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Showing posts from October 7, 2018

Game Idea Research

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In this blog I will be discussing my game research idea. Last week I posted a blog where I brainstormed some different game ideas. I will be talking about one of those ideas today and I chose a game idea that I taught I would enjoy working on for the rest of this semester. I will also be focusing on the three game mechanics idea that I know will work well for this assignment. The game idea I am going to be focusing on will be a interactive storybook game for children, my third game idea from the 'Game Brainstorm' blog. Game Outline: This game encourages imagination, creative ability, storytelling in young children.  Children choose from a range of characters or make their own character from shapes supplied; i.e; "round head", "big eyes", "big nose", "black hair". They are also given unusual shapes that can make monsters or aliens! e.g. "horns", "wings" etc. They then get to choose from a theme i.e. "Ou

Learning Challenge: The biology of Positivity

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I will be discussing the blog post, "The biology of positivity" , by Laura Gibbs.The blog post states that, "this notion of "positivty" overlaps with growth mindset in powerful ways. Instead of focusing on the negative (making mistakes, etc.), you can train your brain to look at mistakes as useful information that you can use for your own learning".  I have to say that this is very true but also difficult to do. I completely agree with this statement but I personally would find this difficult to do but that being said I'll try to change my outlook on only focusing on negatives and instead focus on using any mistakes that I have made and using them as useful steps that will enable me to be a better learner.           The blog offers very helpful tips for being positive and having a positive mindset. Here is what tips it gives you: Take a break and look at something different. Savor the calm.  Look for good things in small moments. Look for and tal

Growth Mindset Challenge: Feedback

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After reading the article: "Giving Creative Feedback-A Guide for Those Who Aren't Creative"  by 'Deborah Manue', there are some new things that I have Learned and some things that I already new before. For example something that I didn't know before when giving creative feedback was the following: Now put aside your initial reaction. Don’t talk yet. Your initial reaction may reflect your own biases more than the work itself. Notice where your eye wants to go first, second and third. Your eye should go to the first, second, and third most important pieces of information, in that order. If your eye goes somewhere else, or doesn’t know where to go, the information hierarchy needs to be improved. Something that I did know before was the following:  Take a breath and gauge your initial reaction. How does it make you feel? What does it make you think about? Does it feel similar to something you’ve seen or experienced before? Gauging your initial

Tech Tip: Google Map

This is where I went on holidays during the summer and I really enjoyed staying in Portugal. Here is the map:

Feedback Strategies

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Source Link In this blog post today I will be discussing the different types of feedback strategies that will enable you to appreciate, look forward to and enjoy receiving feedback. So what exactly is feedback? Well, according to the dictionary it is the "information about reactions to a product, a person's performance of a task, etc. Which is used for the basis for improvement". The first of the two articles that I read was, "Try 'Feedforward' instead of Feedback" , by Marshall Goldsmith.  The article starts off with explaining the general feedback process within a workplace. Soon after that it says that there is a fundamental problem with this process.               It states that there with all different types of feedback that there is that it only focuses on the past, meaning what has already happened and not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. Basically it's suggesting that when people give or receiv

Unity Tutorial 02

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Source Link Welcome to my 'Unity Tutorial 02', blog post for this week. After watching both tutorials four and five (and three), I was afraid because it looked like a big step up from the previous tutorials that I watched and do while in 'Unity-3D'. That being said I thought the exact same thing for tutorials one and two but, they ended up not being as tricky as I thought  they would be and the same goes for this weeks tutorials too. In the tutorials that I watched today, I learned how to code in 'Microsoft visual studio', how to add water (like a lake), how to add sound effects to specific objects for example; the diamond and how to add a wall.            Firstly I really enjoyed learning about how to make the game appear more realistic looking with trees, grass and water and adding things through 'Microsoft visual studio'. What I found really intriguing was how to make my character move and how to add sound. I found the part where your character

Tech Task Sidebar Box

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Just to let everyone know that I have added a new sidebar gadget to my blog. I think that by adding this gadget to my blog it really adds to the look and feel of my blogs appearance as a whole.  It's a personal motto that I go by. Check out it if your interested. Thanks. Source Link

Game Elements

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Here's a short discussion on a feature from 'Gamasutra.com' . The feature titled "Postmortem: Pinball- RPG hybrid rollers of the realm" is a retrospective account of the development of the game by those most closely involved. The postmortem offers an in dept hbirds eye view of the real life development of the game; from concept, to working prototype, to pitching at the 'GDC 2012' and its  further development to a 3-D game and beta testing. Interestingly we are also given an insight into how the development teams were put together fusing experienced developers from large corporations with their indie team.             The feeling that what went 'right' were their efforts to design a weird, quirky game with interesting characters and player testing constantly, which provided great feedback. The complicated and daunting task of development is concisely explored and explained in a language that most laymen could understand. There were inevitably some

Learning Challenge Time: Review your schedule

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Source Link My approach to time management for this class is okay but it could be a lot better. I need to start getting up earlier and plan on doing more work in the morning time when I don't have lectures or labs. Some days I'm not into two in the day and most of the time I have done nothing at all. I usually do all my work for college after I'm done for the day which is normally after three or four. This is not including lab time work of course. I feel that I need to review my schedule for this module because I simply cannot get what I want done by when I want it done. I'm never usually late for an assignment because I don't eave it to the last minute but I'm still not doing well when it comes to managing my time for this module. My problem is that I don't take into account how long something will realistically take me to do. If i'm struggling with something it will always take me a while to get it done properly.                   Next week I th

Growth Mindset Challenge: Explore the Random Growth Mindset Cats

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Source Link I chose this particular image because it's completely true. In order to learn and grow as a student you must make mistakes so you know whats wrong and how you can get it right. Making a mistake allows you to learn more effectively as a student. The image states, "Mistakes provide the next lesson", which is accurate because once you make a mistake you can move knowing that you will probably never make that particular mistake again. If you get something right on the first try, your not really learning nearly as much if it took you a few attempts to achieve your desired goal because your not getting constructive feedback which will enable you to do better in the future. Source Link I chose this image because it demonstrates an accurate representation on how I can sometimes feel about receiving feedback. Often I am not looking forward to getting feedback because I'm worried that it might be only negative feedback. What you have to remember is tha

Tech Task: New blog look

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Just to let you guys know I have changed the appearance of my blog. It was using a basic orange color schemed blog template before but, now I have updated it to a more modern, attractive look. I have also changed the fonts too. They now appear more stylistic than before which, I feel looks much better.            I changed my profile picture too. Before I had no image whatsoever and now I have a brand new image of my dog. For the new theme I chose one which features nature, as I love nature and plants. There is a  muted orange background in contrast to the dark green heading background. I feel that it looks much more up to date and it features my personal aesthetic. Please let me know what you think of the new look by commenting down below! Thanks. Source Link Who Likes the new look?