Yes.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a complicated game. You can brutally kill innocent people, and rob honest travelers, and commit various other terrible crimes. However, you can also explore breathtaking terrain, help your friends survive, and assist townspeople on quests. You can play the hero or the villain - or some combination of both. These nuances and complexities are what makes Red Dead an amazing game. I can understand criticisms of excessive violence and I think that it's important to ensure that no game is too graphic. At times, Red Dead can be very violent - which I don't like - but most of the time, it's alright. What about the gameplay itself? It's great: the controls are novel yet intuitive, the environment design is amazing, and so much more. I love the sound design and visual design as well. They fit into the game world well and don't take away from the game. The attention to detail is very good as well. I appreciate the advanced 3D models and the well done textures that I have learned to pay attention to through working on the team game project on Unreality. Speaking of Unreality, there are some lessons we can learn from Red Dead. In the game scene itself, we can make a very atmospheric environment from taking inspiration from it. We can also make sure there is convexity in the story, allowing players to choose which paths to take. There is some uncertainty in Unreality's progression and linearization (i.e. how much affordance to show the character's path). Hopefully, we can learn from games such as Red Dead to improve Unreality. Summary
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As it turns, I hear an unquestionably painful squeak. I can sense the mechanism grinding against its prison. The screams of the screws, locked in a fight to the death with the wooden body, are easily audible. The cold metal glares at my hand as I touch it. I can feel it yelling at me.
And then it's gone. The portal has been opened. There has been a ceasefire established. The violence which plagued the last paragraph - which conceived such drama and emotion - has been defeated. Who is the savior of this battlefield? Who is this traveler, who dares to end the combat? It is I - the same who dared to start it. I turn to leave this dimension which I have just entered, preparing to manufacture another assault. I grip the brass like a knife, pulling it clockwise by its neck. Sympathy is not an option. I must force the metal to continue its jihad, pushing against the wood. Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, there is total defeat. The portal has been opened once more. The cool brass, my puppet, is victorious. I glance at my hand. The perpetrator. The commander-in-chief. I have done this. I have been the true aggressor. Bounding down the hallway, I am quick to forget the crimes I have committed. I feel the soft beige carpet fall to my toes like a fortress besieged by the best veteran troops the world could muster. Every step is an attack; every movement of my foot an act of violence. The fluffy carpet resents me, despises me, and wishes my fate would come and carry me away. It begs me for release from its reality, pleading and crying. Yet there is no remorse. I march on, a beacon of imperialism, indiscriminately encroaching on the ground beneath me. I peer around the hallway. There is another portal ahead. I prepare for war once again. I reach out for the brass, which curses me and hisses at me. It does not want to be manipulated - an infuriated child that never desired war. Then, my arm swiftly retracts - by my own free will! I have given up my violence. The incursions are over! I forgive the carpet and the door and its knob and I realize that it's this excruciating pain that we give the world. As our doorknobs bend to our every whim, so does our globe. We are the rulers of this realm. The entire planet is powerless against us. We are free to continue our conquests of this world. What are the consequences? Which sanctions will a lake throw at us for polluting it? How many protests will be angrily and passionately targeted towards us by the forests for murdering their brethren? We are the only ones who can stop ourselves. Will I be alone in my venture to prevent ultimate destruction? Will you join me? Do you want to prevent the world from burning? Summary
With the making this year's PBM finally behind me, I'd like to reflect on some of the experiences which my classmates and I went through. I've heard lots of insults thrown at the Unity Game Engine, which we used to create educational parkour games for our 2021-22 AGAD Proof of Learning.
"Unity is literally the worst application ever made." A classmate of mine confessed this strongly opinionated statement very recently. I took a moment to think about it and I eventually realized his perspective. Bugs in games, tiny errors in scripts that are hard to fix, weird issues that seem unsolvable, and an aura of frustration are some of the things that the Unity Game Engine has given my class the past couple months. I've experienced my fair share of difficulties. I had terrible issues with my respawn script, I had lighting bugs in my published game, I had problems switching scenes from my main menu, and more. However, I appreciated that Unity Game Engine allowed me the freedom to solve these problems through consulting Unity Forums, examining the Project Settings, or by engineering my own solution through Unity's basic yet useful 3D modeling interface. Every major issue I had I could either circumvent by doing something differently or solve. Was it frustrating? Yes. Is frustration present in all game engines sometimes? How could it not be? Perhaps the best thing Unity offers is the Unity Asset Store, which I've used to find wonderful free assets to upgrade my games and add to the environment. For my upcoming team game, I already have many prefabs from the Asset Store lined up. Although Unity isn't a perfect piece of software, I can look beyond my frustration with certain issues and see it for what it really is: a powerful tool to create games. A flawed tool, but still one with limitless potential that I'm excited to explore more of. Summary
Anyone who's ever been to high school should know that high school logos are notorious for copying professional sports teams. I've observed copycats of the Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, and even universities such as Arizona and Virginia in high schools in the past few weeks alone.
Is this even legal? Some logos are blatant copyright infringements, while others have their own unique flair. Even the most obvious thefts, though, wouldn't be worth it to stop. Professional sports leagues can send cease-and-desist orders to countless high schools across the United States, but it probably isn't worth their time. Additionally, it would create mountains of bad press and create general unhappiness. Sometimes, people can get behind the idea of borrowing a pro team's logo: In 2010, the director for corporate communications of the National Football League (NFL) said that "We support football on all levels and do not have an issue with high school and youth teams using NFL team logos." It's also an easy thing to do. Why create an entirely new logo instead of tweaking an already existing one? I'd argue for the latter of that last sentence. The pinnacle of graphic design is creativity. Taking other people's work is not only illegal, but it's wrong. Even with an endorsement from the NFL, it must leave a sour taste in the mouths of high school principals across the country to lift their logo from a pro sports team. I'd love to see a future of high schools with exciting logos that are unorthodox and special. In a world full of talented graphic designers and endless possibility with software such as Adobe Photoshop, why not take the time to have uniqueness? My recent observations have only reinforced the importance I place on graphic design, and I can't wait to see - albeit unlikely - a wave of new high school logos. Summary
Yes, I'm Christian. Yes, I attend church every week. Yes, I support the LGBTQ+ community. For a lot of Christians, these statements are mutually exclusive. I believe that Jesus and God calls on all of us to love and embrace our neighbors no matter what they are or believe. Last week was Holy Week for Christians, featuring Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Maundy Thursday revolves around Jesus giving his disciples a last supper and foretelling them of his death the next day. The bible scripture surrounding this important event includes chapter 13 of the book of John. Verses 34-35 read as follows: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” To me this obviously means to love everyone. LGBTQ+ people are just like the rest of us and God calls all Christians to love them. Just because I don't know what it feels like to be gay doesn't mean I should disrespect gay people. Some people rely on a bible verse to defend their homophobia. The 26th verse in the first chapter of the book of Romans. It reads: "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones." This verse is about to Gentiles worshipping gods other than the one God worshipped and believed in by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The sexual relations mentioned are purely a sexual ritual, not related to loving and caring relationships. If you're a Christian wondering if being gay is unclean and sinful, ask yourself this. When Jesus calls you to love everyone, does he call you to love only certain people?
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“BibleGateway.” BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/ Human Rights Campaign. “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?” Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality As a student, I can easily say that America's public schools are in a poor state. As funding drains, especially in states like North Carolina, they get worse. The main purpose of school is learning what 'they' want you to learn. Schools reward memorization of certain virtually useless material and suppressing creativity. Grades are the only thing that matters in most public schools. Bad grades means it's almost impossible to succeed in life. Tests are solely based on remembering content you're going to forget in a week or two. You have to get the right answer, not a different answer, starving your creativity. Also, most schools have Christian ties. Although I am Christian, separation of church and state is an essential American value. The pledge of allegiance, for example, which I had to recite in elementary school, mentions that we are 'one nation under God.' The Bill of Rights emphasizes religious freedom and that nobody has to believe in any gods. Forcing a habit mentioning religion onto kids's shoulders doesn't feel like religious freedom to me. It's going to be hard to change these, though. I could write a book about saying 'So help me God' when you are sweared into a political office, or the whole idea of having Christian army chaplains in the first place. It's definitely going to be a difficult journey away from religious captivity into religious freedom in the United States, but I think we can make it if we focus on the common good of my generation and the next. Perhaps this has potential to be a free country after all.
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AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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