Author: Xinpeng Liu

This week, I made a very important mistake. Regarding the prototype of the team project, our team found that it was a four-week assignment until the ninth week. We need to complete a simple game demo video within these four weeks. However, my oculus quest device was still not available, so the biggest problem I faced this week was to write a project without a debugging device. Under normal circumstances, I use Unity on the computer to write game scripts and development. When the game is initially formed, I can directly use the computer to run the game. When I need to package or move a game program to a mobile phone, Unity can also help me package the game. Players can play directly on Android phones or computer emulators through APK format files. But the problem I encountered this time was that when I wrote the program, I could not enter the game screen through the VR device. When I created a 3D project in Unity and made the scene, I couldn’t play in the game. As a result, the originally flying block cannot be moved, and the behavior of the player using the VR handle sensor to break the block cannot be shown in the game. I can only use the Unity canvas to get to the scenes I made and the boxes that won’t move.
In order to make games and record demo videos without test equipment, it took me a lot of time. Originally, I found that the time of this homework was already relatively late, which made it more difficult for me who was not rich in time. The only good thing is that I still have two teammates, they have already got Oculus equipment. They are willing to help me complete this demo video. I just need to write the game code to the best possible VR scene. In this way, they will not encounter too many problems when testing. Because what I am responsible for on the project is that the VR handle sensor can produce different frequencies of vibration when the player hits the block. So I still have to wait for the oculus device to arrive before I can develop the project. This incident made me discover that the homework must be checked in advance, otherwise, I never know when the homework will start or end.

This week I reviewed my own and another team’s project. I found that everyone did not consider the real factor when formulating the project development process and the specific details of the project. Everyone directly put their ideas into the project and did not specify what tools or code to use to achieve this function. The value of a creative project is definitely higher than other projects, but when the project is developed, unrealized functions will cause the project to progress slowly. I also had a similar problem when I was working on my own project. We used Unity as the game engine. This is a 2D level breakthrough and decryption game. One of the levels allows the player to obtain a rope through certain conditions. The player can use the rope to swing over the cliff. The difficulty of this operation is not to make the rope, but to set the fixed point of the rope and calculate the player’s gravity and acceleration. When the player uses the rope to swing this action, the picture in the game needs to perfectly match the player’s operation. Due to the amount of calculation and the number of frames required for the picture is too large, we have to give up this feature. It took us a lot of time to study the function of ropes, and we finally used the construction box to replace the ropes.
For the iteration of the game version and the repair of BUG, ​​this also takes a lot of time, so it is very necessary to make a good plan before program development. The project we received at school is about nine weeks, and for a very simple VR rhythm game, this time is completely enough. The project is scheduled for three months to make a plan, three months to develop code and three months to optimize the game. Game jam is a 72-hour fast production game competition. Participants must complete a creative game within three days. Game jam has very demanding requirements for programs and art. The planner needs to arrange these 72 hours reasonably, so time planning is very important before doing the project. At the end of the blog is a picture of my Minigame after the second iteration, in which we added backgrounds and other levels.

I had a short trip to Shanghai this week, and when I got home, I had one composition and only one day left. It is an image drawing job from CS450. I need to use a shader on an object to color the object and animate the color of the fragment on the object. I think this is a very simple project, so I put it after the trip. However, it took me two days and one late-day to solve this project. The difficulty of the project is to put the color block on the target object. I need to calculate the accurate vector unit and move it at a certain speed and direction. These are not the most time-consuming places. I spent a lot of time learning how to use shaders on OpenGL. Since there is a 16-hour time difference between my local time and American time, I usually go to school in the early hours of the morning. If I want to have a class during the day, I also need to turn on the computer in the early morning and record the teacher’s live broadcast of the class. However, I did not do this week. This leads to me being ignorant of the way the shader in OpenGL is used. The teacher only provided the lesson plans in the course, and I couldn’t complete this assignment through the lesson plans in the course, so I looked for some courses on the domestic website. I unexpectedly discovered that these online courses have some connections with the school courses. It took me one day to study the courses in two days to complete the project. I completed this project in accordance with the teaching of the online course. I added the code provided by him to my original program, and I modified the program and movement method in his code according to my own ideas. I often wonder who invented these basic code frameworks. If I want to use these codes, how can I avoid plagiarism? I discovered this problem in the class of algorithm analysis. The structure of all algorithms is the same. The difference lies in the location and access parameters of these algorithms in the program. In order to find the best algorithm, I will study online every time before doing a project. I think the study of computer science means a continuous improvement on the basis of the predecessors.

My mini-game project encountered another problem this week. When we were happy to make the teaching level, our person in charge told us that the time for the project was running out. Five weeks later, on December 20th, we need to submit our project. He believes that we did not have a project periodical table when we made the project. The role of the project periodic table is to help the project team promote the development of the project. On November 9th, we will submit the first official level of the game, and we have calculated one teaching level and two official levels. The development of game programs only takes one day, but it takes a lot of time to make game art materials. At the beginning of the project, we did not consider the workload other than the procedures at all. Except for the week of project defense, we only have four weeks to complete the game project. To make up for our lack of a project cycle before, I plan to let the planners in the team help the art group and music group find materials.
When formulating the project cycle table, the team used Trello to help us better formulate the project. Since the development team is in China, China’s Internet is not open to the outside world. When Trello was also available in China, we chose it without hesitation. Its main function is to help the project team to formulate a project list, in which the estimated completion time can be set on each list. Everyone in the project team can share the lists in Trello and modify them. Before using Trello, I used the word to record the development progress of our project. Although the word is a very simple document tool, it cannot make visual images. The flowchart in Trello can help us better observe the progress of the project.

My minigame made great progress this week. We used Unity to successfully implement the game’s teaching levels according to the level designer’s plan. Since one partner of our project team withdrew last week, we changed from nine to eight. Among them, the project team has only two developers and one artist. As a project manager of a game project, I often think about the progress of the project. How should we promote the progress of the project? We have four-game planners, each of them has a different level of design, but our project time is very limited. Programmers and artists do not have so much time to experiment with game development. So I asked the programmer to develop a teaching level based on the idea of ​​the game master planner. This teaching level only includes the core gameplay and operation interface of the game. I want to let my team know whether this idea is what everyone expects. When the demonstration of the teaching level was played during our meeting, everyone was very excited. Although the content of the game is very monotonous, and the art materials of the game are also free materials from the Internet, this game resonated with us.
After the teaching level was made, everyone in the project team had a clear goal. The artist is also very clear about the art style of the game. Our four-game level planners also launched the subsequent game planning, and the programmer was responsible for adding new art materials to the game scene. As the project manager of this game, I am extremely proud of my team to see my teammates working so actively. The final delivery time of the project is seven weeks later, and we will use two weeks to design the game levels. In the future, we plan to continue to iterate the game version. New elements, new styles, and new gameplay will be added to the game. This is my first game project, and I am full of expectations for the final result of this game project.

This week, my teammates and I discussed the needs of the project. We discussed from four different perspectives. The first is the development needs of the project. The development language and development platform used by the project should be unified. We think that the combination of Unity and C# is very suitable for beginners like us. In terms of gameplay requirements, we put forward different requirements for different systems. Because we designed a music rhythm game, the use of music system is very important for the game. The project needs to make the music and the rhythm of the game perfectly match. In order to allow players to have a better gaming experience, we decided to add a vibration function to the gaming operating system. The addition of the vibration function requires a connection between the game itself and the game device. In order to make the game better, we have put forward requirements for the identity of the trial player. The project will draw different trial players for adjustment. The game will be changed based on feedback from their gaming experience. So at the end of the project, we think testing is very important, and a good game needs constant testing. Although the optimization of the game requires long-term improvement, the test cannot be interrupted.

For my own game project, we are currently facing the problem of lack of personnel. Our game planner will withdraw from this project due to academic problems. Although we are a group of nine people, we need more level planning, numerical planning and system planning. He is a very professional game planner, and our next step is to take over his work. I think I might encounter this problem in the future. When working, it is inevitable to encounter unexpected situations. I think how to deal with this situation is very important. After all, plans will never keep up with changes. What we need is the ability to face up at any time. For programmers, this ability can also be applied to code, and code errors may occur at any time. What the programmer needs to do is to minimize the errors and optimize the code.

This week I wrote a problem statement for my VR rhythm game. I think the material and model of the game can help the developers complete the development progress better. Since the game plan does not clearly indicate the game’s art style and system interface, I think we should first solve the problem of game materials and models. My professor told me that what I should raise is about the general problems the system should solve, not the lack of details and art materials. I think this passage of his is of great help to me. I think the purpose of making games is to get the recognition of the players and let the players feel the fun in the game. I revised my problem statement. I started thinking about the problem in the game itself. I think rhythmic games should add more percussion. This is a technology that other VR rhythm games do not have. The interface of the game is set on a battlefield, where players use drums to destroy enemy attacks.

To allow players to experience more blows in VR games, I found that this function can be achieved through the handle sensor. The handle sensor can provide vibrations of different frequencies and amplitudes. Before I came into contact with this project, I had no experience in VR games. I think that the survey of the sensor can help me to promote the progress of the project. When a project starts, what we need to define is the core gameplay. The gameplay that uses vibration to enhance the sense of shock is not available in VR games. In my previous project, I only need to consider the system that the game is running on when making a game, such as windows, mac, ios, android. The external device of the VR game can make the gameplay more experience, this project is for me That is a big improvement.

When I develop games, I always think about a question, if my gameplay is similar to other games. So does my game copy someone else’s game? The core gameplay of most games on the market is similar, and their difference lies in the expression of the game background and the game format. The core gameplay of traditional music rhythm games is still to destroy objects or buttons through rhythm. My thoughts on rhythm games are similar to them. How to innovate music gameplay, this problem has been bothering me.