Wednesday 29 September 2010

Learning Unity3D: Challenges

Today I watched I01 (Raycasting) and I02 (Basic Animation and Events) in the Intermediate section of the Unity 3D Student site, so I've now seen all of the tutorial modules that have been put up so far :D

Now I'm working through the challenges. So far there are 3 to do, all labelled as "Beginner".

C01 (Beginner) - Destroy the wall with the box.



Enjoyed that, but it makes me want to add a cannon for the cubes to shoot out of..

C02 (Beginner) - Seesaw launch the box to destroy the wall.

Managed to get the see-saw to do it [interestingly it doesn't work every time, you have to time it right otherwise it throws the cube either too far and over the wall or not far enough]. I'm also supposed to make the wall make a noise when it disappears. I don't have a sound picked out yet, so I'll need to find one quick, and then figure out how to do that part before I move on to the next challenge.

It's going well though. I think all the arty design work we've been doing made me forget how much I enjoy making coding work too.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Mind Maps and Scripting


Today I finished watching and taking notes of the scripts used in videos B00 to B19 in the Beginner's section of the Unity 3D Student site. I'm excited now, because I'm actually learning how to make stuff happen using scripts :D

Also started mind-mapping the inspirations for the actual game concept today. I was thinking about levels where the player would have to get to a certain position in a room so that an anamorphic image on a wall would become legible.

But then... it would turn out that the now legible writing is actually a riddle, that the player will need to figure out during the course of the game. Perhaps they'll need to read multiple clues for any of them to make sense.

That idea was kind of inspired by the Batman film I saw recently - the one with Jim Carey as Edward Nygma aka The Riddler.

Monday 27 September 2010

Right, Plan of Action?

Mission 1: Here's the instructions we've been given for this summer...

Summer Assignment - Final Major Project

It is crucial that you begin the third year in the right frame of mind and with an ambitious yet realistic attitude to the work. Over the summer you are asked to decide whether or not you are going to work in a group. Group work is very highly recommended in the third year, but it is not mandatory, as some of you will have highly personal projects already in mind. You will be asked to pitch your initial ideas very soon after the beginning of term, so I would like you to begin the preproduction process over the summer, to be ready to provide an illustrated and written account of your ambitions for the final year. These projects will be formatively assessed at the beginning of the autumn semester.


And here's what I've got so far:

I fancy working on something that kind of doesn't make sense.

Something inspired by the transforming furniture and cool and crazy architecture I've been looking at a lot lately. I'm thinking, something that I would find as fun as I found wandering around Croft Manor; pressing buttons, making things move, exploring and making my way around.

Something that looks a little bit Julian Beever, sounds a little bit [Alice in] Wonderland, feels a little bit Indiana Jones and seems a little bit like a giant hamster cage in a mad scientists laboratory that's been "improved" with secret rooms of it's own.

Looks like I've just turned all the looking-at-cool-stuff-on-the-Internet that I did while on autopilot over the Summer into "important research for pre-pro". Nice one.

But before I get too excited over the possibilities, better learn to walk first. Time to find out how to actually implement hinge joints in Unity.


To start off with, I've watched the "Essential" Modules E00 to E09 on Unity 3D Student to get better acquainted with Unity3D, and actually did manage to learn a couple of things I didn't know already. So far so good.

Bend it, bend it, just a little bit o'...

... I don't know the rest of the words. For some reason I want to say "Tetleys Tea Bags, just a little bit o' " and then repeat.

Sooo, I had an idea today about what I want to do for the final major project. No one got back to me about my begging to make the best game in the world [except Todd, who said he had already made it], so I started thinking about what I would rather do if I had to work on something by myself.

I fancy working on something that kind of doesn't make sense.

Something inspired by the transforming furniture and cool and crazy architecture I've been looking at a lot lately. I'm thinking, something that I would find as fun as I found wandering around Croft Manor; pressing buttons, making things move, exploring and making my way around.

Something that looks a little bit Julian Beever, sounds a little bit [Alice in] Wonderland, feels a little bit Indiana Jones and seems a little bit like a giant hamster cage in a mad scientists laboratory that's been "improved" with secret rooms of it's own.

Looks like I've just turned all the looking-at-cool-stuff-on-the-Internet that I did while on autopilot over the Summer into "important research for pre-pro". Nice one.

But before I get too excited over the possibilities, better learn to walk first. Time to find out how to actually implement hinge joints in Unity.

Friday 24 September 2010

Gyland: "Strange Stone Home Discovered"

If Gyland had newspapers, that's probably what they would have reported today.

Taking a little inspiration from some of the articles I read on dornob about modular buildings and other articles about modular dollhouses, I've added a building to Gyland made of 6 identical pieces.

I literally just plonked them together with one of the textures already in the Standard Assets, paying only a little attention towards making sure they were lined up vertically, and that access to each room was possible. I think I'm going to have to make a few modifications to the module to make each piece link up better, and I'll probably look into creating some linking stair-modules so you can reach the upper modules from the lower ones.


The model of the house is kinda starting to take shape aswell. I've got the basic roof shape modelled, but the upstairs internal walls need to be shrunk down vertically so that they don't stick out from it. And then there's still all the UV mapping to do... Good thing this is just a side project.


The real world roof is getting there too, dad is aiming to get it finished for the end of the month. Here's mum and dad working on it. I did take some funny shots of a local cat chilling out and licking it's bottom while the parents worked on the roof in the background, but apparently mum didn't find them funny enough to display on her FB album...



As for the annoying sister situation: they're all annoying me a little less now. It could be because I'm starting to feel less distressed in general about life... or it could be because it's nearly 2 weeks until I get to go back to Uni...

It's probably both.

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Soon, my pretty, soon...

In three weeks, I'm getting a divorce.

No, not really - but I will be going back to uni, and back to the freedom of having my own room. Who would believe a 15 year old sister could spend so much time nagging. True, she doesn't actually do it all the time... but she does it way more than I'm willing to live with.

Oh well. On the plus side, the experience will drive me to work harder at number 4 on the list I wrote back in January. Too much of my Summer has been spent experiencing hell and I don't fancy spending any more of my life like this.

So guys, my fellow CGDers, please help me by letting me help you make an awesome game this year so I can get a job earning enough for me to pay for a room somewhere with cool flatmates. Please.

I am actually dying to be back in Uni. The freedom. Oh my; the freedom. So what if it wasn't true freedom, in that I probably signed an agreement somewhere to work hard and abide by rules or something - it totally beats living with someone who nags me like my sole purpose in life is to do exactly as she says before she has to say it like I'm some kind of mind reader...

To the men married to nags everywhere: I feel for you.

Monday 13 September 2010

Transforming Furniture and Cool Homes

My latest obsessions were inspired by a link a friend posted on Facebook [my, does that Facebook get around. I've been hearing it referred to on TV as if it were an everyday part of British life.. So it's official, then].

Tranforming Furniture

I've kind of picked a really rubbish picture to illustrate. It's a .gif and it worked better when it was actually moving.. Check out Dornob for tons of better pictures of weird designs, and not just of the transforming variety.

Stylish transforming furniture is super cool. Maybe I just think it is because I've been living in 3-bedroomed houses in a family of 7 since 1996, with 4 girls squidged together in one room on two bunk beds for the majority of the time, or maybe it's because it makes me think of secret laboratories and hidden rooms. Or both.

I started figuring out how some of it works/could and even made a lame cardboard mock up out of a Cream of Mushroom Cup a Soup box. I think if I had the time and room to work in and my dad would let me borrow some of his tools, I could probably knock up something cool. But if that fails...

Dolls' Houses

Okay, so my recent project of building a virtual version of my house is probably quite like building a virtual doll's house. It makes sense I guess.

- I had Polly Pockets when I was little. I made a little flat out of paper for one. I think it had an elevator, but how I managed to come up with that and make it work I don't know.

- In a big bucket of sand I sculpted a haven for woodlice when I was around 5-7 years old, with some damp wood for them to munch on. They loved it.

- In DT at school I made a Barbie-sized plywood chair, complete with foam padding and light blue material covering [didn't quite get around to gluing the arm-leg pieces onto the main chair piece though, for some reason].

I'm fairly sure wanting to create little environments and worlds was probably one of my motivators for getting onto a CGD course in the first place.. But why stop there when I can create awesome little houses out of actual physical objects! ...Haha.

I'm pretty sure it'll be a full blown hobby eventually, but at the moment I'm thinking about making and publishing a book for kids who were/are like me. I could make one about Castles. And one about Fairy Hotels. And then when I'm rich because I've sold billions of copies, I can get onto the next project:

Cool Homes

Basically, my plan is to create a cool home for me. I've been spending a lot of time browsing the pages of WebUrbanist, and if I have learned one thing from them it's this: homes don't have to look like any of the houses you've ever lived in before.

I would probably have a secret laboratory, as well as a workshop and study [although they might be integrated with the lab]. An indoor gym and outdoor assault course like Lara Croft has in Tomb Raider III would probably be cool, and I'd have to have a party room or hangout area for friends to come chill in, and I would have other cool [a secret cinema?] and useful things in my house [like, um, an Internet connection and plumbing and electricity]. And it might be situated in a tree. And part of it would be underground. It would probably end up being the kind of place someone would walk into and say,

"... What?!"

Unless they were kids, in which case they'd probably just want to live there. And I would be like,

"NO! MY HOUSE! Go and buy all of my books and make friends with constructors and you can figure out how to build your own awesome house."

And then they would, and we'd all live happily ever after, each in our own houses. The End.