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.
This week we are presenting our final games. I have to go Tuesday since I went last for the game demos. I changed my game demo to make it more detailed and specific. Another thing that I did was add animation. I made the buttons change colors when your mouse touches them and I made objects move. I had a little trouble linking my game to the demo because the the frames were disappearing, but I finally just pasted one frame at a time in until I found the problem.
This week we submitted our final games. I was afraid that I wasn't going to finish in time, but we got two extra hours of Globaloria. It was difficult because my scenes wouldn't link together very well. I had to spend a lot of time fixing that. Also, the layers kept overlapping each other, so I ended up with 1029 layers. Thankfully, I got everything fixed and my game is done.
This week our final games are due. I've got most of mine done, but for some reason this one seen won't work. It is the one with the bathtub and water heaters. When the player gets the answer wrong and they replay the scene, it will say that the correct one is wrong as well. I think that the wrong answers are not disappearing correctly. I have decided I'm just going to re-link everything and find where the problem is.
This Friday we have to be done with our final game. So far, I have four levels out of the five done. I only have to fix the fifth one which is the one with the car and bike. For some reason the car comes up on two scenes. On one level you have to drag a solar panel onto the roof. Another level requires you to drag a cellphone to the correct bag. The third level involves dragging kitchen appliances to a box so that they can be upgraded to more energy efficient items. On the fourth level, you have to turn down the water heater to an efficient temperature. At the end of the game, you will have helped a city save energy.
The computers were working this week, so we were able to finish all of our game demos. I did mine on Thursday. I was nervous because I was afraid that I would forget to say something or not do it right. Thankfully, it ended up going well. I talked about my wiki page and why certain things were there. I also explained how my scenes worked on my projects page. Another subject that I discussed was how to play my game and why I chose my social issue of energy waste and math concept of the order of operations. Lastly, I mentioned my learning log.
This Easter, my family and I are celebrating Easter with my Grandma. After church, we will go to her house in Linside,WV. We are going to eat ham, green beans, mash potatoes, corn, and best of all, my Grandma's delicious sourdough bread. After we finish eating, my brother and I visit with my cousins, Jessica and Nicole. When we get home, we will open our Easter baskets. We usually open them in the morning, but my dad had to work today. To finish off the day, we will watch a movie.
