Well class finally came to an end. I will see you both on Tuesday for presentations. Everything is looking pretty good. Minor tweaking going on now. Please spend some time over the weekend filling in the fla files I gave you for presentations. All of the other schools ended up with more than a month do get theirs done. I'm hoping you both can pull it off in a few days. Remember it would be cool if you can dressed as your characters. That is an idea I really liked. See you Tues.
Looks like we've come down to the wire. You both need to finish up your games and we will be working on a last minute layout format for the final presentation. Since all of the other students still have a month we will try and do them but worst case scenario we will just run out of time. Jeremy is doing better now that he has a functional weapon, he is just going to have to work out a few bugs and spend more time outside of class working on things. Allison is coming right along having 3 levels now. Presentations will be next week so have wiki's updated and final blog posts in. See you Thursday for final touch-ups.
Well looks like the last of the tutorials have been wrapped up and our finish line is in sight for Globaloria year one. We will have one work week to polish our final games in class and then it will be presentation time. Looks like the final presentation will be May 11 @ 5:10pm. If there are any changes I'll let you know. Make sure to finish up any blogging and wiki work that needs to be done. The games are looking great! Remember we will be presenting to the world so please dress accordingly on the final day. No class on Thursday due to the Free Computer Tune Up.
We knocked out the running and jumping tutorial and took the time to check out a few other wiki pages. We noticed that Marshall CTC has changed their school name to Mountview CTC. Jeremy picked up a few pointers on getting his gun to work from one of the fla file posted on one of Mountview's wiki team pages. This gave him several ideas one how to implement the gun shooting and power-ups in his game. Allison is still tweaking her flash and has put in some great pics, like this one.
It is pretty cool how she did it. By taking pictures of models from the top she then traced the image out like we did last semester and created some really nice images for her game. Looks like we have one more tutorial to go then we can spend the last week and a half on tidying up code for the final presentation.
Short post today. I'm in a rush to get a few things done. Platforms were the order of the day as well as working more on the final games. Jeremy added a gameover screen to his and Allison has replaced her blocky cars with actual artwork of cars and tractor trailers along with better sound effects. Stop by their blogs and check out the progress.
I decided to go out and check out the competition over at Marshall and Shepard. This hopefully will not only motivate and inspire but give the artists a little recognition for their hard efforts. I went around to every team wiki page and chose one game from each of the other colleges to post on the blog.
Marshall: Team Gameslayer
Comments: Marshall didn't have but a few playable flash files but one really stood out. Wow just wow. Extremely nice game. Very polished so far. Controls are a bit quirky but you can get used to them. Very nice artwork and the sounds work very well for the game environment. Good job.
Shepard: Team Totally Awesome
Comments: I believe Monica has taken a different approach to the whole project. I believe she has focused more on the playability and design of the game rather than implementing it in flash. I found that the majority of her files were just from the tutorials and there were no playable demos listed on any of the team pages. I did pick out from the videos on each page what I thought to be a good start to a game. Basket Case from Team Totally Awesome looked very good. The graphics they had done for their prototype were excellent. I hope they can get something implemented in flash to show off their work.
Wow you guys came in super early today! I figured it was about time we updated the wiki photo since nobody but you two are still in the program. It turned out really well. Jeremy is over there looking kind of evil or something. For those reading this blog (if it ever gets read) YES THAT IS THE REAL COLOR OF ALLISON'S HAIR! I just used the extract filter to pull it out so it would show up.
Talk about being on top of stuff! You guys already busted out the timer tutorial and posted it. That was awesome. That will give us more time to work on the final games. As discussed, update the learnin' logs and your blogs. Also work on adding in the other levels of your game since it will be mostly a copy and paste operation. The games are looking really good and I'm not seeing a lot out of the other college camps right now that compares. Time will tell how well we really did.
Yeppers boys and girls. We're updatin learnin logs again! Ya'll are to update them thar wiki pages and make sure to rit in them blogs. Make sur to keep everthang up to date. Grades is comin up soon! We gotta put ar best foot forward (even tho arh shoes gots holes in em') Now that them pre-loaders is done wez can move on ta workin on the timer tutorial. We'll shows em what good gamin is all bout! Ya'll come back now, hear?!
We had a little chat this week on how Southern is fairing in comparison to the other two colleges that are involved in the Globaloria project. I ran some numbers on Wednesday and then again on Saturday morning. Just in case the two of you were wondering how you were doing, here you go.
Matt Globaloria Blog Posts 2010 = 22
Matt Globaloria Blog posts Since June 2009 Starting = 48
Matt School Blog Total Since Feb 6, 2007 = 781 Blog Entries + 48 Full Articles
Marshall Total Blog Posts Patrick + Josh 2010 = 17
Marshall Total Blog Posts Patrick + Josh 2008-0210 = 61
Shepard Total Blog Posts 2009-2010 = 27
Southern Avg Student Blog Posts 2010 = 8
Marshal Avg Student Blog Posts 2010 = 4.41
Shepard Avg Student Blog Posts 2010 = 13.64
Globaloria Blog total entries 2010 = 17
Globaloria Blog total entries 2009-2010 = 55
Globaloria Blog Total 2007-2010 = 138
Southern Student Avg Wiki Edits : 104.5
Marshall Student Avg Wiki Edits : 126.5 * Assumes 150 Edits per user if not listed (1), several appear to be not active but 150 edits added to benefit avg
Shepard Student Avg Wiki Edits : 125.4 * Assumes 150 Edits per user if not listed (5), several appear to be not active but 150 edits added to benefit avg
Southern Student Avg Files Uploaded to Wiki: 35 Files
Marshall Student Avg Files Uploaded to Wiki: 41.5 Files
Shepard Student Avg Files Uploaded to Wiki: 14.4 Files
Southern Personal Spaces Filled Out: 2/2
Marshall Personal Spaces Filled Out: 5/7
Shepard Personal Spaces Filled Out: 10.75/15 *Assuems .25-.5 Credit given for any info + 1 for Complete. Many were just a single pic or 2 lines of text
Southern Learning Logs Filled Out: 2/2
Marshall Learning Logs Filled Out: 3.25/7 * Assumes .25-.5 Credit for any info + 1 for complete * Most stopped in Feb
Shepard Learning Logs Filled OUt: 13/15 * Assumes .25-.5 Credit for any info + 1 for complete
Southern Team Avatars: 2/2
Marshall Team Avatars: 5/7
Shepard Team Avatars: 8/10
Southern Team Pages Completely Filled Out: 2/2
Marshall Team Pages Completely Filled Out: 2.25/7 Most had 0 questions answered.
Shepard Team Pages Completely Filled out: 8/10
I'm getting burnt out on so many blog posts this past 2 weeks. They don't show up on the Globaloria wiki so for those reading this you need to visit my actual website. I think I have 20-25 (long) posts + a bunch of job listings in the last 10 days. I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. We are working on pre-loaders this week. I don't expect the students to get them posted to the wiki for another few days. I am however having them post the latest generation of their games and get their blogs caught up. Right now with the weather being what it is everyone is kind of in lala land this week. I'll get whip out next week. For now we all need a little break.
Just another day to work on adding sound to your game files. Nothing much to say about this afternoon. Next week should be a little better. We will be building preloaders, so it will be a little more interesting. Make sure to update your blog posts.
Glad we could meet early today! Since we were ahead of the curve last semester and added sound to the wolf and the rabbit game this should be a bit of a refresher. This go round I want you to add sound to your game and post this generation of it. I gave you 55 different sites to get audio from and 25 editors so no excuses why your game is silent! BTW if you really want to fix that annoying frog/fly game and take the sound out of it I'll give you extra points. Just remember to post it on the wiki.
"Inspired by popular video games like World of Warcraft, an Indiana University professor is applying game design principles such as clear, well-defined goals and gradual, incremental rewards to his college classes. A hit with students, the approach has some employers showing interest, too.
Students at several of Indiana University's game design courses begin their class with zero "experience points," which corresponds to an F grade. Instead of completing presentations, they'll perform "quests;" sitting exams becomes "fighting monsters;" and handing in assignments becomes "crafting." Students even team up into "guilds" to tackle group projects.
Setting assessments in the context of video game achievements helps students get motivated, according to the courses' coordinator, Indiana University's Lee Sheldon."
Well class was sort of put to the side today. Allison worked on her own while I had the WebEx meeting with the Globaloria folks. Things are getting back on track and we are almost where we should be. Remember if you make any upgrades to your game I want you to post it.
Well we more or less did some collision detection last semester with the bunny program. If you managed to get it last semester and followed along then you should also have score keeping working as well. Just spend today updating all of your blogs so that I can give you a mid term grade and post your tutorials as requested.
Looks like we've come down to the wire. You both need to finish up your games and we will be working on a last minute layout format for the final presentation. Since all of the other students still have a month we will try and do them but worst case scenario we will just run out of time. Jeremy is doing better now that he has a functional weapon, he is just going to have to work out a few bugs and spend more time outside of class working on things. Allison is coming right along having 3 levels now. Presentations will be next week so have wiki's updated and final blog posts in. See you Thursday for final touch-ups. 
We knocked out the running and jumping tutorial and took the time to check out a few other wiki pages. We noticed that Marshall CTC has changed their school name to Mountview CTC. Jeremy picked up a few pointers on getting his gun to work from one of the fla file posted on one of Mountview's wiki team pages. This gave him several ideas one how to implement the gun shooting and power-ups in his game. Allison is still tweaking her flash and has put in some great pics, like this one.
