ideas presentation

virtual worlds

overview

This session will allow students to present their ideas for their final project, from the concept to the proposed implementation. Students will be encouraged to provide feedback to each other during and after the presentations.

We will then mention some techniques for planning and production, and mention the final platform on which we'll publish, itch.io.

summary


intro

ideas presentations

welcome!

plan for the day

-> homework review & ideas presentations

-> planning and production

-> build systems


ideas presentation

worlds through interfaces

what kind of UI elements did you use?

world space and screen space

what kind of interaction? to what effect?

general world presentation

your idea

inspiration and moodboard, some examples of what could be presented in the world, maybe some interactions/or some spaces?

board link

next steps

coordinate with your classmates and write on the discourse which idea you would like to work on (homework for monday)

min group size: 2

max group size: 3


planning and production

retroplanning

starting from the deadline, then working back from it

for instance:

  • asset collection and creation
  • building the environment
  • programming the main interaction(s) (walking into a room and triggering an audio soundtrack)
  • programming the secondary interactions (animated camera movement)
  • create an intro scene / create a credits scene
  • uploading, debugging and testing

Retroplanning means starting from the end. When do you have to deliver your project? Working from that deadline, you allocate time to complete each step of the project (starting from delivery -> testing ->merging -> additional features development -> assets integration -> core feature development -> etc.). This prevents you from being surprised by a deadline.

Github offers the tasks view in any repository, as well as Trello. The most important categories/columns that you need are:

  • Backlog (this is where all the tasks you need to do go)
  • To do (this is where the tasks you plan to do this week go)
  • Doing (this is where the items you are currently working on goes)
  • Done (this is where what you have finished goes)

assets list

list all things you can think of:

  • name (ideally desired for your world)
  • description (animated piece of artwork from the future)
  • status (not found, found, tentative version)
  • filename (the version you've found)

production

agile development/kanban is a way to adapt a project as it goes.

-> to do -> doing -> done

This kind of development is particularly useful to complement a retroplanning. Retroplanning are large, overarching structures which might not always end up be useful in the midst of making a project. Having an agile approach allows you to easily see and decide what should be done right now and what can wait a bit more.

Github offers the tasks view in any repository, as well as Trello. The most important categories/columns that you need are:

  • Backlog (this is where all the tasks you need to do go)
  • To do (this is where the tasks you plan to do this week go)
  • Doing (this is where the items you are currently working on goes)
  • Done (this is where what you have finished goes)

collaboration

unity collab is just like github, but integrated in the unity editor

to set it up, follow this guide


build systems

playing on the web

unity can build to a lot of different platforms, and we will be using WebGL

(with some caveats)

which means that you she be regularly testing that your project works when built, and not just in the editor

Additional build targets include desktop PC, iOS / Android, consoles (xbox, switch, playstation). As you see, Unity has become a one-stop-shop for any kind of contemporary interactive development.

itch.io

in order to actually host and publish our projects, we will use the itch.io platform.

We can host games freely, and customize the landing page with CSS and HTML (this will come in handy later).

Check out this link for a general introduction to itch and that one for how to upload the Unity files created when you've built to WebGL.


outro

conclusion

over the weekend, pick one idea that you would like to realize as a final project

think of how you would do so concretely (provide details, moodboards, etc.)

homework

raycasting allows us to do non-obvious interactions (we're getting into advanced unity territory!).

the homework is to use raycasting to affect other objects at a distance.

think of what it means to affect something just by looking at it (gazing, staring, peeking, etc.)