For the last few weeks, In-Depth has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Bad news first. My mentor and I discussed the possibility of making a survival game for In-Depth night, and we decided that with the limited time, making it would be impossible. With the game design skills I had built on, I could either choose between a survival shooter or a survival game. The latter was obviously not going to be possible, but I did not want my game to be just a simple survival shooter either. I decided that I would create a survival shooter with a survival aspect to it (eating food to maintain hunger). I have also realized that as more and more variables are added to my game, the game has more console errors, crashes, and bugs. These can be very time-consuming and mess up my schedule, as I can set aside time to work on my In-Depth, only for my game to crash, and then I have to spend hours trying to find a solution. Challenges aside, the fruits of my labor are finally coming together, as my game’s map has been successful in being both aesthetically pleasing and challenging for the player. The health and hunger variables and bars are also working successfully. With the addition of a script that makes the health drop rapidly once the hunger reaches 0, the player is no longer able to stay in one place and has to search a dense forest for small bushes and potentially poisonous mushrooms.

Health bars, score, and game over screen.

The map.

For In-Depth night, I plan to have a learning center with my game running on a laptop and printed copies of some of the scripts I used for my game. I also plan to have a visual diagram with minimal text that explains how the scripts work and what the C# on one of my scripts means. With my scripts literally being words and symbols, I plan to keep any other text to a minimum, if not none.

The journey so far has had it’s share of bugs, glitches, and crashes, but with my game nearing completion, I am looking forward to In-Depth night!

Big Ideas:

• Emerging ideas and ideologies profoundly influence societies and events.

Passage: “Got a lot farther by working a lot harder By being a lot smarter By being a self-starter”

The idea that anyone with skill could climb up the social ladder and become someone significant through hard work and being smarter, influenced Hamilton’s life and the thirteen colonies. Despite Hamilton’s background and birth status as an illegitimate child, Hamilton was able to become a founding father through reading lots of books and diligently working towards his goals.

• Disparities in power alter the balance of relationships between individuals and between societies.

Passage: “Started workin’, clerkin’ for his late mother’s landlord”

Hamilton had to work for his late mother’s landlord due to the disparities in power between him and the landlord. If he has the money to be self-sufficient, he wouldn’t have had to work for his late mother’s landlord, but because the landlord held way more power, he had to work for him. If the disparities between them hadn’t been so great, Hamilton’s relationship with the landlord wouldn’t have been the same.

• Collective identity is constructed and can change over time.

Passage: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

Alexander Hamilton started out as a poor, illegitimate child that no one cared about. Over time, however, his collective identity as an excellent writer was constructed, and he was able to go to New York and become an influential figure.

• The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.

Passage: “In New York, you can be a new man”

In the Caribbean, Hamilton realized that he couldn’t achieve his goals, so he moved to a different physical environment, New York. New York, like the other colonies, had a different political, social, and economic structure from Britain, as success was also determined by merit, so even an illegitimate child like Hamilton could change his social and political standing. Someone with Hamilton’s background wouldn’t have had a chance at decent education in Britain.

Inquiry Question: What impact did the Hudson Bay Company have on the First Nations?

For my independent inquiry, I decided to create a video to demonstrate my learning. Click the link below to access the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzQyeVDfdk&feature=youtu.be

Sources:

1. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hudsons-bay-company/
2. http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_furtrade/fp_furtrade3.html
3. http://bclearningnetwork.com/LOR/media/fns12/COURSE_8730771_M/my_files/module2/section1/lesson4/topic1.html
4. Crossroads: A Meeting of Nations (2nd Edition)
5. Empire of the Bay 
6. http://www.macleans.ca/society/hbcs-colonial-barbie-comes-with-some-baggage/
7. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hudsons-bay-company/
8. http://owenc.talons43.ca/2018/04/03/dol-3-independent-canadian-inquiry/

Since my last blog post four weeks ago, I have had two sessions with my mentor. My progress has been coming along nicely, and at this stage, I am equipped with the skills needed to create basic scripts and create my map. Rather than my mentor starting the session by showing me a new skill, we discuss my progress from the last session and any difficulties I had. From there, my mentor shows me different ways to solve any technical issues and gives me suggestions on what I could add to my game.

During our sessions, we went more in-depth with the enemy scripts. My mentor showed me some examples online that I could use for inspiration. He explained how I could use the C# scripts to add all sorts of different actions at different times on my enemies by using colliders. My mentor also showed me some tools on the engine that I could use while I was creating my map. Before, I would have to drag tree by tree to create a “cartoonish-looking” forest, but Rafael showed me how I could experiment with opacity, density, and the brush tool to paint realistic forests and grass fields on my map.

Progress wise, I would say I am on track. I know all the C# scripts I need as of now, but that will change as new ideas pop up. I am also starting to create the map for the game, adding trees, sound effects, and all kinds of assets from the asset store. Getting the right texture and getting the aesthetics nailed down will be challenging with only free assets, as they are very limited in selection and quality, but by experimenting with different brush sizes, opacity, and assets, I can find different ways to create my map.

1. What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?

During our last meeting, my mentor showed me various websites where I could download sound effects for my game, such as Sound cloud. He showed me how I could listen to the sounds that I might want for my game and download them. From there, it is just a matter of picking the ones that work best and pressing the import button on the Unity engine. My mentor encouraged me to find new sound effects, such as a forest sound effect for the forest.

2. What kinds of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?

Since Unity is an IT skill, it has the support of the World Wide Web, allowing millions of other game design enthusiasts to help me out on the internet. If I have a question or want to learn more about what a special function does, I can usually find it on a search engine in a few seconds. By using the learning opportunities available on the internet, I can reinforce the concepts my mentor discusses in our sessions.

3. What kinds of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?

Having my mentor guide me and helping me out when the internet fails, might accelerate my learning. The internet is a great resource, but since there isn’t always just one answer to solving a problem in Unity, answers from 2006 and 2011 may not help me with working with the current version of Unity. Searching for answers on the internet can be time-consuming sometimes, and by having my mentor to answer any questions I have, I can move on to other concepts instead of spending hours on single concepts.

4. When you get together what do you talk about?

My mentor and I talked about his career and his game. I learned more about what type of game he was creating and his experience with game design. I was surprised to learn that it was his first game, but considering how much time it took an indie game developer to create a game, it was understandable. By the end of the conversation, I felt I had a better idea of who my mentor was and what kind of games he was interested in.

5. What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?

Our communication is working well. We listen to each other’s thoughts and ideas, and Rafael is always willing to answer my questions. I am open to Rafael’s constructive criticism, not taking a defensive stance when he critiques my work, but instead trying to find out why and improve from there. Additionally, I find our conversations to be more fluid and natural as we get to know more about each other through the weeks.

6. What are you learning about one another?

We have learned each other’s interests, such as our preferences in video games and what genres we prefer. Rafael has learned what games I prefer and why, while learned that my mentor enjoyed survival and strategy games, but didn’t have too much of a taste for FPS shooters. He has also shared with me some details of his game that he plans to release soon, but only small details, as he plans to keep most of the game a secret until the release.