new one before college. Soooo, this means it's time to transfer files, and part one of that is finding old work from schoology and putting it on my personal google drive or a flash drive, so I decided I'd share some of that work from my first Sci-Vis class with you here. That's really all I have to say about transferring files, here's some of my old work: I think it's pretty nice holding on to old artwork so that you can see how far you've improved. I won't save every single piece of art from schoology, but I'll save a few like these so that I can remember where I started, and how quickly I can grow when I set out to learn new skills. Hopefully I'll have enough storage for all of these files.
It's AP Exam season, so class has been a bit weird lately. I did get the invitation in gif form, but unfortunately, in the email browser it only displays as a still image. Oh well, if people download it they can see it, and if not, they'll still get the necessary info. Then on Tuesday I helped Sam set up some basic formatting on the paper program for the High School Awards Ceremony at the end of the year. Wednesday I was gone for an AP exam, so no work was done. Thursday I started working on this blog post and helped Ryan test the point system in our game. We have a way to win now! Yay! Friday was more game testing, and I feel like even if it's not perfect, we will have a playable game. Julia is in the process of getting the updated building imported, and in just under 2 weeks we'll be presenting this to faculty, staff, and parents. Goals For Next Week:
This week was pretty relaxed, and only 4 days long as protests split the week in half. I worked on the GAD Showcase invitations, which I reworked to look a little less like a poster and more like an invite. Erin also suggested to me that since these invitations will be sent over email, I should make them animated invites, especially since all of her work for the class is animation. It took me a bit of time to figure out how I wanted to do this, but basically I am going to use each frame of the gif she sent me, import them onto the invite, and create new frames from that which will be turned into its own gif. It sounds like a long process, but it really isn't, in fact, I'm sure that they'll be ready by Tuesday. I also added a really basic 2-frame animation of the chicken to the invites that give me some serious Myst vibes, so I just hope some people show up to see our work (and I hope that our game works by then, it seems like Ryan has been making great progress on salvaging it from where it was the week before). Goals For This Week:
This week was pretty boring honestly, because our project has suddenly become a waiting game. I did get the plants that go in the atrium from last week imported, but that was Monday. Since then, we have been in the process of moving all project assets to a new project file because an update caused all of our scripts to be outdated. This has halted pretty much all production for now, but also, I'm pretty much done with modeling anyway, and it's just time to get the scripting together (which has to be now completely redone). However, I did try to work on designing the invitations/posters for our showcase at the end of the year. I need to ask Mr. B for more specifics, but I started playing around with layout towards the end of the week. We had a portfolio review earlier in the week which also took up some of my time. Overall though, I would like this upcoming week to be more productive, so I think I'm going to follow some basic VRTK tutorials so that maybe I can help get this scripting done. It might not work at all, but hey, it's not terrible knowledge to have regardless, and it gives me something to do in an effort to help the project. Goals For Next Week:
This post actually comes with me asking for some advice. If you want to comment any below, please do!
I recently committed to NC State with the intended major of Art + Design, hopefully so that I can concentrate in animation. Of course I am stoked! It's going to be amazing to be going to college - especially NC State with how nice the Design School is - for something that I love. However, I know a lot of students, and especially students in artistic majors, experience burnout. I'm currently feeling the highschool burnout that people term Senioritis, so burnout has been on my mind a lot lately and I want to do my best to avoid it from here on out. So, I'm going to post some of the plans that I have to attempt to avoid burnout, but if you have any suggestions, again, feel free to comment them below. First, I'm going to try to make lots of friends outside of my major, and maybe take some classes outside of my major too. I think that if I am constantly surrounded only by people talking about art, I will get tired of it. I've always been someone who has enjoyed more interdisciplinary stuff, and luckily NC State is a great place for this. There are so many other majors like ecology and engineering that I'm also really interested in, so taking courses on them, or at least talking to others who do, could keep things fresh and keep me inspired. Secondly, I really am going to try to be way better about time management. I think that's the biggest source of my burnout right now: it feels like I have no time because I am not managing it well. To be fair, I am having 3 hours of rehearsal after school and I am in the throes of AP review, but I could definitely be keeping my schedule a little tighter and that would help me find more free time. I'm not sure if Trello is going to still be my method for this since now I am not time managing for a team, but it might still be helpful for me to just have my own personal boards. I know I will use some sort of planner if I want this to work. Finally, I will try to have some hobbies that help me recharge. It's a little weird to think art may not be my hobby any more, but maybe just drawing silly stuff or fanart still will be. Otherwise I'm thinking singing/playing an instrument and potentially coding simple games. I know a lot of people say having a hobby helps, and though, yeah, it is another activity that you have to make or leave time for, it's worth it to not be low energy and unable to create efficiently later. That's about all I have for today, but I bet I will find better strategies for myself as I actually get to college and see what's manageable. I'm really excited to be pursuing my passion, and I'm going to do everything I can to avoid bust. It's Game Review Time! Long story short, after the two breaks that we've had lately, I wanted a way to disconnect from reality, so I returned to a game that I used to play: Awesomenauts, a 2D multiplayer online battle arena by Ronimo. My brother and I got this game during a steam sale a few years back, but it has since become free to play, which is really exciting because it means more players which means quicker match ups to be able to play. It's a really fun game that's pretty easy to learn, and I just really enjoy the way that it looks. Basically though it's "2D League of Legends" (credit to Sam for such a good summary), so there isn't a ton to talk about gameplay-wise, so I'm just gonna talk about some of the characters I like and how the games sort of play out. [All pictures included come from the game's official website] The Basic Game Structure So basically, each team has 3 players who are trying to defend their own base, and the destroy the other team's base. However, there are also turrets, which act as a strong defense (the big mech machine gun looking thing above) and droids (the two little guys on the left with buzz saw arms) who function as meat shields when fighting against the turrets. It's pretty simple over all, but there's a variety of different characters who all play a little differently, and there's a lot of strategy that goes into it. It also really requires full engagement on the part of all 3 team members, or it really will be a struggle to have a fighting chance (basically it's really frustrating when someone goes inactive). One thing I really love about this game is that it's not about the kills. While yes, these stats are recorded, and it is helpful to kill others and not die, there's so much more to the game than attacking other people. A lot of it comes down to defending and attacking other turrets, and following waves of droids in order to be able to do so effectively. I'm not very good at any PvP game, but I've gotten a lot better at this one than at any other and even gotten a kill streak a few times, because I can actually use other strategy and skills to still help out my team, especially using characters that fulfill a more defensive or support role. Which brings me to... The Characters Awesomenauts has over 20 characters, and they all feel really unique, which I think is really impressive. A few of them do play a little similarly, but the character designs are all so vastly different, and they do have slight differences move-wise that set them apart. They all have their own theme music and voices too. The characters fall into a few different categories, some of them being fighter, tank, support, harasser, and assassin. I haven't unlocked all of the characters, so I'm only going to talk about a few of them who I've had fun with lately (2 of which are starter characters, but they're honestly still my favorites).
So, that's about all I have to say about Awesomenauts! I can foresee myself wasting hours on it over the summer, and I encourage you to try it out if you want! It's free to play and matches usually are less than 20 minutes long, and it's just such a charming game.
I simplified and textured these models that Julia created to go into the atrium. They're still about 4,000 polys each, which is NOT ideal but I do not feel like I am able to simplify them any further without seriously sacrificing the quality of the models, so I'm going to put them in the game as they are. I also finished some other simple models (just some display cases containing random objects to go in the atrium) which pretty much finishes my work for the year (once I import them of course). Once Julia gets done modeling the downstairs, I'll obviously have to help import and texture all of that as well, but we are really getting very close, which is good because we only have 35 days (including non school days) to get this project done. I hope we make it.
Mr. B also just told me that we need invitations for our showcase, so I'll likely be designing those since I don't have much else work that I can do. Goals for This Week:
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AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
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