I’ve started this week just after participating on my first gaming Jam. Consequently, I’m filled with some good experiences about time/scope and with a lot of ambitions. This first prototype session will be challenging to try to put everything together and deal with my own expectations. My goal is to have some contact with 3D, Shaders(LearnOpenGL – Shaders, no date) and Post-processing (Everything you need to know about Post-processing in Unity | by Vinícius Medeiros Cirne | Medium, no date)
Recent experience
I’ve just participated in this Gaming Jam. This was my first experience. I had contact with a lot of mixed feelings. I felt proud, frustrated, in a panic sometimes, and happy at the end. And I failed to finish a game. This was the most important part at this time. This feeling was new and hard to deal with. I’m used to knowing my limitation on my daily duties, mainly because I have some experience and a lot of arrogance.
I struggled to produce the basic character controls and had a very bad time finishing and trying to publish the project. However, I learned so much and this was kind of comforting. My main outcome was realizing the importance of preparation and to reduce the scope. I’ve heard before that was really important but I didn’t realize that until live it. The time constraint and my own time limitations represented an important aspect. I finished wishing to have more time. But my final thoughts were extremely positive.
Setting up my goals
In my first prototype session, I want to be very technical and humble. I’m want to try:
- Shaders, actually I didn’t know what it was for the past two weeks. I found it an utterly useful tool to create nice visual effects. I’m heavily influenced by the capacities of this.
- I want to finish a prototype that has some controls and uses 3D and lights more than focus on the interaction.
I’m not focusing on the code side, I reality I’m kind of avoiding it, I found it so time-consuming on my first Gaming Jam. Part of my frustration came by the fact that I have a learning path to work properly with coding on Unity, my tool of choice at this moment. And It will take some time. I’ll setup a goal in the future for that. But I’ll need more time.
About preparation
Luckily I had some time recently to prepare myself before the Game Jam and for this session so I spend some time producing some sketches and setting up a “Kanban.”
For the sketches:
For Kanban [insert here]. I’m using it because I feel easy and, It’s already part of my daily duties and I’ll try to use some of Pomodoro Techinique for my time management. The configuration of my kanban is the simpler possible, and not so advanced like the Toyota inspirations.
To deal with my lack of knowledge on all those topics I’ll use youtube tutorials [shame on me] because It’s fast and I don’t want to spend much time learning.
Challenges and expectations
I’m expecting some free time for the next feel weeks, everything is controlled at my work. On the project side I just want to have some contact with my goals, and I’m not expecting to master anything at the moment. If I have a finished 3D prototype at the end I’ll be very happy.
I added on my goals at the Trello a bonus. To try make my life more interesting: sound’s. This is something that I don’t have any idea of how deal with.
References
Creating A Post-Processing Framework: (no date). Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130229/creating_a_postprocessing_.php (Accessed: 3 January 2021). Everything you need to know about Post-processing in Unity | by Vinícius Medeiros Cirne | Medium (no date). Available at: https://medium.com/@vinicius.cirne/everything-you-need-to-know-about-post-processing-in-unity-72b09534ac38 (Accessed: 3 January 2021). LearnOpenGL – Shaders (no date). Available at: https://learnopengl.com/Getting-started/Shaders (Accessed: 3 January 2021).
Lucas Souza 