Create : Changes

This unit we worked on creating games with either Kodu, Game Salad and Game Maker. From these three options, I chose Kodu, because when I was experimenting with Kodu it seemed to be the easiest and best program to use to make my game. While making the game, Kodu did make things easier for me. Programing the character was a lot more easier, creating different worlds was easy as well. Due to these things I decided to make a maze that allowed music to guide you.

I first started out with making a basic maze, which was quite easy due to Kodu, but after that I decided to put walls in. When I started to put the walls in, the amount of things in my world was getting more and more, therefore the program (Kodu) started to slow down, was really interfered in my creating process. So I decided not to put in any walls. After that I started to program the main player, which was in my opinion the most easiest thing to do in the game. Apart from the main player, I decided to put in another player who could tell the player what exactly to do, which path to follow and etc, which was a really good idea. Following that, I put a heart in the end of the maze, so that when the player bumps it, the player wins.The next step involved choosing out music and putting it in the game, which didn't work, because I didn't really get to put in the music. This is the main thing that I could've improved or worked on, and because I didn't complete this part of the game, my whole aim, and what I was gonna teach the audience was lost, so that was a huge failure in my game.

On the day in which I had to show my game to everyone, I had lost my game, I really don't know why or how
, but due to that I had to create my game in like 10 mins, and my game wasnt that good in the end, but somehow I did it.

Create

CREATE

-         What did I do everyday?

16.11.11

I created a basic world, with the basic structure of the maze. I hope to complete the maze by next class.

18.11.11

I finished with my maze and color schemes and as well as programming my main player, it was quite easy to do.

21.11.11

I tried to create a wall around the maze, to make the maze harder, and more maze like, but it didn’t work, because my game got filled up with too many objects and therefore the program slowed down, and by the end of the day I didn’t get to do much.

24.11.11

I tried to get some music (sad and happy) but had no way how to include it into my game

CRITERION C PLAN

PLAN THE PRODUCT / SOLUTION:

                         

Create a timeline showing what you will do. Include people, hardware, and software. 

 

Step One

Task:Create My World (Create the Maze)                                                                Due Date: 18-11-11      

Process: I am going to use Kodu as my platform to create my video game. First I am going to start out with making my world, which would basically just be a maze. The first thing I am going to do is figure out a good, complicated maze. I would create a surface large enough to cover it, then use the walls to create the maze.

Step Two

Task: Creating my player and formatting it (actions)                                                 Date due: 28-11-11              

Process: Next I will create a player, and its physical appearance. Then I will chose its actions. When to turn, when to eat, and when it'll stop.

Step Three

Task: Choosing the different types of music that I could insert into my game             Date due: 1-12-11              

Process:I would pick out a couple different types of music, one for indicating the correct path, which would generally be a happy kinda of music (major tonality) and the other indicating that your going on the wrong path which would be sad, angry music (minor tonality).

Step Four

Task:  Inserting the Music in my game                                                                        Date due:5-12-11               

 Process: The next step would be to insert the music into my game, and format it according to where the character does move.

Step Five

Task:  Testing out the game                                                                                      Date due:6-12-11               

Process: This task would include testing out the game, weather the characters are working, if the game is running as its supposed to or not.

USE APPROPRIATE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: Discuss the tools available and used. What did you do to develop your skills with these tools?

 To make the game, I used Kodu. Kodu was simple to create a game in because everything was simple and clear to follow. I experimented a lot, and explored the game to see what things the game did, or allowed you to put, into your creation, and what type of games you can make.

FOLLOW THE PLAN:
Evaluate & reflect on your plan. Describe modifications have you made as you proceeded.

I think my plan is quite short, and doesn't involve many steps, and is more general, but I feel to make the game you don't have to go into the details so much, especially in my game because its so simple. Its just a basic maze with music, the only main troubles that I would have would be things like formatting the music according to the character. I made a few changes along the way, at first I had many small steps, but it was getting quite confusing, therefore I just generalized my plans. 

Evaluate: Questions

Original Questions:
1. What are the good points about the game?
2. What are the bad points about the game?
3.How useful is the game?
4. How was your game platform (Kodu)?
5. Please list some improvements.

After I read most of my classmates evaluations I saw that my game was pretty much pointless and hardly taught anyone anything, which was not too surprising, because I never really put anything in the game to teach anyone, even though my intention was to teach people about music. I could've done many other things in my game to have made it better, and my classmates suggested many things, which I did put after reading all the evaluations (dieing when you walk on the grass). I myself found that the game was way too easy. The only thing that I did like was the fact that I succeeded in things like programing characters and making them talk :) In my final product my maze looked really unorganized and sketchy, this was because I made the game in 10 mins, due to the fact that my game got erased on the day of submission. For me the good points of the game was the way I formatted my main players. The player giving you instructions made it easier for the person playing to follow the game. Kodu was an really easy platform to use for making games. Sometimes it was frustrating to use it like the times that it started getting too slow because there were too many things in my world, but all in all it was good.


Jacky: 
1. What are the good points about the game?
The idea with the maze was really good and unique and could be a good basic principle for an actual game. The "helper"-Kodu at the beginning who explained what to do was really helpful.
2. What are the bad points about the game?
Kodu can move outside the maze, too.
3. How useful is the game?
You learn how to navigate and orientate oneself.
4. How was your game platform (Kodu)?
The interface was really nice and kodu easy to navigate through the game.
5. Please list some improvements. 
Maybe it would be good to program Kodu so that he can't move outside the path, otherwise it makes it easy to cheat.

1. Chloe's Feedback:
   1. It is easy, the environment is appealing and it was a good idea.
   2. The Kodu can move on the grass therefore you can just go straight through it.
   3. You can learn to navigate, also teach a young child how to develop there problem solving skills.
   4. The playing ground was well laid out however, the grass could be programed to not be stepped on.
   5. Make walls so that the kodu can only walk on the blue part rather than walking on the green.

2. 1. the idea
   2. too easy and not too creative
   3. not very
   4.it was good as t was easy to navigate through it
   5. make the grass kill you and put walls around the path

3. 1) I like that theirs a path
   2)the kudo can cut across the path to get to the finish point
   3) navigational skills
   4) it was very colorful
   5) allow the kudo to only stay in the blue path.
   - Sonia

   
   

   4. good looking and easy and tough at the same time.
   
   add some new challenges
   
   not entirely sure what it's teaching me

Video Games Idea

- My idea for my video game is based on music tonality. So through my game I will teach people about how music can tell you about the different situations you are in. So a Minor tonality would mean that you are in a bad situation, and Major would mean your in a good one.
 I was thinking of doing something like a maze, where the music would guide you to the right direction and when you are given two different directions then you have to listen to the 2 types of music and figure out which one is right, and leads you towards the end of the maze.
 This game is created for all the people who know very little about music, or cannot distinguish the difference between sad. depressing, angry type of music, or happy and peppy types of music. basically major & minor music.
Another idea that I had was games on Interior or Exterior Home Decor. I chose to do Music over this one,because I know more about music than Home Decor.  

Technology Reflection

In this unit we learnt about the variety of things which included different rules like Rule of thirds, Rule of Hierarchy, Rule of Contrast, Rule of Repetition, Rule of Alignment, Rule of Proximity, and Rule of Fonts. We learnt about the Color wheels, and we experimented a lot with all these rules, and created posters on using these rules. I learnt a lot about all these rules, things I never knew before, and never cared of before. While watching movies or looking at pictures, I never really realized that the person with the most power is always either on the left or above/in front of the other person, now a days when I do watch movies; I look out for such stuff, even though I really don’t want to. 

Through these rules, I have learnt how to create appropriate posters using right colors, and techniques. I learnt that most of these rules that we have learnt about, in some way of the other has to do with bringing out what matters most in the poster, weather it’s a picture, or a word, or a background.

In this assessment we were asked to make 3 posters using the principles and rules we have learnt in designing so far. We were asked to experiment with different formats, and I did experiment, A LOT. For about 2 classes all I did was play around with formats and designs. I was pretty scared I wouldn't be able to finish in class because I wasn’t making any posters. The ones I wanted to do at first was quite hard, and frustrating to do, so I gave up in a few tries, but finally I found one online that was simple and cool at the same time.

My final design was based on an Ice effect, but I changed it a bit, so it doesn’t really look like an Ice effect, but it uses some of the same techniques. At first I searched up a background, and changed the gradients and brightness levels to make it a dark background. I wanted to have a dark, black sort of background because I wanted my message, and words to stand out. On the background I used the rule of Repetition to emphasize my main focus. In these 3 cases, my focus was on the 3 Learner profiles: Care, Risk Taker & Reflect. I used a serif format to keep things simple. I faded my repeated words because I didn’t want it to be the main part of my poster, but I didn’t fade it out completely because I wanted people to notice it, because it adds on to the design of the poster. I used a thin border around my texts to add a bit of details and extra ornaments, but if you look closely, the borders are different on every poster, so that was one of the factors that changed in my poster, where as my background and fonts were exactly the same. The final thing that I did was do my main texts, the texts turned out to be different than I hope, I wanted a more 3-D effect, and that is when Mr. Holmes said, “Keep it simple.”, so I decided to make me main text more simple, but still make it stand out.

           

All in all, I am quite happy with the product I made, in such a short time. It looks quite cool and considering it’s the first actual poster I produced using a computer, and PHOTOSHOP, I’m quite satisfied, though I feel I could have made some things slightly better, like used better fonts. I’m using Photoshop for the FIRST time in my whole life, after I came to Stonehill, and I think it is a great site for editing photos and other things, but it can get quite annoying and frustrating, because it keeps getting stuck! Im sure I will use Photoshop in the future, in tech and probably outside, to edit photos and try out more cool stuff, because it’s quite a good pastime and it’s kind of fun (apart from the freezing of the program). Even though I like Photoshop, I don’t want to use it to make projects, because that will just put pressure on me, and when the Photoshop freezes and annoys me I will start to hate it more than ever, and I don’t want to hate Photoshop, so I’m hoping that we wont have to use it too much in the future for assignments and BIG projects, but other than that, I will probably be using Photoshop more outside of school.  



Grades

Investigate : 4
Design: 4
Plan: 4
Create: 4
Evaluate : 5
Attitude: 5

URLS for game design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hp_T0gVkKY

**  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_jeN5AcPs 

http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/try_download : game maker download

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o57eBnnjcS4

best link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LmZLR3ZAYx

Summative Assessment

Purple Wash

Color Wheel

Review:Things we have learnt so far :

Rule of thirds- power shown from left to right & top to bottom. Using the grid & intersections.

Rule of Hierarchies- objects & people above or infront have greater power/importance

Rule of Contrast- use of darkness & brightness to emphasize objects. Creates mystery, sense of uncertainty & suspense.

Rule of Repetition- for emphasis, reinforcement (BUT, KISS)

Rule of Alignment- Things are aligned with one another (no windows or orphans)

Rule of Proximity: things are equal distances from one another, and the edges of the document

Rule of Fonts: Usage of Sans serifs fonts. A poster should have no more than 2 fonts.

I tried to get the background, but im not done yet.

Cool Photoshop

http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/chr

Step 1

Create a new document and choose a color from the Color Palette to fill the background with. You can also fill it with a seamless texture if you want, for added detail.

Step 2

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool from the toolbar and draw a selection across the top half of the graphic. Now, create a new layer and then select the Gradient tool to fill the selection with a gradient with a medium gray on top and white on the bottom (see example).

Step 3

Go to Select » Inverse to select the other half of the graphic which doesn’t have the gradient yet. Fill the selection with a gradient from black on top to a medium grey on the bottom. Now chooseSelect » All then press Cmd+X (PC: Ctrl+X) to remove the new gradient texture for use later (don’t cut or copy anything though until then, or you’ll lose it).

Step 4

Now it’s time to make the selection for the shape or text that will have the chrome in it. For text, select the Type tool and choose the the Type Mask tool from the Options bar at the top of your screen (in earlier versions, drag to the right on the Type tool icon). Type whatever text you want (you’ll want to make the font size reasonably large to get a clearer final effect), and then click the checkbox or OK. For other shapes, just draw them with the selection tools while holding the Shift key or Option (PC: Alt) to get more complex selections.

Step 5

Now, fill the text or selection with a gradient from white on top to black on the bottom.

Step 6

Next, click Select » Modify » Contract » choose a value of 2 Pixels. Press Cmd+Shift+E (PC: Ctrl+Shift+E) to paste the gradient texture that we made a bit earlier into the selection. Hold down the Cmd (PC: Ctrl) key on your keyboard and use the arrow keys if you want to adjust the position of the texture beneath the selection. When you’re done positioning, press Cmd+E (PC: Ctrl+E) to merge down the layer.

Step 7

Your text probably looks pretty cool by now… but there’s one more step to finish it off. Load theAssorted Brushes (.abr file) from your brushes box and select the brush that looks like an X. Use your Airbrush tool at a low pressure to add small highlights to a few of the edges of your text or shape. All done!

ome-effect

Rule of Thirds

Today in Tech class we learnt about the rule of thirds. We learnt that the character with more power is mostly on the left side/top, therefore the character on the right/bottom are weaker. This is applied in movies, TV shows and etc. Hierarchies are developed from whats at the top and whats at the bottom. We learnt that if we are designing, or doing some artwork, our main object is always supposed to be on the axis in the grid.
In this shot, the person with  more power is on the left side, who is Bella, and the weaker person is on the left side who is Jacob. Bella is looking towards the right side. 

Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity

I chose this poster, because it shows all 4 principles of graphic design. You can see the contrast, by usage of a variety of colors fading into each other. You can see repetition with the words that are used like potrait, and also many words have been repeated a  million times to bring out this one picture. You can see proximity because the elements or in the case the words on the poster have been combined together and spaced according to the picture it creates and the words have been aligned in such a way that it brings out a picture.

3rd Design: Repetition

In this poster, I used the principal of repetition. Repetition is defined as an object or element which is used more than one time. In this poster, it was hard to find an element which I could repeat,so I chose to repeat the one word that had the most emphasis in my poster : Embrace and I decided to repeat that word, but the repetition may not be the best idea, because I have repeated the word more than 4 times, which makes the poster look worse than before.

Poster: Second Draft- Contrast

Contrast is one word, could be defined as difference. Contrast is a difference in colors and brightness. In this case, contrast is applied in the difference in the color of the sun & sky. This brings out the effect of the sun and it brings out its reflection on the waters, and the shore and I think it looks effective in my poster.                 

Poster-First Draft