Start Of Development

This is the beginning of my my development for "Sign Pals". My first major task was creating a polished introduction to set the right tone for the application. I realized that a professional opening and navigation system could dramatically improve the player experience.

Designing the Scene Structure

For all scenes in my game, I established a standard canvas setup to ensure consistent display across different devices:

  1. Screen space overlay render mode for UI elements
  2. Canvas scaler configured to work with my reference resolution (1920x1080)
  3. Proper anchoring and layout components for responsive sizing

This standardized canvas setup is used throughout all scenes in the game, providing a consistent foundation for the UI. With this structure in place, I created a dedicated "OpeningLogo" scene to begin the game experience.

Creating Opening Landing Page Elements

For the Sign Pals logo, I needed several elements to create an engaging intro:

  1. The main "Sign Pals" logo I created in Illustrator
  2. Character elements that would animate in sequence
  3. A "Press anywhere to start" text that blinks to prompt user interaction
  4. Touch/click detection for the entire screen

Animation

The animation sequence creates a playful and engaging introduction. Here's what happens when the game starts:

  1. The main "Sign Pals" logo smoothly fades in and grows from the center of the screen
  2. Once the logo is fully visible, the character mascots pop in one by one with a slight bounce effect
  3. After all elements are visible, the "Press anywhere to start" text begins to blink, alternating between visible and invisible
  4. The player can tap or click anywhere on the screen to proceed to the mode selection

I implemented this sequence using coroutines to control the timing and animation effects:

The bounce effect for the characters is achieved through the overshoot in the scaling animation. They will briefly grow larger than their final size before settling into place. This creates a lively, cartoonish feel that matches the playful nature of a sign language learning game for children. The blinking text provides a clear call to action that encourages players to interact with the game.



Insights

Seeing the landing page animation come to life made me genuinely happy. After all the trial and error, watching my ideas take shape reminded me why I started this project. It boosted my confidence and motivation, showing me that even without deep technical knowledge, I can bring a meaningful and playful vision to life.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UDP vs TCP

After successfully implementing hand sign detection and classification in Python, my next challenge was connecting this system to Unity for a more interactive learning experience. At first, I saw a video from the same YouTube channel that showed how to connect Python to Unity using UDP. This inspired me to explore network protocols more deeply to understand what would work best for my project. Initial Discovery: UDP from the YouTube Tutorial When I first started researching how to connect my Python classifier to Unity, I came across a tutorial video from the same YouTube channel ( Murtaza’s Workshop - Robotics and AI)  that taught me about hand detection. The video suggested using UDP (User Datagram Protocol) for this connection. This piqued my interest, but before implementing it, I wanted to understand why UDP was recommended over TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). My Understanding of the Two Protocols Through my research, I found that TCP and UDP represent two different philos...
Read more

Initial Research

Image
Bridging Family Gaps for Deaf Teenagers Communication is one of the most important aspects of building strong family relationships. However, for many deaf teenagers raised in hearing families, communication is often one of the biggest barriers. Everyday conversations, emotional expressions, and even simple family interactions can become sources of frustration or isolation when a shared language is missing. These experiences may go unnoticed by hearing family members, but for deaf teens, they can have long-term effects on emotional well-being, self-identity, and social development. Inspiration This project was inspired by the Korean drama Twinkling Watermelon . In the story, a young deaf girl is discouraged by her mother from learning sign language. Despite this, her boyfriend takes the initiative to learn sign language so that he can communicate with her and eventually teaches her as well. How Sweet! Later in the story, he becomes deaf due to an accident. The two eventually marry and r...
Read more

Final Approach: Python OpenCV

Image
After experimenting with 3 different approaches, I realized that fully implementing them would be too risky. Each required a deep technical understanding and advanced knowledge of complex systems that I don’t yet possess. While the concepts were promising, I ultimately decided to take a more practical route that aligned with my current skills and ensured the project would be functional and deliverable within my timeline. Luckily, when I decided to broaden my research and look into more practical solutions, I came across a fascinating YouTube tutorial on building a hand sign detection system specifically for American Sign Language (ASL) alphabets that offered a more systematic approach. Learning From Mr. Murtaza The tutorial I discovered from the YouTube channel called "Murtaza's Workshop - Robotics and AI" presented a comprehensive step-by-step guide for building a robust hand sign detection system using ASL alphabets A, B, and C. What caught my attention was its two-step...
Read more