ShaunsClassAnnouncements

Hope you enjoyed the conference yesterday - some great presentations. I was struck with the common themes that kept appearing. The idea that no one is an expert - that we all need to keep teaching ourselves. What are the implications for our learning here at ITB?  Also reminded of the idea of presenting our work early and often, that's why we blog and make comments in the module, create small pieces of work, reflect on them and then share! Image: Inspiration After yesterdays inspiration, I went home and began reading some of your blogs and was inspired again, In particular , Robyn's Blog on the weeks reading was an excellent example of the depth and attention to detail required when completing the reading blog.  Please have a read and leave a comment with your thoughts!   This weeks Project is to create a draft of the GDD. this should be in the region of 5 pages (1500words). Might seem like a lot but if you have put the effort into the vision document this ju

Thanks for the replies from your feedback yesterday, I was keen to have everybody who emailed (as per the brief) receive feedback early in the week and may have rushed in some cases focusing on the negatives. Everyone who submitted deserves praise for trying hard and making an attempt. Trust me this is the learning happening! It's about making connections between the readings, the tutorials, and applying them in the project, Well Done! If you would like some follow up feedback come speak to me tomorrow during the conference or Thursdays lecture slot. Again today I've had a couple comments about workload and I just want everyone to know I get it, its difficult allocating 8 hrs per week for this module, you might feel that your other modules don't require this amount of work, they should do! So I ask you to keep a few things in mind: If your work is honestly taking more than 8 hrs please come and see me - let's work out how to reduce it but still meet our goal

At this stage, anyone who has completed the Week 04 Project task on a vision document will have received feedback(as long as you sent me an email as per the instructions). I hope it makes sense, I really enjoyed reading everyone's pieces and it is clear to me that your trying very hard which is great! A few suggestions, read the linked document in the brief, it presents a good guideline for writing a vision document,  2pages means about 600 words, that much writing was required to get the level of detail needed this document will help feed into your GDD And here are a few good examples from your classmates https://annananieva.blogspot.com/2018/10/game-vision-statement.html https://thesingularmedia.blogspot.com/2018/10/game-vision-statement.html https://robynmulhall3.blogspot.com/2018/10/game-vision- https://clarkeschats.blogspot.com/2018/10/vision-statement.html https://krislexic.blogspot.com/2018/10/game-vision-statement.html This evening I have visited every

Image: Great Job Really enjoyed the second group of face-to-face meetings today, again a lot of energy and honesty from all of you, it is much appreciated. I hope it has been of some benefit to you, maybe its helped you to refocus on the task, clarify any niggling doubts or in some cases a big kick to get you moving! After speaking to all of you I am doubly sure that you are more than capable of completing the tasks and hitting your deadlines for this module, there is no one who is not able. I had several interesting conversations in relation to many of your passions and expectations for the next 3 years and how this module might fit into them. Unity is a great gaming engine, but its much more than that, during next semester and indeed the next couple of years we will explore how we can make a gaming engine relevant to you, but unfortunately we need to learn the basics and 'gaming' is the vehicle for this semester. I really like the project ideas, this week

Great to meet one half of the class today, really enjoyed the conversations. It's great to see the energy and enthusiasm in the class. Keeping working towards your goal of a working game. Based on these discussions I will be adding some coding resource to Moodle and hope to have a Google doc created where we can share tutorials we find. A few of you haven't added your name to the list for a meeting, Can you please make your self available during the lecture slot tomorrow.

Image: Meeting reminder Reminder face-to-face meetings take place this week make sure to book yours here . If you can't make the time please email me to re-arrange. This week we can discuss the project during the meetings, See you then!

I've really enjoyed reading your blogs this week, A few tips to help improve. wh when writing your blog post about the readings it should be with a critical eye as opposed to whether you enjoyed the content. Less a personal view and more an examination of the content and your work should be presented in a more academic style . follow the link to read more. The unity tutorial blog post are brilliant, I'm really getting a feel of how you're getting on, again attempt these early and if you hit a difficult bit come to the Lab/Lecture slot for support! The images for these blogs would be best if they were from your own attempts of the tutorials. The project blog has also been great, remember that when they are finished you need to email me with the correct subject line as per the declaration and insert a copy of the declaration into the email. Don't forget to complete the Declaration in Moodle when you have sent the email! We are approx a quarter of the way through

Remember next week we are having mandatory face-to-face meetings, please fill in this sheet with your name in a slot that suits. Image: Face-to-face meetings Also, I emailed a few students at the beginning of the week asking you to make contact, please do that before Friday 16:00!

Tutorial 3 Unity - First person controller Image: Unity Asset Store Some of you are having trouble finding the standard assets for the first person controller needed for Tutorial. In the older packages of Unity, it preloaded the package, in the newer versions you have to download and then import from the asset store. You should see the tab for the asset store under the play button when the store loads search for standard asset and download then import. Tomorrows Lecture If you come prepared with your 1 idea for the Project this week to the lecture I will help you get you all the content you need for your blog, if you bring your laptop you could have it written before you leave

Hope the beginning of the week has been kind to you. Firstly a couple of opportunities that you may like to take advantage of this week. 1st - If you finding the workload too much - come to your lab this week and I will see if we can devise a plan to deal with it. You should not be doing more than 8 hours for this module per week if you are and finding it difficult please come and see me this week! 2nd - As a follow on from the previous section - to help you with the project assignment this week come to the lecture slot and present your 1 game idea -I will there to give feedback and you should be in a position to write up your complete project idea during the lecture slot. 3rd  - if you have completed your Project blog but haven't sent me an email I can't provide feedback, Please send me that email as per the task instructions and I will try and be quick about the feedback! Image: Time for Review Finally next week I would like to meet every one of you individual

Firstly a few issues that raised their head last week, Its important that we all read the instructions for each task and if unsure to ask. By you asking I can add clarity to the instructions and it allows you to meet the requirements with less frustration! Project The project has kicked off with the Brainstorming task, remember as well as the blog and the declaration in Moodle you must also send me an email with the declaration in the email and as of utmost importance the appropriate subject line. If you haven't sent the email you should not be completing the declaration. Attending Labs/Lectures I am at every Lab/Lecture and look forward to meeting anyone who is unsure what they are meant to be doing - though I am happy to answer emails it would be great if you took advantage of these face-to-face opportunities Image: Feedback 1st Review - Week 4 I will be blogging this week with a google form for appointments for face-to-face meetings during Week 4 15th-19th Oct. t

Great to see you're enthusiasm in using Unity this week and it looks like most of you have enjoyed it. I think getting started is the most difficult step with using new software so fair play to taking that step. An expert in teaching has just launched his first Unity tutorials on Udemy and its free and can be found HERE , well worth a look. Remember a few tasks to work on before Monday, and always next weeks tasks are available, its good to get ahead. Alert: for the Game Brainstorm remember to email the declaration as well Friday/weekend: PROJECT 8 points  appx. 60-90 min. To see how the projects work week by week for the whole semester, take a look at this  Overview of the Semester Project . Then, after you have looked at the Overview, you are ready for the actual assignment this week: exploring sources!  Game Brainstorm Each week the Project assignment is the one that will take the biggest chunk of time, so make sure you budget for that in your schedule. Don

At this stage of the week, the readings blog is complete and you should be finishing up the Unity Tutorials(to be completed for 11:59 tonight. Image: Keeping up the great work This week you will also be completing your first step in developing your project. This is the only assignment that you will send an email to me. Please read the instructions carefully! A few people have completed the declaration on Moodle without sending the email! You will also be leaving comments on your classmate's blogs - this week it is on their introductions, again I can't emphasise enough clearly read the instructions, understand the task and then implement. If you are unsure of any element please ask, don't make the declaration unless you're 100% sure.

Well thankfully we have Unity up and running in D028 - if you have no pc or laptop at home your going to have to try and get in there to use Unity Hopefully, Unity will be in B108 for next week. Some of you for very genuine reasons are only able to view the videos this week due to no access to Unity, so feel free to complete the blog after viewing the videos. Image: Unity Tutorial After this week please only complete the declaration after completing the video tutorial (actually doing it). If your wondering what a good UnityTutorial BLog looks like have a look at Adriana's  As always I am in every lab and the lecture slot to support you. During tomorrow s lecture slot we are going to discuss the readings, no that you have wrote about them let's talk!

Image: Scoreboard The grades are not being displayed in the way I would have liked them, Planning on completing some testing this week on a few ideas so you will aware how many points you have reached each week, I might have to do manually but will keep you informed. I will also be looking at ways to display the #MultiDev twitter feed in Moodle and this site. It's great for sharing game related info. This month starts #blocktober on Twitter well worth a follow of that hashtag! Image: Academic Writing And finally I had written that the reading tasks blog should be in a more academic writing style, I wrongly thought that this would have been covered last year. So, for now, write in a way that you feel comfortable in relation to the reading tasks and I will create a document on the basics of writing in an academic style. Let me know if you would like a workshop in this.