Blogging and all this and whatever and junk and stuff and crud and cheese and mayonnaise and pickles with extra relish and source code, with an ext...

Yeah...so...apparrently, instead of blogging about the usefulness of hit tests, I have to blog about a given topic. In my opinion, the blogging part of the class should be optional, and not graded. Instead, the blog should be self-directed and only slightly moderated, to promote free and unsupervised exchange. When people feel that they are not being watched, they tend to be more open, and are more likely to share their findings. I favor lassiez-faire leadership and free collaboration, rather than a moderated and forced spouting of opinions on a predetermined topic. With the way that it is being done, the blogs are actually taking away from the game-making experience. Think about it.

If I had not been given a topic today, I was going to blog about my findings about hit tests, the coding involved, and how useful they can be. I am using hit tests to progress my game from screen to screen, as well as killing enemies, taking damage, and all sorts of things. The whole class almost feels forced. Someone actually wanted to help kids learn how to make games, but an overly oppressive school board, which happens to be more than slightly too anal about making everything seem traditionally "educational", refuses to let something not be purely about reading, writing, or arithmetic. As a future game designer, I couldn't be more tickled if this class helps others as much as it did me, but for science's sake, let it be about making the GAME! Pic related.

Presentation

The presentation coming up is going to be a piece of cake. I do not worry about it at all. Instead, I am focusing ALL of my efforts on making the actual GAME, shich was why I was ecstatic to be in this class in the first place. I had hoped that this class would be more about MAKING A GAME than the RETARDED paperwork like the learning logs. I know that the teachers need something to grade, but here is a super cool idea! How about actually grading kids on their PROGRESS than by stupid logs that can be faked? OH, no, that would be too much to ask for, because the school board would NEVER allow a class to be fun, no, they have to require...REQUIRE...that you post in a blog about it, and write a learnign log about what you did, keep up a wiki page, post pics and vids regularly...ugh. I want to make a flash game. This isn't that hard people.

YEAH!

Finally, I return to the blog with some GREAT news.
I have a current progress update! I have been making real leaps and bounds in animation, spawning enemies, controlling characters, and all that good stuff. Here is a link to my current character test movie. Copy and paste it into your address bar. Use the arrow keys and the ctrl key to control the character. You can't kill the zombie yet, as he is only a test of a spawning code.

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/rhswiki/images/8/89/Currentprizzogress.swf
___________________________________________________________________________

Animation

We will be using frame by frame animation in our game. Sprite sheets animated "FxF" are our main character and the enemies that he will have to defeat. Whilst lengthy, the process to animate sprites is simple and worthwhile. Every move is its own movie clip which is connected to another movie clip which is the "base". Keystrokes cause the individual movie clips to play, which in turn causes the movement to take place on screen...from what I understand at this point at least.

BASIC BUTTON NAV

Ok. If you have a button that you want to use to navigate to another frame, you must first have the instance named. Something like button if there will only be one will do. You must also have the frame that you want the buyton to lead to labeled. Lets use the word framelabel just for simplicity's sake. Then you put this nifty little code into your actions layer in a keyframe right about the frame that you intend to have the button on. (button is replaced with the actual instance name of the button, whatever it is) :

button.onRelease = function () {
gotoAndPlay ("framelabel") }

When done right, the button, when clicked, will take you to the frame with the label that you insert where framelabel is in the code. If someone needs anymore help, don't hesitate to ask.

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button?

Not me. Slowly but surely, I'm learning about button navigation. The main menu and pause menu of our game will need buttons, so they are important for our project. While not difficult, adding button navigation can become tedious, and those prone to boredom might have trouble. Never-the-less, it is rewarding to become proficient in the skill. For those games that consist of decision making, as well as those games with similar concepts, button navigation is crucial. It will take a good minute, but we will have buttons finished. Soon.

Sorry for the absence

I've been busy working on the game with Matt. We are at sort of an impasse. Trouble has arisen in the form of button navigation. We can designate movie clips as buttons, but as of right now, we have no idea how to make them DO things. More on that topic later.

We have come to a few decisions concerning the game, mainly about our characters, but there are some other things too. I know, I know, this post is short. We are busy, so you'll jsut have to get over it.

Keyframes and Frames

In our game, we will make heavy use of keyframes, which define starting and ending points for the motion of objects. Frames without keyframes do not have any more graphical content on the stage, while keyframes define new motion. Keyframe animation is closer in technique to traditional animation, which I am already somewhat comfortable with. Tweening makes use of Flash's software to assist in animating. I would prefer to use keyframes, honestly. Most of the animation we use will be keyframe, unless it causes problems. If you're reading this expecting the usual awesome, sorry. I'm not feeling too up to it right now.

Main Character Concept

Remember, this was done in paint, by me. As you will be able to see, I would be able to do a lot more with the art in the game if I had a tablet to use, but good ol' Microsoft Paint has always been there.

Almost ready to begin!

GOOD NEWS! I'm almost ready to begin work on the actual game. Today, I'll most likely draw a few things in flash, and maybe begin design on the main character. A sidescroller, the game that Matt and I envision is probably going to be the only educational game that people will WANT to play. Not that we arew bragging or anything, it's just that, in my experience, educational games are hardly ever FUN...
So.
The idea is that druggies have kidnapped your girlfriend, but you are...I don't know, I guess my 15 year old sister would call him "Diesel". You rage, and then you go and you pwn the druggies. It's not gory, because this is school, but the premise is fun enough to make you want to play it.
I'll get on Newgrounds.com and study a few flash tutorials for extra info on coding this game. If I get my way, it'll most likely be epic.

Haha. SO. I'm back at the head of the class!

As well as being fun, the game is still going to have it's message.
Drug abuse is a serious problem, and it can make you evil. That's what the game is going to show. No good will come from drug abuse.

You might actually be beaten down by a dude who is raging because you kidnapped his girlfriend. That's my anti-drug. Beatings. Imagine that commercial. >:3

Epic win, right?

PAPER PROTOTYPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, Matt and I are doing a paper prototype of our game. We already have the menus and things done, and today, we are going to model out a level. It's a 2d sidescroller, so we need to model the main characters actions, interactions with enemies, picking up powerups, and so on. It's going to be a lot of fun making a battle system. I am determined to make this game fun enough to make people actually WANT to play it. I will probably use outside sources in the making of this game, like battle systems and stuff. Using tried and true systems are usually easier that trying to invent new ones, especially when they aren't copyrighted, like the d20 system in games like D&D.

To be honest, it feels lame to go through the prototype as if it is the actual game itself, but it is important to work out large kinks that will arise during the prototyping before we actually start, so I have to work through it.

An Idea is Born

Now that my minigame is finished, it is time for me to begin work on my actual game, beginning with the planning. I am envisioning a platformer, where the player will fight druggies to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend, whom the druggies intend to sell for drug money. I want to make my game fun AS WELL AS have it contain a social statement, so this project may be very difficult. If I simply wanted the grade, I would just throw together a boring and ineffective amalgam of facts and well-known snippets of advice onto a click-to-advance background, but besides getting me a good grade, this would be crud. No one surfing the web for games wants to play that. However, I wish to do something truly great with this project.

Now I know you might be thinking that that is against the rules. It most likely is, as educational games aren't really even ALLOWED to be fun, but if no one ever tried, then we wouldn't be where we are as a people, would we? (Some might say that it would be an improvement if we weren't, but whatever.)

Success Kid has been posted, in anticipation of the great success of my project.

Minigame Day 4

We all started working on the minigame project as a class today. I am still pretty far ahead, so I helped other kids get theirs started. I fooled around with my flash while I waited too, trying to get more familiar with the various features. not much else to say today. Once I have a breakthrough concerning the movement issue, I will be able to continue on and have much more to say! =^_^=

minigame day 3

After 2 days of having trouble with the movement issue, I have decided to create a topic about it in group discussion. I don't have much else to say about today. I helped a few people with their blog roll and things like that.

Still having trouble

The minigame is holding me up. I still can't figure out how to map keyboard control. The actionscript doesn't work. I will post the block of actionscript here, maybe someone reading this will be able to tell me what is wrong with it. I have spent all day trying this. It's trying my patience! :D

if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
bunny._y -= 3;
}

Minigame day 1

I started the minigame project today. I had no problems until I got to the part of the coding which mapped movement of the bunny to the arrow keys. I couldn't get the code to work at all, even though the compiler found no error with the ActionScript. If anyone knows anything about this, some help would be greatly appreciated.

Actual Assignment

I was assigned to do a blog review, and I chose Chris Duncan from the English class as my target. Upon first entering Chris' Spot, it can be seen that not much customization to the layout or coloring of the blog itself has been done, however, the eye is immediately pulled to the picture that Chris has posted, which, while small, is pretty epic. While I enjoy the coloring, it is just a template, and to be graded well, it must be customized. He doesn't post very frequently, and when he does post, it isn't much more than what is assigned, but he has much potential. Good job for a newbie, Chris. After this class, you should keep blogging for yourself. Get better, and you will most likely gain your own following. If you work at it, that is. :)



This blog is deserving of Success Kid.

Another day...

So, I completed the "Choosing a Topic" assignment yesterday, so there isn't much for me to do today. I will play more of the play to learn games, I guess. I am not going to get too far ahead in this class....maybe. It depends on whether it's POSSIBLE to get ahead. I don't really want to wait, but I can't be so selfish. At any rate, the anxiety is palpable. I really want to start on the minigame project, and I feel that it will be a great experience.
I plan on maybe looking ahead at what I will soon be doing, and maybe getting ready for that, but if there is nothing else to do, I will be forced to be lazy today. :D yay me!

Choosing a topic

Today, I chose a topic to focus on with this project. Drug abuse sort of just popped out at me. I figured that it would be the easiest social issue for me to address, since I deal with it frequently, and also would most likely be one of the most fun topics for a game. I will have to dance around this carefully, though. I have to watch what I do with this, since the B of E won't just let me purely do this for fun. I'll have to put some educational stuff in there. It'll be alright though. I like a challenge.

I wish I could do this as a solo project though.

Playing to Learn

Today, I played games both by professional game-makers and students in the Globaloria Program. While the professional games were better made, the amateur games tried very hard to get their points across, and most were successful, which, in my opinion, means that the games themselves were successful.

This is Success Kid. If I do well, or mention someone else doing well, you will see him more often. Way to go, amateur game-makers. GG.

Online Safety, or whatever.

Yeah, so I have to blog about mindless things along with the rest of the class, since the program is education-oriented, and therefore has so many requirements and restrictions on it that it almost makes it not worth it. The focus of the school boards should NOT be on requiring students to perform menial tasks that revolve around the fact that teenagers are subordinate to the almighty Board of Education, it should be to prepare us for the world around us. I don't care if this gets my grade reduced. It needs to be said. We are in high school. If there is anything about Online Safety that we haven't already had shoved down our throats, I'll be surprised.
So, I have to blog about Online Safety. For those of you who are simpletons, get off my blog. For the rest of you, you already know everything that I'm about to tell you, because being safe on the Internet has EVERYTHING to do with COMMON SENSE!
1. Don't give out your passwords to ANYONE.
-This means you. No respectable site is going to ask you for your password for any reason. They don't need it. So don't give it.
2. Don't give out your personal information to ANYONE EVER.
-Real names, addresses, phone numbers...bad things happen when you feed your "dox" to the "Internet hate machine."
3. Be Aware!!
-Look at what you are doing. If it doesn't look right, it's probably not. By the way, if a website's name is spelled almost like a popular site, like MySpace, but isn't, it's not. Keep an eye on your address bar, and make sure you are where you think you are.
4. Since you don't know anything about the Internet seeing as how you need me to explain this to you, DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT ANYONE THAT YOU DON'T KNOW TELLS YOU. This is extremely important. Sure, some people don't want to cause you any harm, but the ratio of malice to altruism...don't risk it.

If you need any more help with Internet Safety, check out these sites.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-the-internet-safely-for-seniors-for-dummies-.html

http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/

http://www.fema.gov/kids/on_safety.htm

HEY EVERYBODY!!!! CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

I found an article on Wikipedia about ActionScript. It is very interesting, and after I read it I had a basic understanding of just what ActionScript is. I knew that it was a form of coding for games and things, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Check it out, look through it, and you'll have an idea of what all this is about. The link is below.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actionscript

We did do something today!!

I played a great game in the "Play to Learn" section of the wiki called "The Reconstructors: Medical Mysteries". It took a lot of work to make, and for an educational game, it's kinda cool. The art is obviously hand drawn, and there are a few bugs in the programming (ie. The doors in the testing section will open over and over again if continuously clicked), but those things add to the charm and feel, and makes the game not give off a professional aura, which I think is very important, because if the students think that they won't be able to make good quality games unless they become professionals and spend years working at it, they won't even try. Kudos to the developer!

My Second Post

Yea. So my class is going along really slow. The anxiety is killing me! I want to start the process! =^_^= So today, I'm doing to post about...nothing yet. I haven't done anything productive. I haven't really been given much direction. I've had lots of ideas for games before, and I have a little experience in animation (not through Flash). Truth be told, I never knew that this class would be Globaloria. It surprised the heck out of me! I thought it was only digital imaging. I was kinda mad because Chez had told me that her class was going to be doing it, and then BAM! I'm in a Globaloria project! I only have a few issues, but they aren't anything that can really be helped.

Today, we have reviewed the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Nothing special there. What I'm really thinking about is actually beginning to plan my game making process.

Ms. Cordle just assigned us reading the Privacy Policy and stuff as homework and said that she is giving us a test on it tomorrow! I REALLY hope she isn't serious.

So....yeah. That is my post for today. I might have to post again later, but that depends on whether we do more stuff...

My First Post

LoL. Alright, so this is going to be my blog. As of right now, it has to be about this Globaloria thing, which I'm really excited for, since I'm going to be learning how to make a Flash game. It's a really good suprise, since I'm going to Marshall in the fall for Game Development! Anyway, I needed to test drive this bad boy, get my feet wet, and all of that funky music. If anyone is reading this, after this class I'll be using this blog to...well...blog, or something, but until then, expect more things to come about this. OOOHHH I'm really excited!!!