Songco Blog Post

Successes, Fails, Struggles, Why’s and How’s, Plans and Detours…

For this blog post, I’ve experienced multiple struggles and fails regarding character design for our group project. Since my responsibility is character design for Pac-Man Ghosts, it was difficult to create them. Although I have been working on them for weeks, it was difficult in utilizing Blender and their features properly. For instance, I had trouble in figuring out their colors and how to implement something that’s both scary and familiar to those who have played Pac-Man before. I figured out from a tutorial online how to make them transparent and it came out great. Then, I had to rig the characters that would allow them to create movements.

Creating the rigging wasn’t hard, but creating a collective set of movements were. I had trouble having the characters set within a positino and move them accordingly. After some videos on Youtube, I finally was able to create a ‘walk’ movement for our game. I felt accomplished after my products for all ghost’s individual design and movement and my teammates gave high praise for my design which I felt accomplished.

The only detours I had was either learning the basics of blender and it’s features and how to properly transfer the files into Unity, which I have not been able to do. When I compress my files to certain settings and transfer them, it doesn’t bring both the color of the ghosts, but also the animations. I couldn’t figure it out, even after watching videos online such as chaning the files to .fbx or .blender and chaning how I export the files to Unity. I still need to figure this out so I can move on and create the ghost alghorithms for their particular moveset. Regardless, even after this class ends I will be working on getting this figured out.

Feedback on this course

I particulary liked this first course of the senior project. I loved the pacing and feedback I received from our TA and Professor. I didn’t feel overwhelmed at all during this project and felt that they were understanding of our project’s scopes. Even though this project wasn’t my first choice, it helped me learn numerous applications that I like and would love to work on in the future such as Unity and Blender. I realized that I love character designs and rigging them to my liking is a great attribute for when I apply for internships I can try to get a position for this type of work.

Your career and/or job hunt

Although I have been applying for any type of computer science/cybersecurity internship, I haven’t gotten any luck. Right now I feel frustrated but also motivated to keep trying to get any opportunity I can get right now. In terms of job hunt, I’m still working at my job as an E/E aircraft mechanic in the Air National Guard right now, so I’m just looking for any internships that could help me gain experience in the long run

New technologies

I’ve learned Blender a lot through these past few weeks and honestly I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it. After messing around with Blender, I feel accomplished when I created four stylistic Pac-Man Ghosts with their own features and movements. Even when the class ends and we have a break, I’ll continue to fine-tune our designs.

Life hacks – How to handle stress/teammates/classwork/being stuck/etc

Right now, what I like to do to relieve any type of stress is to stay physically active. I like to workout such as bodybuilding or weightlifting to help me relax and decompress for the day. It helps me feel accomplished for each day. For schoolwork such as this project, what helped me was watching numerous videos on Blender and Unity projects. It helped me learn that even if I’m a newbie at creating games, there’s other people like me who’s also learning and give great tips for when I’m stressed on a particular element of video game designs.

Successes, Fails, Struggles

My project for this course entails creating a VR implementation of Arcade Classics. The games that we’re designing are Pac-Man and Frogger. We chose these games due to their impact on retro gaming culture and their influence on platform and maze gaming. We also wanted to create a new perspective (first-person) in the game to pay tribute to the originals so that older gamers could play again, as well as newcomers who could experience the game with a modern theme.

Some successes from our project stem from my teammates. They have been excellent in collaborating new ideas to implement into our project. We’ve discussed various designs for both games, and sought the best course of action to implement the best product we can create. We have not experienced any fails right now during our implementation, but when we do it will be a great learning experience looking forward. Some struggles we’ve had is the actual implementation for the project. Only few of us have experience creating a large product such as this, and to implement it into VR is a new landscape for all of us. Additionally, we plan on using Unity to create our game, and have some experience in this platform. I only have little experience with this software and will know that I have to learn to be at the level my teammates need me to be.

Feedback on this course

Some feedback for this course would include the technicalities that creating a project entails. As creating a game is stressful and requires extensive preparation, this course has helped me analyze potential problems that may occur and think of various methods and ideas to implement into our project. I found this course to be educational as it helps me understand the project inside and out, and what comes from designing a product that various groups will be involved in. Overall, I’ve learned various techniques and aspects that will be beneficial to any future projects and endeavors.

Career and Job Hunt

As my degree entails computer science with a focus in cybersecurity, I’ve been attempting to find internships involving security analysts. However, I have not had any luck so far in this avenue. I have been looking for other types of internships such as software development and have applied to various companies. To prepare for these jobs, I plan on acquiring on certifications to help me land interviews and show my proficiency. So far, I only have an AWS cloud practitioner certificate that many companies see as a positive in resumes. I have a potential externship at a hospital learning from their IT department and hope that this goes through. Overall, I’ve been attempting to gain more experience by acquiring certificates while applying for internships so I can prepare myself for interviews and potential opportunities in the future.

New Technologies

Unity is the only new technology I’ve been attempting to learn with our project. Unity is a gaming development software that allows users to create games for various consoles. For our project, we have to implement it into VR console, which is completely new to me. I must admit that it’s both exciting and stressful as I don’t have any experience with this. Nevertheless, my teammates are great in helping out with each other and hope for the best in learning this new software.

Life hacks

One life hack I involve myself in to lower my stress is taking a break at times. I found that, at times, schoolwork can be overwhelming, and if I attempt to push through, it burns me out, and I feel stressed, which can affect my mental health. That’s why taking breaks, such as playing video games and hanging out with friends/family, can be a great way to deal with distress. Also, I found that gaining experience in my project can help with my anxiety. This stems from my nervousness in completing my assignments promptly, and learning on my own time helps me calm my nerves.

Introduction

My name is Miguel Songco. I’m 28 years old, and I reside in New Jersey. Originally, I’m from San Francisco, CA, but after joining the Air Force, I’m stationed in McGuire AFB. I served active duty for 7 years as an electrical and environmental aircraft specialist, fixing/maintaining aircraft components and inspecting various systems related to my job. I worked on F-15s, F-16s, KC-10s, and now KC-46s. Now, I transferred to the National Guard to fully focus on school and graduating on time/earlier.

I’m a computer science major with a minor in cybersecurity, and I picked this degree because I was always fascinated by how coding is essential in our everyday lives. Even though I only started coding with computers/software when I started this program, I realize how stressful but accomplished I feel when I create something from my ideas. I love weightlifting, spending time with my fiancée, and playing video games.

My journey with OSU

Through my years with OSU, I found that the community and faculty are helpful and always there to lend a hand. So far, my classes have helped me understand various languages, such as Python, Java, JavaScript, and C. Even though I am comfortable with these languages, I still have much to learn. I’m always willing to learn new things.

Current job or internship

My current job is as an aircraft technician on the KC-46 in the Air National Guard. I only come in once a month or for a few weeks if I choose to work, but I’m a full-time student. I have an internship at a hospital where I will work alongside IT personnel, which will help me understand the field significantly.

Favorite technologies

My favorite technologies are my laptop, which I use to complete my homework, and my PlayStation 5, which I use to play video games. For applications, I love working with Visual Code because its friendly UI helps me navigate through my code quickly, and I’m pretty comfortable with it. I also like to use GitHub for collaboration projects, merge with teammates’ branches, and collectively check each other’s code to ensure it works properly. I find using these applications accessible, but I am always open to different applications.

Favorite listed projects (in this course) and why

After looking into the listed projects, I found that my desire to create a personal training application that adheres to a user’s preferences would be unique to work on. I already made my own program/HTML page that does this, but it lacks quality and detail. I believe fully fleshing out a program for users would be unique. Also, I found that creating a game or working alongside improving AI would be a great learning opportunity for me.