Videogame STREET RACING and Anime
Animatsuri
The Animatsuri (あにまつり) was an anime event held by the UPIICSA once a year. The event lasted 1 day and in it, many of the elective workshops offered by the school (not only anime) were presented, for example: there was acting, dubbing, dance, cosplay contests, presentation of video games, awards to sports teams and much more.
On Animatsuri day they usually bring famous artists, singers, or voice actors.
Anime workshop
To graduate from UPIICSA, apart from all the subjects and professional practices, you needed to gather 20 "elective" points, which were achieved by entering a few semesters in a sports or culture workshop, or by attending conferences.
In the third semester I entered the anime workshop (it wasn't anime as such, it just had that name) which had many very varied topics inside.
The anime workshop had: Video Games, Acting, Dancing, Drawing Anime, Japanese, Dubbing, Singing, and Cosplay.
For a passing grade within the anime workshop, we had to choose at least 3 of these options. I chose Video Games, Dubbing and Japanese.
For all these topics he was the same teacher, causing the school to claim him at a certain point and force him to reduce the number of options. That claim towards the teacher meant that Japanese no longer existed as an option (I've always wanted to learn Japanese 😢). The good thing was that I only needed to pass 2 options and not 3, but now I had to see a bit of everything, focusing more on Videogames and Dubbing.
STREET RACING
I think it's obvious why I chose video games. Also, they would be relatively easy points for electives.
This Anime-Videogames subject is not the same as the one I mentioned in the article "University Programming". The one I mention in that article was a specialty subject, while this one was just a Workshop.
As the teacher had to give all the anime topics, there were only Video Games on Mondays for only 1 hour, so we didn't see much.
All the topics were about the UNITY program and what we learned was how to use the program, how to create a level, and how to put the objects on the screen.
But time passed very quickly. We didn't get to see much of video games and we each had to show an individual project at the Animatsuri.
We had practically 3 weeks maximum to each invent a game and create it from scratch.
I had no idea how to use Unity (I only knew what the teacher taught). I had never used C# before (which is the language in which Unity is programmed), and I had other assignments to deliver in other subjects.
Time was against us.
I had no idea what video game to make. Suddenly I thought "It doesn't have to be a very laborious game, it's enough to be entertaining". That's when I remembered one of the games that came in Game Maker 7 as an example game, which was called... Street Racing 😀.
(Images below are from the original Game Maker game)
Video Gameplay
I thought of making a game inspired by this, in fact, it has the same title and the same background song.
The Game Maker game consisted of earning points as time went by, but you had to go collecting gallons of gasoline that appeared on the road, since the gasoline was used up little by little. The game ended if you ran out of gas or if you collided with a car. You could go on the right road or on the road in the opposite direction. At a certain point, a police car would appear following you, and you had to dodge it because if you didn't, you'd collide with it and the game was over.
I thought about making that game, but modifying some things.
Mainly the game was in 3D. I downloaded several cart models, the player being a Bus.
The concept was the same, you drive on a highway and as time goes by, you run out of fuel. To avoid that you must pick up gas stations.
I added people who suddenly appeared and you had to "get them on the bus" (run over them haha) which earned you more points.
Here I did not add police. Because apart from the fact that it didn't interest me to implement that, I didn't have time.
Remembering that I had less than 3 weeks to make the game (no knowledge of Unity or C#).
Points are earned as time goes by, but: if you go in the opposite direction, you earn double the points, and if you go in the middle, you only earn half the points of normal.
In the end this was the result.
Only me and 3 other people who had Videogames as a main option presented a game that day, the others never showed up at that event.
Video Gameplay
Dubbing
In the anime workshop I chose dubbing as one of my 3 options because the others didn't appeal to me. Also, it was interesting to me and I thought it would be easier for me because, since I already knew how to make some sounds with my mouth, my body would already be more used to it, or I don't know.
I did a lot of research on dubbing and learned a lot of techniques both at school and on the internet. At the time, dubbing called me so much that I even thought about dedicating myself to that. But so far I haven't. I don't know if one day I will.
I think dubbing also helped me a bit with Beat boxing (which I explain in the "About" section) and vice versa.
Although I personally am not one to talk much, I have (or had at the time) the ability to speak with various tones of voice, from high to very low.
Someday I will show my dubbing project (not at the moment, because that makes me a little embarrassed 😄).
If I remember correctly, in the Animatsuri of that year (2016) as a special guest, a famous voice actor attended: Alfredo Gabriel Basurto Contreras.
