Week 4 Summary!

(Please note for some reason it keeps centring my text at the beginning, It won't change no matter how many times I edit this, Thanks)

In week 4, we learned about Various Development Models, Playtesting and Minimum Variable Product (MVP) is in the lecture.  In the workshop I learnt about UI Widgets. I also had my crit session where I had a practise pitch of what I was going to say at the end of week 8. 

Lean, MVP, and Playtesting

The three models we learnt about were called waterfall, agile/scrum and lean, with lean development being the best method for game development.  The main reason why the lean model was is better is that it gives a faster workflow, but it also gave developers time to adjust their failures, so they produce better work for the product through the constant playtesting.

Next we learned what MVP's are.  MVP's (as defined by Eric Ries) are "that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort".  I believe my main MVP would be the core game loop and designing it to match the standards expected from this project.  To make sure I don't promise too much, I'll set myself limitations such as only using mechanics for basic combat shooting games.

We also learnt how to get the most out of our playtesting.  Later on I will get a few people to fill in a quick survey on my game to see how I can improve it, I hope to get more information than simple 'I enjoyed it' or 'looks great', I will ask them personally what I could do to make my game better.

Prototype:

In the Workshop I learnt about creating UI Widgets, these are bars usually found in a corner on the screen that tell the player about the health, stamina, ammo, e.t.c...  I knew that I would need a few UI widgets in my prototype such as health and stamina, if I have time I'll try to add in a start screen and a game over screen.

After that lesson I continued my work on my prototype, I already explained about 3D controls in week 3 summary, This week I used the previous lessons to create blueprints what I said was "Basic for my character to have".  These blueprints included:

1. A Health bar: this was achieved with the fresh knowledge I had learnt in the lesson a few hours beforehand. (No Control)
2. A Stamina bar: The same as before, I added it straight to my character. (No Control)

3. A Jumping and Double Jumping blueprint, I worked on this blueprint at the end of last week and finished it at the beginning of this week, I decided to make him jump higher than normal for a laugh, but will correct this later on before the deadline. (Control: Spacebar)

4. Shooting: Shooting was covered early on, I created this after referring to the slide presentation, notes I took, and online research to get a working blueprint, However I need to work on it to damage the AI's. (Control: Left Mouse button)

5. Ammo, Ammo Pickup Box, and Reload blueprint: Along side the shooting mechanic I also learned about these 3 blueprint's, Using the same method I used for the shooting, I was able to get the blueprints to shoot ammo bullets when I pressed the mouse button, and when I pressed R, it would reload the gun.  The ammo pickup box was set to destroy after I went over it and collected more ammo. (Control: R)

6. Early AI chasing and Damage: I was able to get an early idea of this blueprint after searching on youtube and Unreal Engine website, I successfully got an AI target to see me when within a certain range, and then proceed to chase me until it caught up to me upon which it will inflict damage to my health. (No Control)

Practise Pitch

Towards the end of the week, we had a practise presentation to explain what my game was about.  I had a maximum of 5 slides to show, I tried to use mostly images and diagrams to show what my pitch was about.  In it I had a working title page, information on what the game is about (view further down under 'Game Concept Idea'), a moodboard page to show my references, an iterations page, and a page with a video showing what I had successfully completed so far in my game with mechanics and level design.  During the video I made a comment about the bullets being fired from the crotch area, that seemed to get a number of positive reactions, So I decided on incorporating a 'crotch cannon' onto my robot designs. Things that I needed to work on for the presentation where to add more assets, continuing of completing my blueprints list, as well as coming up with a solid character design.  

Essay Lecture: Creating Coherent Words

At the End of the week we got our first lecture for the CS side of this project, the goal is to write a 3000 word essay about how games create these worlds, their history and how it's relevant to the story, historical games and how they are used to create these worlds.

We looked at a number of games such as 'Kingdom Hearts' which is based off a number of Disney Films, that come from stories and fairy tales.  Another game we looked at was a game called 'Charlie's Circus', this game was influenced by circus's which shows off the excitement and old thrills of a circus (plus the soundtrack reminds me off a circus vibe).

After that we where given a few minutes to think of other games that used early forms of entertainment.  A couple of ides sprang to mind such as 'Assassins's creed' which looks into various historical parts in time, 'Witcher 3', with all it's myths and legends, but my strongest idea was the game 'Red Dead Redemption' where you play as a hired gun hunting down your old crew in the wild west.  This game link's back to what cowboy's did in the old wild west, such as bounty hunting, gambling, and stand off's.  Some of these and many other forms of living and entertainment are factored into this game.

Humans have the passion and desires to create for various reasons, entertainment, challenges, storytelling, e.t.c:  Children are able to create imaginary worlds much better than adults can, for example they pick up a big box and it becomes a fort (A Box Fort).

Whereas today I learn to increase on my little ideas and turn them into whole worlds of imagination with different characters. On a side note as a cosplayer, I'm always trying to figure out how to create my costume and props from various supplies like foam and cardboard, below is a picture of a keyblade (Weapon in Kingdom Hearts) that someone created for their cosplay.

To get a better understanding of the task set for me, I need to research more forms of early entertainment and see which video games have used ideas from them.