Month: September 2020

GAM 150 Week 1 – First Steps with Unity and Flappy Bird

Posted on by SAMSON CROUCHER

For the first week of GAM150, we discussed broad topics such as the definition of a game as well as the role of a games designer within an industry context. I have also been given a Unity project containing a Flappy Bird (2013) game to modify over the coming weeks

I really enjoyed the group activities during the game design workshop. It was good to meet other design students and discuss what it meant to be a games designer, as well as the skills that are required for the job. I feel that we came away from the discussion having all learnt from each other. The act of defining a game is still difficult, but it was interesting to hear various professional outlooks, and I was surprised by how much they varied. In extra-curricular time, I went back over the PowerPoint to watch some of the videos we didn’t have time for and found the ‘So You Want To Be a Game Designer’ YouTube video (Extra Credits, 2012) to be informative. I like how they put emphasis on the fact that you should have a range of knowledge and experiences outside of the world of games as it is all transferable and applicable to the experiences you want to create for players.

When I first played the Flappy Bird (2013) game provided, my mind ran through all of the possible enhancements and changes that could be made. My current ideas include:

  • Changing the movement system. The player could swing or fling themselves through the pipes instead of ‘flapping’.
  • Altering the scenery and objects to give the game a completely different atmosphere and aesthetic.
  • Creating power-ups which modify how the game is played.
  • Adding difficulty modes which change the frequency of obstacles and narrows the gaps you have to pass through.
  • Adding sound effects to enrich the experience.

Of course, to implement any of these ideas I will need to become comfortable with using Unity. I have started watching tutorials and checking out the Unity Learn website (Unity) to teach myself. I am becoming familiar with key elements of the engine, but still have a way to go before I can implement meaningful change into the game. In the meantime, I have been making small tweaks to the game such as changing the jump height and lowering gravity. I enjoy experimenting with the project and seeing how that effects the player experience. As I understand, this tweaking and experimentation is a core part of the iterative process and I look forward to adding more significant changes as I learn more.

Tangentially, I have also been reading a useful book on the fundamentals of game design named Games Design and Play (Macklin and Sharp, 2016). In the long-term, this will help me to broaden my understanding of what is required from a games designer and the iterative process used to develop most games.

I look forward to continuing with this project over the coming weeks and getting involved with the upcoming Unity workshops. If I get stuck at all, I will be able to refer to more online tutorials or talk to Paul or Terry.

References:

Extra Credits. 2012. So You Want To Be a Game Designer – Career Advice for Making Games – Extra Credits [YouTube user-generated content]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvWMdWhFCc [accessed 27 September 2020].

Flappy Bird. 2013. dotGears.

MACKLIN, Colleen. and John SHARP. 2016. Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design. Boston, Ma ; San Francisco, Ca: Addison-Wesley.

UNITY. ‘Unity Learn – Supporting Home Learning during COVID-19’. Unity Learn [online] Available at: https://learn.unity.com [accessed 27 September 2020].