Day 9 with GameDevHQ

“Discontent is the first necessity of progress”

-Thomas Edison

It only takes two things to keep someone coming back for more; to entangle themselves in an endless loop. That is, a score and a restart button. It is a drive within all of us to do better, to be better, than what we are. Something as simple as a number can, in the moment, become a desire that drives us mad. Our ambition to “win” or “break a record” will always keep us on the hook. Just like in “Grandma’s Boy”, being the record holder makes you somebody. From zero to hero; you break a new record, people start to notice. This is why a point system in our game, along with a quick restart button, are an important and deadly duo.

I enjoyed the section of User interface. It was interesting to see what code is needed for a functioning start menu. It’s exciting to begin to understand a little about how the apps we use on our phone work, as well as in all our favorite games. Come to find out, there is a lot more than I expected. Setting up the script for the canvas was far from easy. Hopefully, I’ll be getting some more challenges and practice in this particular fundamental.

Today was our group session with Al Heck and the “Gang”. He went into further detail about animations and the visual FX powers and aspects in Unity. He gave an example of animating weapons/guns to shift and reveal itself when a certain key is pushed. We also saw him create an environment similar to “Tatooine” from Star Wars. His hovercraft was nifty and creating the smoke and dust elements was surprisingly simple. There was mention of some features available to manipulate the assets in order to accomplish a certain look.

Well this is it for now. I’ll be working tomorrow and look to complete the VFX section and maybe get into post processing. If you’re reading this, have a great weekend!