Skip to main content

TIME STRATEGIES

Time management concept illustration from Rawpixel.

Time is something I've never been good at managing but maybe it's because I never really tried. I would find myself complaining about workloads and staying up late when in reality, I waste a majority of the day and only start my work in the evening. I should definitely consider working on my time management during this semester.

The read the article titled "How to build a realistic study plan that you'll actually stick to" by Amanda Collins. I found this piece useful and informative because it took me through the steps of how to put together a weekly schedule. Laying out my day-to-day on a planner would help me see where I can take time to work on assignments. The article also spoke about setting goals for myself and ticking them off as I complete them. Perhaps the sense of achievement from doing so will motivate me to stick to the schedule.

I also read "Four questions to help overcome procrastination" by Peter Banerjea. Procrastination is something that I constantly fall victim to. Pushing something aside for later is just too easy, but when later comes, so does the stress. I never seem to learn from my mistakes but at the same time, I feel as though I can't bring myself to fight the voice of procrastination. As I read this article, I realised that I view every piece of work that I get as one big task that I have to complete all at once. One of the questions written in this piece is "What one thing can I do to get started?" This is a great question that I should start asking myself when I feel like giving into procrastination. Every big assignment becomes slightly easier if I take it one small task at a time.

Procrastination illustration by Miguel Montaner. Source: Behance.

Procrastination is definitely my biggest time challenge as a whole but if I work my way around it by asking myself what I can do to begin and think about the consequences of waiting till later, maybe I can work through the year and further with better time management. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FIRST PLAYABLE

Continuing with the creation of my game, I resized the player character to make them even smaller based on a comment that was left on my last project blog. I also repositioned the trees to make the space slightly narrower and added some flowers to bring some colour into the scene. With reference from the animal feeding game tutorial, I was able to get the player moving left and right by clicking the arrow keys. I brought in rocks and a branch for obstacles but I need to apply a SpawnManager script and get them to spawn randomly during gameplay. I also have to figure out how to get some branches falling from the trees and bringing in power-ups and points too. Screenshot from Unity3D of my game production.

PROTOTYPE

I browsed through the Unity asset store to find a package with nature objects that I could use to set up the scene for my infinite runner game. I downloaded the Nature Starter Kit 2  and started building my scene in Unity. This was a little time consuming but I'm satisfied with the way it turned out. I upscaled the trees and bushes, keeping in my mind my initial idea of gaining inspiration from the movie "The Secret World of Arrietty." I got the character from a tutorial I have completed for this module before and positioned the camera behind it. Screenshot of my work in Unity3D. With reference to the lesson 3 Unity tutorial, I started coding by creating the PlayerController script. I used the AddForce method and allowed the player to jump by clicking the spacebar. I declared two public variables to be able to adjust the gravity and player's jump force. Looking into the player's animator controller, I applied a static running animation. I then added a jumping ani...

GAME FUN

Games can be described by the 3 components Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA) or otherwise stated as rules – system – “fun” . The three reading selections this week and the synopsis below all address the term “fun” in relation to game design. There are eight types of Fun outlined by the MDA. These eight are both a source of reference and player experience that blend together in many ways, and essentially what makes a game engaging and enjoyable. Figure 1: Eight kinds of Fun Both Oxford and Merrian dictionaries define Fun as an enjoyment and delight but within the context of a game, it refers to a form of pleasurable entertainment. MDA papers define the '8 kinds of fun';  sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression, and submission. These remain a source of reference and possibly the most popular list of player interactions combining in various forms to attract each player to a particular game. Nicole Lazzaro presents four types of fun that...