GAME DESIGN

Definition:

"a play activity with rules that involves conflict."

A simple gave concept i found a new appreciation for is this game here:Link:"Level 1.0: What is a game?: Game Design Concepts"

6	7	2
1	5	9
8	3	4

The numbers 1 through 9 can be arranged in a 3×3 grid known as a “magic square” where every row, column and diagonal adds up to exactly 15
Now you may recognize it. It is the game of Tic-Tac-Toe So, is Tic-Tac-Toe the same game as Three-to-Fifteen, or are they different games? It depends on what you mean… which is why it is important to define what a “game” is!

This simple popular game had a twin that i didn't know about!


I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games

What makes a thing into a game is the need to make decisions.

ConsiderChess: It has few of the aspects that make games appealing – no simulation elements, no roleplaying, and damn little color. What it’s got is the need to make decisions. The rules are tightly constrained, the objectives clear, and victory requires you to think several moves ahead. Excellence in decision making is what brings success.

source.

SimCity is described as a software toy. It offers many interesting behaviors, which you may explore. You can bounce it, twirl it, throw it, dribble it. And, if you wish, you may use it in a game: soccer, or basketball, or whatever. It is a set of player-defined objectives overlaid on the toy.
Just so SimCity. Like many computer games, it creates a world that the player may manipulate, but unlike most games, it provides no explicit goal.

Gamasutra:

So You're Going To Make A Game For The Very First Time?

• make a tabletop game, or use a simple level editor to modify an existing videogame
• make something based on a game you know
• reign in your ambition--try to complete a small project, not a large one
• focus on gameplay not prettiness or story
• play the game yourself before anybody else plays, even if it isn’t intended to be a one person game
• iteratively and incrementally playtest and improve the game
• your never really finish

TECH TIP

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

I have chosen to redesign my blog in a space theme with contrasting light text to a dark background.

TIME STRATAGIES

Image from NJlifehacks

11 ways unsuccessful people mismanage their time link

They don't keep good records

They get distracted easily

They procrastinate

They don't have rituals

They don't plan fun time

They forget about their weekends

They don't set goals

They can't prioritise

They juggle too much

They burn themselves out

I relate to some of these, its quite eye-opening.. 

makes me realise how I'm setting myself up for failure sometimes and makes me want to work towards a better more optimal way to manage my time.

Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination link

1. What One Thing Can I Do to Get Started?

2. What Are My Three Biggest Priorities Today?

3. How Can I Make This Easier?

4. What Will Go Wrong if I Don’t Do This Now?

I want to remember these to use when I'm feeling distracted or unfocused and lazy! seems really helpful.

TECHNOLOGY

Image from TechBridge

Learning about Blogging and how everyone uses their blogs is interesting, I'm enjoying it..

I liked seeing who choses what to represent their blog.

i never knew about bookmarking web pages until now.. excited to try it and i love pinterest too so looking for my images there will be a fun way to stay creative.

I know how to edit images so putting it  to use for my blog should be cool!

Im excited to learn about creating my own graphics and about Padlet and Unity3D

ASSIGNMENTS

image linked here

I love the way this module works, i find it easier to work alone and learn new things on my own schedule.

Im excited to learn game designing its completely new to me I've never tried it before because i wouldn't of known where to start!

i wonder if the small workload throughout the week will be helpful and beneficial or stressful when it comes to the times when we will have many assignments due at once..

I like the idea of having extra credit to fall back on if you fall a bit behind one week. I think its a positive way to keep the learning flow.

GROWTH MINDSET

I never heard of the growth mindset before but if I'm looking back on myself and peers i can recognise the effects of having a growth mindset on learning and on your work.

Personally to me it would depend on my interest in learning the subject or to get better at something. Like if i really like something, such as how i enjoy doing web development/design, it doesn't matter if I'm good at it or not I'm just doing it and growing with it because in enjoying it. whereas if I'm not enjoying something I won't feel as easy going with it and may feel stressed and "stuck" like i can't do any better because i won't put as much effort in inevitably.

I've learnt normally when i learn new things initially I'm very exited at the thought of being the best at it and doing well without thinking about the process of getting there. so eventually when i hit a tough spot in learning this new thing i tend to panic and think about giving up for a split second before i get back into it and try harder and so on..

Image from Cheezburger

* "do you think you'll be interested in learning more about the growth mindset this semester?"

I don't see what more there is to learn without it getting too tedious and boring i like to keep things short and sweet this was very informative but i didn't enjoy listening to that woman talk the only reason i liked it was because of the RSA animation in all honesty i found it very clear and helpful!

My personal learning goals for this semester would be to maximise my attention span, i tend to zone out when I'm tired so I'm looking into making sure I'm well rested and on top of my work load so i don't burn out too quickly. 

INTRODUCTION

About me...

• what was the best class you took last semester? why?

I Took a personal year out of college after first year so i don't remember much but i did do the start of this module and this was my answer:
 "I didn't have a favourite class to be honest but i did enjoy the web development assignment and the videography assignments."

• what were your biggest accomplishments last semester?

I was quite proud of not having to do any repeats!

• what are your goals for this module? What do you want to achieve? 

im not really sure but i do know i want to try my best and hopefully surprise myself in the future.. 

• did you do something exciting / go somewhere exciting over break?

2018 answer:
I went to Mykonos in Greece with my family (Best holiday I've ever went on) and i went to Amsterdam and Rotterdam by myself and got robbed and had my passport stolen yay haha 

I also went to summer college at portobello institute for an ITEC certificate to do nails woo

Updated answer: 
I was living by myself in my apartment in town all summer (I miss it!!) and had a great time with all my housemates. We went on so many trips together around Ireland cause most of them were not from here and then Paris to visit one of our housemates who moved back there and stayed in her apartment for a few days while she gave us tours of the city!

Im also half Italian and visit Italy at least once a year, this year I went to a 5 star spa in Rome with my family and then we went to our beach house down south in Calabria.

• favorite books, movies, TV shows — best movie you saw recently? best book you read?

I used to watch a lot of tv series but not so much right now, i have been watching one lately though called working moms on Netflix its hilarious!

Favourite movie is probably "Kingsmen The Secret Service" i just love all the creative editing and camera angles its a real work of art.. and super funny!

I don't like to read much but i did read a book on greek mythology retold in really creative storytelling ways and I am usually not one to finish a book but i couldn't put it down. 

• favorite music — you might even embed a music video if you want!

I like everything really.. LOVE old RnB, and chill music mostly.

• career goals: short-term, long-term, practical goals, big dream goals

I just wanna have a lot of dogs.. wanna own my own house and a big hippy van to travel in and live by myself for a while after traveling the world n all that..

• pets... and pictures of pets!

I have two Dogs, Khaleesi aka:Kiki and Kobi.

• favorite foods ... least favorite foods ... favorite thing to cook from scratch

I like burritos and chinese food...

• hobbies... plus hobbies you would like to try if you had time

I like to dance and do nails.

I really want to learn to learn professional yoga.

• if you had an extra day for fun, how would you spend it?

Id walk my dogs at the beach, workout, make a feast and organise my room.

WORKSHOP1

At this workshop learning that we were doing game design was exciting and new to me i feel very open to learning new outlooks and techniques with now doing game designing. I had never heard of Unity before this workshop and I'm glad to have discovered this new world of game designing.

The whole process of this module is very different because of the detached elements and I'm liking it so far but we will see how that goes on as things get harder and how steady i can keep the workflow.

but so far so good I'm enjoying the experience i feel its very informative as you can teach yourself the whole module almost completely when given all the tools in chronological order.

The whole traffic light exercise seemed to confuse everyone and i don't think we ever got a clear answer for it, i didn't like it i felt it was a bad example of creating simple explanations for basic things. i still don't know exactly what the traffic lights were and it annoys me to this day haha..

Image from wikimedia commons

Another confusing thing was the whole working in groups because everyone has a different view it made everything a lot more complicated than it had to be whereas if you go through it yourself first then converse and reflect it seems more effective.

Having to write everything seems really exhausting to me because I'm not a very good communicator verbally but i like the challenge its making me push through the limitations i would usually set for myself. I love the idea of the blog too, its really modern and fresh it feels like a little diary and i like the idea of being able to look back at what level i was at and seeing how I'm going to progress.

FAVOURITE GAME

image from source.

So I haven't played a lot of games other than Sims 3 and 4 and Mario Kart, but one game in particular out of the regular games I've played was The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild on my Nintendo switch. 

Photo by Sergey Galyonkin

Basically your a character called Link in the game and you need to ultimately save the princess Zelda from the beast Ganon.

so theres all these quests you have to complete and shrines to explore so build up a skill level to complete the game and kill Ganon.

The things i love about the game is there are so many different areas in the map and the different Charactors you meet there are fun and interactive.

i haven't completed the game but I'm always going back to play it all the time so one day ill finish it haha

CDM YEAR 2!

My first ever blog post.