So my capstone course group found out this week what our project will be: Breakout! For those unfamiliar, it’s a game in which you control a paddle to make a ball hit and destroy blocks.

I’m actually really excited about this project. We get to learn how to create games with Unity for this project. I’d love to create my own game at some point down the line for fun and it’s exciting to think I’ll be learning the tools to do just that. Additionally, game development is a great career path and presumably will be for the foreseeable future. And it’s fun! Who wants to create an exercise app when you can create something you can play?

Plus, we will be utilizing machine learning so we can play against the computer. Machine learning (ML) is one thing I didn’t learn in this program and is something I want to learn more about. Because I’m a firm believer that ML and AI are the future. Whether that future is good and AI helps us to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges, or if it simply puts everyone out of work (I’m looking at you, WALL-E), is yet to be seen. But it’s exciting nonetheless.

So- the actual project. I’m surprised how easy Unity looks to be to start working with. No, we haven’t started coding yet, but from some YouTube videos, it looks straightforward to get started, especially for a 2D game. The neat thing about Unity is they have a bunch of free and cheap packs with prebuilt terrains, pictures, sprites and any other visual aspects you may need for a game. Meaning one person could create a full game in their spare time without the need to hire graphics designers.

This weekend we will make our Project Plan where we will map out our weekly sprints. As the game itself shouldn’t be too challenging, we want to devote at least 4 weeks (if possible) to the ML part, as none of us have any experience with that.

Other than that, I’m balancing school, work, exercise and my social life well enough. If you got this far, thanks for reading and keep crushing whatever you’re doing. I’ll see you next time.