Gavin's Blog

My thoughts

2009-12-08T13:34:00.002-05:00

Overall, I thought the class was pretty enjoyable. I was given the chance to learn some things about the Flash program and was able to create a few things of my own with it. We didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked with it, but learning a little is better than nothing I suppose.

The only things I didn't necessarily like about the class was the blog and wiki work. Sure it is an important part of the class, but I felt like it was the main focus instead of designing and working with the games. It wasn't hard to do, it just seemed like all they really cared about was how well we were doing with the wiki's and blogs.

Other than that, everything was fine. It was an interesting class to be in and hopefully I'll remember the stuff we did.

Final Presentation

2009-12-08T13:32:00.001-05:00

Here is the video of my final presentation. It explains my game and shows the demo / parts that are working.

MTR Video

2009-11-30T21:16:00.002-05:00

Here is a very good video on mountaintop removal. It shows how this method of coal mining truly effects the lives of people.

Latest Demo

2009-11-30T21:13:00.002-05:00

Here is a look at where the game is at now. Obviously it is still just a demo but still shows how the game will eventually look and function.

Last Game Update

2009-11-17T20:13:00.003-05:00

Tonight in class, I added some even more functionality / additions to the question / answer pages. There is a new scene that describes how the end of the game will look like / work. Depending on the score you earn, a set picture of an environment will be shown. Also, if you click on the right answer for the question, it will go to the next question or scene.

Next thing I am going to work on is the menu screens or the instructions page for the quiz.

I will post the updated quiz page later.

Question Design

2009-11-17T16:40:00.001-05:00

Well, here is a look at how the question page is now.

There is still some functionality I need to add to it, so hopefully I can get that done in the coming week. The rest is just menu work and coding the buttons there.

Game Update

2009-11-16T18:07:00.002-05:00

Well I managed to find a lot of info on the topic. I was also able to find some good videos that explains MTR in this area. They might be a bit dated, but it'll work to get the idea across.

Dealing with the game, I was able to add some more functionality to the quiz page. I am currently working on getting the buttons to actually work for answering purposes. Right now, I have the bubble next to the answer changing colors when clicked, but I have more plans to go along with it. The coding is the only thing holding be back at this point. I'll post what I have done when I work on it a bit more.

Latest development

2009-11-10T15:17:00.002-05:00

After a bit of thought, I decided to take a break of trying to design all the graphic parts for the scenes. For the time being, I am going to work on the actual text / questions for the game itself. I only have a couple things worked out so far, like 3-5 questions, so I figured it was time to try to progress in that area. Forming questions from the information is actually harder that I thought it would be. Sure there are some easy ones to pull out, but I don't want it to be too easy of a quiz / game. Will update more later on as I get things done.

Latest Updates

2009-11-10T09:13:00.002-05:00

As of the last week, I haven't had many updates to my game. Like a lot of people around here, my family has come down with the flu so my progress has been sort of stopped for the time being. However, I am still working on a rough look at my main menu screen, but it will probably be a while till it is at a point for posting. Once that is done, I don't have too much work to do on screens, other than credits and menu option screens. If I come close to finishing those, I will post those later on.

Title Screen for Game Demo

2009-11-03T10:20:00.004-05:00

After a bit of work, I was able to make this title screen. Since I don't have a real steady hand, the drawing doesn't look too amazing. However, I can always make something better later on.

More work on the game design

2009-11-02T23:00:00.002-05:00

Well this weekend I did some more drafting on the design for another screen of my game. Being that I'm not artistic at all, coming up with ideas / being able to make something good looking is pretty rough. I'm using what photoshop skills I have to create what I hope will be a decent enough screen. Once I get close to being done I'll post a pic of what I have.

Aside from that, I tried to add a bit more functionality to the quiz page. It should be enough for the working demo part of the game, but I'll try to add more as I learn more about flash. It at least shows the layout of how I want the page to look like, so it is just working on code from there.

Q&A rough look

2009-10-27T11:46:00.002-04:00

Here is a rough draft design of what my questions page will look like.

I haven't added functions to the answers or anything yet, but it shows how the layout will be. I have some navigation working between the 2 questions, so that part will be easy to add to each question. There will be a button to go back and forth, and also for the menu, but that will come when I get to it.

Game Trailer Designs

2009-10-27T09:44:00.002-04:00

During last the class, we were told we had to make a game trailer / demo of our game. So this weekend, I've been working on some rough draft designs. I almost have a working design for my question page and working navigation through multiple questions. The only thing I am having some issues with is thinking of animations / pictures to put along with the questions. I will post some designs for the screens soon.

Logo and Sound

2009-10-20T09:40:00.003-04:00

To go along with our games, we had to create a logo to show at the beginning or somewhere in the game. So far, my design is pretty simple. However, it isn't finished but here is a rough look at what I have so far.

It is a bit crappy looking at the moment, but I'll fix it up soon.

Another project we worked on was adding sound to our files. I decided to add a bit of music to my old story file, but I haven't added a stop button to it. For the sake of your ears, I'll wait to upload it till I get the button coded and working.

Paper Prototype

2009-10-20T09:37:00.002-04:00

After working on the paper prototyping I filmed my idea with my web cam. It describes a couple of the scenes and how I want them to work. Note that there will be more scenes added, I just didn't have those finished on paper.

Game Concept

2009-10-10T18:30:00.001-04:00

Here is the video for my game concept. It explains what the game is going to involve / how I want it to work.

Paper Prototyping

2009-10-10T18:27:00.003-04:00

In the last class, we got in to some paper prototyping. This involves drawing what would be a rough draft of your game on paper. I was able to create a title screen, main menu screen and its sub screens, and lastly a rough look at what the question / answer screen will look like. I am still working on creating some basic designs for characters / items to use.

Our other task was to create a logo to use in our games. I haven't quite gotten done with it, but I am working with a few ideas. Will post the finished product later on.

Updated Projects

2009-10-05T21:42:00.002-04:00

Once we got our concepts recorded and done with, we worked a little more on the mini game project and various other things.

Here is my finished game project with a working score system:

After that, we worked on a different project in order to change the coding a bit. It ending up making the game really easy and here's what happened.

If you didn't notice, the collision detection was altered so that the tongue hits things further away.

Game Concept

2009-10-05T21:40:00.001-04:00

During our last class we had to present our game concepts to the class. While doing so, we recorded them so we could post them online.

Here is my concept so far:

First attempt at the mini game

2009-09-29T09:41:00.003-04:00

Our next assignment was to try and create our own mini-game based on the info giving on the wiki. What the game does is teaches how to get objects to move with actionscript. Once the code was written, I was able to get an object to move with the arrow keys and one object to move along a set path. The next part I worked on was the collision detection code. This makes the object on the set path reset once it is touched by the object controlled by the arrow keys. This was as far as I got, but the next step is to create a simple score counter on the screen.

More tools

2009-09-29T09:35:00.002-04:00

The next tool we learned how to use was the motion guide. What this allows us to do is to create a pre-determined path for an object to move on. It's quite simple to use, just involves creating a new layer and choosing to create a motion guide path. Once you're done that, just draw the path you want an object to take.

Here's what I was able to do:

Choosing a Topic

2009-09-22T11:37:00.002-04:00

1. Explore Local Social Issues that Matter to You

How do the following social issues affect your local community? Write down some specific examples next to each one.

* Poverty -- In my community, poverty is a big issue. In my opinion there aren't enough well paying jobs to have a steady economy.

* Health -- Like most places in the US, our community is pretty unhealthy. Whether it be obesity or drugs, it's all over.

* Environment -- As far as this goes, there's trash everywhere. People are really lazy and decide to throw it anywhere. Also, there are a ton of rundown houses / buildings that need taken care of before they cause some issues.

* Education -- Education in this area is decent, but could be a lot better. Being the son of a principal, I know there are loads of problems in the system.

* Civic Participation -- I think many people just don't care these days. I know I haven't given much thought about, so I can't say for sure.

2. Choose One Social Issue to Focus On

Pick one of the specific issues you listed above that you feel very strongly about, then answer these questions about it: The environment

* What are the most important facts people should know about your topic? - A better environment means a better place to live. If this place didn't look so run down, I'd say we'd have a lot more business in the area. Throwing trash in just any old place is a pretty low move.

* What actions should people do in order to help with this topic? - Use a trash can / bin for once; have you seen the river lately? Take better care of your homes and communities. Don't let them look like a dump. The list is endless.

* What is a positive outcome that could happen if people learned more about this issue? - In my opinion, I think we'll have more people come to visit. We really do have a beautiful state, so make it look that way. Besides, more people means more business, and more business means a better economy.

Pick Two Genres for Your Game Topic

Select two game genres that you think offer an especially good way to present information and get people to learn more about your topic.

* Genre 1:- Puzzle
o Why I chose it:

People tend to like puzzle games and sometimes it sit and play them for hours at a time. Hopefully they'll learn something by then.

* Genre 2: - Quiz / Scenario
o Why I chose it:

This genre would lean toward the younger age groups for educational purposes. Once they are given some info on the subject, they can see how well they understand it.

Using the tools

2009-09-22T11:28:00.003-04:00

Last class we learned quite a bit about the actual Flash program. This included most of, if not all, the drawing tools. It was pretty interesting seeing how much you can modify a shape in flash using the pen tool. Most of the other tools shown were pretty basic, such as the line tool and pencil.

I was able to make a couple images using the tools:

Not the best in the world, but for a first couple tries, I'd say not bad.

Choosing a topic..

2009-09-15T11:15:00.002-04:00

I've done some thinking about my game idea / topic, and I just really can't come up with anything worthwhile. I'd like to do something more information based, and less of a full blown game, but I can't think of a good topic to do that with. Perhaps something that deals with the environment - how its changing and what we can do to make it better. I'm leaning towards having a fun fact / quiz type game. Give a little info about the environment and ask some questions about what would be better for it.

We'll see what comes to mind later.

Latest Progress

2009-09-15T11:08:00.003-04:00

The next thing we learned about in class was how to add a bit of navigation to our flash projects. This involved adding buttons and then going in and adding code to make the buttons work. Surprisingly, this concept wasn't that hard to grasp. It was quite easy to get this working and I was able to make a quick little thing.

Simple, but effective.

My flash story

2009-09-08T10:15:00.002-04:00

Well it took a while to get the start button going, but I finally got it. This is just a quick little story, I suppose, of how Arthur became King. I'm not that great at the photoshop part, or I'd have a bit more animation for the graphics. Anyways, here it is.

Learned some new stuff

2009-09-08T10:09:00.000-04:00

During our last class, we learned how to create a key item for our projects. This item is a start button. It was a little confusing at first to understand how it works, but eventually the concept became pretty easy to understand. Once we learned that, we got to work on our stories and did some work with them. I wasn't able to finish it in class, so I'll post the result later.

First animation

2009-09-01T09:23:00.001-04:00

After we learned the basics, we had to create our own little animation. Mine was pretty simple, but for just starting out it isn't too bad.

Here's the outcome

Last Class

2009-08-29T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well, today we learned some basics using Flash. I learned how to create an object and put it in motion, using a motion tween. I also learned how to make the objects change appearance as they moved. Its really interesting how it all works.

What I Would Like To Learn

2009-08-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

I've always been a fan of a good story or plot in a game. So naturally, I would like to learn how to develop a good story and background for the game and its characters. Also, I like having a nice environment in the game I'm playing. In regards to that, I hope to learn a little about level design. These are my top goals, but anything could spark an interest.

What I Expect

2009-08-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

Well, after learning a bit about this class there's a couple things I expect to gain. For one, just learning how to use some new technology is always nice. Secondly, I'm looking forward to being able to design certain aspects of a game. Lastly, I like doing team assignments. I've always enjoyed working together toward a common goal. Hopefully the class will fulfill some of these expectations.