Blog by Our Nigerian Team Members
Sharing Our Experience Training in Game Development.
June 2022
Olukunle AFOLABI on Game Development.
When I started engagement with Loss of Generality, I never thought I will have the opportunity to learn game development. Some months ago, madame Lucia told us about how the Chief Technology has spent time working on 3D game development using the Unity gaming platform coupled with Wolfram. I was very excited when I was told I could be a part of the team learning game development. I never could have thought of the possibility of using Wolfram in game development because from my little experience as a programmer. Python has been presented as the best programming language to learn game development. Even though I never had planned to venture into game development, I saw it as an opportunity to further develop myself and I started building interest in learning to code games then I said to myself, it’s time to learn game programming. This marks the beginning of the journey.
All I was expecting from the training was just to learn writing code and codes but to my surprise, the first training session was about learning the science and mathematics of game development with Wolfram. Few weeks before this, the Chief Technology Architect shared with us one of the games he developed on Car Damage AI. Even though it took me some time to process this but I learnt it’s not just about learning to write codes, there are some sort of science and mathematics involved in 3D game development. This training has gotten more advanced and recently the Chief Technology Architect has been working really hard to provide us with tools that could help us develop our own games as a team in Nigeria.
A few months ago, the team in Nigeria received an initiative to develop our own game. With the help and support from we were able to come up with a storyline for the game and have been able to work on the character as well and hopefully, we should have a RPG game developed by the Nigeria team based on a historical event that has happened in the country, I look forward to seeing this being a success.
I must say that it has been a wonderful experience for me so far. The support I have received, the cooperation amongst the Nigerian team, the motivation from Madam Lucia, I must say it’s been great and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to be part of the team. So far I have learnt, I’m learning and still have a lot to learn here at LoG as I build an arsenal of skill set.
ADENIYI MUIZUDEEN
My trainings with LoG began November 2020 and it has been interesting. Over the couple of years, I have improved my mathematical skills by taking courses on MTH 141 and 142. This has helped me to have a better understanding of these topics as well as appreciate their applications. I also took a few physics courses on CCN website to refresh my previous knowledge and have a better understanding of the subject.
In my training with LoG, I have been able to have a good understanding of Wolfram Programming Language. This Language has several applications including building educational modules for schools, building games, data analytics and Artificial Intelligence. I have learnt how to use list, create associations, plot graphs and charts, write functions and carry out simple data analysis task using Wolfram language.
Learning Wolfram Language has also given me a solid foundation in programming. It has helped improve my analytical and problem-solving abilities. I have been able to see how Wolfram programming language differs from other programing languages.
Early this year madam Lucia gave us another opportunity to join the game development team, we were introduced to the instructor whose name is Dara who lectures us on games by using the Unity software and use of Wolfram modules to build games in Unity with 3D & 2D. Along the line it has not been an easy task but with the team it was successful.
Dara has sessions with us every Saturday and some other days. He built specific tools for us – some synthesizers, rag doll for us where we practice what we learn and also go through lectures on the Wolfram Mathematica lab and visualizes it on Unity.
What I think of the training is that it’s a very good experienced to achieve also it’s a very important development in my career and I look forward to explore more on Unity game platform. Recently we came up with building a project on Unity software to develop a graphical novel about an event in Nigerian history.
Lastly, I look forward to develop games of my own using Wolfram and Unity. With the guidance of Dara, Imran and Madam Lucia things will be possible.
Abdulhamid Dauda Muhammad
Wolfram training with LoG has been developing from one phase to another. From basic training, to module development for professors and now to game development. Chief architect in LoG in the person of Dara has spent about two years or more researching and developing games in Unity while integrating some functions from Wolfram.
Last year when my father passed away I spoke to Madam Lucia about how interested he was in my training and engagement with LoG. Madam Lucia proposed to me that we accelerate my training and introduced me to Dara so we could begin training in game development with members of our team. It was difficult from the beginning, some aspects were hard to grasp. But with hard work and support from Dara we were able to progress.
Before that session I thought game will be all about modelling the characters, modelling the stages and other assets, but with the advent of the training Dara opened our eyes to all of it. There was serious linear algebra and physics involved in game development and is what is making the game possible in the first place. We are now in the training with a big project in mind. Developing a game base on Bayajiddas story (a warrior prince that travelled all the way from Baghdad to Nigeria). If successful I am sure it will be exiting for many Nigerians seeing a famous story turned into an amazing RPG game.
Lastly I’ll like to say a big thank you to the management for giving us the opportunity to develop our own game from our own story line base on famous historical story from our own culture.
And thank them once again for their endless support.
