Month: January 2021

Before this semester, I have been using Unity to develop mobile games. Since the adapter for mobile games can be installed on the computer, this means that if I want to develop a game that works on Android phones, I only need to download a mobile phone simulation on the computer. And pack the game files into Apk files. The advantage of this is that it allows programmers to quickly check whether there are loopholes in the game and modify them in time. For development teams with tight funds and no Android phones, they can also use mobile phone emulators to adapt games on various screens and operating systems. However, the test of the VR game made me feel uncomfortable. Although our professor gave us an Oculus quest for free for us to test the game, when the computer is connected to the Oculus quest, the computer’s CPU needs to run the unity program and perform the scene at the same time. Rendering, Oculus Linked data transmission also requires computer hardware to operate. As a result, my laptop is not perfect for game testing. When I set up a simple scene, the picture that Oculus quest saw was the same as the PPT, with a pitiful few frames. I didn’t think of this problem when I took over the VR game project.
Regarding the test of VR games, I tried two methods that take a lot of time this week. The first is to package the files in Unity and download them to Oculus Quest. This means that I have not performed a system test, I have to repeatedly package the file and download it. This took me a lot of time, and I had to choose the second way. The second way is to temporarily ignore the player’s game experience. I will simulate the game screen directly in the Unity engine. I transferred the way of character operation to the keyboard through script, which is a bit like developing a 3D game rather than a VR game. In order to better develop VR games, I decided to upgrade my laptop hardware next week, hoping that it can help me implement the program better.

This week I mainly tried to use oculus to connect to unity, and successfully connected the data in unity with the library in the team Github. During our weekly meeting, I discovered that we have a huge problem. We did not implement our project as planned in the last semester. The third semester of winter is about to pass, and the core gameplay of our VR game has not yet been determined. This is very fatal, which will affect the progress of filling the game frame later. If we implement our project according to our current schedule, we may not be able to complete the game project before the end of this semester. I often encountered such problems when developing game projects in the past. Game planners spent a lot of time discussing gameplay, background, and worldview. This will lead to unlimited delays in the development of the game. In the end, the project development team did not have a lot of time for game development, which would result in the finished game being the same as the quick product in the Game jam.
I think the best way to resolve disputes about the gameplay is for programmers to develop the game according to their plans at the same time. When the game is ready to run and try to play, the team will vote on the works of different gameplay so that the team can decide Which plan is eye-catching and can be effectively implemented. Although this approach will increase the workload of the development team, it can effectively judge the quality of different game solutions. But this method is impossible to implement in our team. As a game development team, we have a total of three members, and we act as game planners and developers at the same time. Our team has no experience in VR game development, so in a short period, we need to spend part of the time learning game development. This will cause the progress of game development to be shortened again. If we can complete a simple game demo before the fifth week of this semester, then the possibility of our game project is still very high.

I completed the Minigame project from Tencent during the winter vacation. Although our team did not win the first place, this is my first game. I am very happy that I can complete a minigame of my own before graduation. Although the game content and operation methods are somewhat simple, it took us nearly four months. I believe this project will help me in my resume and life experience. When working on this project, what impressed me the most was not when I was writing game code or drawing character models. A week has passed since the end of the project, and I still remember the interview after the project was completed. The interviewer asked me a very simple question. He asked me why I chose to work in the game industry. I had many official answers in my mind at the time, but I chose to be who I am. I told the interviewer that because I love games and I like the satisfaction and happiness that the game world brings to me, I hope to join a game design company and contribute my strength to designing games. Such an answer is obviously impossible for companies in China to pass the interview, but I think I just love games, so I chose to study abroad to study computer science and game design. I don’t want to answer some official words just because I get an internship opportunity.
The interviewer also asked me a question, if I could enter the game design industry, what kind of career would I choose? As a game planner, I think game system planning is very suitable for me, but system planning requires a lot of experience. System planning includes the core gameplay of the game, which is the outline of the entire game. Obviously, the interviewer thought that I was not qualified, so my winter vacation interview journey ended. From the beginning to the end of the entire project, I think that as a programmer and game enthusiast, love and focus are important motivations for achieving goals. Let us enjoy the game together and love life.

（My minigame home page）