Create CRC cards for a scenario (or 2) you
what to test in future prototypes.
Grid
What is a testing scenario that you want for
your concept?
The thief, its a mush up game with minesweeper and battle ships. It is game for two players. Each player have to hide a gold and a bomb in a 5x5 grid. After that, player has to find their enemy's gold. That player wins if he/she find the gold first. But player will lose if he/she click on the bomb.
What are the nouns (objects) in the
scenario?
one gold, one bomb and trees and two players
What are the verbs (responsibilities)?
- store where the player choose to hide the gold and bomb
- able to track where player (enemy) click on each grid
In todays prac, we learnt to make the game "Pong" by following the step by step instruction.
First in the main class, its basically the controller, its the middle platform for communicating with the view and model. In main class, I created two players and the ball to the stage. I also add eventListenter for the player to move up and down.
After that, i created another class called player. In this class, I set the player's height and width as Players will be represented in rectangle. After setting the rectangle, there is a draw function that draws player so that they able to display on the stage. In order to track where the player move to, I also created functions setY and getY. In the game "Pong", players are only allowed to move up and down so it only requires to track Y position.
I also needed a class to control the ball. In that class, the ball will always starts in the middle so i had to set the starting position. Next, the ball has to move and the speed will get faster and faster. Therefore, i had to set a original timer and add the speed. Then, the ball has to bounce back when player hit it so, i created a function checkForBounce().
After this practical, i leant the basic structure of how to make a game. Main is the controller where it control and communicates with View and Model. View is the stage, its game interface where users sees. Model has logic of the game. A game will be divided in elements, like "Pong" there is player and ball. And each element has its own class. The class will basically control how this particular element works, what does it do etc.
In today's prac, used Flash and followed the instruction to build a very simple program. At first, I print "Hello World" to console/output and the code looks like ( trace("Hello World!"); ) when working on a more complicate and long program, print becomes very important for debugging. Then, I also learnt to create variable to represents a value in the computer's memory. This makes it convenient as you can use variable to replace line/lines of code. It is also easy to change the value. like
After that, i learnt how to use event as a way of keyboard interaction where you have to add (addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, doSomething)) where doSomething is another function that prints the particular key that pressed.
After that, in this case, i made if pressed A, it prints move left, Z move down, W move up, S move down also if another other keys are pressed it will print "key does nothing".
This prac exercise gives me an idea how actionscript works. I think it is a bit similar to java so it seems to be quite familiar.
In today's prac, we had to demonstrate our video to other peers. Our prac class had divided into two groups and I'm in group black. Group blue got to show their video first and people in group black had to hang around the lap and look at people's work then give them feedback. A lot of people use google forms as a way to obtain feedback, and i did that too. At first, i looked at people's work, i give them feedback. However, there were some survey that had many paragraph questions.
After the first hour of prac, we swapped. I showed people my video and gain responses from them. Here are the responses.
All of the people understand the concept, most of them fully understand it and i think there were some confusions in the video for only few of them. Most of them like my idea which is very nice. However, for the video quality, i got one feedback from someone who say there were a lot of distortion when talking, and suggested to keep distance with the microphone. 80% of the response said yes, they will definitely play this game but there are 20% from them said yes with hesitation. Moreover, i wanted to change a better name for this concept but there are all of the responses show me they like the name "The Thief". From the responses, i think i will keep this name and there is nothing much to change in terms of the rules.
The objective of the game is to steal your
enemy’s gold without detonating the bomb. The game is played on two 5x5 grids,
one for each player. Numbers 1 - 25 identifies the individual squares in the
grid.
Before the game begins, each player will be
given 1 gold and 1 bomb and they will have time to place their gold and bomb on
the grid. Players can decide where to place the gold. In order to hide the
gold, mountains are always going be surrounded it. After that, players have to
bury a bomb in one of the mountains. While the player is setting, the other
player is not allowed to look at it.
After the gold and the bomb have been
allocated, the game may begin. In each round, each player takes a turn to
choose one target square. Mountains are the clue for finding the gold but it
also means bomb can be somewhere nearby. Once one of the mountains has been
discover, the player is able to deduce where the gold is hiding. Whoever find
the gold first, then that player wins. But, if the player find the bomb before
the gold, the bomb will kill the thief and that player will lose.
Filming Progress
Before filming, I made a plan on what i'm going to talk about in the video.
My plan was:
1. talk about which two games that i've chose to mash up
2. general information of the game (target audience, skills)
3. rules
Next, I wrote a script. Here is my script.
After finishing the script, i started setting up the camera. I spent time on it because i don't have a tripod. To solve this problem, i used my drawer. I pulled out 1/5 of the first drawer then put some towels and cloth in it to fill the space. Then i put my phone on top of it. And it stands perfectly.
Then, i drew and cut out pieces that i needed for demonstrating the game.
Last, I recorded my voice in my phone then send it to my laptop then edit it.
After all the preparation, i started filming. For this video prototype, I decided to demonstrate paper prototype. I think it is easier to record my voice before filming so that i can hear my voice and i know what should I draw next. The total length of the video(not yet edit) is 9:02.
Last step is to edit the video, at first i used iMovie. Audience will lose interest watching it while i'm drawing so i used fast motion. However, when I'm editing the video, I found out its very hard to match the action and audio. So i chopped the non edit long video in the sections. One page per section. Then i used different speed for different sections. By doing that, i'm able make the voice and drawing happening simultaneously.
I also used Photoshop to adjust the brightness and add a cool filter to make the video look brighter and clearer. I add background music in photoshop as well. For the music, i chose a fun and bright music to create a relaxing and exciting atmosphere.
Exercise 1: What are the functional components?
The basic parts of any vehicle are the engine, steering system, pedals, hand brake, foot brake, gear lever etc.
What components
are relevant to
driving behaviour?
The driver use the steering system, pedals, hand brake, foot brake, gear lever control the car to move in directions and stop.
What are the
interactions of those
components with the
driver when driving?
Drivers would hold the steering wheel to control directions also step on the pedals and foot brake to control speed and stopping capability. And the gear lever is use for gears.
Exercise 2:
Alarm clock application for your
smartphone.
Can set, edit & delete multiple alarms
Can daisy-chain alarms - if one is allowed to ring
out, another is activated automatically
Can set different tones for different alarms
Shake phone to snooze
Horizontal Prototype: The purpose of this prototype is to display the layout/look of the product. Therefore paper prototype, wire frame would be a reasonable approach.
Vertical Prototype: The purpose of this prototype is to test the functionality of the product. In order to to be able to test it, implementation of the require functions like set, edit, delete multiple alarms etc are needed.
Diagonal Prototype: this would be the combination of the above two prototypes.
In today's prac, we got an opportunity to have a chat with tutor; to talk about what we want to do for this project. And Ive already got a concrete idea. Now, i need to plan on how to film the video and what should i talk about in the video.
In today's prac, some example videos from past students have been shown to us. Tutor showed us videos that have particular good elements that we can follow and also some bad examples. By doing that, i understand what I should and shouldn't do when i'm working for the video prototype.
Good examples:
- voice has to be clear
- clearly explain the rule of the mashed up game
- pretend showing the final product (both game or wearable)
- real world situation
- actor (optional)
- paper prototype is a good way to explain rules
Bad examples:
- noise in the audio track
- narrator voice unclear
- background music too loud
- no voice(?)
- too much text
After seeing these example, it gives me a clear direction to get start with and i know what i should do and shouldn't do in the video. Now, i need to have a concrete idea of the game and start writing a script, draw story board for the video.
In this lecture, we understand what elements makes good video prototype and also what makes bad video. So that we can avoid doing the bad things for our assessment which will due soon.
VIDEO 1: Brisbane Parkfinder
rating - 4/10
First impressions - good or bad?
it seems boring because is only he speaking and he doesn't speak clearly and he always looking at the script, he is not familiar to what's he is going to say. Also there are noise at the background.
Can you understand the concept?
Not really, i know it's about the application that find out where the park is. He doesn't show much of the application. the application that shown is very rough and no colour all default settings, which looks a bit ugly.
What questions does it raise?
What could they do better?
He should've demonstrate the application or some kind of prototype when he is making examples. and also show some kinds of forms (digital, paper prototype) of this application works. Record the audio again in a small room. add more visual (pictures etc) to make people understand also may add background music to make it more interesting.
What do they do well?
they write up a script which is necessary. They talked about the things that application can do and what are the things that they are not able to do at that stage.
Is there a way to show certain things?
more images while he is explaining
paper prototype
Quality of the video?
script too long
audio - noise at the background
should have more scenes instead of him standing and speaking all the time
VIDEO 2: Plain English Google
Docs
rating - 9/10
First impressions - good or bad?
very nice each sentence that he is speaking has an action to go with his explanation. and the drawings are all very nice
Can you understand the concept?
Yes its very clear.
What questions does it raise?
What could they do better?
Maybe add background music to make the video more interesting.
What do they do well?
the audio is very clear
each sentence matches a action / or more
a busy video but the pace is okay
Is there a way to show certain things?
paper prototype
maybe when he is talking about how to use google docs he is show the steps in actual application
In today's prac, we were given a task which was to make a short video. At first, we paired up and brainstormed about the things that we wanted to film. And I came up with some ideas.
First video - purchase an item in vending machine
scene 1: walk out from lap room to the elevator
scene 2: using the life
scene 3: finding money, insert then choose an item
Second video - running late for class
scene 1: rushing into GPS building
scene 2: running on stairs
scene 3: went into the wrong classroom
And i decided to film the second video and my partner film the first one. The plan makes the process of filming easier and more effective. We didn't take much time on filming. We only used 15 - 20 mins to film. Therefore, i think make a plan before filming is vital.
After that, we went back into the lap and started to edit those video clips. I usually use iMovie for editing videos and this is my first time to edit video in photoshop so it took me a bit of time to get use to the software. I think the hardest thing for editing video is to find a suitable soundtrack/s, in this video i wanted to put a sound effect or track that represent 'pity, sad' at the end when she realises she went into the wrong room. But I couldn't find one... At last, i decided to mute it. Here is the final product:
I think today's exercise was useful. It gives me general idea of how to film and edit for the kickstarted video assessment which will be coming soon.
In today's prac, tutor talked a little bit about overview of the course and the assessments we will be doing through this semester. Then we discussed the particular features that different games have. The first task that we were asked to do was to choose 2 games in each column and list the features in a group of 3.
And we chose Dots & Boxes and Hangman in pencil & paper column, Operation and Snakes & Ladders in board games column and Pacman and Snake in the last column.
Pencil & Paper games
Dots & Boxes:
multiple players
has to play in a grid
competitive
only draw horizontal and vertical lines
take turns
2 players
Hangman:
guessing individual letter
chances (lifes)
2 different roles (one who draw the man and others guessing)
flexible in difficulty
2+ players
Board games
Operation:
develop hand eye coordination and motor skills
take turns
educational (the organs)
sound effects (add excitement)
2+ players
Snakes & Ladders:
dice game
race
take turns
snake (going backward) ladder (forward)
2+ players
Arcade games
Pacman:
collect points
avoid the ghost / chase by ghost
maze
3 lifes
1 player
Snake:
the better game performance, the hard it gets
collect points
use up down left right to control the snake
1 player
After that, in a group of three we came up with an idea of a game that has the combination features of two games. We mashed up with Dots & Boxes and Snakes & Ladders. We basically used the dice from Snakes & Ladders and most of the other features from Dots and Boxes. Each player has to throw a dice. If the number is odd, they can only draw vertical lines. If it's even, they can draw horizontal lines. And the number determines how many lines they are allow to draw at a time.
The final task were to think about a situation in real life that makes people feel embarrassing and how to make it more embarrassing. There were few ideas that we came up with.
Situations:
when people say "enjoy the meal" and you say "you too" -> buy them a meal
when you wave to someone and they just turn around -> hug them in silent for 30 seconds
when your phone rang in a very quite place like library, during lecture -> take the phone call with speaker
From this prac, I have a vague idea of what i want to do for the assessments. I probably will chose game mash up and the features that we discussed in class were very useful because i will be using them to mush up a unique, creative and new game.
