On Tuesday, we did our final game presentations. At first, I was really nervous because I was afraid that I would forget important information or make a mistake. I messed up on the gameplay scene, so I had to redo it. On my last attempt, everything went well and I included all of the required information. I also wasn't as nervous. I'm glad that I got everything done and working because Monday I was having trouble linking my scenes. After a couple of hours, I finally got it working. This is probably my last blog for this year. Globaloria was a great experience and I had a lot of fun in the class.
- The Big Idea: Provide an update on your team's game topic. What is the most important concept you want your players to learn? I want my player to learn how to do the order of operations and to save energy.
- Making Decisions as a Team: How did your team's ideas about the game topic change over time? I was the only person on my team. At first, I was going to have the player race the energy monster to the correct floating answer. I also had the player moving Sally to the moving answer. I decided that my game was like a quiz and not fun for the player, so I changed it to be more interactive. Now, my game requires the player to drag objects to the right bags or solar panels. I also have them completing neat energy tasks. I believe that the players will be able to have more fun with my new game.
- Roles & Responsibilities: Tell us more about your team process. Please each talk about your specific roles, and how you work together. My name is Katie and I am the only person on my team. I perform all of the roles that involve the process of developing my game. Some of those roles are drawing the scenes, coding, blogging, and doing the activities on my team page.
- Research: What kind of research went into your game topic? What did you learn about your topic? What message do you want the player to understand? When I was creating my game, I used the Internet and magazines to learn more about energy. I learned that one cellphone uses 168 watts of energy a month, and that a large solar panel produces 200 watts of energy. I also figured out that a stove, blender, and toaster are all kitchen appliances that use energy. Another thing that I learned was that an efficient temperature for a water heater is 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I want the player to understand that we need to save energy in order to have it in the future. If we don't have energy, we can't use cellphones, cars, game stations, watch television, or operate any other electrical appliances.
- The User Experience: Explain the actions players take in your game. How do you play it? What decisions were made about features to include, and how did you decide? In my game, the player uses the up, down, left, and right keys and the mouse to control Sally. You use the mouse to drag objects to places. If you are correct, you either earn a solar panel or a windmill. If your answer is incorrect, the energy monster has beat you. I decided to include these features because I believe that they make the game more fun and interesting to the player.
- Mastering Flash: What Flash resources have been most helpful in your learning so far, and why? How did you locate these resources? The flash resources that I used were the globaloria wiki and the internet. The most helpful resource was the wiki because it helped me learn new codes and figure out how to work them. The tutorials were also helpful because they gave me a visual representation of how to do the code and form the layers. My teacher, Mrs. Sheppard, helped me locate these resources.
- Overcoming Challenges: What curriculum topic has been most difficult for you so far? How did ou overcome this difficulty? What programming features are you most proud of in your game?
- Need help editing your video? The curriculum that has been most difficult for me so far is the coding in flash. It is hard because if you miss one small symbol, the whole scene may not work. The codes are also difficult because they are hard to remember. I overcame this difficulty by checking my codes and copying them from the wiki. The progamming features that I am most pround of is the drag and drop because I believe that it brings player interaction into the game.
