Week 12 - Final Touches and Design Expo Prep
This week I put the finishing touches on my ML Agents game, The Flower’s Nightmare: Attack of the ML Hummingbots, and prepared for the Fall 2020 CoE Design Expo at the University of Michigan.
The Flower’s Nightmare: Attack of the ML Hummingbots (10 hours)
Here is a quick run-down of the changes I made this week:
- Implemented fully functioning main menu
- Implemented a full tutorial level
- Reworked the game logic to account for the new scenes
- Polished up movement and added functionality for movement animations
- Added movement animations and a patchy fix for flower not moving with head
- Added music for the main menu and the game itself that fits with the theme
- Fined tuned Hummingbirds and player settings more
- Added indication for player getting stunned
- Fixed other miscellaneous bugs
- Set up an itch.io page for The Flower’s Nightmare: Attack of the ML Hummingbots
Preparation for The CoE Design Expo (2+ hours)
I also prepared some slides for the CoE Design Expo. The intent of the slides is to show my journey in making an ML Agent game and to outline the key problems I faced along the way. I describe the solutions I found in the hopes that future game designers who try to make their own ML Agents game don’t struggle as much with the same problems.
You can view the slides here.
Plans Post-Design Expo
After the design expo, I plan on posting two final devlogs. First, a guide for anyone who looks into this topic in the future. I’ll cover general tips for incorporating, training, and advancing ML Agents in Unity games. I’ll also discuss some possible avenues for future research for any other students who stumble onto this project in the future. Second, a final devlog where I reflect on the design expo and this project as a whole. So be sure to check back as those will most likely be the last devlogs of this project.