SarahEllen's G-Blog

End of the Year Review

2010-06-05T11:49:00.001-07:00

This year has been amazing in this class! I have learned so many things and met some great people. Globaloria was just one of the many highlights of my year. I gained new skills in this class that are unique and are part of the 21st Century environment. We started out by making our mini games. I was proud of my mini game and my favorite part was the spinning carrot! We then moved on to making our big game. I teamed up with Tyler and we came up with a bunch of awesome ideas until we narrowed it down to one. We decided to make a game about helping the environment. We later then decided that we would call our game, Don't Be Mean, Go Green! The game would be about helping others make the right choices for the environment. We worked for months on the game. I did most of the coding and Tyler did most of the artwork. After having part of the game complete, we entered the 1st Annual STEM competition. Tyler and I were interview by David, one of the head Globaloria people in West Virginia, and his friend from New York. That was a great and rewarding experience. With our brilliant minds and our awesomeness, we finished the game in mid-May. We then created a presentation slide show and presented it via web conference. After that, we packed up our things and headed out the door into post high school life. I just uploaded the game to the game gallery and now we are waiting to see if we are selected winners in the STEM competition. Overall, it has been a great a successful year and I wish luck to those continuing in this next year and encourage others to be in this program.

Game Presentation Ideas

2010-04-29T12:10:00.001-07:00

In preperatitions for our end of the year presentation will consist of finishing our game, making a powerpoint or slide, and gathering a presentation plan. Tyler isn't here today, but I think I have an idea of what we are going to do. We plan to finish Level 1 and that will be the game demo. We are going to write down our plan and have an idea of what we are going to include in our slideshow. Game slides, graphics, game and development plans, and game concepts will be included in our slideshow. I'll have more details when I collaborate with Tyler.

Outline for the Rest of the Year

2010-04-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

As the year is coming to a close and graduation is right around the corner, Tyler and I have an outline on how we are to finish our game. In the next couple of class periods, we hope to have our boundary code fixed. After that, we plan to add the trash items to the game and code them into the mini-game by April 23 or April 27. Following that, we plan to finish drawing and coding the mini-game by May 7. We hope to have Level 1 complete and have everything we went in it by May 15th. This will most likely be our game demo for the STEM competition. If we have time, we will begin work on Level 2. I believe Tyler and I can reach our goals and maybe even beyond if we stay focused and determined.

Plans for the Rest of the Year

2010-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

Tyler and I's plans for the rest of the year are to finish Level 1. We are so close to finishing that we might have time to get Level 2 started! That would be great! What we have left to do is fix the boundry code, add the trash and code it, make a score box, and a mini-game finish screen. We have 7 weeks to accomplish this and I believe that we can! If we start on Level 2, we will make the opening level screen and options. Then we may have the option windows finish, but probably not anymore than that. I believe that we can get to this point if we keep being consistant with our game updates. Tyler and I really hope that we can get our game to that point and make it the best it can be! We are excited to see our finished product.

Couldn't Find Our Game

2010-03-25T11:55:00.001-07:00

Today Tyler and I searched and search the 7 seas of laptops and files to find our game and no luck. With the new laptops, we have to get the same laptop with our same file on it to open the game. Even though we upload most updates to the wiki, we didn't the last time because our new code was wrong and we felt that we shouldn't upload it. We now are going to put numbers on the new computers so we make sure to get the same laptop everytime. There is one more new laptop in the case and we plan on checking it for our game. Tyler and I had a plan on what we were going to do to our game today, but alas, we could not find it. We have learned a lesson and will now upload everything to wiki whether it is correct or needs work.

Uploading Files

2010-03-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Our latest blog assignment is to post about our experiences and skills with uploading files to the wiki. As Tyler and I have been very consistant with keeping our updated game on the wiki and putting the files on our team page. When we make a great deal of progress, even if it's just drawing a screen, we upload it to the wiki. Tyler and I have also been involved with uploading personal photos that we took to enhance our wiki profile. One thing I can improve on is putting each wiki file on my personal projects page. I have only recently been keeping up with that and I still slack on that sometimes. I'm determined to be more consistant with this.

Game Progression - 3/11/10

2010-03-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

After all of the snow days and the theft of our wireless router, we can finally get back to our game! Before the extended 'break', I had been working on the bus screen to Level 1. I did the drawing, which is not of my expertise, but didn't do half bad. After I finished the main part of the bus drawing, I worked with the code to make the buttons and when you click the buttons, they go to a different screen. After the break, Tyler made the bike screen and I did the coding for that as well.
Even though we have have some minor adjustments to make to our game, I believe Tyler and I will make great progression in the next two months. One thing I have realized as we are making our games is that I am becoming more familiar with code and memorizing codes. I have started to edit codes not only on the wiki, but other things such as my blog and MySpace as well. I'm looking forward to finishing our game and seeing what new skills I can learn!

Title Screen

Options Screen

Bus Screen

Too Much Snow and Not Enough Wifi!

2010-03-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Recently, our wireless internet router was stolen in the band hallway. Someone came into the school, in the middle of the night, on a snow day, and stole our router! How dare them! We need that router! We are so far behind with the all of the snow we have had and now with the router gone, we either don't have wifi for a class or we have to go up to the cafeteria. That puts us even more behind. Even with working as hard as we can everyday, with having 20 snow days and the possibility of more coming, it will be difficult to finish our games by the end of the year. Hopefully we will have the determination and motivation to get them done, but if the time lost has prevented that, maybe we will get them close to finished. With the time lost and the snow getting on everyone's nerves because it seems to never end, deveoloping our games will be a hard task.
I'm hoping within the next couple of weeks, Tyler and I can make progress on our game and get level 1 and level 1 mini game finished!

Video Tutorial on Flash Skills

2010-02-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

Our latest assignment in Globaloria was to find a flash tutorial video of a skill we need to use in our team game. I found this video of how to make a scrolling background.

The video describes making an object and duplicating it multiple times to put each one into a new keyframe on the timeline. Then you would create different layers to make the background appear to scroll.

Tyler and I intend to use this skill in our game with our background of trees and buildings.

Game Developmemt Plan

2010-01-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

Today we made a game development plan for our game. Here are our ideas on what we need to do to accomplish for our game: Intro to ActionScript -learning how to make codes and put ideas into flash, Programming Practices - practice the codes we are going to use in our game, Learning from Others - learning new codes from others and sharing flash files with team partner, Screen Motions - learning what codes work the screen to move from one scene to another, Making Objects Disappear - learning or making codes that make objects disappear when character picks them up, Buttons - learning how to make buttons, Objects Moving Across the Scene - learning how to make objects move across the screen and in angles, Different Levels and Mini Games - making different levels, mini games, and constructing them, Character Motions - making the character move in all directions, and Publishing Your Game - publishing our final and finished product. We believe that if we accomplish these things, our game will be a success! :)

My Past Year's Accomplishments and My New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-15T11:11:00.000-08:00

This blog post is a reflection on my Globaloria goals that I accomplished in 2009 and what I would like to accomplish in 2010.

My 2009 Accomplishments for Globaloria:
1. Learning how to use codes on flash-how to make objects move and dissappear.
2. Making a mini game-how to make a functional mini game with moving objects and points.
3. Getting our team game idea together-working with my team partner, Tyler, on getting our big game started.
4. Starting the team game-working with Tyler to get our game on Flash and working with codes such as buttons and scene navigation.

I feel a great sense of accomplishment from these goals and I'm looking forward to accomplishing my new goals.

My 3 Goals for 2010:
1. Learn new codes to use in our team game-learning how to make the screen move while the character is going from one place to another and how to make objects dissappear when the character hits them.
2. Learn how to use Flash faster-learn how to make codes and graphics faster in order to keep our progress on our game moving.
3. Complete our team game before we graduate-have a complete and functional game with all the features we planned to have before we graduate.

I'm excited about my new goals and am going to work very hard to try and achieve them.

Progress

2010-01-13T12:01:00.001-08:00

The progress I have made is learning how to create new codes and learn how different features in the properties window. New codes I've learned are how to create buttons and change from scene to scene. The properties window has features such as changing text style. An example would be changing dynamic text to static text.
We were also told to find another school's wiki and find aother team's game. I found a team from Shady River Middle School. The team's name is The Super Team. Their game is based on a character going off to fight super worm men. They have discribed playing the game to where if you hit your head while trying to fight the worms, you will lose the game. Other than that, the game doesn't have a good plan or advancement. They have a cool idea and great graphics, but where is the game going and what is the true idea? They have progress to make, but they seem to have a good idea of where to go.

EHS Student's Game

2009-12-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Our lastest assignment was to find another's student's wiki from another school and comment on their wiki. Morgan from Elkins High School had a couple of games. She had an alien themed game about different governments. It was mainly a question game but I think she is working on progressing it more. She had another game about wind energy and it was a similar question game, but it was complete. Her ideas are great, but hopefully she'll advance her game more and make it more than a question game. Here is a link to her wiki. I'm interested in looking for other student's games in other schools to see what their games are like.

Game Level 1 Screen

2009-12-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

Today, Tyler and I worked on getting our first level screen made and putting into our game. Tyler worked on the drawing and design while I worked on coding and organization. During the process of making the level, we collaborated with each other on what we were doing with the design and coding to make sure we both agreed with each other. This was very helpful with team work and learning how to make a compromise.

Here is our game so far:

We have enjoyed making the game this far and are looking forward to progressing it more! :)

Button Demo

2009-12-11T11:58:00.001-08:00

Recently, we learned how to make buttons on our games. We learned how to create a button that goes to a level and a back button to the main screen. This was very helpful in coding and it was awesome to learn how those things work. I'm looking forward to making more codes for our game.

Globaloria Survey

2009-12-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

The globaloria surveys are very well constructed. They ask questions that apply to what we have learned in the class. By asking these questions, they can learn from our responses and make improvements for future classes. Suggestions for the survey makers is to ask us specific questions about our game and how we learned about them and tell what we are going to do with them. The survey was very good overall.

Coding

2009-11-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have learned different types of coding for Adobe Flash. I have learned how to make characters move up, down, across, and spin down the screen. I have also learn how to "hit" test things and make a score box. There is much more to learn though! I am going to do more research on coding and see what else I can learn. Here is a tutorial video I found on youtube for actionscript 2.0.

Game Idea Review

2009-11-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

Our latest assignment in class was to find another's team game idea slide and comment on their game idea. I picked Team Better Than Your Team. Sam and Aaron's idea for their game is about whale hunting and whale migration. The idea is for the whale to travel in the migration path and avoid hunters while trying to reach it's destination. They didn't have many other details about the game so I'm not sure what else the game entitles. An idea for their game would be to have the whale eat fish along the way and if the whale eats a fish, it gains life a point. The idea of their game seems really neat and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. Good job guys!

Paper Prototype

2009-11-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

The other day, me and my partner made our paper prototype for our game. We made the introduction page and level one. After we made this one level, our teacher suggested that after the character makes his choice, to create a mini game for the winning choice. Me and my partner took this into consideration and are in the process of making the idea for the mini games.

Game Idea Slide

2009-10-28T11:41:00.001-07:00

The Flying Penguins have many ideas for their games. The one we are going to start with is Global Warming. The game will entitle issues of cause and effect of pollution and how it effects the global climate. In the game, the character will have a choice between a car, a bus, or a bike to make a short 5 mile trip. If the character chooses the bike the character will gain ten points but if the character chooses the bus the character will gain 5 points, but if the character chooses the car, the character will lose the game. If the character chose the bus or bike, the character will move on to the next level. The 5 mile trip will take the character to their place of enployment which is next to a forest. The character's company wants to expand the building into the forest but they have another option to build another build across the street. It will cost more to put the building across the street than to expand the building into the forest. Here is when you choose which one is better for the environment. If you choose the forest, you will lose the game,but if you choose across the street you will gain twenty points. Those are a couple examples of levels. Each level will contain choices on which is better for the environment. We will be usng graphics that include buildings, people, cars, bikes, buses, clouds, trees, and many other features you would see in today's world. We migh use sound effects that include sounds in the forest or car sounds. We look forward to making this game so when we're finished check it out.

The Flying Penguins

2009-10-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

In class, we created our teams and came up with ideas for different types of games. My team partner is Tyler and I look forward to working with him. Some ideas we came up were pollution, drug issuses, tollerance, global warming, drunk driving, rudeness, and gossip. With these interesting ideas, we are bound to make an awesome game. My part will be will mostly be putting ideas together and making codes. Tyler will be the best at creativity and the artistic side of things. I look forward to creating a game in my team. :)

Link to My Mini Game

2009-10-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

My mini game is finally complete! I am pleased as to how it turned out. I can't draw very well, but I did my best and it's not half bad! You can play my game here:

Mini Game Updates

2009-10-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today we worked on updating our mini games and uploading them onto the wiki. I like my game so far and even though I'm not an artist, I like the background I made. I'm looking forward to making a more advanced game.

Helping Another Globaloria Class

2009-10-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Mrs. Daigle's class to help her students learn how to use flash. This was fun and by helping them learn how to use it, we learned more ourselves. I'm looking forward to working with the other Globaloria class again in the future.

Game Critique

2009-09-17T12:09:00.001-07:00

Today I played a game called Bullseye. It was a very fun and semi-addicting game. The concept and design of the game was very good. It was educational because you had to know what angle to have the bow at to hit the target. If I were to make a game like this, I would make the graphics slightly different and make more sound effects. Over all, this is a very good game.

Technology In School vs. Technology At Home

2009-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

In school, we use technology to do research and various projects. At home, we use technology to socialize, play games, edit photos, listen to music, and do homework. Some things we do in school relate to how we use technology at home in some aspects. It seems that educators can't stress enought that we are 21st Century Learners, but yet we don't have unlimited access to computers and they won't let us even listen to music while we work with Ipods or MP3's. I don't understand why they call us 21st Century learners when they won't even let us use technology when it's available. If we were able to use things such as computers for the internet and something as simple as an Ipod to listen to music while we work, our learning ranges may broaden. If more avaliablity of technology come upon us in schools, some students may learn something that would relate more to how we use technology at home.

Blogging and Wiki

2009-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Blogging and Wiki are sometimes confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty awesome! I look forward to learning how to do more edits and use different codes to make my Wiki and my blog look awesome. until next time, peace!

:)

SarahEllen

Globaloria so far...

2009-09-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

So far I'm really liking this class. It has been interesting and fun learning about what we are going to be doing throughout the year. Learning how to create games and working with my fellow classmates is going to be a fun and educational experience. I'm looking forward to the progress I and my fellow classmates will make this year. I can only find good things to say about the program so far.