The phenomenon Flappy bird it is a strange case. Its creator, Dong Nguyen, created it in 2013 for iOS and released it in January 2014 for Android. It was a very simple mobile game in which a bird hovered between two rows of pipes and it had to be promoted by pressing with the finger on the screen so that it did not rub against any of the columns; when I stopped pressing the bird was falling. It was simple and a frustrating point in the way the bird moved. People started playing it like there was no tomorrow. His success was such that it is estimated that he generated about 50,000 dollars a day in advertising by the banner It appeared at the bottom of the screen, but Nguyen removed the app, he said, because he was overwhelmed with success, criticism of the quality of the game, because the players took it as a competition rather than a relaxing activity. to practice a few minutes. Chlores then appeared everywhere.
Rodrigo Toro, professor of the Degree in Design of Interactive Products at U-tad, begins remembering this story on 2D Video Game Creation Workshop with Unity which he teaches so that the ESO and Bachillerato students Those interested in digital technology can decide if their future is in video game development. The workshop shows how it is one of the most widespread graphics engines, Unity, and at the end of the two hours the students have a Flappy bird running on their computers. The choice of Unity, in addition to its popularity and quality, is because it is a free engine until the developer bills 100,000 euros a year.
An introductory workshop to awaken vocations
This workshop is eminently practical and try to show how Unity works without writing any code, but the teaching that is taught in U-tad
To start creating the game, workshop participants must have installed a specific version of Unity and download a plugin made by a teacher of U-tad. The computer skills that are required are very basic. Toro gives time for everyone to have the materials ready and asks a student who has configuration problems to share the screen to see where the problem is, it is one of the advantages of the Blackboard Collaborate platform what do you use U-tad for the teleeducation, both in the workshops and in the undergraduate and graduate classes taught at the university center.
Toro shares his screen to show step by step what he explains and begins a tour of the elements of Unity, focusing on the scene, a screen where you can see the elements of the game and the camera and where you can see what will happen when the program is running. At each step the teacher makes sure that all the students are at the same point, but always keeping up with the class. If anyone has problems or stays behind, they have the option to "raise your hand" to get the teacher's attention to put the question in writing or, if the moderator or teacher give you access, using a microphone.
A character and the world in which he moves
For a visual aspect similar to that of the game, students access the Unity store and download a pack free with graphic elements inspired by those of Flappy birds and the students they place a similar bird to the Flappy bird on the main screen, where the game scene is being worked on at all times, and they rotate it in a horizontal mirror. The following steps help students to realize that the process is very technical but also surprising results can be achieved in just a few minutes, those that take time to turn the drawing into a rigid body to apply physical laws like gravity.
The next steps are learning how to order the elements in the scene and place the scene floor, establishing a collision mesh so that when the bird falls it does so on the grass and does not disappear from the screen. Two columns are placed next -one that comes out of the upper part of the screen and another one from the lower part and collisions are also established; the character must pass between them to continue the game. Physics is very visual -and easy to understand- like when creating a video game, when you see the effect on the character of changing the character's parameters or control.
How to create reproductions of an object
The workshop gives even to learn to create prefabs, a component that allows save a game object that can be made up of several objects that even have their own properties, making it easy to play multiple times without specifying all the details each time. In this case it is used to create pairs of columns. If any element of one of the objects of the prefab, will be modified in all the repetitions (called stays) of the game. Students even put a spawner
To check where a possible failure is, the teacher explains how to download the already programmed game to check each element of the game. The time that the workshop lasts, two hours, has passed quickly, but the students ask the teacher to explain how to implement the character's death before ask you a few questions about managing Unity that the students of the Interactive Products Design degree learn from U-tad and others more concrete like What would it take for the protagonist of the game to change his image when he died. The students who participate have followed all the steps indicated by Toro and have achieved a game that works at the same time that they have checked if the development of video games can be the profession they want.
New workshops next week
U-tad has organized for the coming week a new series of online workshops, This time with a more advanced level, although those who have no prior knowledge and want to know more about the topics covered can also attend. The two video game workshops will be "Challenges and penances: that's how Blasphemous was designed" (Monday, May 11) and "Artists in the video game industry" (Thursday, May 14). In Software Engineering there will be two other workshops that will be held on Wednesday, May 13: "Learn to develop Reality applications" and "Understanding a world of data: advanced R". Since these two workshops are a continuation of ones that have already been held, those interested in participating can review the previous session.
Five workshops will be held in the animation area: "First steps in acting for Animation " (Monday, May 11), Wearing a character in casual clothing in Marvelous Designer " (Tuesday, May 12), "Character Design: Next Level" (Wednesday, May 13), "Digital Composition Techniques" (Wednesday, May 13) and "The Producer: one more creative" (Thursday, May 14). Registrations are made on the page of U-tad.
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