Carlos Rivera Capstone

Carlos Rivera Annotated Bibliography Floyd, Daniel. "Extra Credits" Extra Credits: Game Design. Daniel Floyd, YouTube Playlist, Last Updated Mar 8, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BkTruCmaBBZ8z6cP9KzPiX
 I used to watch this source as entertainment, because I was bored. Now that I look at in for research, I realized how much of an excellent job this source does at providing an overview on video game development. The tips and tricks given in this series really help me understand what developing a video game is like, how to benefit from it and how to deal with its grievances. Because it’s mostly just an overview, I can’t use this for anything specific. However, it can help me keep my sanity while developing a game and give me hope and encouragement for its success. 

Arcila, David. “Zeef” Game Development Resources. David Arcila, Blog, last updated 1/22, 2013. https://game-development.zeef.com/david.arcila
 I recently found this site whilst looking for an online chiptune music creation app. This blog is chalk full of tutorials, free music, game engines, character generators, and so much more for any developer to use for their games and other applications. The possibilities are endless with how much this blog post could help me with my capstone, which is a video game. However, I do prefer to create these things with my own hands and I am willing to do it for the most part. I am willing to change my mind if the situation beckons me to do so. Chapple, Craig. “develop-online” 16 ways to make your game for free. 

Craig Chapple, Blog, 5/24/2014 http://www.develop-online.net/tools-and-tech/16-ways-to-make-your-game-for-free/0193040
 Video game development is surprisingly expensive and risky, especially for the triple “A” developers. Some developers put up to five hundred million dollars, and more, into developing and advertising one game. That is enough to buy and own a few private islands or a couple of yachts. Thankfully, video games doesn’t need to be that expensive. In fact, anyone can make a game without spending a penny. The free tools to make a video game are scattered across the internet for any upcoming video game developer, like me. This blog can help me find some of these tools for my game. Schreier, Jason. “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels” Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made. Jason Schreier, Book, 9/5/2017 It is difficult to describe how hard it is to make a video game to anyone who has never made a video game. There is so much that goes into video games and it is a relatively new industry. Thankfully, this book has me covered. I talks about these hardships and uses famous video games, released or not, and how they were developed. It gets into the mind of the developer or developers and shows their intent for the games and any future sequels. This book gives much needed insight in such a difficult task and prepares me for what is to come. 

Swirsky and Pajot, James and Lisanne. “Indie Game” Indie Game” The Movie. James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, Movie, 6/12/2012
This movie has been out for a while and it has been in my radar, since I do enjoy watching documentaries. This one is about the indie game development scene and what these developers have to go through in order to make their games and market them to a decent sized audience. Viewers of this documentary, later including myself, gain insight on their hardships and how they have to balance their game development and social lives. I know I will go through a lot of the struggles these people have and their stories can help me figure out what to do if I am in some sort of block or corner. Francois and Brady, Lester and Anna. “Game Loading” Game Loading: Rise of the Indies. Lester Francois and Anna Brady, Movies, 4/21/2015 This movie follows several indie game studios and gets into how they develop their games and the hardships of their video game’s development cycles. There is a surprising amount of video game documentaries that cover this and other topics about the video game industry. However, this shouldn’t be surprising to me anyway. The video game industry is one the fastest growing industries in the world and documentaries like these give insight as to the difficulties of the industry. This movie, and others of its kind, will be valuable resources for the capstone I am working on and my future career, if I become a video game developer. 

“Discovery Channel” Rise of the video game. TV Show, aired 11/21/2007 
This show covers the history of video gaming from its humble beginnings to the massive industry it is today. It also covers how some of these games, and their genres, gained popularity, became innovative for the industry, and how they became smash hits. This could be used to, at the very least, gain encouragement to keep going with my capstone. It can also give me inspiration as to what to implement into my capstone in order to make it more fun and interesting for the player. I am just surprised that even the freaking Discovery Channel wants to make a documentary off this.
I came into the capstone thinking that once I learned it, it will be a breeze. My naivete got the best of me and created many hardships to come. When I first heard that capstone is a year long project I knew what I wanted to do, create a video game. I then learned of the extra stuff that needed to be done besides creating the capstone and its presentation. I tried doing all of that, but neglected actually creating the capstone. Once it was january I realized what wasn’t done and had to rethink what kind of game I needed to make. I at first wanted to create a platformer similar to the game “The Mario Bros” (the one after Donkey Kong & before Super Mario Bros), but after learning the time I had to make the game, I settled with a platformer similar to Geometry Dash, but without the scrolling. This was the best time for my capstone because I had a balance between the game and the background stuff. However, things took a turn for the worst when I got lazy and slacked off. I didn’t develop the game enough within the timeframe given. So, I decided to reconsider what kind of game I had to make again and, this time, settled with a game that is like the easter egg minigame from Doom 3 called “Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3”. This game was very easy to develop at such short notice.

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