I’m sticking to the format that I’ve selected for my blog that specifically addresses the areas I’ve come to believe are important for my app, Underdog, and its development. This format has 6 sections, but some sections might not be as long as others week to week because usually I end up maxing out the character limit and I have to push things back to the next week’s entry. That being said, the 6 sections are: Scripting, Audio, Made With Unity, GitHub, Storytelling/Narrative, and Immersive Experience. This week the Storytelling/Narrative section is light because the Immersive Experience was long, but many times these two bleed into each other anyway.
Scripting
Variables and Functions-- from Unity Scripting tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQnpeR7u7HM
2nd part (in purple) is ‘Initialization’ where declaration gets assigned a value
Raja- using C# is a more organized programming language than JavaScript; also, when applying for jobs, most game dev studios code in C# and not Java
Inside the bluespace (aka between the ‘curly braces’) defines the body of the Class
(Highlighted in blue) = ‘Namespace’
(Highlighted in blue) = ‘Inheritance’
‘Start’ and ‘Update’ = ‘Functions’
Typing this inside body of the Class means we are getting the Console View to LOG a message inside the Compiler; don’t forget the semi-colon at the end of your line of code when you have completed a scripting command
A script makes its connection with the internal workings of Unity by implementing a class which derives from the built-in class called MonoBehaviour. (MonoBehaviour is a Class)
You can think of a class as a kind of blueprint for creating a new Component type that can be attached to GameObjects. (from Unity manual re: Scripting)
I've come to realize that figuring out how to talk about and discuss scripting is harder than I'd like it to be
Audio
#Sounddesign & #3DAudio on Twitter are a great way to lead you to articles which could be super helpful in researching and designing your audio needs
HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function)
http://www.3dsoundlabs.com/hrtf-101/ “When a sound wave travels from a given location to our eardrums, it interacts with several parts of our body such as the head and the ears. All these reflections, diffraction and absorptions (depending mainly on the shape of our head and the structure of our outer ear) change the nature of the incoming sound. These sound wave filters depend on the source’s direction. Our auditory system has learned over time to associate each specific filter to its direction. This is how we recognize where a sound comes from. The representation of these directional changes as filters is called “Head Related Transfer Function” or HRTF.”
Since HRTF filters are based on our morphology and that we know that we are all different from each other with respect to our features… HRTF differs from one individual to another! If you use somebody else’s HRTF, you end up with inaccurate or fuzzy sound localization.
“Besides providing audio immersion in Virtual Reality, personalized HRTF are also used in applications where good sound localization is mission critical. Precise localization of an enemy or an alarm by sound can be lifesaving”
https://www.ossic.com/blog/2016/8/9/how-virtual-reality-will-change-the-music-industry A great story published Aug. 11, 2016 about the intersection of music, sound, and VR
How does this relate to my project? Since I’m dealing with bullying and harassment as the major theme within my game, sound localization will be important because, as you saw from the quoted text above, “localization of an enemy or an alarm can be lifesaving”, so it definitely gives me awareness (and a couple of ideas) of how and why I should play around with sound in my game to make sure that those who are being bullied are getting exposure and training in becoming aware of bully proximity, and thus potential danger- whether it be physical, mental, or emotionally based
Because people with autism can also be highly sensitized to sounds (and learning more about this area makes me wonder if it’s sensitivity to particular frequency bands of sound), it will be important to not only ‘get the sound aspect right’, but to be cognizant of it *in the development stage* so as not to overwhelm the user with sounds that could be debilitating or inducing fear because they occurred too suddenly. I do think it’s important to have some sounds be immediate- a bully isn’t always going to give you warning when they’re in your proximity, but perhaps including something in the UI/UX of the game design so that sounds can be adjusted to the needs of individual users
Made w/ Unity
http://bit.ly/2aZRJt7 -- a Made With Unity story about a physics based game called ‘Treple’ that pivoted from being one about building things with cranes, into a numbers-based (seeming) version of Sudoku.
2 main things stuck out to me about this story. First, I thought it was cool and interesting that this team consciously took time of out their product development to work on and design experiences that were not their ‘bread and butter’ They took time out for passion projects, because they know that ‘all work and no play make Jack a dull boy’. I know Google incorporates the same practice as part of their 80/20 rule. Work on things that pay the bills 80% of the time, and 20% of the time do the stuff that excites you so you don’t get bored or your work doesn’t look/feel uninspired.
The second thing about this article that stood out was how, when they got stuck on the game play, they focused in on polishing the visuals of the game. The aesthetics. So they had a really nice looking game, but the playability sucked. Which is a theme I’ve been and seeing in developer books and articles. No matter how pretty it is, if it’s not fun, people won’t play it. So make sure that you get the mechanics down first, before you dump a bunch of time into making it look good. Your time is valuable. Act like it.
The other thing I liked about this article is the indirect referencing to rapid prototyping. You know, just build stuff so you can get the experience of building something. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad because you’re going to figure out things along the way even if you make something you don’t like. And what you figure out may be the answer to something important later on down the line.
How does this relate to my game? First, the 80/20 rule. I know that for me, my passion project will be an experience that involves the writing and words of James Baldwin. Yeah, Underdog will be great, but there is so much bubbling beneath the surface in what’s going on in America. I think the lessons of history will be vital in guiding us along paths that can teach us *why* we don’t want to go down certain roads. I also think one of the driving forces for VR in Education, initially, will be history-based teaching. Re-creating historical events and putting students inside them will be incredibly engaging learning material. It could effectively begin the revolution in teaching within the American system that we’ve been waiting for since the Industrial Revolution. Baldwin will be one of the first experiences built along these lines. I can’t wait.
GitHub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ALeswWzpBo -- AWESOME explanation of Git v. GitHub (this is actually an important distinction). Also discusses repos, commits, branches, master branches, pulls, and pull requests. Done BY a Noob FOR Noobs in like 6 minutes. That’s why Travis is my guy. Plus, he does a stop motion visual explanation of what actually happens when you’re using Git, so that’s really helpful for someone like me, who is less technical and more visual, get the understanding. This video (and the series itself) was *extremely* helpful. Highly recommended.
@brntbeer -- GitHub training dude
Immersive Experience
Greater immersion leads to greater expectations, you can hear fakenesss just as much as see it
Story can influence and cause iterations to design and design can influence and cause iterations to your story; keep that in mind as you’re developing so you’re not tied to the one linear flow and outcome of a story
User testing as to, ‘is this story design working or not’; anybody working in VR is gambling that immersion is going to be enough to sell an experience
Iterative process most helpful is usability; sitting and watching a player encounter a moment;
26:00 he’s in the middle of this discussion about how different platforms have different constraints, and he mentions that VR will be different than console gaming because you probably shouldn’t sit with a VR headset for 7hrs straight the way you would sit in front of a console game. This applies to my development experience in particular because one of the primary features of autism, the community of which is the target audience for my game, is that they perseverate on specific things. Mainly, things that they enjoy doing and seeing. So, if the game that I’m developing becomes something that they enjoy playing and participating in (and I hope that they do), it will be important to build into it a ‘length of play’ feature that will cause the game to shut off after a certain amount of playing time. If allowed, I think it’s possible that some people might involve themselves in the VR world for hours upon hours. And especially with Gear VR platform deployment, having your phone screen at close range in front of your eyes for hours at a time can’t be a good thing. Especially for a target age range of 9-16yrs old, whose eyes are still developing physically. But Rob Morgan does mention at this point how it may become an issue of legality to have gameplay cease after a certain amount of time
