Category: Joy of Games

Adding Juice For this week we were to add a level of polish / juice to a previous assignment. I thought this week it could be fun to give the Mr Trash Wheel simulation assignment another design pass. In office hours Jane mentioned a couple things to look into in addition to prefabs of the different objects. One was how to make a mechanic that actually communicate that its water with objects in it as well as how to convey the “current” controller. Instead of getting deep into fluid dynamic papers Jane mentioned looking into Perlin noise and add force functions to help transfer motion when objects are hit. A lot of water physics and object buoyancy videos tutorial were centered around the law of the Archimedes Principle           

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Perlin Nosie & Buoyancy  When searching around for tutorials I eventually landed tutorial playlist to help with floating objects in water using Perlin noise (Ken Perlin was  a guest speaker in Applications class and also teaches at NYU / Future Reality Lab).  There was a small road bump in the actual tutorial code. They used ‘Dimension’ singular as a declared global variable but then referenced it as ‘Dimensions’ plural throughout the rest of the code. (easy to do!) After combing through a couple times I caught the discrepancy and decided to set both to ‘Dimensions’ and to get the first steps working.

Creating the mesh triangulation layer in a script (timecode: 5:16)

My mesh triangulation executed in Unity

However the tutorial code kept breaking after this point, maybe due to a Unity update? Or to an accidental grammar error on my part (will sift back through again later) So went on to try this tutorial out instead

Tutorial: Make a realistic boat in Unity with C#

in this tutorial Erik focuses on the idea of buoyancy. He referenced an article as an inspiration and that “The basic summary of the Gamasutra article is that you have to find out which parts of the boat is below the water. Then you should add a buoyancy force to those parts” . He mentions the fact that everything is built with triangles, and that even our cube gameObject is built out of triangles, 2 on each face. He also then broke down further how each triangle had 3 vertices:

“In Unity you have to deal with at least 2 arrays to control the triangles. One triangle consists of 3 so-called vertices that each has a coordinate in 3d-space like x,y,z. A vertice is a corner in the triangle. One array will store these. The other array will store in which order the vertices form a triangle. When you build a triangle in Unity you have to store the position of the vertices in the array so they form a clockwise loop through all the corners. If you happen to store them counter-clockwise the triangle will be inside out and you will not see it (you will see it if you move to the other side of the triangle).”

Important take aways:

2 arrays:

1. one to store the x,y,z coordinates
2. the other stores the order (must be in a clockwise loop or will be insideout)

Summary:

• The (cube) consists of triangles. But which are submerged?
  • “We need to find out if one of the triangles is submerged. If the entire triangle is below the water then we can just store it and add buoyancy to the entire triangle. But if only a part of the triangle is below the water, then we have to cut it in pieces and store the pieces that are below the water and add buoyancy to those pieces. It will look like this”

With just the BoatPhysics script on cube

This week for assignment #7 we were to create an interactive game or experience with the with context of an element from our Flavor of Joy Manifesto. Being newer to different game making platforms I decided to stick with the Unity engine we’ve been working on in class and start to think about mouse input, specifically how to get the cursor to interact with objects via Drag Mouse or Raycasts.

My Manifesto was partially inspired by exploratory games like Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch, Firewatch ( as well as thinking about objects like in Assemble With Care) where you can explore objects with a simple click and at your own pace. I was also inspired by the game we played in class during last week’s lecture, Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment.

I tried for a similar feel with a box of objects I keep at home.  I didn’t recreate all of contents but tried to include some variety of materials and objects like postcards, photos, pins, map and my childhood walkman. I think this sketch connects with the manifesto by underscoring the idea of everyday objects as possible portals for storytelling, as well as the possible slowness and range of speed of “chose your own pace”of exploration.

It makes sense that the camera angle and the rate at which an object is examined (and dropped) could affect the tone of the exploration. I tried experimenting with a more zoomed in and zoomed out framing. With my current Unity knowledge I think I like the Medium shot more in that it’s easier to place the objects back into the box. However, the more zoomed in intimacy it is nice in the closeup version, and makes it easier for exploring objects.

Exploring objects in the original games

Gone Home (Fulbright) 

What Remains of Edit Finch (Giant Sparrow) 

Fire Watch  (Campo Santo)

PUTROYSOTLDAYOA [Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment] 

Click Objects Tutorials 

• control the object orientation once clicked
  • to always read upright / or have an option for rotation
• could trigger audio when clicked or other interactions
• how to have a front and back of a postcard on the same GameObject?
  • can you have multiple materials for a GameObject in Unity? or does it have to be done in a 3d rendering software like Blender?
• Have a written story component like Packing Up the Rest of Your Stuff on the Last Day at Your Old Apartment in addition to any audio to make more accessible.
• Physics of objects & Creating your own Prefabs

This weekend my partner I  traveled down to Baltimore, MD for his best friend’s wedding. On our way down there we were talking about the various harbor restoration programs, including our favorite googly eyed friend, the inner harbor water wheel –  @Mr Trash Wheel! (See site here)

For homework this week we were to create a simulation, playing with the ideas addressed in class. Iterating off of previous homework of WASD controls and instantiation, I thought it could be fun to create a simple simulation of the beloved Mr Trash Wheel , protecting the Baltimore inner harbor and the ocean from rainstorm trash streams via the Jones Falls river. It’s been such a successful project that others have been installed in other locations too. A fourth wheel being added at the mouth of Gwynns Falls. 

more soon ❤ Thinking about things like Steve Swink’s Game Feel 

Recommended videos from our teacher Jane Friedhoff:

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020465/The-Physics-of-Fun-Vehicles

Inspired by Anni Alber’s weavings and patterns for level design. How to have the restricted color palette objects cast into a theme for the level. Ex: Sandy tone = a sand physics material or to have the yellow be construction barriers that when collided bring you back to the start. Would like to comb back through and add some collisions & triggers, as well as more complex gameObjects like hinge movements.

Anni Albers
Wallhanging, 1984
wool

Design Choices: 

• Yellow blocks as kill / restart zones 
  • for a signifier added stripes to look more like construction barriers
• Dark purple blocks
  • added physics material of bouncy to some
  • would like to make some hinges
• Light purple blocks 
  • visual misdirection (could use as a powerup strip and add sound fx) /
• White planes 
  • start & end
    • would like to add an onCollision or trigger
• Tan platform
  • physics material of sandy
    • slower zone
• White platform
  • physics material of icy
    • faster zone

References / Tutorials:  

• Creating a Mesh with the Polygon Shape too

• note that collision is a bump, trigger is an overlap

Continue reading “Joy of Games Assignment #1: Aesthetic Rulesets” →