Today's lesson was to answer the question ourselves about what skills we have, what might cause us problems on the way, and what are we making for our product.
The purpose of this course review is to see what I'm good at and what I need to improve on. What I answered on that sheet is what I need mostly to improve on and what I'm decent at.
Course Review
After completion of the course review, I have identified the weaknesses that I
have to work on during FMP. Throughout this, I will use sources that can help
me and my weaknesses, so I can improve further during the FMP. The pathway I
chose will be making a game, this will be for my product and the theme I was
given to work with is mythology.
Mind-Map Mythology
This lesson aimed to consider the various contextual applications of
"Mythology" and to select 1-3 media texts for contextual analysis to
initiate the project.
What we were set in today's lesson was to look into our own nationality and research what types of Mythology our people used to believe in. From Poland we have Dragons, from Guyana we have dead sprites, demons, and ghosts, and from India, we have Shiva The Hindu god of destruction. Then we looked at the modern mythology of today. We have Skinwalkers, Wendigos, Hachishakusama the (Yokai).
These were the notes we noted down in the lesson.
Collections, history, riches, stories, myths, legends,
Stories that deal with the human conditions
Learning, emotion, morality, aspiration, conflict, and death
On the mind map what I added from my culture was spirits, but what my people like to call them is Jumbee, there are types of malevolent demons that come back from the dead but they usually mimic dogs, pigs, but most of all cats. What I learned from the other cultures on the mind map was dragons/Vikings, and Hindu demon Gods. When having a chat with my team and looking into their cultural myths, I was interested in the Polish myths about dragons and how they were interpreted in history, games, and TV shows/Movies. But if I were to use this for my product for my FMP I would use it.
This is what we discussed from each of our myths, we added our backgrounds of the nationality of myths and stories our ancestors used to tell, and then we added those to our mind map. Then we were told to look into modern mythology.
Media text - mythology can be used in many different up-to-date media these days like books, TV shows, Movies, Games, or Plays. We used these to look into mythology from different ages, like stories/history.
We were listening to mythologies that we were told in that lesson and I noted down this one. Cronus eats one of his children out of fear of a prophecy by Gaea that one of his children would overthrow him.
Reflection
This mind map taught me that mythology can refer to a variety of narratives or forms of media that have the power to evoke strong emotions in people, such as death. My FMP will proceed in this direction: I may conduct some research on mythological demons and spirits and examine their backgrounds and stories. I plan to conduct studies on mythological beings since I find them to be really interesting, especially those with superhuman abilities like transformation into other things.
After this, we were told to choose a game, TV show, movie, or, book to base
our media text. What I chose was The Forest because when looking at the game
it tied into the Skinwalkers myth and this myth is popular in today's modern
mythology. While playing this game you see a lot of pale creatures chasing you
down, they have different shapes and sizes of pale monsters chasing the player
on an abandoned island.
My second media text is The Scorpion King (Movie).
This movie is about Greek and Egyptian mythology. This
Iterative Character Design
The aim of this lesson was to enforce and improve skills in iterating
designs and getting better at drawing characters as a whole whilst
including a story within the design.
Iterative/iterations are other words we use for refining our art style hearing
the feedback we get on our original art then improving it based on the
information we got out of it.
Monkey
Enslaved: Odyssey to the west 2010
This character has similar designs to match the story of Wu Kong's Journey to
the West myth. As we can see from the design he has compared to what he's
based on, it looks different, but in the story of the game, he has Wu Kong's
behavior, as the character is cunning and playful, and the paint on his face
and body tells us that he's from a tribe.
Like Wu Kong, Monkey has a staff that he can use to defend himself. The
staff looks identical to Wu Kong's staff, with the same power to extend and
retract. The yellow-golden sash that the monkey has around his waist
symbolizes that it could be his tail; as we can see, he does not have one,
but by character style, it does. The scars on his body tell us the number of
battles he's been in and how much he has to fight to survive, like Wu Kong's
countless battles he has had. The hair represents Wu Kong's hair, as in the
stories, his hair stands tall and up.
These are my iterative designs of a character I made in Adobe Photoshop. We had to make about four iterations of our characters based on words that were given to us for today's lesson. The words I was given were hybrid, water, wavy, technology, wavy hair, women, metal, wires, fins, and android. With these words, I made these.
The words that I was given here were water and experiment, these words made a
water-body type of monster slug, I went with the human body feature again but
more as if it was slithering away. The colors I used were green, light green,
purple, cyan, light blue, blue, and black for the outline, and white for the
shininess.
What I did here was the simplest of the rest and the words used for this one
were wires, android, metal, and hybrid again, just like the ghost-like one I
went with the same thing again making more machine-like with the wires and
making the head bigger. The colors I used were light green, dark pink, red,
blue, and green for the wiring of the character, grey and dark grey, and
black for the outline of the brain.
Reflection
With this knowledge, I've learned something new about iterating designs. It can not only be based on other works like images or drawings but it can also be based on words. With this information, we did different iterations of drawings of a character I made in Photoshop. Going off on the words and changing a few things about the body, it looked different each time, but looking at it, you can see the differences each iteration has.
When I was iterating my designs, it felt off until some of the words I was looking at gave me an idea to combine them with my character to make something brand new. Based on my first design and with these images, they looked the same or different, but adding color really changed what type of words they'd give off when looking at them. I personally wouldn't say it's hard, but I would say it takes a lot of practice, but it was easy.
I would say the hardest part about iterating is thinking about what changes
you can make to your design and how would you think of it. You could have
other people's opinions on your design to make a change or to see what needs
improving, my hardest part of iterating was thinking about what to draw and
the style of it because within the lesson we were meant to spend 10 minutes
on a design but it was hard for me to think of what to draw so I spent
around 15-20 minutes on them.
Well, when I look back at the drawings, it looks like I haven't changed that
much of the tail of the characters, but more or less, I mostly changed the
width, size, and color of the characters to match what type of word I was
going to base my drawing on.
Week 1 Reflective Journal
Although there are several ideas I could start with for the topic we were
given, it's difficult to come up with just one. This week, I haven't
really grasped any ideas yet, but over the weekend, I'll give it more
thought.
Now that I know what we discussed this week, I can better see the theme,
what to research, and what to create for my animation. I want to concentrate
on and brainstorm appearances for my characters in my next game the
following week. I also want to get ongoing input from other people on my map
designs and personalities.
I've tried to come up with some concepts about what my FMP will feature,
such as what genre it will be, how mythology will inspire it, and who
the characters in my game will be.
I'll be concentrating more on finishing off the remaining tasks and
coming up with new ideas next week.
Westminster University workshop trip
The purpose of this trip was to mentally prepare myself for the work
that lay ahead of me and possibly for university, as well as to gain
insight into the mindset of an animator or designer.
For the Westminster University workshop, what we did was
We participated in two workshops at Westminster University: one in the
morning focused on games, and the other on animation. In the morning
session.
we looked at the video game Hollow Knight and a cave in
Minecraft to learn how to iterate and create different concepts for
our art. After that, we were given paper and instructed to draw a character
based on the images or a block of our creation.
When we were separated into groups in the morning we did an activity in
which we scanned the two QR codes and listened to the sounds that the videos
gave off, one was Minecraft, and the other was Hallow Knight, and then we
drew a character or a landscape.
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These were the two sounds to give us an idea of what to make.
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After choosing to draw a Hollow Knight character instead of a landscape, I
chose Hollow Knight design because it was common with the horns and the
cape design, and with the whole characters being bugs with pointy arms and
legs it was is to mimic its designs.
After finishing the animation session in the morning, we had a 45-minute
break, and then we went back to the introduction hall to go to the game
session in the afternoon. After walking around the building and being
shown around the place, we were shown to an animation room where students
would do stop-motion work like Wallace and Gromit.
Stop-Motion teamwork
At the end of the tour, we went into a room and learned more about
stop-motion and animation, and then we were shown projects of students at
the university and what they did for the stop-motion/animation work, then we
did a little activity doing stop-motion in groups 4 per table and this what
we did in the 4 group team.
To my knowledge, a portfolio is like a CV but the difference is that when it
comes to a portfolio they will need information on the games in the past you
have worked on and past projects as well as what skills you also have and
what you will specifically are good at, they also see how well you work with
other and if you have a creative mind to work with others, and to see if
you're dedicated to this work style.
Week 2 Reflective Journal
The aim of this week was to conduct more research and gather more ideas for
my game
We visited the Young V&A trip to help us with our mythology, with the
help of the trip we gathered valuable information to help us gather the
right ideas for our game/animation.
By next week I will have to choose exactly what type of game I wanna make with
flow of the game as well as the movement as well as the concept for it.
Week 3 Reflective Journal
This week I was thinking of ideas of what I mythology to choose and what
type of game I wanted to make within this phase. I personally want my game
to be a (beat 'em up) game with up, down, left, right movement, so I might
use tile movement or 8-Directional movement for my game. But it will be from
start to end game.
I would say my creative thinking is alright but still room for improvement
on the ideas I have trouble thinking of sometimes, but whatever I think I
might lack I can make up of looking at other games and gathering ideas from
there.
What I know that my coding skills will used a lot throughout my project and
the amount of assets to make using sprites will be useful. For my Pecha
Kucha my ideas can even be good or bad or just might need changing but the
feedback will be the most important thing for me so I can see the errors of
some ideas I might have.
But next week we are going to start our fully start making our Pecha Kuchas
and what I wrote here i'll use in images for my ideas and the intentions of
my game.
Week 4 Reflective Journal
The aim of this week to plan our Pecha Kucha and proposal ideas for our
games/animation.
The software we used when making our Pecha Kucha's was Google Slides, I also
used some images, gifs, and some I made in photoshop to make my Pecha Kucha.
We also talked about stuff we wrote about in our proposal to mention in our
Pecha Kucha's as well as ideas from our mind-maps.
While still making the Pecha Kucha the only things I used were Adobe Photoshop
and images/gifs on the internet. While working on my Pecha Kucha, I had small
help with the slides and what images to put in there to get my point straight
forward to people.
The feedback towards my Pecha Kucha was very useful to me and showed me on
what I might want to target on what to do through my project, the feedback was
exactly to focus on my designs and concepts, and to expain the mechanics for
the game.
With the images I used for my Pecha Kucha I wanted to show people the visions
I had for my game and what I exactly wanted the game to be, as well as what
I'm good at and what I lack but could improve. The images I used expresses how
I feel for the whole project and the time I'm going to have to put in. So
thats why I've used these images in my Pecha Kucha.
With the background images I used for my Pecha Kucha, I wanted people to try
see if they can guess the theme of it because of the style of the background,
it probably would've been easy to guess it because of the cherry blossom leafs
falling down and the out door view of Japanese district.
Pre-Production
Week 5
This week was the like starter week of getting anything done so I started
my GDD and my Mood board for what i want in game and what assets will give
me ideas to use.
Mood Bored
GDD
Audio Plan
I will try find a calming Chinese song that plays in my game and hopefully
matches it.
Week 5 Reflective writing
For the first week of my FMP, I focused on completing the GGD for my game, the
mood board of what I will make to use in my game, and how I want my game to
go. By next week I will start making a main menu for my game.
Chalk Drawings
Skull Drawings
FMP Drawings
Week 6 Pre-Production
In this week I was mostly focused on the menu screen for my game and editing
the in Piskel, making the button for the menu like how to play and options.
Made and added my animation background for the main menu.
The only coding I have done so far for clicking the play button but there will be more code to see in a few days.
Reflective writing week 6 FMP
What I did this week was mostly focus on the main menu but I did a tiny
bit of character design for the first character.
The milestone I set for this week was to finally finish the main menu, a
quarter to finish off now, and to start the first character design.
What I mostly used this week was Construct 3 and Piskel. I used Piskel for
the sprites buttons and to make the play button, how to play button, and
options button, and the background for the main menu.
I had a bit of trouble trying to make the main menu UI. The trouble was
trying to make the back button work, but I ended up getting help to solve
the issue and found out that the layout I wanted it to go back to was on
the wrong event sheet so thats the reason it was working.
Throughout the week that was the only problem I have had so far.
What I noticed during Pre-production that I need to be stick to what I can
actually do and be fast about it, because I noticed I said i would start
the grey box but didn't and got glued on to the main menu UI design for
too long, so I need to improve my time on certain stuff I set or myself.
What I plan to do next week is focus on character designs, get started on
the grey box and import my character designs to see what works, and try to
make a cutscene for the intro the first level.
Week 7
What I did this week was focus on the code and and try to get the code
working for attacking, but I kept failing so I pushed it back when I can
fully try complete it.
Reflective Writing 7
What I did this week was mostly try to get the attack system working for my
main character as well as the movement system.
At the start I thought I Was doing the right type of movement for my character
to found out I was doing it the wrong way, I had used (Platform) behavior and
that was only making my character go back and forth like from a 2D
perspective, so I had help of what movement to go with and and chose the right
movement for my character (Tile Movement).
I worked on the attack animation but what I drew is a temp till I get the
model of my character and his animations, but troubled me the most was the
coding for the attack but I had some videos teach and help me sort out the
problem of the attack and the code so I could time it.
What I mostly need to do for next week and the weeks ahead I need to speed up
and focus more on my time, and the first thing I'll do is work on the Tile
Movement or switch it up to 8 direction movement, but I'll test what I can do
with the movement then pick which one to keep.
Week 8/Reflective Writing
In this week I was making the sprite and the sprite sheet for my
characters this week as well as fixing some sizing issues while trying to
import the characters I made in my game.
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This was the first design of my main character and the sprite sheet for him
animation for walking as well as being idle, and up and down.
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King - Main Character
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This was the first initial design for my main character, while coming up
with what he would be going from skin color to what type of race he would be
as well as hair, I ended up using a website that help me make this him into
a pixel person. So it worked out for me and my characters I wanted to make.
Brian - Enemy/Side Character
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Same website I used for his sprites but he's a side character the main
character will be talking to, not really made for anything then that.
The progression of making the characters and resizing them, including the
code for them in general was annoying as well as difficult sometimes,
especially with resizing them and their animations. The biggest problem I
had was making every size for their animation the same so that when it
came to the game there wouldn't be a character having one animation bigger
than the others.
What I liked about making the characters through that website is that they
had many customizations for characters you wanted to use for anything, I
chose a certain design to match my characters and the type of clothing
they would wear, but they didn't have most of the cloths I wanted for my
character to use, so I change some of the looks for them changing what
they would look like as well, so I was happy with the changes I made and
with the characters.
The only dislike I had about this was the limited character sprite I could
actually use, because I wanted a running animation for my character but
the website I was using only had a walking animation so I sped it up so my
character is speed walking. The other thing was the other quarter of the
animation sprite list was naked so couldn't use them.
I mostly worked on the characters' designs this week, and I thought of some
assets to do for next week. But next week I'll be focusing on assets
completely, upgrading the map design for the levels, and finishing any
leftover work I have to do. Those are my plans for next week. As well as
fixing some errors with resizing or coding problems.
My Game Slice
Week 9/Reflective Writing
This week was just adding my last character as well as getting the audio
ready to use within my game, but it will take time for me to choose a good
music.
Sun Zihao - Side Character
Sun Zihao is a name I used from a Chinese generator for the names I chose.
This is the sprite sheet I will only be using for him, he's going to do little besides speaking to the player and giving advice on how to defeat the Yokai.
This was his original design, but I couldn't add some facial features on a
pixel character/ the website I was using. So I decided to go with the pixel
design and the Kimono look.
This week I've also added copyright-free Chinese music because when it came
to thinking of music that should match my game I thought of Chinese music
but I didn't know how to make any or make any using sounds or objects, so I
decided to use music from youtube and I found what music I wanted to add. so
I used this free music that I have to credit.
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/@Waroxe
I would say for this week finding the song wasn't hard nor difficult but
I would say I had bad taste in copyright-free music so me and my friend
looked one together and found this song that I could use, but just had to
credit the guy who made it.
Week 10 Reflective Journal
Between half term, I created the yokai 2 of them and also got the code
for both of them down using a lot of behaviors on the sprites to get them
to move and think as well as use line of sight (LOS) to find the player
and rush towards him.
These were the two codes I had fun trying and actually trying to get
working the most, but it was a bit of a hassle.
With this code, I could finally get what I wanted the enemy to do and
flash when they were hit with the attack button.
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These were the two I made using the Piskel app, a classmate helped me with the design of the second one, but the first one I used as a reference and changed the facial features and color.
Main level
This was made using a few reference images of bamboo forest images and
making the shrine gate. also made a few dirt assets and grass assets
Tutorial
Made this by copying my first level and changing it up a bit by using
different assets I made. Add text in the tutorial area so the player can
learn what to do before going to the main level. Also added Sun Zihao just to say to the players good luck what they should know what
to do by the text.
Code
Updated character and adversary attack system code Took me a while because I needed to learn how to use a specific piece of code, but after watching a couple of videos I got the gist of it and learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes twice.
The video helped me learn how to use X and Y positioning as well as timing the flash behavior contact with another object being my main character and setting the vector.
Game Flow
This is how I wanted my game to be working.
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