Oct 29 7:30pm - 11:15pm

Phew....For my next project I should probably think of something simpler to do. I didn't realize this would take a lot out of me. But anywho, the art part of my reskin is all complete. I finished the last sprite sheet (my character jumping), and I made the background and platform for my character to travel across (and also jump on).

Though I spent more time on the art aspect than the actual mechanics of my game, so my game will end up incredibly simple compared to the rest of the class.......

Thurs Oct 23 8:30am-11:10am

More sprite work complete. My character can now run and stay idle. Last thing I must reskin for the character sprites is the jump.

As for the rest of the game, I'm working on collectable items and thinking of how to reskin the platforms. So far I thought of an item that will mean the player wins the game...

...and I'm drawing jasmine flowers for my character to collect as she progresses.

I want the game to have a lot of Pakistani themes, in relation to my character's ethnicity.

Tues, Oct 21 8:30am - 11:10am

Today was another great discussion, this time about gender and sexuality in video games. It was especially a wonderful moment for me considering these are the kinds of issues that affect me directly. It's also good that we dabbled a little into race as well. Hearing about everyone's thoughts and opinions was interesting, and it was a good feeling to know that there are people who understand how I feel as well as people who brought certain topics to light.

Back to my 2D 1st person, I made some progress on my reskin of the Robot's sprite sheet but now the sprites aren't being read on Unity. It looks like I'll have to work with the Sprite Animator within Unity, but for now I'll take the focus off the sprites for a little bit to work on the rest of the level (like the platforms and the background).

As for the Holiday Card project, I really want to work with 2D elements. I enjoy doing the animation aspect more than the coding, to be honest.

Thurs Oct 16, 8:30am-11:10am

Makin some good progress with the robot 2D reskin. I have my character and I began editing over the robot sprites. Due to the box limitations of the robot sprites, I had to do my best to fit my character so she fit into the character sprite box that reads each frame of animation.

Before class ended I wanted to do a quick test and I like the outcome so far!

While I do enjoy making this, I know it's going to be quite a lot of work. This is only the first sprite sheet, there are six others. Some have less frames, some have more. I'm gonna be busy this weekend.

Tues Oct 14 - 8:30am-11:10am

After my attempts with SHMUP, I started the Beam Up Cow tutorial and got that done in about 10 minutes. It wasn't too hard, but the person who made the tutorial should consider editing some of their instructions. People who aren't too familiar with 2D Unity could easily be confused.

Now I'm currently playing around with the 2D robot character. Right now I'm editing the sprite of the robot so it has a star pin.

It looks so cute.

I want to implement the character animations in the holiday cards we'll be making.

SHMUP progress: Mon Oct 13, 5pm-8pm

I've gotten farther with my SHMUP reskin. There's still a few more things to work on, but I hit a rough patch with the background scrolling.

But other than that, I have all my reskin art done.

Player:

Their projectile:

Enemy:

Enemy projectile:

I've also reskinned the platforms and backgrounds, which can be seen in this in-progress shot:

I though since I went with a candy theme I'd make cotton candy clouds and bubblegum platforms.

I'll be starting the Beam Up Cow tutorial as soon as I work the kinks out of this project.

Good Game, Bad Game - Analysis and Results: Tues Oct 7

The games I chose for discussion are Grandia and Bubsy 3D. Both games are for the PlayStation 1.

Grandia is a JRPG about a young boy named Justin who goes on adventure to solve the mysteries of an ancient civilization. With just a strange rock his father left for him called the Spirit Stone, Justin goes from fooling around his hometown with his friend Sue to preparing to go up against a god-like creature intent on destroying the whole world. While Grandia is one of the many games to bring inspiration from the rise of Final Fantasy, it breaks off a little from other JRPG games by using a mixture of 2D sprites and 3D environments, making exploration an enjoyable experience as the characters interact with new (and potentially dangerous) elements as they explore the new world. They encounter vicious monsters of all shapes and sizes, and fight against them in turn based combat that varies on both character and enemy stats. As the player roams the unique and vast maps, they come across many different areas where they can find new equipment, money, items, and more in order to increase their strength and learn new magic spells in order to push forward. However, the English voice acting is rather corny so players might either get a laugh out of it or get annoyed by the characters.

Bubsy 3D is a 3D platform adventure game about a bobcat named Bubsy who needs to collect rocket parts and defeat an evil alien race. In a very limited environment that looks like pieces of painted cardboard, Bubsy can only walk in a straight line and his movements are clunky at best. His personality is quite obnoxious, and his one-liners constantly break the fourth wall (even one of the phrases sounds like the developers were patting themselves on the back). Just about everything about this game is weak, and players who can bear through the entire cesspool of disaster deserve an award for being able to stomach Bubsy's difficult controls and awful voice acting. Unfortunately, deadlines and employees inexperienced with 3D tools were unable to save Bubsy's already crumbling reputation.

The class was able to quickly deduce which was the good game (Grandia) and the bad game (Bubsy 3D).  I personally really adored Grandia, and I hope to be able to talk more about it in future discussions.

Thurs Oct 2, 8:30am-11:10am

I'm almost done with the 2D tutorial. It's really easy to follow, so I also started on making objects for my reskin. I want to reskin it so the game has a candy theme. I already have ideas for the player, projectiles and background objects, and I already got started on making the background image.

For the Good Game, Bad Game assignment, I already know which "good" game I want to discuss, but the "bad" game will take some time to choose.