What We Would Have Done

If we had more time, I don't think we would have changed much. I believe our game was really fun as it was, with its dinosaurs, dancing, and billions of colors. Most people would say, "Oh, you should add more levels." or "There should have been sound!" Well I say that game was great as it was. It certainly seemed to entertain me.....:]
    
     I guess, if we could have changed one thing, I would have added the Batman theme song. It would have been awesome to have Bacon running through the mazes, to that song!! It would have been cool to have been able to add in teh "Wonderland" level we were considering. It was this little side project; a joke really. See, Bacon would go through a little crack in the maze wall, and trip into a world full of crazy triangle problems and freaky colors. Then at the end he would face the Queen of Pythagorem. If he beat her, he would go back to the task at hand: getting out of Maze World.

     Oh well, I believe the game is good without that stuff. If we would have had more time, I would have left it just the way it was. The end, this blog is finished, and I'm gone! Bye!

Game Presentation

It was really fun to watch everyone's games. I learned that ours was
better than I thought. It seemed like the people on the phone liked
the way that our demo idea devoloped into Bacon's world. I also
learned that our game could use the wall code. I believe it would make
it more fun to play. The last good thing about our game, that I
personally learned, is that Cassie and I have come along way from the
begginging of the year. Me mostly, because she was here last year. I
love the skills that I've learned with flash involving animating and
coding. (I still kind of stink at coding though...) A good thing I
learned about other people's games is that they waste as much time as
we do! I don't know if that's a good thing for them, but it makes me
feel better! A bad thing is that the games could have been a lot
better for some people if the groups had worked together. If they had
actually talked and worked together, the level of games in this group
would have been a lot higher. I guess I don't have anything more to
say. I've given you two good things and abad thing about my own game,
and a good and a bad thing about the classes games. If you want
anyhting else.....then to bad. :]

Bye!

Partner Blog - Cassie

There aren't many bad things I can say about Cassie. Over all she's been a great partner. She was here a year before me, so she knew a lot of things about flash already. She was a good teacher at the beginning of the year. Cassie knows a lot about code, which I have a problem with myself. I'm good with drawing and animation, but without Cassie, I would be lost when it comes to code. :] She works really hard on the game and I'm lucky to get a partner like her.

      I guess if I had to say something bad about her, well not really that bad, it's that she talks a lot. Cassie isn't just a good game partner though, she's one of my best friends.I think that makes it easier to work together. We can talk about everything, from the game to personal troubles; we talk about it all. I have a feeling that if I had any other person as a partner, this year would have gone a lot differently. I don't think I would have wanted it to though. I would definatly give Cassie a 100 in being a great partner and incredibly helpful.

     I would give myself like a 90, cause Cassie does know most things about the game, she did make most of the code; I did the drawing. I think that the drawing is the easier is than the code work and therefore an easier job. A harder job means a higher score, so she gets a 100 in my book. I wish I could give her higher than that, so I think I will......she gets a 100 and a pack of bacon. Simple as that.

     This blog is over and I'm out of here. If you have any doubts about how awesome Cassie is, then come and meet her. Life for me would go a lot better if you did, because then I wouldn't have to explain her to people like you! I'm out of here. :]

It Was Done.....

It's took us a long time to fix up the hitTests in the game. We just got one working yesterday, thanks to some help, and we decided to stay few extra periods and get the whole thing finished up. There must have been something wrong with the computer, or the flashdrive, or both, because it didn't save. This is just terrible. I've searched through this whole flashdrive and .....nothing. :[

     We had added some really cool things too.

      Maybe we saved it onto the computer instead, I don't know. I guess when we come back from spring break we'll have to look into this more. Until then, there's really no update on the game. The hitTest was our last problem, we got that fixed, and now I can't find the new one. I was really excited to see the final game, and Cassie isn't here to show me where it is. Well, I guess that's all that's new on the "finished" game.

What We Have Left

We're puling our hair out here. We only have one thing left to do with our game. It's the hitTest, known affectionatly to us as "Satan's Code From the Underworld". It seems to hate the very ground we walk on. We've tried multiple times to get it to work; it just doesn't. Just recently we even tried to get some help form Globaloria Help Desk. Yeah, that didn't work. It seems like nobody knows what we need, and if they know the need, they don't know how to do it. Everything we've tried to change, rearrange, and make work has really just blown up in our faces. Buttons are working, movement codes are working, but that hitTest is going to kill us. We've got a week left and I really hope that we can get this thing done. It's more like more than one thing really. It's one type of hitTest that keeps him from going through walls, and one that takes him to a different scene. No one can help us. All their codes are just, well they're crap. But we're not giving up. Definatly not. This game, and that code, may hate us, but we will get it working. Even if I have to come to school over spring break. Nah, I probably won't do that, but i'm that serious! :] Hopefully this all works out good. If you guys have any idea how to help us, PLEASE! Don't keep your trap shut. Thank you, and bye!

How My Game Has Changed

     Our game has changed incredibly since that first day we thought it up. Little Nikki changed into little Bacon, the mazes and questions got much harder, and we added all kinds of new stuff to Bacon's maze filled world.

     A major change we've added is the little movies in between all the scenes. Bacon has been abducted by aliens, rode a dinosaur, danced like Micheal Jackson, and finally defeated a bunch of nasty triangles to escape from Maze World. I can tell you, we certainly didn't dream up adding those at first. We actually thought it was good when I found the little alien movie I created in afterschool one day. It kind of snowballed from there...

     Another change we created was making the mazes harder. They become more elaborate when we realized that our intended audience could get through the old ones no problem. Now the mazes are bigger and have more twists and turns than a Stephen Kign novel. I guess that's good if you like that kind of thing.

     The last large addition we've made is inserting all kinds of fun things into the game. We added in a custom cursor, strange buttons, of course the movies, and a study portion at the beginning of the game. All of these elements, combined with the already fun mystery of a maze, and you have a gaming recipe of epic proportions. So much awesomeness that you just can't contain the urge to dance and sing while playing it.

     All of these changes we've made in our game, are changes we hope give it somethign different, and something more unique than other games before ours. I mean, with mine and Cassie's personalities, how can somethign strange NOT come from our heads!?

Using Time Wisely

       Time is very important when it comes to finishing a task. In the past, my team has wasted much time when we should have been working. Now we are pressed for time and really need to get things done. In the following weeks, we will be using every second we can to get this game done.
     It doesn't seem like a long time, but a month is actually more than enough. All we need finished now is the final playable level, Bacon's final little movie, and the dreaded action script that we hate getting done. Just today, I plan on getting Bacon's big escape movie done. I used some time yesterday to draw out the main scenes.
     We also need to get that final level done. It shouldn't be too hard, just the hardest Pythagorean Theorem question you've ever seen! Well maybe not the hardest ever; this is 8th grade players we're talking about. It also needs to be the most confusing maze. Oh, and if I can find it, we'll use the script on some triangles to make some real trouble for little Bacon to go through.
     Finally we have to get through that mountain of action script we have on our plate. We have to go back and insert a hit test on every line of those mazes. Plus we need the code that lets Bacon hit the right answer and go to the right screen. You can bet that most of our time will be used for that specific purpose.
     I guess that's all there is to using time wisely in the following weeks. If we find anything else that needs to get done, we'll just throw it in the schedule and wing it. I'm sure that all this hard work will pay off in the end and we'll have a great game.

Obstacles

     Cassie and I have faced many obstacles over our little Maze Daze game. Some were harder to overcome than others, and some we're still working on. Problems like our hit Tests on the mazes, or the transition between second and third levels, or even the study instalment we've added. These are all great examples of problems we are facing, or have already overcome. Let me tell you more.

     First off, we have a lot of problems with hit Tests in the mazes. When Bacon, our main character, hits a wall he's supposed to go back to the beginning. He doesn't seem to be doing that. Also, when he hits the wrong answer, it's supposed to take you to the wrong scene, and vise verse for the correct answer. It doesn't look like he wants to do that. But with the help of a certain obstacle code, I believe we can make him work.

     Next, problems have popped up about our transition between second and third levels. No matter what we do, it always wants to cover up the scenes behind it. We fixed that problem together though, figuring out that we needed to create a key frame to get it to be separate from the rest of the scenes. It took a bit of time, but we climbed over that hill. :]

     Finally, we've encountered trouble with the study room we added to the beginning of the maze, on the title. People are supposed to be able to go there and brush up on their Pythagorean Theorem skills. It's hard to get it to become something different than the other scenes. It's kind of like the transition problems, with other scenes bleeding into that one. We hope that we can get that done. Maybe we need to create a whole other layer?

     In the end, these are minor problems that we can finish up real soon. We are only two levels away from being finished. Also, we decided to just take a week to draw all of those scenes and after that, take the last month to put in all that problematic code. I can guarantee that it will be awesome though, it will be awesome. Thank you!  

Progress So Far

That picture lies about our game. We've progressed a lot since our last checkpoint. In fact Cassie is right now adding some new things to our wonderful game. I finally got the two transition scenes done. I made one with a dinosaur acrrying Bacon into the great beyond (the next maze) and the Micheal Jackson dancing scene where he has to be carried off on a stretcher. We've inserted the second maze. It seems harder than the last one, which is good. The question is a bit harder as well. All in all, we've made a lot of progress on our game. I'm very proud of the way it's turning out. If you want to see the newest version of this epic game, click here. That's all I have for this week. Turn up here next time and we may possibly sorta be blogging about something other than progress! (I know, I think it's boring too. Why can't we blog about pie or something fun?) Bye!

Good Things And Improvements

Hello!!!! Our game, Maze Daze, is so fun to play. Not only do we have components like bright colors and quirky graphics, it's fun to play! Cassie and I have added a thing we call a "study button" It pops up at the beginning, and takes the player to a different page. Then Bacon has a fun time showing them how to use the Pythagorean Theorem. After they've took a trip down Funny Sunshine Lane, they can go back to the maze. First, you have to put theorrect triangles in the right holes. Thats another fun thing about this game. If you get that done. you get to move through the maze. There are three different exit points to the maze (another fun thing! :) They each have a different answer, so you have to pick the right one. It's true, there are a lot of fun things in this game, but there are some things we could improve on. We have a lot of trouble with hitTests. They seem to hate the very actionscript we code on. It would be great if we could improve on the hitTests in our game.
     Well, that seems to be all I have to talk about. Later today, we will be posting a updated version of our game. If you want to check it out, go here. That's all I have to talk about this time. Bye!!!!

Detailed Progress

     Cassie and I have learned a lot since the game demo, and we are still in the process of changing it, but that doesn't mean we can't tell you about it! We've changed everything and anything in this game. You could say it's a "Maze Daze 2.0" Beginning at the menu, we've inserted a study button. This button will take you through a tutorial about using the Pythagorean Theorem. Once you're finished with that, you can head back to the menu, and begin your game.

     Before you can start moving Little Bacon to one of the three new exit points (with added answers), you have to match the three types of triangles with the missing hole in the maze path. When thats through, you can begin the maze. Using your newly acquired knowledge of the Pythagorean Theorem, you guide him to the right answer to the question on the screen. There will be a few more maze levels, then one final super question. If you complete all this, you will have finished our game.

     We have completed everything up to the drag and drop point. Of course, the first level is always the hardest; we can always reuse code on the next levels! We believe this will propel our game away from the quiz catagory, and will make it so much more fun for people to play. We have faced a problem with buttons working and codes corresponding, but we have been working on that. Well, that seems like all I know, so this blog, is out of here. If you want to see our new and improved team page, just click here.

Game Progress

Cassie and I have made a lot of changes to our game since our first idea. We've also made a lot of progress. Like the changes we decided to make. That's progress. We've already incorporated the study button into our first level maze, which is good. We still have to put in the rest of the levels. We didn't get a lot of time to really do much, so first level maze is as far as we've come...which is far! :] But like I said, we still have a long way to go. We finally got the buttons to work in the game so far, so yay! We had a lot of trouble with getting them to go to the right places in the game, and we finally did. So cheer for that!!!! If you want to check out our very first paper prototype, click here. If you want to check out my individual progress, click this one. Thanks!! Bye!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!!!!!

Cassie and I have made a lot of progress with our game, and now we are changing some things. We've added some new things into our game that will blow your mind! Let's start with the maze. We've inserted a study button into the first maze, so that players can brush up on their Pythagorean Theorem skillz! Once they're finished, they can go back to the maze and finish the problems. The maze is changed also. There are now three different exits with three different answers. Also, when you're wakling along the maze paths, little invisible triangles will be waiting to whisk you away to solve a completly different problem. Yuo can't go back untill you solve it though! There you go, that's a little taste of the changes we have made to Maze Daze!

If you want to check out more of our progress, here is a link to our page. Thank you and enjoy!!!

Biggest Challenge

    I have had a lot of challenges this year.....but by far the worst is all the pressure!!!!!! This class puts major pressure on you to keep up with the other schools and students, pressure to have a good game, and pressure to constantly learn things. I guess it makes it better when you know everyone else is in the same boat as you are, but only a little bit. I have some problems with keeping up with all this. There are five new kids in this class, and I know they know about as much as I do, but I really have problems learning this coding and junk. It's a lot of pressure as well to make a great game in this class. Like if you don't make one, they'll get really mad and that's just terrible. Anyway, I've just had challenges with pressure....and to relieve that pressure, I like to go here. Or even here. Or I watch this video right down here.