This is my last personal reflection this school year. Unbelievable, isn't it? Since this is probably the final post of this school year, I've decided to discuss how the year turned out, since I've realized something I wasn't at all expecting. I came into this class convinced I was going to be a 2D artist. The problem was, I wasn't good at it, and the work it took to get better seemed like a nightmare. I couldn't draw well, so I hated drawing, so I didn't have the motivation to improve, so I still couldn't draw well. You can see where that's going. Then we moved on to 3D modeling and animation, and I remembered how much I actually liked it. I wasn't great at that either, but I honestly enjoyed it more than 2D art. Then we moved on to programming. I had felt a growing sense of dread as the programming portion of the year approached. Code seemed like this scary, incomprehensible thing I was going to have to slog my way through. It was something I shouldn't be excited for. Then, we actually started coding, and instead of slow, tedious work (well, it actually was a little tedious) like I expected, I tore through the tutorials. I realized that I actually liked writing code. It all seemed so logical, like a puzzle, and it made sense to me. I always assumed I 'd never get into programming; I looked at it with a sort of disgust. Turns out, "don't knock it till you try it" is right. The topic I thought I'd hate turned out to be the topic I most loved, and the thought that I might not go straight back into coding next year actually scares me a little. At this point I've made three games by tutorial and I'm finishing a fourth by myself. I hate to admit it, but I fell victim to the classic rookie mistake of aiming too high on my first go. I'm having to cut back, mostly because I overestimated what I would get done in the amount of time I had left, but the important thing is that it's still an actual, playable game that I made myself. I've also discovered the mechanics I need to learn more about, and I definitely intend to keep improving my game over the summer. The other big thing I'd like to mention here is that I came to an art school not knowing what I wanted to do for a career but with a a vague idea that I'd be a writer. I entered the game design pathway thinking I'd just use some of the skills, and I meant to do it more as a hobby. I didn't actually expect I'd join the game design industry; that was just a sort of fantasy. Now I'm realizing that while I love writing stories, it's not something I'd really want to do as a job. Game design (especially programming), however, is something I think I really would like to do as a career, and I'm starting to get on track to make that idea into reality. I guess I might become a writer for work after all–just not the kind I expected. That's all from me. I might give occasional updates over the summer on my game or any other interesting developments (pun fully intended) in my game design education, but until next fall, peace out.
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This is my final game review of this school year, so it's only fair that I review PVZ. It's one of the first games that really got me into gaming. My dad was actually the one who discovered it, and we accidentally stayed up until 1 AM playing it the first night we had it. It was especially exciting since I was pretty young at the time, and I think it's impacted me ever since. The basic premise of Plants vs. Zombies is to defend the player's suburban home from encroaching zombies, using a variety of whimsical (and apparently sentient) plants to kill said zombies. The zombies will try to eat their way through the plants to get to the house and eat the player's brains. It's essentially a 2D, grid-based tower defense style game.
I usually start with gameplay, but I feel the need to mention right here how much I love the soundtrack to the game, especially the end credits song. It's all incredibly catchy, and the different songs fit their associated modes and minigames very well. Now, on to gameplay! The game starts off very simple, with only a single row of lawn to defend, and walks the player through. I really like this, since it keeps the game from being overwhelming at first. Once this tutorial level is done, the game starts increasing in difficulty. Players unlock more powerful and specialized plants and zombies as they progress through adventure mode (the main story), and new items become available in the shop. These new zombies have unique methods of attack and unique weakness, and the zombies types are picked somewhat at random between rounds, at the same time the player picks which plants they will use. This helps prevent the game from repetitive and means the player actually has to strategize, considering what plants are most important and where they should be placed. Overall, I think the game progression is very good. The one thing I don't like is that once the player has unlocked everything, the game starts to get a little boring. It's still entertaining, but the excitement of unlocking new things and facing new challenges dies away. I have to admit, this is a very hard problem to avoid in games with unlockable features, so I don't think it's really that big of a deal. One can always start a new save file, after all. As players move through adventure mode, they unlock new minigames, challenges, and survival mode levels. Survival mode allows the player to simply try to last through five rounds on normal difficulty (one "wave" of zombies per round) or hard difficulty (two waves per round). The player can pick between different level types: day, night, pool, fog, and roof. Day is essentially the default, while the rest have unique gameplay elements added. The one thing I feel is lacking here is that there are a few more unique level types in adventure mode that are not included in survival mode. I do feel that there could have been a little more added under survival mode, but I'm still happy with the options given. One of the other features is the "Zen Garden" that can be unlocked in the shop. This allows the player to occasionally get a gift box during adventure or survival mode, which contains a mystery plant. This can be grown in the Zen Garden, and when taken care of will give the player coins for buying more supplies in the shop, including more Zen Garden areas. The final area is the Tree of Wisdom, which gives the player cheat codes to unlock some pretty hilarious easter eggs. This is definitely a fun feature and I'm glad it was included. Overall, I think Plants vs. Zombies is a good game. It's fun, stimulating, not too complicated, and requires strategy on the player's part. The art style is delightfully cartoonish and fits the game very well, and the general feeling of whimsy in the game is really enjoyable. I'm not a huge fan of tower defense, but Plants vs. Zombies will always hold a special place in my heart. I'm officially designing my own game from scratch–no tutorials! I'm thrilled and terrified in equal measure. I'm officially a game developer, so now what? Luckily, the Internet is there to help. The first article I found had five pieces of advice. The first was to figure out if I want to be a programmer or an artist. Well, that's pretty easy. I like art for sure, but turns out I like code more. That's why I'm using free downloaded art assets. The article goes on to mention C# and Unity. Well, I'm set there. The second piece of advice was to enjoy myself. So far, so good! Tip number three was to find a focus within your realm of development. That won't really be possible with this game since I'm working as a one-man team, but it's something I ought to consider for the future. The fourth piece of advice was to get experience. Well, I've finished three games made by tutorial (though I did have to add some features to one of them), and I'm about to start a fourth pretty much from scratch, so I'm already working on that one. It also mentions looking for an internship, which is funny, because I've been meaning to do exactly that. I guess I should get to it. The fifth piece of advice was not to give up. Well, at the moment, I couldn't if I wanted to. That's all great, but what about advice for right now? This article came to the rescue, and I noticed three important things. One piece of advice I noticed right off the bat was to implement and test side by side. This is good advice. I know this is good advice because the last game I worked on mysteriously bugged out and I didn't check it immediately. It's a pain trying to debug when you have to hunt through code unrelated to your problem. Another piece of advice the article gave was to start with a simple game–the example given was Tetris. I'm planning on making a simple platformer, so I think I've got that down. It also recommended playing other games and gathering inspiration from those. I'll have to keep that in mind, because I don't even remember the last time I played a platformer. There you have it. Wish me luck! So, to summarize:
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
February 2020
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