This project is a focus on the game jam called House Jam, where participants are given two weeks to transform their room into a race-like track. It’s an exciting idea on creating a game and something I felt interested in since I have had the joy of playing racing games since I was a kid. I started off by focusing on prototyping movement and physics with the car using a Unity engine. I found a free asset under the Mena file in the Unity Asset store, one that would match with the engine program and a tutorial video on how to make the car move.

It took me about 2 to 3 hours to configure the proper Unity Engine, as it continues to drop one version down and needs to update it to the right edition for designing and scripting. The video was moving too quickly for my liking, however, providing good step by step to make sure the mechanic functions. During scripting, I learned new methods on scripting quick with C# as well as new variations of functions during the video. 

Prior to getting it correctly, the main camera has become a struggle to fix. At first, the camera has an unnamed script that would cause a caution without any work that has been done to it. After putting in the work to script the camera following the car, I then had trouble making sure the camera’s behind the player and not floating around the car. That is when I realized that within the script, it stated that the camera is going to be in the same position as the car rather than behind it. After a quick edit and tweaking, the player can now see the car as they drive around. 

On the second and third day during development, I started to work on two important aspects of the game, Timer and Coin Collecting. The Timer feature was a simple task, although I do not have the proper text to make the game look flashy, it was a simple prototyping that helped me understand the use of creating a timer and having a game over screen when the timer hits 0. I found a video to work with the timer and also has helped me with doing a restart and menu screen or shutting the game down for future prototyping. The next feature is coin collecting. I decided to create a coin on my own instead of using a free asset after having experience with Probuilder. The video I found has helped me create the script on coin collecting as well as visual text on how much the player collected. For starters, the script that is provided in the video has worked when the player collected the coin. However, displaying the number of coins has become an issue. Although I have followed the video carefully, there has been a NullReference error that prevents the player from collecting the coin. I have gone back multiple times and checked the comments with one person stating that it is some kind of bug in the system and given an example of the coding that should work. After trying it out and tinkering with the script, it does have the player collect the coin but still does not display it. It could also mean I am using an older version of Unity compared to the video so I do need to look into this as soon as possible.

After taking a look on some of the scripts that can help me with the coin counter, I finally found one that helps players know how many coins they collected, but also set a high score that could encourage players to get a perfect score in the game. I also tested it out by creating a ring collection, where the player would drive through the ring to collect it. The last progression of the design is making sure I find a way to have the vehicle reset after filling on it's side or back, a stable for racing games, especially arcade games. It took me about 2 days to find something and figure out how to have the player press a key to reset their car. 

The next run will focus on building the room, but also work on the timer/game over screen and make sure to exit the game or restart it at the main menu.