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! =^_^=