University Projects

During the Adobe Flash/Animate lecture we spoke about Tim Schafer who was popular for creating point and click games. This is similar to create using Flash/Animate and therefore recapped on ActionScript3 and how we can use buttons to create a game with a story that the user to interact with. By giving a button an instance name, we can use AS3 to direct the user to a specific frame once the button has been clicked. I used the characters from We Bare Bears to demonstrate what we went over in class. We also played 'A Duck has an Adventure' which uses Adobe flash to tell a story in a more animated way. There were interesting items (hats) and achievements to collect for completing each path of the story and some parts of the story interlinked with each other.

Pokémon GO is a mobile augmented reality game created by Niantic. Similar to the earlier pokémon games, your aim is to become the best pokémon trainer by capturing pokémon and training them so that you can defeat other trainers and gym leaders.  Pokémon GO introduced a new catching style which allows you to catch pokémon by flicking a pokéball towards a pokémon that has been fouund on the map.  This is different to it's predecessors as originally this was completely using turn-based battling. To catch a pokémon, you needed to reduce their health points as low as possible by battling then attempt to use a pokéball to catch them. Pokémon GO's new catching style allows you catch pokémon more efficiently which is vital for a phone game. Battling friends is turn-based however when attempting to take over a gym the combat power of your pokémon needs to be high so that it can endure automated attacks and allow youu to attack powerfully by tapping.  Like VR, yo...

After watching/playing BanderSnatch, I was left feeling uneasy about the decisions I had made for Stefan Butler. Even though I had attempted to make good decisions for this character, this still ended terribly. Stefan is anxious throughout the entire film because he feels as though someone is making decisions for him against his will. The concept of this Black Mirror episode was very interesting and I reaslised that there are multiple endings that lead to different fates. The game Stefan makes shows the pressures of the gaming industry as he struggles to finish one of the endings for his game. The game he creates is ironically about decisions and is the first of it's kind. (IGN, 2019) I enjoyed the storyline and the coincidences between Stefan and the audience, aswell as the interactivity that allowed you to choose what path Stefan will take. Although this did become annoying at times as you would sometimes find yourself with little or too much choice. At some points you wa...

Super Mario Odyssey felt very different to many of the previous Super Mario games that I have played as it focused more on the narrative. Narrative The narrative is similar to the previous games where Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach with the intention to marry her. However, in Mario Odyssey, this is taken a step further where Bowser travels from world to world collecting special items for their wedding. Mario’s task is not only to rescue Princess Peach but to solve the problems that Bowser has made in his visit to each world. Similar to Super Mario Galaxy, you need collect moons to power Mario’s ship (the Odyssey) so that he can travel to each world to fight Bowser’s minions and get closer to saving Peach. Super Mario Odyssey is a 3D platformer which involves jumping, puzzles and fighting enemies. This takes place over various levels that have been designed in a different environment e.g. the seaside, moon, city etc. Travelling to each world begins in a lin...

The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + is an indie rouge-like game created by Edmund McMillian who worked with the company Nicalis. The gameplay and user interface was based on the Legend of Zelda and is rouge-like due to the progress gained each time you die. It is a procedurally generated dungeon which includes randomised items, levels, enemies and rooms which means that each run of the game is different.  You can see the similarities between the original Binding of Isaac and the Legend of Zelda. The HUD (heads up display) on both games display the life counter using a heart symbol, weapons/items, consumables and the map. The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+ upgraded/expanded version of the original Binding of Isaac which was originally created in Adobe Flash. Unfortunately this had limitations and led Edmund to work with Nicalis who were able to build a dedicated game engine from scratch using C++.  Narrative Inspired by the Biblical story of the Binding of Isaac,...

During today's lecture Mikki explained our assignment, gaming theory and the history of games. She explained that we needed to consider the: Narrative, Space and Causation when creating a game. Game History Mikki then went over different consoles, games and technologies throughout game history. Alot of games' functionality was limited due to the technology at the time, we learnt that RPGs sacrifice graphics due to limitations in the machine and many games face these same problems. The Nimrod computer was custom-made for what is thought to be the first video game named Tennis For Two which used an oscilloscope allowing two people to play tennis electronically. Atari 2600 - Many games did not include a narrative and were very basic. Mario Bros was created. NES - Where many of the flagship characters for Nintendo were first created. Super Mario Bros was created which didn't include text and used actions as part of the tutorial during the gameplay (You learn...

There were many problems with both The Ocado Microsite project and Miam Miam’s Strength & Movement Federation Project. Mainly these were due to problems communicating with each company. It was difficult to get a fast response and had to repeatedly send follow-up e-mails so that I would be sent a response. In future, I will ask the client what the best way of communicating with them would be e.g. via LinkedIn, Slack etc. Therefore avoiding this issue. However if the client continues to be unresponsive through the communication method given to me, I will continue to send follow-up messages. Moreover I had the problem of my e-mails not being read properly or throughly enough and therefore in future, I may have to bold important statements or highlight dates using astrixes. Unfortunately due to time constraints I wasn’t able to finish either project however this was out of my control as I was constantly waiting on feedback so that each project could progress. As this project was sc...