Third quarter came and is quickly ending in a flash, and right before spring break I thought it would be proper to reflect on everything I have created in the Unity game engine and think about what I've learned, what I've made, and how efficient the Junior Programming pathway is in Unity. For some reason, Weebly won't let me create a gallery that previews images of certain links, so I'll just hyperlink them in a list here. Here's a list of all of the games I've made in Unity, from Unity Essentials to Junior Programming.
As you can see, most of the games I've made is incredibly primitive to say the least, or mere modifications of premade games by following the Junior Programming Pathway. I quite like the "Animal Shooting Cookie Game", it's really cute and I enjoyed adding in the models, which had a style I really liked. Most of the mechanics are simple, but when you're learning a new skill, it's safe to keep it simple. I coded a lot in C#/Visual Studios, following the videos here and there, but I'm not sure if I'm confident enough in C# to code completely originally quite yet. There are a lot of terms for certain strings of code that aren't explained well by the video lecturer and the "learning" process of coding is to copy what the lecturer does. When you make mistakes, it's something that can be easily missed that Visual Studio's program often explains poorly for a beginner coder, like spelling errors, capitalization errors, and even cross-program issues. However, my main gripe with the program is how its being administered. I am well ahead of my fellow classmates, but I find the expectation to finish this program in a fraction of the estimated time that Unity gives (12 weeks) is rushing it and ultimately destructive towards the learning process. You cannot expect students to finish a 12-week long program in half the time and understand the material properly. There is a venn diagram artists often use to explain how three factors expect the work they make: time, quality, and price. If you want something done quickly, you will either pay premium to have it done in a quality manner, or pay the standard price to have it done in a poor quality. The same principle applies here, and is doubled because we students aren't getting compensated for our work. I'm not talking about a paycheck. I'm talking about rewards. What is our reward, our prize, our incentive for finishing this pathway under the time constraint? What makes skipping our spring break, our weekends, our free hours after school in order to work on the Junior Programmer grade worth it? Where does the line fall between extensive work and my home life? My quality of learning is being affected by the time crunch I, and henceforth my classmates are being put under, being heavily pushed to work on this assignment constantly. But for what? A letter grade? A number? There will be no pizza parties or even candy hand-outs at the end of finishing the pathway due to Covid-19, and considering what has occurred the previous years at the end of every school year, I expect our reward to be the same: more work. In summary, while I enjoy the process of making games that work for me and programming, I cannot learn efficiently or well with the current time constraint the class is forcing me to work with. I am stressed, frustrated, and beyond ready to move on from this class.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHey, Jay Phung here. This is my blog where I reflect on various assignments from Game Design! Please enjoy your stay (´・ω・`). Archives
May 2021
Categories
All
|