DMS1 | A3 | DMS1 Blog

A3 | Spatial Composition

Week 7, Session 1 | 06.09.21

Starting to generate ideas, jotting down simple tasks that could be used for the Rube Goldberg Machine.

Initial Ideas List:

- Showing stages of history from prehistoric age to future age

- A day passing by (could show how random a day could be by adding random activities)

- Showing the process of an idea, showing the design process? Idea > Concepts > Prototypes > Reiterations > Actualisation

> Action 1 - A spark of an idea (show electricity in brain that sparks into a piece of paper)

> Action 3 - Piece of paper forms into a paper plane? (paper plane flies for a bit then over time that plane turns into an actual plane)

> Action 4 - Plane crashes (to show how ideas can fail?)

> Action 5 - that rubble turns into a better idea (a spaceship flies off into space)

> Action 6 - Space ship

^ There was a lot of overall themes that were brainstormed but never what the actual machine did itself.

Just a side note, I appreciate the feedback given for the last assignment. I'm trying to take it easier this time around and for future assignments

Week 7, Session 2 | 12.08.21

Generating and refining further ideas at this stage, been sketching and taking a lot of notes of ideas. I think I spent maybe a whole week of brainstorming. Started jotting ideas for a medieval themed machine, but ended up scrapping this idea as well.

Eventually I decided on a "circus/carnival" theme because of childhood fascination and a lot of Lego theme park builder as a kid, I also enjoy a lot of city builder games like Cities Skylines. If I were ever to go down a games design route, I would definitely choose 3D environments.

^ Definitely would have focused on the smaller contraptions of the machine in the future, I was more focused on the big picture stuff I think.

Week 8, Session 1 | 16.08.21

The feedback that was sent through in regards to the design document/early sketches was helpful in terms of gauging what was doable. Early stages of the ideas coming together in the 3D space. It also gave me a direction of what I wanted to achieve

This pretty much made the roller coaster happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saAQNRSYU9k&t=550s&ab_channel=SebastianLague

^ A lot of ideas that had script in them we're stripped back such as the pinball machine not having a working plunger or the claw machine not having a working claw mechanism. But all of the initial ideas sort of made it into the environment which I'm happy about.

Week 8, Session 2 | 19.08.21

I did a lot of 3D modelling of the environment itself and this is what I enjoyed doing the most, I love creating spaces for people to explore and get curious about the small details. I eventually had to get things working with scripts so the 3D modelling had to be on halt.

Super helpful video on lift scripts for the Drop Ride idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbzAdGiCEes&ab_channel=Dannes33

Helped me model up a Pinball Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOy2uWjJFQ&ab_channel=NejoFTW

^ I spent a lot of time on modelling, but I did that purely because it was fun to me, but it took a chunk of time that I could've used on building the contraptions. No regrets though.

Week 9, Session 1 | 23.08.21

Joints, more joints & other joints.

Worked on the Ferris Wheel for 8 hours till it was somewhat functional. A lot of trial and error involved. These were some of the ways:

Tried putting all the components together in one GameObject family and linked them together with rigidbodies, hinge joints and anchor coordinates

Had to revisit the cubes that we did in class with all the different hinge joints.

Figured out that you can put all of the GameObjects into a family under a cube.

This tutorial helped with the rotation issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It46b26nDR4&ab_channel=LearnEverythingFast

Week 9, Session 2 | 20.09.21

Had to retreat back this week to rewind a little, I think that the amount of tasks that I had to do at this stage made it feel hard to process through, so I've learnt that I have to take it task by task otherwise that overwhelming feeling of trying to come up with a good looking/elaborate machine, this will sort of push me to avoid tasks if I know there's mountains ahead of me.

5 minute meditation was good for a 'mental reset' so I can get back into doing one task at a time.

I crunched out a lot of the sound stuff around this time. The main script that I used were the collider trigger ones. Choosing the sounds wasn't too much of a pain although it was quite rushed so some of the sounds we're a bit off and wasn't perfect.

Things I would do if there was no time limit or under these conditions:

- Link all the ideas together with the machine

- Rube Goldberg Machine idea to be fully fleshed out (complicated set of chain events to complete a simple task)

- Full carnival type map, spend more time creating prefabs to enhance the environment and feel/aesthetic.

- Start, exit, restart buttons & UI

Week 9, Final Days | 23.09.21

This was one was one hell of a ride, but looking back at it, I've realized that burnout is a real thing, needed to take a weekend break for this one. I now know I need some breathing space in between assignments. But overall, I've gained a lot of insight about myself and how I operate as a designer, what my boundaries are & overall I feel closer to what I want to do in my career path from this assignment as well as the past ones.

Final edit notes:

- The macOS and window builds kept changing elements in the scene. I was noticing materials were changing, I relied a lot of physics so the chain reaction wasn't working when I was building the project.

Future habits/reflections:

- Break time is good!!!

- Recognize my productivity swings

- Spend time after class to start blog (I couldn't do this before because of work)

Applied habits from previous assignment(s):

- Getting feedback was super useful, gave me a sense of direction from the start.

- Building upon an initial idea

Things I gained:

- C# scripting after 3 weeks, the basics of it eventually came to me.

+50 Sleep deprivation

- Sweet, sweet neck pain

Things I lost:

-97 Sanity

Spent a lot of hours on this game as a kid, I better pay homage to it

The scrapped idea board of trying to get a piece of metal to smelt into a sword and then slicing a rock in half was a bit far-fetched

After a long night of inspiration searching, a step closer to itch my childhood dream of building a theme park

although incomplete and undercooked, it had some potential! The script had a cube following that green spline line, I had the idea of changing that cube into a card and have a ball go in it for the ride.

These were all done by hand, although not quite polished, I reckon they turned out nice especially for using Unity for the first time.

I enjoyed how much the Drop Ride turned out, I had a few issues with the speed of the raising seats which was a problem I foreseen at the time, but unfortunately this one had to be scrapped out as well. It had a OnTriggerEnter type collision box thing in there? When the ball entered the space the seats moved up BUT at an incredibly average speed.

Fun times with unity, even more fun times with C#

Hinge joints did not want to cooperate

What did work was the cubes we did in class though, just chucked all the GameObjects in them and have the cubes as the parent.

The general plan going ahead!

Rollercoaster & Drop Ride idea had to go! Although it felt quite ambitious to do all of them in time. I The rollercoaster was somewhat complete and the drop ride was functional but wasn't able to link them together with the machine.

Playtesting Session:

Questions I'd ask if I went back in time to that session with the project shown in the video.

- Do you think there's anything missing in the scene?

- How would you improve the scene viewing experience?

- How did the ambience make you feel?

- Did you feel like you were at a carnival?

For future assignments and in general, I would like to use this to my advantage a bit more effectively, asking better questions for a more refined product.

Reminders for motivation:

What’s your purpose for school? Think about what you will gain with completing school. Is it freedom? Is it a dream job? Define it and keep it in mind at all times. Make a vision board to visualize them. This should be what pulls you.
You might not be managing your energy well. Only drink caffeinated drinks in the morning. Go to sleep earlier. Do you take breaks during study and work sessions? Do you eliminate any unnecessary tasks or “obligations”?

Will try to ask myself these questions whenever I get into a slump again, I was definitely not getting enough sleep and was cracked up with caffeine late at night. I was not taking enough breaks as well.

This assignment helped me better understand my career pathway going ahead, it's sort of narrowed it down a little better but not completely. Which will then hopefully be some what of a driving factor for future projects.