For the final project for ART 381 we had to make a game using the unity engine and making it relate with something that is going on with world. At first glance I had the sinking feeling of, "Oh dear god I am not gonna be able to do this. I'm a gamer, not a game developer. I do not know how to make a game. " So I wanted to keep it simple. With inspiration from Mario Maker (a video game that allows you make a level based on 2D Mario video games) I wanted to keep the project simple and 2D. As for the concept, I decided to go back to some Psychology and a little personal to me. I got to thinking and came with struggles. More in particular everyday struggles that not only me, but other people struggle with (job, school, depression, etc.) So I had my plan and the idea but I didn't know how to make the game. After watching tutorials on youtube how to do what and what to use. I went to work.
The first screen shot shows that I uses sprites that I have found (originally PNG files convert to sprite myself) I found what sprites I wanted to use and adding collisions to them.
This screen shot shows that I am adding inadvisable blocks to emphasize on the "out of no where events"
This one is the almost finished product. The brink wall there is to represent the "hitting a brink wall " moment.
And finally the completed game. The background is all of inner thoughts, what people keep in the back of their heads when they struggle with their lives. Also I put in the rest of sprites and each coded with restart that if you hit certain sprites, you will restart the level. Also the help button destroys the wall. The video shows the final product.
Final thoughts. I have to say this opens my eyes and appreciate how much developers have to go through when making a game. From coding, how players will play, they have to go through so much though and details is just amazes me so much. This project while I had a difficult time, I think I did well for what I was going for when it came down to it.
This was a project done in my art 381 class and I have to say this was an interesting take on this cardboard cutout and papercrafting. The project was we had to take a Mario Party mini game (from any of the Mario Party games as of this blog) and make them into a real life situation that is going on in the news as of late (again at this post Donald Trump running for president, etc). For my group (Consisting of Ivy, Nick, Jordan, and myself) our mini-game was the candlelight fright game from Mario Party 4 as seen in this video
Now for the concept. With police brutalities and the black live matters in the news for a while we decided to use that concept and put it into this mini game. The one with the candlelight will represent the innocent and the "candlelight" is the life and the three shooter will be police officers. The characters we decided to use is Shy Guy (to represent the lives that were taken form the police and to represent the individual who may look like a thug but not. The officer will be Koopas as they are the "bad guys" It seemed fitting.
The crafting was interesting and challenging. We took some three-dimensional models of the characters and took the to Maya to make sure the the models we want. (Koopa shells and a Hammer Bro helmet.) Then I took the models to a program called pepakura and unfolded them out to make on paper here.
Once the pages are printed out, I taped them on large amount of cardboard and cut them out.
This was hard and tedious but I got it done:
Once the shell (what I was in charge for) was all cut out, time to put it together. The numbers were supposed to overlap as seen here:
Then I painted the first coat here (blue for the color of a police officer):
After about 2 coats to make sure nothing card board was shown, this was the final results
Now for the game:We went to the front of the College of Education for out setup. We roped off a small arena. I played as the Shyguy and one other played as a Koopa while two public people play the other Koopas. The video below is an example of the what happen.
We didn't get much people, however we did get an indivudal who was upset with our game due to having family memebers in the police force. It was an interesting event.
In conclusion, this project was a long, and difficult one, but at least now I know how to make certain items out of cardboard now.
Sexual Sensations in the Videogame World. At MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival) I attend a panel called “Sexual Sensations in the Videogame World” I could not get the name of the spokeswomen in the panel. They were doctors of psychology and sociology. The panels mostly talked about how each gender is portrayed in video games. They mostly focused on controversial games like Mortal Combat, Grand Theft Auto, and art house games like Undertale, Dads in the showers, etc. It was an interesting panel due to what the points they pointed out. For example most women in video games have above average breasts in games instead of average size breasts. Another example they talked about was most of the Japanese games. When they talked about it mostly sounded like they were bashing on the Japanese culture. They also talked about how men were portrayed in games as well and how obscure and high standards they body and personalities were in games. They also mention how gamergate caused in the gaming world. The panel was overall an interesting one and an eye opener on what most people over look.
Creating Immersive & Engaging Story Worlds Through Audio At MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival) I attend a panel called “Creating Immersive and Engaging Story Worlds through Audio” I could not get the name of the spokesperson on the panel. She mostly talked about how the gaming world and music is changing and how when creating sounds/music and environment sounds you have to take into consideration on how to immerse the player or anybody into the world you want them to be involved with. I have to say she was very detailed with how to do so and with telling a story with only music I feel can work but it has to make sure the person listening in has the right mind set to follow through. During the panel she did talk about what music samples and examples of what she was talking about. Most of the music was all orchestral, but I felt like it worked for what she was aiming for in her pieces Overall the panel was great and an interesting take on music.
This project was about taking an existing board games and creating something from it and playable with a group. For this project, My partner Nick and I decided to take the broad game monopoly (Particular Monopoly Electronic with the debt card reader and higher bank numbers) and make it a satire of the NFL. The whole idea behind it was that if you are an NFL owner, you would go around buying up teams for you to make a profit off of and beat the other owners. If you land on a team, you pay the owner of that team the winning since it is their home turf. The players are old people because that's what most of the owners are old white men. Nick did a lot of research of the NFL from scandals and controversial issues (examples the Ray Rice scandal, "Concussion" gate, Deflate" gate. etc.) And those would be Chance/Coummity cards along with huge payouts to get more money. Every player starts with 15 million as that was the average amount a team costs along with stadiums and such. I will say this project was a lot of fun to make and a ton of fun to see the mechanical side in a board games and how to set it up for everyone to play. Picture below are what the final product is like.
The art exhibit I visited was called “Tomorrow’s Man” Curated by Jack Pierson. I have to say for this
art exhibit I was not expecting the art pieces in this show. At first I thought
the gallery was going to be futuristic and sci-fi style, but the gallery was
mostly with some disturbing images (in my opinion) and some pieces I can relate
to. The images I saw of the nude people in some explicit acts I felt were uncomfortable.
I can look at tasteful nudity, but not what I saw. I saw a video in the show,
but I could not make it out what the goal it was going for because I was
confused on the message. The only two pieces I enjoyed were the 2 with messages
on them, “Go where the rich hang out then
you can make art.” And “Do what must
be done as soon as you can.” I felt like these are true. The “do what you
must” one I like because to me I felt like it is true that you have to do what
you need to then and now without wasting time. If you prolong the task, it will
be too late.
Overall this gallery is a
mixed bag. Some pieces I liked some I disliked.
I recorded video with more thoughts
on the gallery.
The art
exhibit I visited was called “Na Aumakua
Anuenue” by Emerald Rose Whipple. The exhibit was small with only a few canvas
styled painting drawing. According to the artist statement most of the
paintings are done on a canvas with oil paint. Most of the artworks were around
the concept of Aumakua (family god) and Anuenue (Hawaiian for rainbow). Most of
the paintings I saw in the gallery were well done for what she was going for was
a nice touch and the two dedicated to Whipple’s mother were the highlight of
the gallery. You could easily tell this artist put a lot of effort into those
two paintings. The brush strokes and themes I believe she was going for were
achieved and shown. The oil paintings I felt were great and really shine in the
gallery and they colors were an excellent choice.
Overall I felt the show was good and would recommend it.
I recorded a video to explain my thoughts a bit more.
