Unfortunately this is a big mess due to a lot of personal things that have been going on recently which has meant my management has been horrendous, which has lead to being the biggest flaw in my work. However, because of this it has shown my for my next project i will focus a lot more on planning and setting little deadlines or “goals” to reach by a certain time so that i stay on course to completing in time. As keeping this Dev log up to date has failed miserably and there are gaps in the weeks due to me not being able to actually complete anything.
Week 1
Week 1 plan
I wish to take my time for this project and attempt to keep things simple, even though i have a bad habit of over complicating things. So i will be trying to keep that in mind throughout the time. I will like to get through task 1 nicely doing everything in order as they come as i have never done anything quite like this before i wish to do everything as they come, starting with Sound Research and making my way through task 1. Hopefully i should be able to finish it in time.
Week 1 review
I understand what i am doing and whilst completing task 1 and the research to go with it i am having some great ideas come to mind, so i will like to explore those and see how they turn out. However, with task 1 i feel i may be spending too much time on it as i have not fully completed it, so i will need to continue with it next week. Which hopefully should not be an issue. I am worried about my work as my job may get in the way of things, we shall see.
Week 2
Week 2 Plan
I am going to continue with task one and get my research done and dusted. Which will allow me to then start Task 2, meaning i can get some good ideas down before i forget them. In addition, may help me to decide on which one to go for, as i may see them differently after writing them down.
Week 2 review
This week was a bit of me going over what i had done and adding mind-maps as for some reason i completely missed doing them. I did however complete task 1 now so that is good and i have got my first idea down on task 2.
Week 3
Week 3 Plan
This week i plan to get the rest of my ideas down and continue through task 3.
Week 3 review
I managed to get three more ideas down for my ideas generation, so that is done nicely. But unfortunately i did not start my proposal as i got rather confused about where i was actually doing it or whether i needed to do it on a separate document or not. And then because i get distracted by my colleagues during the session in class, which is also my fault as i chose to join in.
Week 4
Week 4 Plan
I would like to get my proposal done and get my extended nautical research done as well. During this time i would like to to get some logo sketches or character sketches down on paper.
Week 4 review
For some reason i did my extended nautical research first which was weird so that is done but was lucky enough to get my proposal done as well. I am unsure however if they are done to a good enough standard to get at least a pass. I am going to aim for a merit but i will be happy with a pass as i have a lot going on so anymore will be a pain in the back side. Unfortunately, i was unable to get any decent sketches done or any i was particular happy with.
Week 5
Week 5 Plan
To get some decent sketches done for logos and characters as i have some ideas that i want to try out. Plus i can have a look online for better versions of my own. In addition, i want to find and watch some YouTube videos on coding so that when i get to coding i will have a better idea on how to do certain things that i do not know about and give myself a refresh on things i have already learnt like player movement.
Week 5 review
I found some great Youtuber’s who had a bunch of useful videos that could help me with my coding when i find difficulty doing it. I watched a few of them to get the process in my head but i know i will most likely forget it so when it comes to the time i shall watch them again, subscribed to the Youtube channels so i could find them easier the second time.
I got some sketches done which made me think of new ideas which i have had a look at online. I have decided to scrap these sketches and try again next week.
Week 6
Week 6 Plan
Start getting some assets done like backgrounds and logos. In the mean time getting a tileset together, creating some nice dock tiles or grass tiles. Depending on what my final decision is.
Week 6 review
By the end of the week i had one complete background finished that i was rather happy with. i used opacity and blur, plus smoothing to create this weird water and sky effect, which i was rather happy with but speaking to Dan and getting some feedback about the water i decided i would give it another next week using different techniques to creating similar ideas in a different art style.
As well as this i did two logos which we pretty good, one i was particularly more happy with than the other but both were good ideas. The first one was an idea my Dad originally gave me when i was speaking to him about my work. And the second one is a pretty basic and stereotypical pirate logo with baseball bats for some reason, do not really remember why i decided bats but i believe i meant to do clubs as machetes may seem too violent.
Week 7
Week 7 Plan
I would like to create another background as well as one more logo. In addition, i would like to create a main character for my game.
Week 7 review
This week is a development of the last with me creating another background, using different methods and ideas to create the same basis but with a twist. I like this version because the is has actual definition and variation of waves. I also like my idea of floating islands as it makes the art of this pirate game different to most, creating a uniqueness which is great.
Moreover, i created a awesome pirate for a main character that i felt i would not be able to match as it made it easy for me to create animations for but also looked great. In addition, Nathan gave me the great idea of using the main character as a logo as this was common practise and would help people to know what the game was based off the character and not the title, meaning of this was in production the names of sequels could be whatever as long as the logo had the main character on it so everyone knew what game they were playing. Also once i had done this it looked really good and i was extremely happy with it.
Week 8
Week 8 Plan
Create the tile sheet for the game, i am thinking either docks or grass depending on how well they turn out. In addition, i would like to start getting everything together in Unity by starting off by creating a home screen with “start”, “settings” and “quit” button all working. Lastly, i want to create a plan of timing for the rest of the week as i have noticed i am dropping behind, so want to create a action plan to get back up there. Hopefully this works or i will need to speak to someone about me work and how to make sure i get this done.
Week 8 review
I created some fabulous dock tiles which i have also done a variation of with a rubber ring. These took a surprising amount of my time up but i managed it, however i was unable to experiment with grass tiles so will do that next week. In addition, i have done some programming for the menu screen which is coming along nicely but is yet to be finished.
Week 9
Week 9 Plan
This week i have two days off work which means i am able to get some extra work done. So this week i would like to get grass tiles done and add everything into Unity to create the scene, so that i can begin the programming for the actual level. As i am getting short of time which is an increasing worry.
Week 9 review
This week i got a lot done that went very well. The grass tiles came out very well and connect nicely too. I used the same technique that i used on the islands on the background for these and it came out well, showing nice detail and variation of thickness over the grass.
In addition, i set up the level using the grass tiles as i decided that they looked better and they went with the background well too. once i did this got onto player movement and jumping. Whilst doing this i took breaks and did animations for the main character as well. I go the characters idle animation completed which was very basic but i exaggerated so it was clearly shown, i am unsure whether it was a good idea or not but i can not be held up on it with the time i have.
Week 10
Week 10 Plan
Time to get some serious coding done otherwise my game is going to be a bunch of assets on a screen.
Week 10 review
With the help of some tutorials i was able to get the player movement working and almost had the jumping working. Moreover, my character is not falling through the platforms as i made sure that would work before continuing with the coding. However, I have come across the issue that i get stuck to the floating tiles if i jump into them, but i do believe in one of the tutorials i remember it explaining a way of stopping that.
Week 11
Week 11 Plan
Just to continue with bringing the game together as a finished product and get some writing done if i do this. Moreover, I need to add my animations to Unity so that they work with my character.
Week 11 review
The animations were a pain as they were not working at all to begin with but after over an hour they finally worked. I added the idle animation that i showed prior as well as a running animation. Unfortunately i have not done any others as i am falling short of time.
I also worked on the the jumping, which now works. It does however have the issue of infinite, so i will need to find a way of sorting this out next week. But i did sort the problem from last week with the getting stuck to the walls.
The weeks ahead i do not remember properly as they were a bit of a blur, just goes to show i should have done this far sooner to when i was actually doing the work. But it is mainly me trying to bring everything together and make the game work. This is something i need to remember for future work.
Week 12
Week 12 Plan
This week i will continue with fixing issues and adding things i have missed from forgetting about them. Hopefully i will be able to get this completed as i have been referred majorly as i have not been able to a lot of writing, which makes me look bad as though i have not done anything.
Week 12 review
I have not got as much done as i would have liked to but that is only my fault. Hopefully this has not caused more of an issue for me. I continued with issues at hand and tried to get some writing done as i had far too much to do.
Week 13
Week 13 Plan
This week will be a repeat of last, me getting things sorted and continuing with the writing.
Week 13 review
The writing has come to halt as i cant fix as somehow i either deleted or undid something as my animations are not working. And my character still has infinite amount of jumps, it may have been something i added but i am unsure. I have missed the official deadline but i am going to try and sort these issues out as well as start the new project.
LvL 3 Games Dev 