In the past, I have spent hours watching tutorials on how to use Unity, and I've also attended a Game Jam where the engine we used was Unity. So, although I do not consider myself a complete noob, I feel as though I do lack some fundamental knowledge that I would like to dig deeper into. With that said, I decided to start the Complete Unity 5 Developer course on Udemy. I purchased this course when it was on sale, at the beginning of the summer and only used it as a reference when I needed some assistance in a particular area. But after a recent decision I made to streamline my focus (I may write a post on that later), I decided to really sit down and take this course from start to finish. I'm extremely happy about my decision thus far Usually, whenever I sit through a programming tool's training, I want to pull my hair out because of the elementary concepts that are covered in the content. I always feel the urge to skip around and sometimes I feel as though I'm missing out on small nuggets of information that I could really benefit from. This leaves me with a dilemma, do I sit through the boring stuff for the possibility of some new piece of information? OR do I skip around and forgo the hair pulling in exchange for the ability to learn at a rapid pace? However, I find that the way that this particular course is structured, I don't feel as though I'm missing out on anything if I just play it in the background while I go on my own. If I hear something that piques my interest, I tab over and check it out, otherwise I go on my merry way. Also, there are some good nuggets there about Game Design Documents and how to properly ask questions, which I found really beneficial. How will I share what I've learned? By no means are the things I'm learning things that I would want to put in my portfolio. But I want to share them, so I will do that through my blog :). After just a couple of hours (mostly spent feeling out the tools), I was able to build my first full game from an empty project to a build uploaded to my website. The game concept is straight from the tutorial and the dialog is rather dry (I can't deny it). But I'm proud of my little game and I can not wait for what's to come in the near future. Want to check it out? Make sure you're in a browser other than Chrome :) and click below! Prison GameWhere to now? I'm not a game writer lol. So, I'm partnering up with a good author friend who has agreed to help me create a new Text Adventure game. He'll do all of the writing (thank God) and I will do the programming. I totally can not wait. Stay tuned, as always :) Want to get your feet wet with game development? You really should try Unity, it's free for personal use.
The Euphoric, and over-dramatized story of my PS4 purchase... The day is Black Friday 2014. There are a zillion deals online for gaming systems, with many deals specifically targeting PS4 systems and games. My heart skips a beat when I see several games bundled with the PS4 system, for FREE. But wait! I can't buy a PS4 now! I have finals, and lots of school work, and and and... My logical mind reminds me that the deals that were out probably would not be topped until the following Black Friday season (maybe this wasn't THAT logical). As my fingers clicks away, adding my shipping and payment information, I can't help but become giddy at the prospect of playing a brand new system with amazing graphics. My mind wanders to happier times of staying up late and killing things in the privacy of my own home. Finally, I click that bright orange "Confirm Purchase" button and I receive an email confirmation informing me that I would receive my new system in 2 days.
Ah but first, a brief history of games I've played :) One method that I have always used in the past to relax is playing games. I love everything about them. Even though I began years ago as a console gamer, playing systems like atari (yes, I'm old), nintendo, playstation one, game cube, and gameboy. I was the one that was completely excited when Nintendo created a color version of their Gameboy system (insane)! I eventually migrated to playing PC games, my first being Diablo II for the PC. Years ago, I started playing World of Warcraft with my ex boyfriend and I had a ton of fun in cooperative gameplay in PVE. As with any MMO, it is really difficult to be a casual player, usually the game content and social aspects pulls you in making you want to play more and more. Well, I didn't have much free time so I decided to quit playing. Then enter League of Legends. League is a MOBA and is still one of my favorite games and I still play on a regular basis. What I liked about League is the gameplay but also the ability to play a game or two without a ton of time commitment (for us casual players). This fit lovely in my schedule because with school and work, I needed something to play that I didn't feel like I needed to put a ton of time into.