Post 9 - Kinect & Respect

Kinect & Respect

 

 Truth

I believe that we gave our most useful and honest answers in our presentation this past week. We showed off a game, which was actually in prototype form, instead of a fully fleshed-out game. I am proud that we spent so much time on design, and actually discussing the sense of what was needed for the project, from the users and teachers views.

Fullfillment

We showed that a game didn't exist in our use of the materials. The true desire of the 'customer' was that they wanted the students to focus on the calculations in the project. We took that as completely true.

Next, we decided what would be fun for the users to do with these calculations. This allows the user to complete the tasks the teachers have decided, but be rewarded completely. This is gamification, not game creation. I don't think it is what we truly wanted for the project, but I feel that sometimes things will change. As creators, we will have to be very flexible with creation. It's important.

Side note, the Kinect Gardening was amazing! I am truly inspired, and hope that this project is pushed forward.  Great job!

Discovery

I am terrified to work with HTML5, but I am excited to see what is around the next corner. I am sure that the next project will truly challenge us as programmers, artists, and producers, but also as designers. Let's reveal the next project!

Post 8 - A Break In The Storm

A Break In The Storm

So, this week has been a break from school. Tightening things up for the demo, involving video capture of game play, commenting code, and being happy with some relaxation.

Woot!

Post 7 - Recovery Efforts

Recovery Efforts

We are very focused on design, and have been successfully understanding XNA and C# code. It has been very kind with all of the tutorials, videos, etc., and we appreciate it. :)

Setbacks

It isn't fun.

Really, that is the major setback. We are still iterating on the idea of working on a ship, but then we altered it to focus purely on a power plant.

We will hopefully find something that is fun.

Achievements

Our communication has improved greatly, and we are all on the same page of what we would like to create, but we are not sure of how to make it more fun. Roger has suggested implementing a negative feedback of "Three strikes and your out!" function.

This created an idea for a cash mechanic, and we are now thinking of having the game play more like your typical "Tycoon" games. This will allow the player to run their own power plant, improve equipment, be hired to greater positions in the plant, and learn how to become a better engineer.

Move Forward

Due to our late design iteration, we may need more time to alter the XNA code. We have a great template of a 2D point and click style tycoon game, but our animation knowledge is limited, and it just needs more time.

I am sure that is true of every group and their project.

Post 6 - War, War Never Changes...

War, War Never Changes...

9/28/2012

When creating new software, the hiccups abound. We are still in the process of figuring out how to have the user access materials, and have it be "fun".

Not going great.

Successes

We agreed to focus on the problem input, but we cannot determine how this is any different than a story problem from a text.  More work is needed.

Failures

I feel our person-to-person communication is great, but long distance, text, email has failed a little. Nothing harsh, just not what we need.

Time

Never enough. True statement. We will keep working on making this work.

*XNA - Not too bad. Extremely well documented, and preferred over MOAI.

Post 5 - A New Beginning

A New Beginning

The new grouping has been completed and we are now onto new projects.

Thermodynamics

The new focus is creating an educational game that will help the engineering department teach their students thermodynamics.

We are currently starting a project to focus on the actually learning aspects in thermodynamics. We have decided to attempt two key features.

The main key feature is a "Helper" and a "Hint" to help prod the player suggestions on how to complete their current tasks. This may sound simple, but having this be particular for each individual thermodynamics problem is difficult. We are excited for the challenge, and terrified of the hours ahead.

The secondary key feature is the idea of a sandbox for learning thermodynamics. This has been placed into the backlog until we are able to complete the main feature, but the idea of people being able to use tools to learn about thermodynamics is very exciting.

I wish I had this type of tool when I learned about thermodynamics. Abacuses (abaci) are difficult to use.

Post 4- ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

The materials for the first pitch have been completed, presented, and passed on. I hope we are able to see some of the groups projects completed into more full game projects.

We will see.

Closing Process

 

Teachings

The closing process consisted of mapping out the materials for the project, and then having each of us write on post-it notes positive, negative, and neutral occurrences that we noticed. The key points that I remember being key to myself, were having better preparation techniques. I followed the process of learning the language by example, due to poor tutorials. Sagar suggested that I look into more key tutorials for the LUA language and then focus on the language aspects, rather than modifying examples found for the language.

My plan is to focus on the language itself, rather than key examples that are presented to me. This will give me a more thorough understanding, and allow for a better design process on new prototypes.

Brianne pointed out an app building contest for the new Windows tablet. I will use these materials learned from the group to work on this project as well.

 

Wins

The points we realized that we succeeded at most in our project was all of our abilities to sincerely hear each other. I contribute this to our constant communication and our ability to be flexible and reasonable for the project. I will focus on carry this through to other groups and new projects.

 

Batter Up!

The new project and new team is coming soon, and I am extremely excited to see what will be next. I think that one key feature we can take from this first project is that we should be able to communicate with anyone in the cohort. This will allow us a greater wealth of knowledge to be passed around, new ideas to form, and more camaraderie.

Let's do it!

Post 3 - Aftermath

Aftermath

After much hard work and some stress we are almost complete with the game demo.  We were able to implement our user interface, player controls, modify our art assets, and even transport the demo over to an iPhone.

Pretty cool.

We are still tweaking controls to make the game more accessible, move smoother, and Sager is still working on art.

Setbacks

We had to cancel our meeting with Dave Matney for sound design again.  Schedules seem to change every week. I spoke with him, and suggested some other opportunities to work on.  I think this will allow us to work on projects outside of coursework, and allow him to grow in his art as well.

We have had a very difficult time with some basic timer functions, but we are working on them to add more characters, position and speed randomization, and any other visual tweaks we can add to make the game more visually interesting.

Achievements

We have improved our code combinations, group discussion, and I feel we have become better friends.  I know that the last part of that sentence sounds out of place, but I feel that if you don't have a sense of trust and companionship with those you work with, it can be difficult to work on a project.

After speaking with Mike, I feel I was more open to ideas of change with the project.  I noticed I was being pretty harsh about the project on some parts, and that I need to learn to be more flexible.  This is something I will continue to work on.

I also realized that many other groups were open to our ideas for code, discussion, and helping one another.  This felt very positive and welcome.

Move Forward

I hope that as we move on to new projects we are able to carry that idea of enjoyment and fun when working on new projects.  This has been a great three weeks and I can't wait for the next challenge.