Marixa's Blog

The Boy who cried Wolf (Our Idea) src :  https://www.amazon.com/Cried-Wolf-Flip-Up-Fairy-Tales/dp/1846433681 For this week we had to create a GDD (Game Design Document). However, since myself, Valerie and Stephanie have teamed together to create an animation, rather than a game design document, we had to create something that was the equivalent to this, such as research, our idea, inspirations etc. Here is what we've created and agreed on: Our version of GDD (powerpoint presentation) So here we discuss a little bit about our research such as inspiration whereby we've decided on the story of 'The Boy who cried Wolf'. We talk a little bit about the story and what kind of a genre it fits into. We've also considered our target audience and how this will affect our style and script.  After creating this document / powerpoint, we've realised it's crucial to get started sooner rather than later. First thing we're planning on doing will ...

I think that with our growing social society, our smartphones have become a big part of our every day technology and lives. I created this post because I think rather than teaching someone how to make a meme or create bookmarks, it will be way more beneficial to teach you how to keep your phone secured from real-life everyday threats, such as hackers. Source here . Ways to secure your smartphone: 1. Use a strong password. It's known that the majority of smartphones nowadays have a passcode to access the phone. Use a number/ letter sequence that's unpredictable, for instance don't use your date of birth. 2. Turn off lockscreen notifications. By switching this off, strangers won't be able to read your notifications, over your shoulder, in the case of a robbery, and someone else gets their hands on your phone. 3. Discard automatic Wifi connections to known networks. There's a chance that a cybercriminal will establish his own fak...

For this blog, I chose and completed a learning by H.E.A.R.T (Health, Empathy, Attention, Reading and Time management.) challenge. I chose the topic sleep out of the title "health". Picture of man sleeping Source here . Something I already knew: Before reading anything on the article, I already knew that sleep is crucial for the likes of maintaining good mental health. This includes improvement of mood, memory and focus. In the article The Science of Slumber, it's discussed how a good nights rest can help you to remember things that happened to you throughout the day. One of the reasons for this is because when we sleep, we dream, and our dreams usually consist of objects, or experiences we had the previous day(s). One thing I learned: Something that I learned, but didn't surprise me, was the study on the idea that sleep may be more important than studying. Sleep loss can cause psychological damage because sleep regulates the brains flow of epinephrine, ...

The aim of this task was to explore a page where students post short notes on the topic of Growth Mindset. This exercise taught me new ways of approaching growth mindset. Screenshot of student growth mindset thoughts forum. Source  here . Some that stood out to me: 1. G.R.O.W - Go rip open windows. " Sometimes in order to grow, you have to seek out opportunities.  You have to force the window open.  This resonates with me because I'm a pretty passive person, so I don't really look for opportunities too often. I need to remember to look for opportunities to grow." This post stood out to me as I tend to live in my comfort zone quite often and don't really seek opportunities to better myself. 2. Take time to grow. " I want to pay more attention to the growth rather than the speed. I always try to learn things quickly and have many times crammed before an exam without actually learning the concepts. I feel like it is important to give yourself ...

Source here . Game genre: Survival horror  Survival horror is a sub-genre of video games inspired by horror fiction that focuses on survival of the character as the game tries to frighten players with either horror graphics or scary ambiance. I think my game definitely goes under this genre because the player is in a haunted and scary environment, and the aim is to escape and survive. Image of Survival horror game "Haunting Ground" Source here . Gameplay:  These are the features of a video game, such as its plot and the way it is played, as distinct from the graphics and sound effects. My game is set in modern day. The main character of this game is a journalist and discovers a haunted house in the middle of no where. He/ she goes to said haunted house in the middle of a deserted plain to document it and do a little research, without considering the consequences.  It is the middle of the day and there is still sunlight so the house is wel...

Game idea: To conclude, I decided that my final game idea would be as follows: In brief, I would like my game to be in first person (e.g the whole game is through the characters eyes). The game is located in a haunted house and the aim is to escape before time runs out and you are attacked and killed by a monster of some sort. In order to escape you must find certain objects and clues to help lead you into the next room and thus being able to progress forward. Each room can be considered a level, and as one moves further in the game I could make it harder to escape, so the further you go the harder the level. Possible Game Mechanics source here . Game mechanics are constructs of rules or methods designed for interaction with the game state, thus providing gameplay. All games use mechanics and it is important to consider what kind of mechanics I should include in my own game. 1. Timed The player must achieve a task within a time limitation. Some achievements...

Unity logo Source here. Today I watched two video tutorials on Unity 02 (Episode 4 & 5). The aim of these tutorials is to observe and learn how I can apply useful techniques to my own game, created via Unity. What I learned: Episode 4: - You can put in sound effects for when the player interacts with another object (e.g a coin / gem etc). - 'Play on awake' option means you can have a noise play as soon as you open the game. - Looping allows audio to play on repeat. - Public AudioSource allows you to implement the audio in C sharp coding. - OnTriggerEnter is when the player comes in contact, or hits the object. - CollectSound.Play allows the noise to play. - TheGem.Set Active (false) makes the gem (or your created object) disappear. - Box Collider creates a box around your selected object (you can increase or decrease size), but mesh collider morphs into the shape of the object. This is used when the player crosses the line of the box or mesh collider the...