Reflection Essay

This semester was SO MUCH MORE taxing than last semester. Learning Unity sent me to hell in a handbasket and made my want to cry ina corner begging for UDK again. Some things about Unity were great such as being able to easily change parameters of any object through the inspector. I also greatly enjoyed the premade trees and textures that were included in the starter package. I never used them in the end but I like that they were there.

My beef with this program was the scripting mainly. I had to learn three new programs this semester and that was enough to make my brains feel overwhelmed, but learning to script was not in the cards for me. I missed one class learning certain scripting techniques and I was lost for the rest of the class.

As far as my project is concerned though, I'm happy that it came out as reasonably decent as it did. I've always wanted to make a game where you were looking at a regular sized room from a smaller point of view. I tried to do a project involving things like that any time we were given something akin to free reign but I'd always change my mind and go with something I deemed more interesting. This semester, I resolved to stick with it and made a game for hamsters. I love how much I can relate it to how my hamsters were when they'd escaped, getting into everything and ending up where you'd never expect them.

I didn't expect it to end up looking as finished as it does. And, no, it's not perfect, but for my lack of skill in both this program and scripting, I'm proud of what it is.

Finished

I've mostly finished up my project. There are a few things with scripting missing that I need help fleshing out but I've mostly got everything done. It turns out scripting is just not my thing.

I've included some screenshots of the game from a wide shot and a first person view.

Meshes

This week I worked on my meshes so I could replace the placeholders in Unity. I had some issues with figuring out how to make simple items like a desk or bed more interesting, rounded, or organic. I've gotten some good ideas and I'll be trying some different things to see what looks best. I just don't want my room to look boring and unlived-in. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to have everything as far as meshes are concerned done by next week. I've also included some picture of the completed models.

the meshlist

And here is my meshlist because I forgot that too.

Another concept

I wasn't able to put up the last of my concepts.

The concepts

This week i drew up some concepts for what some palce in my game would look like but also what my hamster characters would look like. One of my pictures has a view of inside the hamser cage. Another has a hamster's eye view of the desk. I tried to include my hamsters in a couple of the drawings to show size relation and see exactly what you'd be tackling as your tiny self. For my color scheme, I went with cute and happy colors which tends to be consistent with a girl's room and also helps me to figure out how it should be decorated. Eh, I've still yet to put up my surveys... I gotta find them.

The Map and flowchart

I've got the map and flowchart done for the game. Some things may change here and there but this is essentially waht my idea is and the layout of it all. I haven't done the room yet mostly because I wanted to lay it out in unity before mapping it. I'm not sure what I would like where and what would be difficult to jump on.