In this week's game design session we went through a bunch of game design theory concepts such as the ideas of emergent versus progressive and discreet versus continuous gameplay and settled on the idea that for the vast majority of games these are in fact false dichotomies. We also looked into a variety of other game mechanics and design tools such as progression mapping, game economies and feedback loops.
In the afternoon session we were given a tutorial on creating games in Unity, specifically using their visual scripting system. I have personally been making games in Unity such as Block E and Gunrunner for several years. These can be found here on my portfolio. I also have a significant amount of experience using visual scripting tools as I have created many projects in Unreal Engine using their Blueprint system. It has been a couple of years since I last used Unity however, and back then their visual scripting system was not yet implemented as far as I am aware, so the session provided a useful refresher on the platform and a helpful introduction to the system.
We then had a guest speaker, Max Bottomley (Lead Designer at The Chinese Room), give a talk about his journey into the industry from his start as a freelance animator, through his time on this very course at Kingston Uni, up to the present day. I found it to be very inspiring as it demonstrated that through creativity, hard work and perseverance, one can really succeed in this industry in a relatively small time frame and without being some sort of prodigious programmer. There was also plenty of really helpful tips on increasing your employability and navigating the job market, which I found especially noteworthy as Max is currently in the exact type of role that I aim to one day achieve.
We finished the day in InKUbator with a very informative presentation from the folks at Ubisoft about their Grad program. This contained loads to great advice on CVs, cover letters and what to do in an interview, which I really appreciated. The program itself seems very exciting and I will certainly be applying for my placement year if possible, or afterwards in not.
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