Cops 4 Kidz Part 6: The Squeakual

The frustration continued for the first part of class.  I attempted to implement a ray cast hit, but that didn't work.  So eventually I finally caved and made 3 separate scripts to hold the properties of the 3 donuts.  Originally I wanted to do it one script, but eventually realized that that would be impossible.  I also finally managed to call the variables that need being compared, so my task for next week to finally get that system working.

Cops 4 Kidz Part 5: The Frustration

I continued on my quest to try and program an algorithm that would the donuts compare sizes and which platform they were on.  There's not a whole lot more to say other than how frustrating it is to come up with an advanced algorithm for a language I just started learning.  Even some of the basic syntax for C# vexes me, as it seems to want me to jump through hoop after hoop.  In a previous language i used to write scripts for, you could alter and object's properties by just naming the object then putting the property you wanted to edit next to it.  For example: "objectName.x" or objectName.speed", it was fairly simple.  But with Unity, you have set up the object as a GameObject, then use GetComponent to actually call the script you need, then use the script to finally access the variable.  It's just been and incredibly frustrating few weeks.

Cops for Kidz Part 4: This Time it's Personal

We continued to work on our respective games.  I built the scene in which the game takes place, the most difficult part about that was zooming in because of the slow mouse scroll speed.  The rest of the assets where put in with greater ease.

This is currently what the game will look like.  I did a bit of programming, so now the player is able to drag around the donuts.  I still need to come up with an algorithm to actually place the donuts.

Copz for Kidz Part 2:No Country for Old Dogs

We re-convened to discuss our ideas for possible mini-games.  We stuck with the Tower of Hanoi/Cat Rescue game in addition to a First Aid game and an Ice Rescue game.  In the First Aid game, you have to click and drag bandages, antibiotics, etc, in the right order onto a small wound.  The goal is to teach kids how to apply first aid correctly.  In this wintry time of year, walking on  the ice of a river or lake is incredibly dangerous, so we came up with a game about rescuing small animals who fell through the ice.  We split into small teams to each deal with one of the games.

I created the animation for the cat sprite and figured out how to actually animate in unity while my partner modeled the donut.  We got a surprising amount of tasks done, and all that's left to do now is actually develop the game in unity.

Cops 4 Kidz Part 1

We divided into our groups for CSG110 to work on our new project.  I was elected as the project's new Product Owner, to which my first act as such was to pitch an idea for one of the mini-games.  There was a game that I used to play quite frequently back in my pre-adolescent days about three monkeys of varying sizes stacking up on each other in order to get an apple.  It was a fun puzzle games that I later discovered was a version of a classic game called Tower of Hanoi.  I re-imagined it as stacking donuts in order to rescue a cat from a tree.  I had the rest of my team brainstorm ideas for other mini-games next week.

Lerpz 2: First Blood Part 2

It was another day of not doing much, I used class time to work on another project from another class, to which I had trouble with.  Mike also teaches that class, so after a literal hour of scouring the internet for a solution to an error I had, I finally asked him for help.  I ended up getting rid of the feature because it wasn't really needed and even Mike's code couldn't solve it.
Apparently next week we have to get into groups and actually work on the simulation for that classes in the past have worked on.  I'm not sure what new features I want in the game, so I guess I'll start thinking about that.

Lerpz 2: Electric Boogaloo

I finished Lerpz early so I pretty much worked on stuff from other classes.  I'm sort of glad that I already knew how to do Lerpz, because it really cut down on time and allowed me to help others who are new to the Lerpz experience.

In general reflection, I don't think Lerpz was that good of an introduction to the Unity interface.  It doesn't really ease you into Unity development so much as it pushes you into the deep end.  It may seem like I want to dumb this down, but I think they should at least point out where everything on the interface is before you dive is head first. The tutorial itself was way too long and it doesn't expressly teach you how to code, seeming to favor that you just copy and paste the code. 
Lerpz was just a long, tedious, confusing grind and I wouldn't recommend it to first time Unity developers.