Although we were going to work in Game Maker, technical difficulties have forced us to jump straight into Unity. This is kind of a good thing because Unity is what we would have used next year anyway. We haven't really started using Unity much yet (due to more technical difficulties that make it hard to access the tutorials right now) but we have watched a lot of tutorials for navigating the interface, and we started working on coding in c#.
So far, the game interface seems a little confusing. The tutorials that we watched just went over the basics, and I think to really learn it I will have to learn by doing. I think that I will be able to figure it out, I just also think that it will take some time. I'm really excited to do some more advanced coding, even though I'm sure it will be very difficult for me. I only really know some basic coding things right now, so I'm excited to get into more complex stuff. However, since c# is, "not a beginner friendly type of code," I am a little worried about it since I often make mistakes and can get frustrated when coding. Overall though, I'm pretty excited just to get started making 2D games, and even though I know my first game isn't going to look as nice as the example games, it looks like the program is capable of doing some pretty awesome things, so I'm excited to learn how to use it.
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This post (along with other posts found in the category Unprompted) isn't responding to a blog prompt, and is just my thoughts on something I felt like writing about. This reflection is going to be about my digital art in general, not just in class, and my frustration with it. As the title suggests, I do not have a drawing tablet, and thus have to do all digital drawing with a mouse, so keep that in mind as I continue. However, I can not blame all of my frustrations on this, some of it is just lack of practice and technique.
A lot of my frustration in my digital art comes from comparing myself to others. My lines look more wobbly than the average artist, and without pen pressure, my lines often also feel less interesting to me. My art can sometimes feel blocky and messy because of this. I've tried using many different tools and many different programs in desperate attempts to make my lines look cleaner, and while I have made some progress, I wouldn't say that I'm incredibly happy with the result yet. It doesn't help that I also often have to resize things and the program that I use creates a few off-color pixels around the lines that I make, making coloring harder. All of this can probably be fixed through practice and proficiency in the different tools in the program I've been using, so I will continue to work at this. One thing I do like in my art is my shading, but I realized that my lighting (highlights, different light sources, etc.) isn't that great. I have been working at this however, and getting noticeable results. It still isn't great, but I am improving and eventually I can get there. I think lighting is much easier to do in digital art though, so I need to also work on it with traditional art. Practice is helping, and I'm glad it's helping enough that I can see it, so that I know it's working and won't give up as easily on it. This post may be a little pessimistic, but it was also therapeutic to write about my doubts in my own art work, as well as to look at some of the reasons why, and things that I'm doing or can do that actually help. Overall, I actually am very happy with my art, I just also want it to improve, and recognize that these are some problems with it. I'm hoping that I'll have more time to practice soon so that I can address these problems. In this post I'll be reflecting on the year in game design so far, just before we get into 2D game design. So far this year has felt much more challenging than last year, both in the skills that we've been using, and in just managing my time. I'm getting ahead of myself though, so let's go through the year.
We started off just learning video game history, which I personally found uninteresting since it felt as though we were just creating infographic after infographic, and I barely remember any of the material at this point honestly. While this unit is important to learn, it isn't exactly useful for every day work. At this time we were also reading The Art of Game Design which I also found boring since I am much more a hands-on person when it comes to art, and it felt as if the author were speaking only from his own experience rather than looking at the bigger picture. However, the book was effective in teaching some key concepts of game design. None of this work was extremely challenging, other than just trying to find a unique way to create the next infographic. Next, we got into pitching a board game idea, and then executing an idea in a group. Coming up with an original idea wasn't too challenging, but working to pitch it well in front of peers and then work through holes in the original concept were both very difficult. Though I don't feel nervous while public speaking, I am not very good at it. My pitch was certainly not flawless, but I think I did a fairly good job, and learned what I need to do next time (think through questions from others and spend more time on solidifying the art style). Since my team wasn't exactly the best at communicating and didn't really have the best work ethic, I found it very difficult to create a board game that I was content with. Next time, I need to work on my communication and leadership skills. Now, we're working on 3D modeling and animation. While it is challenging work, I'm enjoying it immensely. All of the work that I've been producing, though it has been sort of rough looking, is incredible compared to what I did in the program last year. That being said, I will need to practice a lot more to ever be able to make clean looking 3D animations, but I think it would be worth it. All in all this year has been very good for me. I feel like I've learned a lot of skills that I will need for any career relating to game design, especially in terms of team work, and animation basics. I did say that time management was an issue since I like to take my time on projects, but I think this year is helping me view deadlines more realistically and budget my time better. I hope that moving into 2D design I can learn from the mistakes I've made and the lesson I've been taught so far. |
AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
February 2020
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