I really didn’t know what to expect going into the workshop, all I knew was that I liked some games I’ve played and have heard that some of them were made on Unity, and I also knew I was really bad at coding. Unity was just as hard as I expected it to be, since there are so many computing layers that go into gaming: you need to take into account the environment, but you also need to take into account the user’s completely free will interaction within the environment you create.
We used Sam (the person in charge of the workshop) starter pack of ready made characters: I fell a bit behind in the workshop but I was really happy I was able to make the character move to the right and fall down. That was more than the level of successful interaction I was expecting, and the workshop gave me tremendous insight into just the insane amount of work game designers put into the products they create. Many of the indie games I have loved were made in Unity, such as “Ori and the Blind Forest,” “Gorogoa,” “Florence,” “Oxenfree” and “Inside,” all very inventive and beautiful platformers, puzzle games, and interactive adventures, and to me are testaments to the genres they fit into.
The Unity Workshop in general reflected my very brief time in IMA, a really cool subject I had absolutely little to no understanding of, but actively affected my life in profound ways. I am not a “gamer” or understand “game design” that in depth by any means, but many games I have played have deeply affected my life and the way I see the world. I hope to at least achieve that in some form: it doesn’t have to be through Unity/other game design engines, but I think games illustrate the power interaction has on users as a whole.
The workshop made me want to take more initiative in interactive media arts more, and learn how to make very simple games on my own through Unity, since it is just an engine you can download for free off the internet. I am happy to come away with at least a miniscule understanding of the work it takes to make a successful game, as it at least seems a little less alien to me now that I’ve taken the workshop.