This week was cut somewhat short in terms of in-class work days, but this upcoming week will be even shorter and busier. This week I continued work on the Zenith poster and the flashbacks, and took some time over the long weekend to work on this as well. The due date for the actual playable game was pushed back (thank you Mr. B) so the pressure isn't as high for the upcoming week as we thought it would be, however, we have to balance exams and getting ready for college and graduation all the while creating this finished product. We realized through this process so far that creating a polished, complete game takes a lot of work and effort, and moving forward we should start off with a less complex game idea when working with a limited time frame and/or small number of people. With these limitations we have come to an understanding that our finished game won't be as ambitious as our original idea, but we will make sure it is still playable, and for a first game, that sounds good to me. As for the upcoming week, most of the work will have to be done outside of class as many school days will be dedicated to exams.
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This week there's been a lot to do, and again flashbacks are at the forefront. The flashback has been going well although as time catches up pressure is getting higher, and hopefully the quality of the art doesn't decline as a result. Unfortunately, one day this week I lost time to work on the flashbacks due to an issue with the tablets at school, as a result I was then assigned to a new project, making a poster for another team's game in our own. Initially, this was supposed to be something for me to do that wouldn't require a tablet, but once the tablet's started working again I decided draw it out since it looked better in my opinion, and fit the idea of a promotional poster better. I also got a glimpse into what the other members are working on for the weeks ahead, and needless to say we all have quite a bit on our plates. Moving forward I will continue working on flashbacks and any other side projects brought to me.
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This past week I've been continuing work on the flashbacks, and am reaching the completion of one. Working in Photoshop so far has been partially remembering what I've learned in the past, as well as learning along the way. So far I've mostly made use of clipping masks which have been very helpful, and blending modes. Something I've struggled with was dealing with mistakes while drawing, specifically when it comes to layers. I've made the mistake of drawing something on the wrong layer and only realizing until too late to reverse it. Although I can work around these problems, finding ways to do so lengthens the drawing process significantly. As the other 2D artist shifts focus away from flashbacks this week for texturing, I will be doing the opposite, but we will still remain in communication regarding the flashbacks. We will be sharing Photoshop files with one another to improve consistency and communication. Unfortunately, I couldn't draw as much this week as I would've wanted since I was extremely busy with college-related things, but this week my schedule should be more free. As the year comes to a close, it's interesting to see how the work has been coming together from all team members.
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This week I stuck to my goal of primarily working/focusing on the flashbacks, and made some more progress. There was also some more communication with the other 2D artist so I could share the frames I made for a transition from in-game to the 2D cutscene. This transition will fade into the cutscenes at their beginning and end. It's important that we both have this transition so that we can maintain consistency across the board. I continued my work on the actual animations and am reaching a finished product which should be done by the end of the weekend. After speaking with the team lead and the other 2D artist, we will likely be collaborating more on the actual animation of these scenes, and sharing the Photoshop files we've been working on with one another. This upcoming week's goal is definitely aiming for more collaboration on these cutscenes as well as completion so we can begin testing the scripts in-game to make the cutscenes appear when they're supposed to. As the deadline approaches I will have to do more work at home to make sure we aren't crunched for time in the last moments before the game is due, and hopefully the rest of production goes smoothly.
In Summary:
This week we got back into our team games after working on our individual educational games for our PBM. As a group we met up at the beginning of the week to sort out how we would continue working moving forward. As one of the 2D artists, my main job will be the 2D cutscenes within the game. This means I will be working more closely with both the writer and other 2D artist. This week we decided on using a watercolor-esque style of animation since it fits well with the idea of memories since they are somewhat faded or blurred. I began working on the storyboarding for the first cutscene, and since we are using a watercolor style I decided to find a good paper texture that would work well in the background of our animations. I also decided to use the Kyle T. Webster watercolor brush pack, and I shared both the background and brush pack with the 2D artist and writer so that our animations will look consistent across the board. In the upcoming week I will continue working on the storyboard for this flashback, and once it is finished I'll continue storyboarding for the others. I will have to continue talking with the 2D artist to see which of the remaining flashbacks each of us should work on, as well as getting feedback from both them and the writer.
In Summary:
The creation of this game is not over for me yet, but even still it's been a journey that's taught me a lot already. Although my main concern now is coding, I was still able to learn a lot of new skills in C# through the tutorials I watched and info I read outside of the given materials in the AGAD course. Unfortunately, I still have not been able to fix my issue with the typer script and assigning my canvas text to the word output public variable in Unity. My next step may just be to create a new canvas for the typing UI and then reassign my script, because the way I created my canvas and the panel itself may be causing issues, as strange as that seems. All in all, I was able to learn a lot more about coding in C# both through practice and researching on my own, I have a better understanding of how to connect various scenes in Unity through scripts and build settings, and a far better understanding of UI than I previously had. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this project though, had o be building the environment. Although it was tedious at times, it was nice to be able to see everything come together how I wanted and trying to figure out how to use the assets themselves as parkour obstacles and platforms while remaining somewhat immersive was fun, and deciding how to add affordance and signifiers was as well. Hopefully creating a new canvas will fix my issue with the typer so that my game can be playable soon!
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The typer code was a far more strenuous process, as it required several different scripts to be created. Having to incorporate the typing into the parkour how I wanted meant I had to make certain box colliders trigger the typing UI, which would be a separate scene in Unity, to pop up and then I had to make the actual script for the "typer" or how the player's typing would be registered as correct or incorrect, and how the game would know when the full word was correctly typed. Then I had to figure out how to get the scene to switch back to the actual game scene once the word was completed, and I had to create a separate script for the word bank, which was also complicated by the typing UI only being on screen upon the player entering certain colliders, triggering the event. This is currently not functional as my public variable of word output, which would allow my words to be displayed in the typing UI is not allowing me to assign my canvas' text to it.
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About meI am a Senior at DSA and currently taking the Advanced Game Art and Design course. I enjoy playing video games and drawing in my free time. The opinions expressed within this blog are my own, and do not reflect that of Durham School of the Arts of Durham Public Schools Archives
May 2022
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