Unity Tutorial 01

I have completed the first set of Unity tutorials and I’m actually feeling a lot better about them now than when I started off. At the beginning I felt very intimated by the idea of creating a game as I have never really been particularly into gaming and have no experience working with programmes like this. Seeing how much there was to do was very daunting and I feel quite proud now that I was actually able to make something that works, even if it is only something simple.  

I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy the tutorials were to follow. I loved that each one had an introduction and a concluding video just to make sure everything is clear, it was a really good way to be introduced and eased into each tutorial and to make sure I had done everything necessary. The man in the videos seemed really nice and moved at a good pace that was easy to follow. All of this along with the written instructions underneath each video just made the whole thing really clear, concise and helped me to actually enjoy the process of creating the game. I did get a little confused at times but this was mostly due to the fact I’m still quite new to using a Mac, so it took me a bit longer to do a couple things.  

Overall, it was a really enjoyable experience and I’m looking forward to progressing and learning how to make my own more complicated games.  

Here's a screenshot from the end of tutorial 1.3 where I chose a colour for my screen when the game is playing 

(This image is my own)

Thanks for reading :) 

Game Design

The first reading,  What is a game Anyway?  tells us the basics of what a game is exactly. From this reading I found that a definition of what a game is can differ depending on different people however the one referred to here is " a play activity with rules that involves conflict". 

This article shows how people can have entirely different perceptions of what a game is and tells us how we can begin creating our own games. It shows how you can create a very basic but playable game with nothing but a pen and paper, although yes this is very simple it allows us to begin thinking creatively about games. It gives us the basis of the process of forming our own ideas, how we can start small and build on it and make something more complicated. 

The second reading, The organic nature of game ideation teaches us more about the process of developing ideas. In this article 23 finnish game designers and professionals were interviewed and gave a great insight into how they come up with their ideas. There are different approaches mentioned in this article for example there are both informal and formal approaches, these can include seeking inspiration, purposeful activities and bouncing ideas or brainstorming. 

In the third reading we are given Four Basic Methods for Generating Ideas. The techniques mentioned in this article are :

• concentration 
• brainstorming
• scamper
• ramsey

Concentration and brainstorming are two things we are generally already very familiar with and do not need much explaining, concentrating is something we all do everyday without even thinking about it and brainstorming is "the most common and well known method in the industry". However, scamper is somewhat more elaborate, and the ramsey method even more so. Each of the letters in Scamper is reference to one of its methods of idea generation. The ramsey method is the most complicated of them all and requires quite a bit of reading to understand, thankfully the article goes into great detail on this. 

I found this image on pinterest of a design process and thought it seemed quite helpful 

(img from pinterest- https://pin.it/4fmCq2f )

Thanks for reading :)

play
play

Time Strategies

 The articles I chose for this task were :

How to Beat Procrastination by Caroline Webb

11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time by Áine Cain

I chose these two articles because personally I struggle a lot with procrastination and I felt I'd learn a lot from both. The first I was hoping would teach me better ways to avoid procrastinating and that the second would help me to identify the mistakes I may not realise I am making with my current time management.  

After my reading of these articles I have come to the conclusion that I am definitely a procrastinator, This is something that I really want to work on this year and I feel that having done this reading I'll be able to confidently work towards a more progressive time management schedule. 

From the first article by Caroline Webb I have learned that I need to visualise, pre-commit and confront. I like how she talked about this process because it is something that I generally struggle to do to, I usually see the task as one big scary thing and i procrastinate till the last second. Webb teaches us to break the actions up to feel smaller, to identify the very first smallest step and work from there, this makes the overall task seem much less daunting in my opinion. 

The second article by Aine Cain, allowed me to identify a lot of issues I was having with my own time management. I was guilty of many of the things named in her list, some of which I wasn't even aware I had been doing! Thankfully I can now see a lot of the mistakes I have been making and can actively avoid these mistakes. For example she talks about scheduling, keeping good records, prioritising and setting goals. These are all things I'm hoping to improve on and include in my daily life moving forward this year. 

(image found on pinterest- https://pin.it/2cjTD33 )

Thanks for reading :)

Technology Tools : My Thoughts

 I am already kind of familiar with using blogger as we had to use it last year so thankfully I have some experience and am comfortable enough with it. I really like blogger because I think its a good way for me to actually focus on what I've learned instead of just doing the work and moving on, its also good to see how other people in the course are getting on and its a whole different way to get to know and understand each other. 

Using bookmarks isn't something I would usually do, but so far I have already found it to be super helpful. I would normally have to spend a while trying to find a website i've used before but now it's much easier as I'm getting into the habit of bookmarking any pages I find particularly useful or interesting. I am already familiar with pinterest as I like to use this for looking at things like recipes, art inspiration, quotes and other general images I find interesting. 

As for the other tools like Canvas, Unity3D, Padlet, WordPress etc. I am pretty much clueless. I have little to no experience with these tools, however I'm really excited to use them and get familiar with them and then hopefully by the end of the module I can say I'm confident using them. 

The online environment for this class is so different to all of the other modules. I personally think the way this course is laid out is so much better and makes it a lot less daunting. I would prefer if all modules showed the course content the way this one does because it would allow us to plan our schedules much more strategically and allow us to allocate appropriate timings for each assignment. 

With regard to what technical skills I want to improve this semester I am very open to all aspects as I am very much a beginner in the gaming world. I'm really just looking forward to understanding and appreciating what goes into the making of games and learning all about how to make my own. 

(Image found on pinterest- https://pin.it/JOMndh5 )

Thanks for reading :) 

Assignments : my first impressions

 My very first impression of this module and its assignments are how they're laid out and given to us. Personally I love being able to clearly see whats ahead of me for the year because that way I wont be taken by surprise with any assignments and i can plan ahead for what needs to be done which makes it easier for me to make time for all of my other modules too. 

As for the actual assignments themselves I cant say I'm too excited about the readings as I prefer to learn by doing but I'll still try my best to understand and enjoy them. I'm really excited for the unity tutorials because as of now I have basically no knowledge of games and how they're made so i feel like that will be something super interesting to get into. I think it might be a little bit difficult at first because I have no experience but that's just part of it I guess and hopefully it will get easier as I make my way through them. 

I am kind of familiar with doing blogs already because we had to do them last year, so I'm more excited to do them because it's less daunting this time around. I also like the idea of having to interact with other students blogs because i think it will help people connect with new people they may not have known last year and especially with corona virus, it took away a lot of time we would've spent in college last year getting to know each other. 

I love that there is an option for extra credit, I think this is probably the thing i like most about this module. It makes the whole thing seem much less scary because if you do happen to fall behind for whatever reason, there is opportunity to pull yourself back up. I think this is something that should be available in every module, sometimes things beyond your control can affect your work and this is a way to compensate for that. 

I particularly like extra credit option relating to the growth mindset because this was something that I found really interesting and am exciting to learn more about. 

(Image found on pintrest- https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/3166662226568996/ )

Thanks for reading :)

Growth Mindset

 I had never heard of Carol Dweck before this, I had never really heard of a fixed or growth mindset before either. I found this image on pinterest which I feel defines and explains the differences really well. I found this whole topic incredibly interesting, how just changing your mindset and your outlook on certain things can improve your life in so many ways 

Image found on pinterest - https://www.aot.edu.au/infographics/fixed-vs-growth-mindset/

In researching Carol Dweck and the growth mindset I came across a couple of quotes she said including " The whole idea of growth mindset is to say yes they can" and "Make challenge the new comfort zone". These quotes in particular reminded me of some youtubers I found a couple of years ago called Yes Theory. They promote the message to "Seek Discomfort" and to say yes to as many opportunities as possible, They do this through social media and by going out and meeting strangers and encouraging them to do the same. This leads to inspiring thousands to step out of their comfort zone and grow. Yes Theory is all about how just simply saying yes to new things can lead to more and more great opportunities and i think this is a great mindset to have. Seeking discomfort, facing challenges and saying yes are all part of the growth mindset. 

In terms of where I stand on the the topic, I'd like to think I'm more on the growth mindset end of the spectrum, however I know I can be guilty of having quite a fixed mindset when it comes to certain things. I think having done some reading, watching and listening on the subject now I have a better understanding of what it means to have a growth mindset I'm going to be more careful and try to ensure I'm thinking a certain way. I do think my mindset has improved over the past few years, when I was younger I was very fixed on making sure i got good grades and that i did everything perfectly, no room for error. Thankfully I can feel how my mindset has changed without me really realising until now, I can understand now that mistakes are okay and are part of the learning process, I no longer strive to just get good grades, now I actually want to understand and explore the things I'm learning and if I don't get a perfect score I'm okay with that.

I want to continue to work on being more open to a growth mindset and therefore allow myself to find more opportunities and hopefully take this into every aspect of my life to become a better student, worker, and just a better overall person to improve my life, learn, grow and enjoy new things.

Thanks for reading :)

Introduction to me

Hi and welcome to my blog, sadly I don't have some amazing extraordinary story to tell of my life but i'll try to seem as interesting as I can. I'll start with the basics I guess, my name is Sophie I'm 19 years old and I live in East Wall, Dublin. Honestly I think the most exciting thing about me is my dog, his name is Derek and he's a puggle. He's also a little demon sometimes who loves to try eat my shoes. 

This is derek the first day we got him

(my own image)

I've always been pretty creative and into art, i would do after school art classes throughout school and almost every birthday and Christmas included some sort of new art supplies. This was my thing, I was the artistic one in my house and my brother, the actor of the family. My older brother got into acting at around age 9, I always loved this because it meant I would get to take a day off school here and there to go visit the sets. I think this is where i began to find out i had an interest in film and photography. While he was in front of the camera I was mesmerised standing in the back watching the crew. People would constantly ask me "Sophie would you ever get into acting?", I should also probably mention that i was usually that shy type of kid who hid behind my mam so this question always seemed silly to me, but of course however no one is going to ask the 7 year old little girl "would you want to be one of the people working behind the scenes?".  I do think its funny now that its worked out this way, I'm now studying to be one of those behind the scenes people that i always loved to watch and my brother Scott is still acting. Maybe one day we'll get to work on a project together, who knows? 

As for college, I'm pretty happy where I'm at. When I was in 6th year I honestly had no clue what I was going to do with my life and its fair to say I was kind of terrified, that is until my friend Aoibhe said theres this course I should look at that she thought I might like. I liked the sound of it and stuck it at the top of my CAO application and now myself and Aoibhe are here today studying CDM together. I was really lucky in that sense where i started college with a friend already and it was someone id been friends with since age 12 in 1st year so that definitely took away some nerves. Thankfully i made even more friends though and I'm really glad to have gotten such a good group of people to spend the next few years with. I love how much is covered in the course and how it includes so many of my favourite hobbies and really allows you to express yourself. As I mentioned earlier I've always loved art and im glad i get to do it productively... although I still do it just to fill time for myself too, i tend to just paint on my bedroom when I get bored. 

Some of my boredom paintings

(all my own images)

I think you've learned enough about me for now so thanks so much for reading and I'll leave you with one last picture of Derek :)

(my own image)