Cosmos Chaos

Cosmos Chaos is a interactive and enjoyable educational game.  Don't stop reading due to the fact that I said "educational".  The game is targeted toward a younger audience of game players, ages 8 - 12.  The game incorporates vocabulary words into the dialogue.  The newly introduced words are highlighted and encourages the player to click the highlighted word for a definition by rewarding the player.  The game was funded by grant U203G050007 from the Department of Education to be released for the Nintendo DS by Mentor Interactive.

Difficulties & Learning Enhancements

Expecting to work on a team and ending up as an individual team is probably one of the most frustrating and rewarding experiences at the same time.  You do not have to rely on another person when making decisions, but at the same time you still have to complete the same amount of work in the same time frame.  It is enjoyable to be able to learn a skill that you had no knowledge or ability in previously.  It allows the expansion of your personal portfolio of knowledge and experiences.  Having a change in learning style is not comfortable at all times, but after some experience in the new style you may become accustomed to it, as I have in Globaloria Game Design.  This course works similarly to how the real world works.  The main reason for that is that it is self paced to an extent.  Above and beyond anything else I have learned the value of time management.  Particularly that no two things, even when related, take the same amount of time.

Presenting to the Professionals

Presenting your work to the professionals for feedback is helpful and important, regardless of what the content of the work revolves around.  I presented Shooter to the professioanls at Globaloria to receive feedback on my work.  The Globaloria professionals had productive feedback for the advancement of my game.

Finding Solutions

Having the luxury of time away from work or school is seen by many as just a time to lounge around and relax.  Which by all means is great and often well deserved and needed.  Often though it is found that a break has come and the choice stands of whether to relax or get caught up and not remain behind on work.  Shooter was the perfect example of work that needed to be completed over a break from school.  The break away from school allowed the game to have an immense amount of work completed on it.

Testing & De-Bugging

Designing a well thought out flash video game is not as simple as wanting to do so.  There is an immense amount of flash coding that goes into the game to allow certain features to opperate.  Each flash game requires its own specific coding based on the game actions.  Coding can often cause or allow for glitches to occur in a game.  In order to prevent the final player from running into these glitches it is important to test for glitches or errors.  One person can not always find where the error is located and may want to find others who would be willing to play and help correct the errors found.  In my experience you can find more mistakes in a game when you have another look it over.  In my particular game I saught help from a fellow classmate and game creator.

Action Script Tutorials

Throughout the process of designing and coding my Flash game I have used a good amount of tutorials to help create the game.  Those tutorials consisted of written tutorials and video tutorials.  Between the two types I preferred video tutorials.  A video tutorial allows the viewers to visualize the process rather than simply reading the process.  In the process of designing my game one of the most significant and helpful video tutorials was for a game called Balloon Shooter.  Balloon Shooter was fairly similar to the game I designed, Shooter.

Thanksgiving Updates

Over the week long thanksgiving break I actually took out time and worked on my team wiki page for the game Shooter.  At first I really had no intention of working or even glancing at the team page.  I scarcely glance at work that does not have an upcoming due date.  Although, if work does have an upcoming due date I will work on weekends or holidays in order to have in finished.  I happened to log into the wiki over break and saw a comment from a member of Globaloria, Denise.  She had left a comment on the wiki that I should work on my team page.  After seeing this comment I got to work and made a huge dent in the amount of work completed on my team wiki.

Media Interactive

How I view media and video game design has changed significantly since I began to build and design my own video game. I used to wonder what went into a simple game, but now I know the basics behind it. I have a greater appreciation for the game and what went into the game now than I ever did before. I had less questions as to how the game was made, because I was less interested. Now that I have a further knowledge of game design I am curious as to the coding behind the game itself that I am playing.

Paper Prototype

I have come to finish my paper prototype for my flash game idea.  Paper prototyping has been more helpful than what I originally expected it to be.  I felt as though paper prototyping was just going to take up time, but would not be helpful in any way.  I have come to realize otherwise, paper prototyping is very beneficial when designing a flash game or any game for that matter.  It has caused me to modify my approach and has been a great asset in my design process.

Team Creation

The team that I am on currently consists of myself and my partner Nathan.  My team splits the work evenly across the board.  If a part has some piecing pieces the other team member will help to pick up the slack.  I have been drawing objects for the game, such as objects to shoot as well as the beginning of a character.  I am good at the drawing portion of the game because I enjoy and am able to draw on the computer for a game, although I am not a skilled drawer on pen and paper.  The hardest part of being on a team is definitely not knowing from one day to the next whether or not my parter will be here.  Where is he?

Mini Game

I have finished a mini game that I created following a set of directions to create a simple Flash game with the object being to have a bunny eat carrots without being eaten by a wolf.  If you would like to see the game visit my page at the Globaloria Wiki and try it out.  I have found that Flash coding is not the easiest thing to do, but I look forward to other aspects of designing games.  I am not artistic when it comes to pen and paper, but can draw significantly better on a computer.

Game Research

My name is David and I am currently involved in a group known as Globaloria.  I as well as my partner on this project have decided on a game in the genre of action and strategy.  I have found some links that I feel will be beneficial in helping to shape our game.  Globaloria Help Desk and Globaloria Flash Tips are just the tip of the ice berg of websites that can help to shape our game.  The links I have posted in this blog can help in shaping our game because it is basic Flash Coding that can apply to any game as well as a help desk to ask questions specific to our game.

Game Genre of Choice

While playing a variety of games my choice as favorite genre is sports.  More specific than sports is shooting.  It portrays an educational game without making it a math and science quiz.  Shooting is a popular game type choice of many people making it very popular to people of all ages.  Shooting games are actually educational and science related.  How, you ask?  Search the internet for the scientific term for shooting, Ballistics, to take a look at a basic overview of what makes shooting games educational.

Privacy

Privacy is an important asset in everyday life and in today's society it has become immensely important online as well.  Personal information should never be shared online, because it could jeopardize your safety.  Your social security number can reveal everything about you and allow for your identity to be stolen.  If a home address is revealed to someone over the internet your personal safety may be at risk.  If you follow these basic tips of internet privacy you can increase yourchances of being safe online.  The internet can provide you with a whole list of tips to protect your privacy.  Simply search internet safety tips.

Globaloria Involvement

I have just recently become a part of a company known as Globaloria. As a part of Globaloria through the Game Design I class at the Randolph Technical Center I am looking to expand my knowledge of the game design process.  As of now my knowledge of game design is slight to none, but I do have an array of knowledge in other computer programs.  While partaking in this course I am looking to be able to take in the variables required to create a simple computer game through the Adobe Flash program.