production of my final major project. When it comes to concept art, there could have been a lot more produced. This would have given me a better idea of the different elements of the final pieces, such as characters, environments, backgrounds etc. When creating the final piece I also didn’t show the theme properly London then and now, you only knew the setting was in London because of the flags.
Something that I have learned from units 9, 10 and 12 is when making animations is using the bone tool. Because I’m not good at the frame to frame and I could have made joints for my 2-D animation this would have been easier for me and I would have learned a new technique, also I felt like this would have allowed me to do it to a better quality standard.
The skills that I have learnt in the two years of this course are; being able to make joints in 3-D (Maya), being able to skin it, being able to understand basic code in unity such as (float, void and if), I learnt how to code some mechanics such as different forces and gravity. These are the skills that I have learned in my second year.
The skills that I learned in my first year in Adobe Animate are how to do key-frames, different types of tweens, how to shade in animate. The skills that I learned in construct 2 are different types of code and these allowed me to do things like destroying different objects, make things visible or invisible and make fade in or fade-outs.
My strengths are problem-solving, so when a bug comes up in a game or animation I try different things to try and fix it, if I can’t fix it then I find a way around it. Other strengths that I have been rigging and modeling. Weaknesses that I have are being too ambitious with my ideas, my planning, time management and frame by frame animation.
In the first year, I found making frame by frame harder. I think now I have improved the way I have overcome this is when I have spare time I doodle, pen and paper and I make like it would be frame by frame and I think this helps me understand how to do the next frame and also depending on the speed as well.
The bit that I enjoyed the most of this course is learning the different techniques specifically with the 3-D. The reason why is that it’s really different to 2-D and I know I’m not great at drawing. So this means that the modeling is easier to do because I just have to replicate the same shapes. It’s fun and when I start modeling I get really creative and start getting ideas on how to do something.
In the course, I liked the 2-D animation the least the reason why is because I struggled so much with it in the FMP. I struggled because I’m not great at drawing and I wanted it to at a really good standard and because of that it wasn’t good because I spent so much time making the start good.
The way that this final major project this year will be a challenge is that I have an aim and then an ambitious aim but multiple ones. So because I will be making a card game and the aim will be to make at least 30 cards and have an A.I that can be played against. The ambitious aim will be to make 50 cards and try and make it so that it will be 2 players or can be played VIA LAN. If I am able to achieve that then I will be more ambitious and try to make 100 cards.
Production and Reflective Journal
08/05/17
The first thing that I made for the production stage is that card frame for each card. I used Adobe Animate to make the card frames and the colors that I had planned multiple color schemes such as black and red, purple and yellow lastly green and yellow. To create the card frame I used the line tool.
There are different attributes that there on the card. There is a rectangle in the middle for pictures for that card to go. This wasn't a great idea because some pictures were portrait so I had to color the borders that were left with a gradient so that it fits in. At the top is the level this is really big because its the main mechanic of the game so for them to wait for 2 turns to use that card. There is the text Effect/Description this is where card description will go and the name and the effect of the card. Depending on how strong the card is the card will have a higher level. The final thing on the car will be the ATK (attack) and DEF (defense) this will be measured on a scale of 0 to 5 since the Hp (health-points) is 10.
After this, I decided to color all the concept art that I did. This didn't take too long since I knew what colors I wanted to add. For the card concept, I used 3 different colors this was because there are different card types and I want them to be identified by there colors. I used a light brown color to find a skin tone. I used this skin color tone for the card that I made called devils eye. I decided that for this card it will allow you to look at one of your opponent's cards. since it isn't the greatest card I made this a level 1 card since you can use this on your first hand. When making this card I couldn't color it properly since It was a picture so I had to draw over it since I used Krita at home to design this card.In terms of my blog work from last year, I could have been a lot more reflective throughout the
Something that I have learned from units 9, 10 and 12 is when making animations is using the bone tool. Because I’m not good at the frame to frame and I could have made joints for my 2-D animation this would have been easier for me and I would have learned a new technique, also I felt like this would have allowed me to do it to a better quality standard.
The skills that I have learnt in the two years of this course are; being able to make joints in 3-D (Maya), being able to skin it, being able to understand basic code in unity such as (float, void and if), I learnt how to code some mechanics such as different forces and gravity. These are the skills that I have learned in my second year.
15/05/17
After all of this, I started producing the game background. This would be the background for when in gameplay and you have the options to play cards. The colors that I did for the background was a sandy brown color, the reason why I did it this color is because it seems like a good board color.
After thinking of a color to choose, I decided to draw some objects that I could have on the board so it's not plain and boring. I decided to draw a tent a log and an arched stone-way.
Here is a picture of the background I drew
16/05/17
I think with this background that I created I could have done a lot of things better like instead of putting a few leaves maybe copied some of them and rotated them and made a lot more in that corner. Another thing that I could have done is added more color since a lot of the color is really similar to the background. I think even though there is stuff on the background it still looks bland and I think small things could have made it stand out really well and a lot more exciting.
The next thing that I did was the buttons for the game the 3 buttons that I made was starting options and exit. The reason why I created 3 buttons is that I wanted it to be something more than just for it to start up also I wanted it to be more optimizable. These buttons were simple to create all I had to do was create a blue rectangle and then after that, I put the text on there starting, options and exit. After I created them that was the buttons done all I had to do is export them as png's and then import them to construct 2.
17/05/17
I think what I could have done better is changed the background colors or the button colors since they blended in really well and made it quite difficult to see. I think using a light pink or red would have been niced because it wouldn't have made it stick out too much. I would have been a nice small contrast so you can see when the button is and how big it is.
The thing that I did After was the background this was really fun creating the logo for the game. I had a used a lot of time creating it and customizing it. First I drew out all the buttons in a bubble writing font, after that, I decided to add some detail by giving the word "Power Monsters" teeth, eyes and scales. After this was done It was coloring the first time doing this I decided to do it in a rainbow but that didn't work so I decided to change the color scheme and made it more basic but this way it was more consistent and nicer. The reason why it was nicer is that lots of different colors don't look great and especially with the background with it that it wasn't too much. The background I made it simple and I made it a gradient of blue. I made the size of the background 1920x1080 because I wanted it to be HD so if it was down-scaled it would like nicer and it would be easier to adjust.
After this, it was the final buttons. These final buttons were the on/off, this was the turn the sound off and the sound off. This was quickly done in Adobe Animate the was just drawn with a brush. because of the way it was imported it has a small white line around it and you can see it when you play the game. The things that I wish did better, take more time and draw another frame for it and make it an animation so that the tick switches when you click on or off. This small task would have made the sound off and on look a lot better and not really low budget. Also, I think I could have made it look neat like the cards and the rest of the text. If I wanted to stay with that text style, I should have changed the rest of the text to look similar.
one of tedious bit left, the coding. For the coding, there wasn't too much. I tried to not over complicate it which I did quite a lot at the start as. for one of the mechanics, I created 5 global variables when I didn't need them and I could have all of the cards used the one global variable. For the starting code since I didn't want the game to start straight away I made it so that you have to click on the settings to come up. I think for that bit of text I should have added some text to say that you have to click to start the game and for the options to come up.
After I started laying out the game by adding the game background and then adding the buttons so that I can then go to the next layout. I could code the start to start the game, code the options to take you to the layout with sound and for the exit to quit the game. Also when I added the background in I had to make sure that I changed the background size to 1920x1080 but for some reason, it wouldn't fit it so I changed it to an alternative size that still fit and didn't allow my work to be distorted.
I think things that I could have done better make the title bigger to fill more of the background since you get to see it on the back of a card later in the intro. I think that the color decision for the buttons and the background don't go well with each other but the logo and the background go well with each other.
18/05/17
The next layout that was there was the instructions. On this layout, I explained how the life was going to work and how the card system would work. I displayed the pictures of the health bar and the deck. For this layout, there wasn't much production since there was just the code for the text to show and the pictures of the health. but after once you clicked on this layout it will take you into the game.
The things that I think I could have done better for this layout make it not as blank and also make so that there was more color and therefore it would have been more attractive since the page was pretty bland. I think this would be really important as well since it is the scene that you see right before you start playing the game. I think another thing that I could have done is also done an animation for the heart to show that it would go to 0 this would help explain in a visual sense.
After this layout, I decided to make the one with the game board and this was not too hard but it was the coding that was really hard. This layout I firstly inserted all the pictures of the cards and the game board. After this, I started coding the game.
Here is the second one
Here is the final one that was used in the final product.
After thinking of a color to choose, I decided to draw some objects that I could have on the board so it's not plain and boring. I decided to draw a tent a log and an arched stone-way.
Here is a picture of the background I drew
16/05/17
I think with this background that I created I could have done a lot of things better like instead of putting a few leaves maybe copied some of them and rotated them and made a lot more in that corner. Another thing that I could have done is added more color since a lot of the color is really similar to the background. I think even though there is stuff on the background it still looks bland and I think small things could have made it stand out really well and a lot more exciting.
The next thing that I did was the buttons for the game the 3 buttons that I made was starting options and exit. The reason why I created 3 buttons is that I wanted it to be something more than just for it to start up also I wanted it to be more optimizable. These buttons were simple to create all I had to do was create a blue rectangle and then after that, I put the text on there starting, options and exit. After I created them that was the buttons done all I had to do is export them as png's and then import them to construct 2.
17/05/17
I think what I could have done better is changed the background colors or the button colors since they blended in really well and made it quite difficult to see. I think using a light pink or red would have been niced because it wouldn't have made it stick out too much. I would have been a nice small contrast so you can see when the button is and how big it is.
The thing that I did After was the background this was really fun creating the logo for the game. I had a used a lot of time creating it and customizing it. First I drew out all the buttons in a bubble writing font, after that, I decided to add some detail by giving the word "Power Monsters" teeth, eyes and scales. After this was done It was coloring the first time doing this I decided to do it in a rainbow but that didn't work so I decided to change the color scheme and made it more basic but this way it was more consistent and nicer. The reason why it was nicer is that lots of different colors don't look great and especially with the background with it that it wasn't too much. The background I made it simple and I made it a gradient of blue. I made the size of the background 1920x1080 because I wanted it to be HD so if it was down-scaled it would like nicer and it would be easier to adjust.
After this, it was the final buttons. These final buttons were the on/off, this was the turn the sound off and the sound off. This was quickly done in Adobe Animate the was just drawn with a brush. because of the way it was imported it has a small white line around it and you can see it when you play the game. The things that I wish did better, take more time and draw another frame for it and make it an animation so that the tick switches when you click on or off. This small task would have made the sound off and on look a lot better and not really low budget. Also, I think I could have made it look neat like the cards and the rest of the text. If I wanted to stay with that text style, I should have changed the rest of the text to look similar.
one of tedious bit left, the coding. For the coding, there wasn't too much. I tried to not over complicate it which I did quite a lot at the start as. for one of the mechanics, I created 5 global variables when I didn't need them and I could have all of the cards used the one global variable. For the starting code since I didn't want the game to start straight away I made it so that you have to click on the settings to come up. I think for that bit of text I should have added some text to say that you have to click to start the game and for the options to come up.
After I started laying out the game by adding the game background and then adding the buttons so that I can then go to the next layout. I could code the start to start the game, code the options to take you to the layout with sound and for the exit to quit the game. Also when I added the background in I had to make sure that I changed the background size to 1920x1080 but for some reason, it wouldn't fit it so I changed it to an alternative size that still fit and didn't allow my work to be distorted.
I think things that I could have done better make the title bigger to fill more of the background since you get to see it on the back of a card later in the intro. I think that the color decision for the buttons and the background don't go well with each other but the logo and the background go well with each other.
18/05/17
The next layout that was there was the instructions. On this layout, I explained how the life was going to work and how the card system would work. I displayed the pictures of the health bar and the deck. For this layout, there wasn't much production since there was just the code for the text to show and the pictures of the health. but after once you clicked on this layout it will take you into the game.
The things that I think I could have done better for this layout make it not as blank and also make so that there was more color and therefore it would have been more attractive since the page was pretty bland. I think this would be really important as well since it is the scene that you see right before you start playing the game. I think another thing that I could have done is also done an animation for the heart to show that it would go to 0 this would help explain in a visual sense.
After this layout, I decided to make the one with the game board and this was not too hard but it was the coding that was really hard. This layout I firstly inserted all the pictures of the cards and the game board. After this, I started coding the game.
After this, I started to make the code for the random spawn of cards. So this meant that you could get random cards in your hand. This meant that the game would be more luck instead of me setting the cards so that they will be the same. This adds replayability to it meaning that it can be played multiple times and always start with different hands. This also means that you can get good hands and bad hands meaning that you can loose and you can win. I also didn't want to set the cards already on the layout so I had them off the screen so I can look at without it being messy. After that, I added code that would allow it to be moved when it starts. After this came the tricky bit, this is where I had to get the card to be clickable but only allowed to be clicked once so that it will move into that position. And for it not to be clicked again. I firstly made 5 different variables that could be used but for each card this way. I thought if one was active it would move and that way if it was clicked on then it couldn't be clicked on again to move it and have the variable starting on 0. When the variable goes to 1 the card would move and if it would be destroyed then it would go back to 0. But for some reason, it didn't work and I didn't know how to fix it so I did the same thing for all the cards but this time it was only 1 variable but for all. This somehow worked which was really strange so I kept that instead of changing it.
21/07/17
Finally, the last thing that I had to do was the sound. The sound I was playing around and it started off by me watching a youtube video of someone going through different free sound software and looking at which ones are similar the FLS (FruityLoopStudios) and which one is as good as an industry standard program. The one that was recommended was the LMMS so I chose to start learning that. I started off watching some youtube videos and then I got a hang of it with keys and how and where they should go for what type of beat you are trying to make. I did this multiple times to see how they would turn out and they were experimental since I was seeing what I could do and what differences I could make to them. This is how I ended up with the final product for my Audio I used this and that's it.
Here is the first song that I made.
Here is the second one
Here is the final one that was used in the final product.