Unity Tutorial 4

Hello and welcome to my blog post about my fourth unity tutorial :)

To start off the tutorial was going great, I was working away and really enjoying it. I found it very easy to follow it along. I loved the fact it was spread over different weeks too it left me feeling excited to see what was to come and how would we go about doing it and even what we were going to do. I think the tutorials are really helpful and I hope I can implement the things I am doing into my game. I am still very nervous when it comes to actually make the games.

When it came to the second part and having to do it yourself with a few hints, again like in the second unity tutorial I found it really difficult. It was really confusing me, and I didn’t even know where to start. I’m not sure why none of the things I am doing is going into my head. I wish they were it would make this whole thing easier. I tried to start it without the hints, but it didn’t work. I then tried the hints and I was still confused as ever so last resort I looked up a YouTube video to see if I could find a tutorial. Thankfully I did and ended up following it and once I was showed what to do, I understood it more. This is the second time I couldn’t do the challenge one and it’s disappointing really. Thank god there are plenty of tutorials out there or I wouldn’t be able to make my actual game for this module. Hopefully, if I keep working on my coding skills and watching more videos it’ll help me get better and eventually, I can do it by myself.

Hope everyone enjoys their reading week!

Image Caption: Screenshot from the challenge

-Megan

Game Vision Statement

Introduction:

To start off my game is called “Drive Baby Drive!” I came up with the idea during brainstorming a few weeks ago. It suddenly came to my head as I don’t have much gaming experience and the ones I do are mostly simple games that I played when I was younger or games available on the app store! So when it came to my head I was very happy, I thought it was doable with the skills and time I have! The game will be set in a rural setting. There will be a road and you will have to avoid obstacles on the road. You can, of course, drive off-road but there will be more things to crash into. While driving you have to collect coins and the majority of coins will be on the road but some will be off-road to make it harder. There will be a timer counting down and you will have to collect the coins in the time. The car will be going fast to make it harder.

Gameplay:

You spawn at the same point every time you start the game. When the game starts you will see it count down from 3 when it counts down you will be able to start your game. The timer will start counting down. You will need to collect all the coins before the timer runs out in order to win. You will have to avoid obstacles placed all around the track. If you hit obstacles its game over. If you don’t collect enough coins in the game before the timer runs out it is also game over. If you win there will be an end win screen saying you’ve won and if you lose there will be an end screen saying you’ve lost.

Key Features:

The key features of the game are as follows.

• Driving a car around a track
• Avoiding obstacles that are on the track
• Collecting coins along the way.
• Doing it in a certain time limit.
• If you collect the coins in the time limit you win.
• If you crash or fail to collect the coins you lose.

Game Genre:

The genre of the game would be a mix of racing and vehicle simulator. I would mix the two as you aren’t racing other people but you are still racing against the clock and trying to complete the requirements during that time. It’s like if you were to mix temple run and a car game.

Platforms:

As I am only a beginner this game will only be playable on a PC/Laptop.

Resources required:

I will need to use various different resources for the game, I aim to get them from the asset store. I have researched different ones and I will be getting a skybox, different materials for the ground so it’ll look more real. I also will be getting the car from there, the collectables and the obstacles. They really have an array of items available on it. I want to add trees too so I will get them from the asset store too.

Link(s) to sources:

I will be using different YouTube tutorials in order to help me make this game. I have done a lot of research and I think I have everything I need for any of the element to be added to the game correctly. I suspect I might need more or if I get through them and some aren’t up to scratch or aren’t the best I will browse YouTube for more as there are so many available. Below are links to different videos I will use.

This video I found really useful. Of course, I didn’t sit down and watch the whole six hours yet but I aim to watch it when making the game. I skipped through different bits and he goes through how to make the basic racing game, which includes a track, a countdown, timer and working cars. It also includes terrain at different levels to make it more interesting. I will probably use that to make sure at different parts you can’t go outside the track. Maybe even to build a jump for the car to go on. 

This video seems really useful to make the coins make a sound when you collect them. It also shows how to display how many coins you’ve collected onscreen. I think this is really useful as I will be displaying how many coins you have collected.

Another video I am watching is this one. This video shows you how to collect coins and make them disappear after collecting them! I want this to happen to avoid collecting a coin twice so I will use this. 

They are the main videos I am using in order to make this game.

Concept Art:

Below is a quick sketch of an idea I had for the map of the track. Also a sketch of the coin and obstacles.

Sketches I did of different things I want in my game.

-Megan

Unity Tutorial 03

This is my blog post about our third tutorial in Unity3D!

This tutorial went great, it was super easy to follow and everything went well. After how last week’s went and I having to go onto YouTube on how to do the second half of it I was not looking forward to doing this weeks. But, alas it was great! I found it very easy to keep up with him. I also figured out how to put the video small in the corner thanks to Ania! It made it much easier! All you need to do it left click on the video once you’ve clicked into it and click enter picture in picture and boom! So much easier than switching back and forth! I’m probably really late to this but hey, better late than never!

I think I learned really interesting things that hopefully I can use when it comes to making my actual game! I really liked the spawning idea. Not sure where I could use it in my game but I will definitely think about it when it comes to making it. I think it was really cool to learn you can make sure the character doesn’t fall off the edge! I might incorporate that into my game too! It would definitely be a handy tool so they don’t just fall off. Overall I enjoyed doing this tutorial and I am now looking forward to beginning to make my game even more now!!

Image Caption: Screenshot I took as I finished making my game

-Megan

Games MDA

This week as a part of the reading task I read Design, Dynamics, Experience (DDE): An Adventure of the MDA Framework for Game Design and I watched Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design.

After reading the paper Design, Dynamics, Experience (DDE): An Adventure of the MDA Framework for Game Design by Wolfgang Walk, Mark Barret and Daniel Gorlich, and watching Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design by The Last Bacon it is evident that they identifies many interesting points throughout the paper including all about the MDA framework and the DDE framework. In this Blog I aim to address these points in greater detail.

Image Source
Caption: MDA Framework

To begin the authors begins to define what the MDA framework is they state that it was designed and introduced by Robin et al. They state that it was introduced to “clarify and strengthen the iterative process of developers, scholars and researchers alike”. The MDA framework has become the main approach to game design. It is something that is “well cited” and seen a lot in academia. MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. Mechanics meaning particular components of games, dynamics is the run-time behaviour of said mechanics acting on player inputs and aesthetics are the desirable emotional response.

The MDA framework was criticised and challenged in 2015 and 2016. The different authors that posted these papers identified two major weaknesses, “It neglects many design aspects of games, focusing too much on game mechanics. It is (therefore) not suitable for all types of games, including particularly gamified content or any type of experience-oriented design (as opposed to functionality-oriented design)” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich). MDA also fails to provide a coherent approach for narrative design. This is because design cannot fit underneath any of the terms (MDA).

In the paper they proposed a new framework called DDE. It is three new pillars of Design, Dynamics and Experience. The DDE framework is an attempt to overcome several weaknesses of the MDA framework. With three main categories and many subcategories which are based on what needs to be “produced during the design and development of a computer or video game as well as what the role of any produced asset will be during the production process or game experience.” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich).

Image Source
Caption: DDE Framework

The Design category will include Blueprint, mechanics and interface. Blueprint has the world descriptions, style and prototypes. Mechanics have the game code. Finally, the interface has functional and content. The DDE framework is still being work on. It will go through further changes in the future. “If Design involves planning all of the parts of a car, as well as assembling those parts, Dynamics defines what happens when the engine start sand all of those parts work together: the pistons, crankshaft and valves of the motor; the gearbox; the suspension and springing of the seats–even the road, weather, driving style, tremor of the steering wheel, mechanical noises, and the song on the car stereo are part of the Dynamics” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich). Finally, for Experience, the experience could begin as early as when the player first learns about the game or even when they instal it. Experiences include such subcategories as senses which has an organoleptic journey, cerebellum which has an emotional journey, cerebrum which has an intellectual journey. They all then go to Play-subject which has a first receptionist and then that goes to Perception which has gameplay, personal challenge, fun, beauty, story and leisure time.

This is a link to a third article that might be an interesting read also to do with similar topics! 

-Megan

Feedback Strategies

Image Source
Image caption: two animated people with feedback written on top

 This week we had to read two articles about giving feedback! I chose to read Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" and How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk.

I first read Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!". It made me realise I was definitely a child that was told "good job" too much, I grew up needing the praise from others and wanting to please. I don't think it was done on purpose, I think my parents or teachers genuinely thought it was helping me. To this day I think I still am affected by it and do like to be told I'm doing something well. It's something I'm trying to work on and something that I cringe at when I realise what's happening. 

I really did learn a lot throughout the article and it made me realise why saying "good job" is not a great thing, even for adults. I really liked the suggestions instead of saying "good job!" Especially the last suggestion on talking less and asking more, it really does make a lot of sense.

The second article was How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk. I myself wouldn’t be great at giving feedback. I don’t want to tell people something and hurt their feelings. Especially if it’s not too great but they’ve poured their heart into it. It’s just not me. I think it goes back to I wouldn’t want people to do it to me. Reading this article I think I definitely learned points from it. I really liked the method of taking yourself off the pedestal, and again I think if someone was to break bad feedback to me that way it wouldn’t hurt as much as it sounds like they really want to help and understand where I’m coming from. Another thing I liked about the article was to be as transparent as possible and not to be manipulative.

Overall I think I learned a lot about giving feedback and hopefully, I will now be able to put these into place when it comes to giving feedback from now on. I looked forward to week 5’s feedback task and have seen that we have to give feedback to people in the class so I will be putting it into effect sooner than I thought! I am nervous but will definitely be looking back at the different articles I have read for tips!

Game Idea Research

Image source
Image caption: Unity logo

This blog post is about my game idea! I decided to go with my game idea called "Drive Baby Drive!". I picked this game as I thought it would be the easiest one to achieve and upon doing further research, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to follow and to help me make the game! Here are some of the tutorials that I found; "Collecting Coins in Unity - Beginner Tutorial || Mini Ep 2", "HOW TO CREATE A COUNT DOWN TIMER IN C# UNITY TUTORIAL" and here is a playlist on how to create your first game on unity; "HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST GAME IN UNITY". The playlist was made by a YouTuber who has loads of different tutorials up on his channel! I can see his channel becoming my favourite place. 

The game is a car game, you would have to drive the car around the track and collect coins along the way. You would have to avoid obstacles like fire and other things I will place around the track. You will have to collect a certain amount of coins to complete the game. There will be a timer and if you don't collect the coins in that time the game will be over. It will be a 3D game of course. To lose the game you will have to either crash into an object you're not meant to touch, not collect the coins in the said amount of time or crash into the surrounding area. Below are three game mechanics.

Image source 
Image caption: Car driving game similar to what I hope to do

Rewards and Collectables:

Having a rewards system in my game will make the player want to continue to play it. If this wasn't in it then there might not be any motivation to play said game. I know from playing Super Mario/Kart the sense of coming first in the tournament and getting the trophy or even in Super Mario when you can collect more coins meaning you get an extra life! You can also collect the big star coins, there are three per level and the pure adrenalin you get from trying to get them is immense. It really makes you want to play the game. In the tutorial “Collecting Coins in Unity - Beginner Tutorial || Mini Ep 2” It runs through how to make a coin, and in really simple terms and it’s really easy to follow it. I will definitely be using this to make my coins in the game. Once the player drives into the coin, the coin should disappear. 

I also want to aim to be able for the coin to make a noise when it is collected. “Unity Tutorial | Coin Pickups, Sound effect and UI” This tutorial will come in handy not only does it go through how to out a sound effect on the coin, but it also shows you how to create text on the screen. This will display how many coins you have collected. I plan on adding this to the game in order to keep track of how many are collected. 

Obstacles: 

I stated in my game idea that I would have game obstacles in the game. I now have researched specific obstacles and there are some great ones out there! I went browsing the asset store and on YouTube to see what I could come up with. In the game you will have to avoid these obstacles and if you crash into them the game is over. I have found different tutorials on how to make buildings but also free buildings on the asset store. The ones on the asset store would come in handy as then I could spend more time on the code instead of making the buildings. I wasn’t sure if I’d have just a wall surrounding the area or a fence but then I thought of placing buildings to make it more interesting and then when the car crashes into them the game is over. My plan is to only have the buildings in one part of the course. Other obstacles I am thinking of is a fire hydrant, trees, other cars and fire. The first three are available on the asset store for free. For the fire there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube like this one. I will continue researching and brainstorming to see if I can think of any more obstacles to add as I think it’ll be more fun if there are more! It gives the user more of a reason to keep playing, if they lose the first few rounds because they crashed they will be determined to won then and try to avoid the obstacles.

Timer:

Another big thing in the game is the timer. I was on the fence about including a timer, but I think it’ll make it more interesting and make people want to play the game more. In the game you would have to get certain about of coins before the timer goes to zero. I still haven’t decided on a time, I think this would have to be done when the game is near finished as I won’t know how much time you would need to complete the game. I imagine it’ll take a few trial and errors in order to figure this out. Obvioulsy, there is no point putting in the timer for two minutes if it’s easily done in that time, on the other side no point putting the timer for 20 seconds if it’s impossible done.

I am really excited to see how I end up making the game, of course, I have plans but there will always be something that comes up out of the blue but I’m excited to see what is to come.

-Megan

Unity Tutorial 02

Hello!! This is my blog about the 2nd tutorial on Unity 3D!

The tutorial started off great, I found it very easy to follow along. The tutorials are proving really helpful and I would like to think I am learning. I really liked how by the end that the car was able to actually swerve around the boxes and not just crash into them! It definitely does make me nervous looking at all the code and everything to see how am I going to do this in a game by myself without instructions.

When I started on “Challenge 1 & Quiz Plane Programming” I found this very difficult. Although the tutorials were easy to follow when doing this almost alone I found it hard. Even with the hints on the bottom, I found it very difficult. I tried it at the start by myself without the hints but just couldn’t remember how to do many of the things even having done all previously. I then looked at the hints and again I couldn’t get my head around them. I ended up getting really stuck and had to look up a YouTube video on how to do it. I’m definitely going to have to spend more time on the tutorials and maybe even watching and doing them a good few times. This is a downfall as I really thought I was getting on good with Unity and was ready to start my game even just doing the basics. Not a major problem though, I can work through it and even if all goes there seems to be plenty of help online when it comes to the code and how to do things in Unity.

I feel like I am already going back on myself from my last post saying I was excited to begin my game and to see what I can do. I can now definitely see myself crying over trying to make the game.

Hopefully, all will go better next week and I might even get some practice in before then! Thanks for reading.

-Megan

Photo Source
Photo Caption: Person holding Xbox remote

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback is something that has scared me throughout my life. The idea of getting negative or even constructive criticism never sat right with me. This almost sounds like I'm full of myself but I most definitely am not. I think it's down to me actually trying my best and not being great at it. Throughout my teen years in school, my best was somebody not even trying or their average which led to perceive me at not trying. I do think I am much better at receiving feedback now and often do look for it wherever I can.

I read two articles on feedback and rejection and the following is my thoughts on them along with my own personal experience with the two.

Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head

Image Source
Image caption: chalkboard with "feedback" written on it.

The first article I read was "Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head". I really enjoyed this article and found myself relating to Rajeev. I do often seek feedback from peers or lectures on how to improve and I would always just want "what can I do better?" rather than "I did this well". It's very hard to take the positives in, often find myself giving excuses as to how I did it well, as described in the article. Even when it comes to assignments I often give up as I think I won't be able to do it and I've accepted passing by 1% before I've even submitted. Then the majority of the times it's not even the case, I just always cut myself short. I am looking forward to the feedback session for this module from our Lecturer Shaun. I am going to ask about where I can improve but also what I did well and I will try to focus on the things I am doing well more than the ways I can improve. I am definitely going to take the four steps into consideration as much as I can and hopefully as the years go on I won't be so negative on myself. 

Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it.

The next article I read was "Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it". I definitely took notes from this article as I badly need to learn how to deal with rejection. I get the feeling of being rejected far too easily even sometimes when I haven't even been rejected. My brain is automatically wired to think "God another rejection no one likes you". It is for sure something I need to work on and do try to any time it does happen. I am going to use the methods read in this article. What I did learn though is everyone feels rejection and I'm not the only one sat over here upset because I was rejected. I also learned it can be platonic or in a romantic way. If I heard the word rejection I would always think of it in a romantic way. I found it very interesting that the way out brains are wired it feels like we have been physically hurt when rejected, and it all makes sense really. Maybe the next time I'm rejected I should ask what did I do well instead of how did I mess this up?? (This is a joke referring to the top article lol) Next time I am rejected I definitely will try to think positively and talk to friends who do love and appreciate me!! 

Overall I enjoyed both articles and learned a lot from both of them! 

-Megan

Game Brainstorm

Jump!

My first game idea is based on games I have played in the past. I have stated many times I'm not much of a gamer but I would dabble in various iPhone games. They were all pretty simple, I don't remember a specific game like this but some others sort of like it. So you are playing as a ball and you're rolling along the platform. The aim of the game is to jump to avoid the obstacles. They will be little spikes coming out of the ground. There will be an option to jump onto a higher platform where you need to collect the one coin you need to win. If you finish the game without collecting the coin you lose. I want to make a simple enough game as unity can be hard so I don’t want to try and achieve something that is completely out of my reach. I have looked up different ball games and I didn’t come across anything like this made with unity. I did find some similar on the play store but it was 2D. I’m sure there are more out there but I didn’t come across them during my research. In my experience games like this are highly addictive. It’s like when "flappy bird" came out, the game was so simple but people became so addicted trying to beat their high score and friends scores. I hope this game would come out well and I am excited to see it unfold if I do decide to go with this idea. This one would have to be one of my favourite ideas. Below is the image of the 2D game I found on the play store. I love the idea of having a face on it but when it comes to the final design I won’t decide on it now. This link is to a video where it is similar to my idea but it is 2D. I found this while researching.

Image Source
Image Caption: Ball on platform rolling collecting coins.

Don't Crash!

My next game idea is a car game. I'm not sure where I came up with it but while I was researching and thinking of different games to make and of course car games were the first genre I thought of. They’re so popular! I think it could’ve come from a particular Mario Kart 8 course on the Nintendo Switch! There’s a course where you do about seven laps of it and it’s an oval. Majority of other courses on the game you just do the usual three laps. So, my idea would be you have an oval track and you have to drive around it and avoid crashing into different obstacles placed all around the track. The car will be going fast in order to make it harder. If you can make it around the course then you win! I’m unsure if it’ll be making it around the course just once or maybe twice. There will be many obstacles to avoid making it harder. Below is an image of the course “baby park” that features on Mario Kart 8. I think it’s a really interesting idea and I would hope it would come out good. I think I would have the camera overhead instead of in the car, that way we actually get to see the car. I think the overall aesthetics would look better that way. I would have a black platform to make it look like a road. I would then get a car (obviously) and use that for the game. There would be no lives, the second you crash into an obstacle then the game is over and you can try again. I think this would also be a very addicting game. I would have a start/ finish line in the game to make it look more authentic. I couldn't find any game like this one online, I could've been searching for the wrong things but nothing would come up so the closest I could find was to this Baby Park run-through of the level.

Image Source
Image caption: Picture of "baby park" from above.

Collect Them All!

My third game idea is not like the first two. This time there is a person on a platform and the aim is to collect all the coins in a particular time limit. You would have to walk/run around the area and swerve around different items in order to collect all the coins to win. I am aiming for 25 coins in 30 seconds. This is just an estimate I would figure out the exact numbers when making the game if I decide to go with this idea. The camera would be the first person in order to make it harder to see where the coins are. They will be scattered all around the area. There will be border walls around the outside of the area to stop the player from falling. Once you collect all the coins you win. You can die in the game by running into some of the obstacles for example the fire or if you run into the outside border. I came up with this idea from seeing Super Mario 3D world. It is a typical Mario game but the camera is overhead. I was going to put it overhead but then you would see the coins so I thought to use that but put it in the first person so it makes it harder. I think this game would be challenging in order to collect all the coins in the time frame. I will have to test it many times to see how doable it is because I definitely don’t want to create a game that you can’t win in. It will be very interesting to see what I could do with this game as I think if it’s done right it’ll be very fun. This link of Super Mario 3D World for Nintendo seems really promising. Of course, my game won’t even be near what Mario 3D world is like but it is a good example of what I plan to make but MUCH simpler.

Photo source
Image caption: Mario and Toad running around a level in Mario 3D world

Drive Baby Drive!

My final game idea is another car game. The aims are a bit different though. You would have to drive your car around the area of the level to collect coins and to avoid obstacles. It is kind of a mix of the two previous games. I would put a time limit on it as well. You have to get around the course and collect so many coins during that time to win. To lose the game you would either not finish the game in time, not collect enough coins or drive off the edge. That makes it a bit more interesting without something stopping the driver from falling off the edge. I think this would be an interesting game to play. This is the game that I think would have the most work to do with it. Which doesn’t make me want to choose it any less which is good! I think because I would have to do the time, the coins and the course and then to add in the coding in order so they all work. I could be wrong but I imagine it would be. You can also jump in the car over the obstacles so you won’t hit them and crash. I think this game would be somewhat similar to the game I want to make, obviously with some differences. I would have the camera overhead like in that game as I think it will make it somewhat easier as if it’s in the first-person point of view you might not see the edge and always be falling off it which wouldn’t be too fun. Below is another image from a game I think could end up similar to the game I plan on making. I think this came would be really exciting to make and would definitely test my skills and knowledge of unity. Hopefully one of these games will work out for me, I’m excited to get into it more.

Image Source
Image Caption: Car driving collecting coins.

Unity Tutorial 01

 Hello! 

I have just finished my first unity tutorial and although I have said previously how nervous I was to start this, it was actually fine. I know it's only the start but I actually really enjoyed it. I've stated I have made a game before in my PLC, well turns out I used unity, it was about three years ago though so I don't remember everything. I do remember some basics and the interface is familiar to me and that really helps. 

Starting out with my MacBook was hard due to just having a trackpad, but thankfully my sister has a Bluetooth mouse so that came in handy! I will definitely be using that from now on. It is so much easier to work with it. 

I really enjoyed making the game and I am excited to keep going with it and see if I can follow it. I found the tutorials really easy to follow. Hopefully, it continues that way. I have a few game ideas up my sleeve already so that's exciting! I'm very surprised but also happy with how much I enjoyed it. It is really going to make the whole module easier once I am enjoying myself. It'll be really interesting to see how much different the game I end up making compared to the game I made in my PLC (if any).

I'm saying all this now, come back in three weeks when I'm sat in my room crying over this module (lol) 

Photo link
Photo caption: hands moving fast on a keyboard/mouse

-Megan

Game Design

What is a Game, Anyway?

After reading the paper What is a Game, Anyway? by Ian Schreiber, it is evident that he identifies many interesting points throughout the paper including the definition of a game, the weakness of the definition of a game and how simple it is to actually make a game. In this blog, I aim to address these points in greater detail.

To begin Schreiber highlights how similar some games are, yet they have different names and look rather different. It is when actually looking at them that you realise that they are similar. Schreiber states in response to being asked if these two games are the same, “The answer is, it depends on what you mean... which is why it is important to define what a “game” is!”.

Schreiber goes on to say that vocabulary may not be fun to or seem necessary to your game but it is, he states “because it gives us the means to talk about games”. Further on in the paper, it states that there are common elements to the majority of games. Of course, there are exceptions. most games have elements which include, rules, conflict, goals and are voluntary.

Schreiber states that some of the exceptions include puzzles, role-playing games and choose-your-own-adventure books. By definition, these wouldn’t come under the game umbrella. This would be the weakness of defining a game highlighting how it can be quite difficult to fit them all under one umbrella.

He then asks the reader “if you have never made a game before, it is time to get over your fear. You are going to make a game now. Take out a pencil and paper”. He describes different steps of how someone can. create a simple game. It is an activity that shows the simplicity of creating a  game and not a person should never fear creating a game or believe you can’t make one simply because you never have.

Link to this paper.

Four Basic Methods for Generating Ideas:

After reading the article Four Basic Methods for Generating Ideas, it is evident that the author identifies many critical points throughout the paper. These include Concentration, Brainstorming, Scamper and Ramsey. In this blog, I aim to address these points in greater detail.

To begin the author goes into detail about each different method of generating an idea. They start off with, he discusses concentration. He states “This method is the most common, and we are all able to use it, without any training. You merely think until you have an idea.”. Of course, this is true, it is the most basic way to come up with an idea. He then states that by changing your surrounding environment will help generate more ideas. It is as simple as working from a new room or even taking a different route when walking.

He then goes on to say that brainstorming “is the most common and well-known method in the industry.”. This is an interesting fact as many people would have already used this method throughout their time in education. There are three stages of brainstorming; statement of task, generation of ideas and grouping and selection. The three stages all have different tasks in each and involve groups of people in them.

Scamper is next on the topic of discussion. The author says that “It is a straightforward and convenient method”. It is a good method to use when you are don’t enjoy the genre or it is unknown to you. This method is broken down into seven different methods, substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put, eliminate and reverse. These are all about changing a small factor in the game.

Finally, the last thing discussed is the Ramsey method. This is the most difficult method. The author states that the theory is “if you take a significant amount of information and start looking at it closely and manically, you can find new information or find inconspicuous links.”. The aim of this method is to get the maximum information available on said topic needed. You then analysis it and look for “hidden connotations and imperceptible connections in it until the concept of the game is collected from these pieces.”. You will only get this right if you collect enough information about the topic and if you spend enough time studying the information.

Link to this paper.

Image link
Caption: hands holding a piece of paper with 3 light bulbs with "Idea" written on it.

A final paper that might be an interesting read!

Time Strategies

 You know it's bad when you procrastinate writing this blog post on time management... Not my best thing but hey, look at me... Who would've thought? Not me.

Welcome welcome! I need to work on how I start these things, make them more interesting. Put some spice into them. Anyways, I'm okay with time management well, I would like to think. Clearly, me just admitting I procrastinated this wasn't my best move. But hey we're living in the future. So, time management. Majority of the time I absolutely HATE being late or submitting late it's just something that's inside of me. My Dad is the same he always gets there early, my Mam on the other hand? Disaster. She'll tell you she's five minutes away and she hasn't even left yet. Putting them two personalities together and boom you have me. Does this even fall into the category of time management? unsure but we'll trek on anyway. 

I'm trying to keep on time with everything as much as I can this semester and get everything done a few days before it is due, this will leave me less stressed. I hope to keep to my schedule for this module and for every module this semester. I will always look back at it and amend where I need to if I figure out that it's just not working for me

So I read two of the articles (I know the bare minimum look at me go). I picked How to Beat Procrastination (Ironic I know) and How Checklists Train Your Brain to be More Productive and Goal Orientated. I do love checklists so I thought it was the perfect one.

How to Beat Procrastination:

So what I learned from this article is to visualise the task that needs to be done which I can see why that needs to be done, I will definitely try this it seems helpful. Also to give yourself a treat when doing something you don't like, which again makes sense. They gave an example of reading a trashy magazine at the gym to make it easier. I like the idea of an actual treat, maybe then I'd get as excited as my dog Chomp when I say the word "treat". They also suggested to pre-commit publicly and I stand by this! I do this all the time I will put on my close friend's story on Instagram that only 23 of my close friends can see. They hold me accountable if I don't update about what I'm doing. That's how I kept going with my knitting over quarantine so would definitely recommend this method!

How Checklists Train Your Brain to be More Productive and Goal Orientated:

This article was really interesting! I mentioned above that I love lists but never knew why and now it makes sense! I learned that smaller goals are more achievable and often lead to getting the bigger goals accomplished. When crossing off something from a list a hormone called dopamine, this makes sense as to why I love lists the satisfaction of crossing something off or checking it literally makes me happy, the idea of that makes me laugh. Something so simple can make someone happy. I also learned that I experience gamification every day, I have a smartwatch and it shoots fireworks and looks cool when I have walked/ran 10,000 steps and I literally will walk around outside at 11:50 at night just to get the 10,000 steps and then I can go to sleep happy. 

With that all being said, this is the last task of week two and I'm absolutely buzzing. One thing I have learned from all these blogs is I am shocking bad at spelling (which I should've already known) but didn't realise the extent. Thank god for Grammarly correcting me every five seconds. I have also realised that sometimes when I'm typing my keyboard will randomly add a "." after a word and I'm not sure why. So, I do apologise if one has snuck in somewhere without me seeing it. See you for week 3.

Photo link
Photo caption: A photo of a clock, a visual representation of time.

-Megan

Technology Tools and Me!

Hello!! Welcome back to my blog! This post is going to be about technology tools we’re using in this module and my thoughts on them. 

So, we’re nearly at the end of week 2 and so far, I’m feeling good. We haven’t gotten too many assignments to do so not sure how long this feeling will last for. This module, we have been given tasks and of course, this is one of them. I’m finding the tasks good and the fact they're spread out across the week is great. Anyways, I am rambling on as per usual. We are using a good few different technology tools, such as Blogging (of course), Bookmarking, Image Editing, Graphics Creation, Padlet, Unity3D and WordPress.
Starting off with the ones I already like/ am excited about using.
I do enjoy blogging, I’m nervous for when it comes to the academic writing on the blogs as my academic writing wouldn’t be the best but hopefully, I can improve this throughout this module! Other than that, I am really enjoying blogging and find it a fun task to do. I do tend to ramble on but hey it could be a lot worse.
Bookmarking is something I like to do; I have a good few bookmarks and this is just because it makes it so handy to find pages again or just saves you typing in the URL. I have blogger and the CDM online website bookmarked, makes it so much easier to get to the sites.
I am excited to see what image editing we do as we had done some editing of images last year and I really enjoyed myself!
Creating our own graphics seem like fun too! It would be interesting to see how you can create your own!
I love Padlet! I love to see when lecturers pull it out because everything is anonymous and if they’re asking a question you don’t feel stupid answering. Or if they want us to ask questions you don’t feel like you’re asking a stupid question!
I have heard of WordPress but have never used it so that would be exciting to learn a new tool and how it works!
I’m somewhat nervous about using Unity3D as I have stated in a previous blog post. I’m not confident when using it, hopefully using it often will help me become more confident using it and I can create something great on it.

Image Link

Photo Caption: iPhone, Apple Watch, notebook and pen lying flat on a table

That's all for now, Thanks for reading!!

-Megan