Aaron Hogan

Reading 6 This week for reading 6 task I had to do the body paragraphs. My week this week was difficult. I am finding this semester work to be hard and I feel like I need to go back to some weeks and add loads to them because I feel like due to them not having much work and research over them makes the rest of the weeks harder.  My two topics are Navigation Mechanisms and Game input Devices. I feel like these are hard enough to get much research to link to each other. I just feel like I am doing the research wrong and feel overwhelmed by not getting enough work done.  Next week, because we have a free week I am going to go back to past weeks and add more to them and do much more research because I know I have not done enough because I am finding this semester much more difficult compared to last semester. I find it hard to do research on the topics I have.  I have tried my best to get some sort of work done for the body paragraphs but I do not know if this is righ...

Unity Tutorial 06 For this weeks Unity tutorials, I started on a new prototype, Prototype 3. I found this tutorial to be the best one so far. I had to complete three different tutorials to complete this weeks task. The links to the three tutorials: Lesson 3.1 Jump Force  Lesson 3.2 Make the World Whiz By  Lesson 3.3 Don’t Just Stand There  One strange problem I kept having was when I would use the tall layout, it would not allow me to add the script to the player. I did not know why this problem kept occurring until I randomly changed layout and then it allowed me to add the script.  The first tutorial was pretty much setting up the whole scene and getting our character to start working. I found this tutorial to be the easiest one of the three. The only problem I had was the script problem that I stated earlier. The second tutorial took me some time as the coding was getting confusing at parts. The third tutorial took the longest to do and I foun...

Reading 5 After last weeks reading, I was very confused on what to do, but luckily I got to speak to Shaun today in a face to face meeting which helped me a lot. Before I was unsure what the matrix was for and what articles to be reading but now after the help from Shaun I feel like I have a much better understanding to what I have to do. For this weeks reading I wont have as much work was I would like to because I only really understood today what I have to do. For next weeks reading, I feel like I will be much more prepared and will have way more work because I now know much more work that I have to do. For todays reading as I only found out today what to do is about the articles I found and will get headings from to be included in next weeks reading when I have more time to gather information. Some articles I found interesting include: -Methods and apparatus for input devices for instruments and/or game controllers: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8198526B2/en -Game ...

Unity Tutorial 05 This week for Unity, I did two tutorials.  Here is a link to the two tutorials I done: Lesson 2.4 Collision Decisions Challenge 2 & Quiz Play Fetch  The first tutorial I done was the last tutorial for the third game we created. I found that adding the scripts that sometimes it would not work and I did not know how to fix the problem, so the game does not fully work but I tried for ages to understand what the problem was but I just could not fix the problem. I could not get the game to work as much as I wish. Overall, I did not enjoy this tutorial that much as I found it quite annoying and difficult.  The second tutorial was different from any other tutorial I did as we had to do more of the work on our own. This was the hardest tutorial I had to do this semester. It was very challenging because I had to do most of the work on my own. It took my about 2 days in total to work it all out. I had to ask my classmates for help on some b...

Unity Tutorial 04 For this week Unity tutorial task, I done three Unity tutorials. I think I enjoyed these tutorials more compared to the past two weeks as I felt like my Unity skills were not up to the same standard as they were before the break but I feel like I am used to Unity once again. The three tutorials I done this week were: -Lesson 2.1 Player Positioning: https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/lesson-2-1-control-player-bounds-with-if-then-statements?courseId=5cf96c41edbc2a2ca6e8810f&projectId=5cdcc312edbc2a24a41671e6 -Lesson 2.2 Food Fight: https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/lesson-2-2-launch-projectiles-by-instantiating-prefabs?courseId=5cf96c41edbc2a2ca6e8810f&projectId=5cdcc312edbc2a24a41671e6 -Lesson 2.3 Random Animal Stampede: https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/lesson-2-3-random-animal-stampede?courseId=5cf96c41edbc2a2ca6e8810f&projectId=5cdcc312edbc2a24a41671e6 My favourite tutorial was the third one, Lesson 2.3 Random Animal Stampede. This was my favour...

Unity Tutorial 03 This weeks Unity tutorials were fun but took a bit of time to get it done. I done two tutorials for the Unity create with code. The two tutorials were: -Lesson 1.4 Step into the Driver’s Seat  -Challenge 1 & Quiz Plane Programming  I enjoyed doing both of them. The first tutorial was a continue on from last weeks one where it had the car in it. This week we were able to make the car move which I found very fun as when I finished it. I did find it challenging at the start to make the car move but I just made a typing error. I am finding the coding okay but I keep making small mistakes which do take a good bit of time to realise where I went wrong, but I think I am getting better with the coding. The second tutorial was different from the others as we had to fix the plane. I found the text tips to be very good and they helped  a lot as I am not that skilled with coding in Unity. I found the tutorial fun to do and I felt great when I go...

Reading 3 For this weeks reading task, I had to do more research on my topics. I am not finding these tasks to be very easy. I feel like I do not know if I am doing them correctly but I am going to write about what I think I have to do.  I read the articles ' User Input and the Mobile User Experience – We’re All Thumbs Now or Maybe Not' and I learnt a lot of information for the topics that I am researching to write about. Simple Guidelines for Mobile User Input: Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS):   You don’t want to overwhelm users with page after page of date collection  on mobile. It’s simply not practical to try and extract the same volumes of data from a user that you would on a desktop. Offer Default Inputs When It’s Practical :     If your audience is nearly fully from one country, then you should make that the default country option. Think About the Device Capabilities:  You can use motion capture, the camera, the internal accelerome...

Unity Tutorial 02 A new semester means learning more in Unity. In the first semester, I was not a big fan of Unity at the start but by the end of it I really enjoyed it.  I am excited to learn more skills. I choose to do the Unity create with code as I feel like I would enjoy it more. I did three tutorials for this week. They were : Lesson 1.1 Start your 3D Engines  Lesson 1.2 Pedal to the Metal  Lesson 1.3 High-Speed Chase  I found this tutorials very fun. Although it was challenging at the start as I had to get used to everything again in Unity but I got the hang of it very quickly again and enjoyed doing them. I prefer these tutorials over last semesters are they are a bit more fun. My favourite tutorial was the second one 'Pedal to the Metal'. This was my favourite one because it was the most fun to do and it made me happy when I could move the car. It took me a while to complete these tutorials but I actually enjoyed myself all the way through. I am lo...

Reading 2 Hello there, after a very good break I am back with the blogs for semester 2. This semester we are creating our own book. I had to pick 2 subtopics within a chapter. I choose chapter 11: creating the user experience, the 2 subtopics I have chosen are ' Input Devices' and 'Navigation Mechanisms'. I hope I am doing this right as I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly I have to do, so I am praying that I am doing this right. I did research by googling these questions: - How do you create good user experience? -What is game input devices? - What are some examples of game navigation mechanisms? -What are some examples for user experience input devices? I found out a lot of important information when I asked these questions and feel like I have gained a lot of knowledge on my topics and have a better understanding of them. I am going to go to the college library and see if I can find any useful books there to get a better understandin...

Beta This week for the project task, we had to have our game pretty much done. My game is very close to be fully finished, I just need to make the football items collectable. I tried to do it for a while the other day but I could not get it to work but I will hopefully get it done for the final game. I also added in the timer and score board but they will not show up on the version of Unity on my laptop but they show up on the 2019 version of Unity so that will be fine. I got my character to move and jump which I am very happy with. Here are some screenshots of my game. An image of the camera angle I will use. A large shot of my game. Overall I just need to make the items collectable then my game will be fully done.

Unity Free Tutorials This week for my Unity task, I had to find more tutorials to improve my game. I found two tutorials to help make my game better. The first video I watched was about music in my game. I looked up how to add background music to my game and I found a video titled 'How to play background music in Unity'. This video helped me as I feel my game would be a lot better with music as it would make the atmosphere better. I am hoping I will be able to add in the music without any trouble.  I will have to find the right music that will suit the vibe of my game but that should not be too hard. Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB3I4l0AED0 The second video I watched was about adding invisible walls to my game. Invisible walls are very important to my game as they will prevent the player from falling off the map. I found the tutorial very helpful and feel like I will be able to add them in easy enough. I hope they work as they are a big ...

Tech Tip: First Tweet For this weeks tech tip, I created a Twitter account and tweeted . I created a new account for this assignment. In my own time, I love using Twitter. I also found it hard to understand at the start a few years ago and I stopped using it but when I came back to it and I find it to be the funniest social media app. I enjoyed created my account on Twitter.

Game Testing For this week I read an article called 'Giving Criticism-the good, the bad, and the ugly! The article is about criticism and why it is effective and how a person can go about giving someone criticism without hurting the persons feelings. Why giving criticism can be a good thing: Criticism can be a good thing because it offers feedback, either positive or negative. Giving criticism can benefit the person receiving it as it can better their work/project. If you want to give good constructive criticism, then… 1) focus on valid and unbiased feedback and… 2) make your criticism clear, understandable, and relevant. The poor way of giving constructive criticism: That logo design sucks, who the heck would pay for something like that!? I hate red and green, why not use black and white instead! I can’t read the text. The good way of giving constructive criticism: The balloon font used in the logo seems a bit too playful for your business, do you thin...

Wikipedia Trail 1.   Video Game: I started off with this search as a lot of our work is based on games and I thought this would be a good place to start off. Here is the link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game#Genres 2. Nintendo: I choose Nintendo next as I knew it was one of the biggest game companies and I knew it would have a lot of good links to it.  Here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo#Marketing 3. Nintendo DS: I choose Nintendo DS as it was a console I grew up with as a kid. I used to play loads of games on it like my favourite Nintendo game Super Mario.  Here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS 4.List of best-selling game consoles: I choose this link as I was curious as to what console sold the most consoles ever. The answer is the PlayStation 2. I also used to play PS2 when I was growing up so this is pretty cool to see.  Here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game...

Tech Task: Creating A Meme For this weeks tech task, I decided to make a meme about myself that has to do with my college work. This is the meme I created: An image of a meme I created. Image Source; https://imgflip.com/i/3huak8 I made this meme on the website imgflip. I enjoyed making this meme and found it fun to make.

Unity Free Tutorials My Thursday did not go off to a good start because I was clearing my desktop and didn't realise my game folder was there and I ended up deleting it, so that means I have to start all over again but I will get the game fully done for the deadline. I know what assets I need and also I know how to create the items I did. This week I had to watch 2-4 Unity tutorials to help me with my game. I found 2 tutorials that will help me towards my final game. The first tutorial I looked at was how to make items collectable and how to add a scoreboard to my game. I need items to be collectable because without it my game would not have any function. I am hoping I will be able to add this part to my game as it is one of the most important parts of the game. The second part of this video shows me how to add a scoreboard to my game. I needed a tutorial on how to add this to my game because I need to have a scoreboard so the player knows how many of the 10 items they hav...

Game Stories This week for my reading task, I read two articles ' Into the Woods: A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey' by Bob Bate and  ' What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story' by John Sunderland.   I enjoyed  reading this articles and found them very interesting. The first article I learned about the hero's in games. Mostly every game has a hero. My favourite hero in a video game would have to be Mario from the Super Mario Games.  This article helped me learn more about what goes into a hero in a video game.  These are the possible steps that a hero can go through on his/her journey: Establishing the hero's world The call to adventure Entering the mythological woods Trail of trials Encountering the evil one Gaining the hero's prize Returning that prize to the community Hero's play a huge part in games. The audience love when there is a certain hero in a game because they can get attached to the hero and really f...

Alpha This week I have worked on my game. I've decided to not have 10 different items that the player needs to collect as there are no assets for the items I want, so I have decided that I am just going to have 10 footballs that the player has to collect. I had a problem with my coding. I know exactly what coding I need for my game to work but when I was working on it for my game on my own laptop , every time that I would try put in the coding it would send me to dreamweaver, which I don't have bought on my laptop, so it would not allow me to code which is annoying but I will get the coding done in the mac labs in college. I am very confident that I will be able to get my character moving, the timer and the item counter working once I get myself onto the coding.This has annoyed me as I feel like there is not much difference from last week to now as I could not get the things done that I wanted to get done. I've added in screenshots of my game, I have added in where my...

Week 9 Progress For this blog I am writing about my progress over the last few weeks to now. 1. Overall, I am very happy with my progress so far. I did not think I would have as much points as I did if I am going to be honest but I roughly thought I would be near enough to it. I am just annoyed at myself for slacking for one of my weeks hitting a low number, but from them I knew I had to keep up on my work. I do have a good weekly routine. I plan my week out and manage to get my work done in time and done well. The class assignment that has been my favourite are the ones based around my game. I like them as I get to work and build my way towards my own game that I am making in Unity. I have only done one extra credit task one week, I am going to do more towards the end of the year as I want to get the best grade that I possibly can get.  2. There are no specific changes that I would make to my progress for the rest of the module but the only thing I am going to change...

Review week comments and feedback This week, I got to review my feedback blogs, I also read all the comments on my blogs from my classmates and lastly I looked back on my 'Introduction' blog which I wrote at the start of the module, it was just a quick introduction about myself and what I like/ don't like. 1. The feedback and comments that I have been getting on my blogs are very helpful and they are lovely to read. I like reading the comments my classmates leave on my blogs because I want to hear their opinion on my game or game ideas. I read all the comments as I feel like they can help me to see something I am doing good but more importantly something that feel could be useful to add in, for example, I was reading a comment on my game and the person suggested that I could think about adding in a ramp into my game to make it more challenging for the players and I really took that comment on board as I think I will add another obstacle to make it a bit more ch...