Ailec's Mind

STEM Thinking 7.

2010-05-19T13:01:00.003-04:00

I believe America should regain it's superiority in science, technology, math, and engineering because we've got the materials we need to achieve greatness. Although I find it to be good that other countries are becoming more advanced, we have this certain peace about us that makes me think we're the ones who need to hold the power. We've got a duty to other countries as well and that makes me more trusting to America rather than other areas. It could simply be a fear I've got deep within me and a form of naivity, but that is why I believe we need to regain our posisition as world leader once more; we're easier to trust and other people having power over us causes fear with other countries and especially within America.

STEM Thinking 6.

2010-05-19T12:55:00.003-04:00

I'm sure I'll never achieve finding the cure for AIDS, making world peace, or ending pollution but it's still nice to hope that these things can be achieved by someone else. Within my lifetime, I hope to see this or to see the possiblities become more advanced. I'd support them entirely and even though they might be far off dreams, I think they're something that can happen.

STEM Thinking 5.

2010-05-19T12:33:00.004-04:00

Before I came into this class I had been considering going into game design or graphic design. This class has helped me grasp more of a feel on working with artistic things using a computer and I feel that Flash has helped prepare me for what may come with game or graphic design, assuming I choose either of those professions. Because of the experience I've gained through this class, I'm taking a profession like this into a lot more consideration than before.

Randomosity.

2010-05-10T11:47:00.003-04:00

Because Madii isn't here today, I can't get to the Powerpoint and game to work on it so we'll have to catch up on that this evening or tomorrow.

Rather than sitting here and doing nothing I've decided to post a blog entry. (:

We've got our game finished aside from tweaking the trivia a little bit and it looks great. ^^ We're quite proud of it and well...glad it's out of the way now. It was really fun to make but the last couple of weeks got sort of stressful. Now we're pretty anxious about the competition.

I think the thing we've got going for us is our outwork. With confidence I can say that it's original and done pretty well. Plus, the boutqiue is going to make an adorable addition. <3

I leave in a week or two...which is kind of sad but I can say I've enjoyed this class the most. I hope to continue working with Flash in the future. :D

Now...off to update my Learning Log!

STEM Thinking 4.

2010-04-27T11:28:00.002-04:00

Almost every blog topic I've been given I've been able to answer with very few problems. This one, however, I'm not really going to be able to answer at all. I'm at the end of my senior year and I'm not in anymore STEM-related academic classed, so Globaloria hasn't really benefited me as far as that goes.

Sorry. :3 I feel like a slacker now, lol.

STEM Thinking 3.

2010-04-21T11:17:00.005-04:00

I think I've stated before...and if not, I am not,that I'm a very indecisive person. I'm not sure what I'd like to go into yet as far as a career goes. Currently, I plan on attentding college to become an English teacher. Whether that'll actually pan out or not, I'm unaware. A few other professions I'm interested in are culinary arts, psychology, fine arts, and perhaps even becoming a game developer. What I choose will depend on what happenes in the next little bit so we'll see how this all goes! (I'm kind of in an odd point in life; whatever I go into will depend on my mental state, I'm sure. >> Culinary arts = stressful, psychology = too long, English = ...I just want to write; not teach, fine arts = no money...until you're dead, anddd...game developer = I don't have much of an opinion on that, oddly.)

Anywho, art, psychology, English, and game developing can all relate to our game indirectly. Game developing, clearly, plays a large part in the game (as does art) because...well, it's a GAME...which consists of art; characters, background, etc. (Maybe not fine art...but Flash art.) Psychology relates to it because of the abuse animals are faced with by their owners. No one in their *right* mind would abuse one. I feel that that stems from psychological issues.

STEM Thinking 2.

2010-04-14T11:57:00.003-04:00

There have been many scientific discoveries and inventions that have advanced and impacted our society. Three that I find to be quite beficial are computers, machines that help pinpoint where cancer and other abnormalities may lie in someone's body, and vaccines/medicine.

Computers, at one point, were thought of as expensive and because they were full of great technology, a lot of people couldn't afford them. Over the past little bit computers have become a necessity to most people, whether they're young or old and fill most homes and work places. When at home, people use them for social networking and games and when at work they're expected to hold large documents and other important things. Many companies depend on computers to help run their businesses and they're looked at as more reliable than humans. Although computers have a lot of bad things following them, they've made life a lot more easier and I feel that not too long from now nearly everything will be ran and controlled by/through a computer.

-While computers don't have much to do with our game and the things in our game, we wouldn't be able to do it without a computer. Everything we do is ON a computer; it's one of the most crucial aspects to all of this.

Cancer is a scary part of life and in the past it has had many victims. One of thee most frightening things about it was the unknown. You didn't KNOW if you had cancer. Sometimes illness would set in and it'd go from there. Other times people would just die. Those things are still a possibility now but we have machines that can show us where tumors, cancer, and things like that are in the body. Because of this people are surviving cancer and going on with their lives. It's still something to worry about but there's an amazing survival rate nowadays.

- Having the ability to figure out where cancer is in someone's body doesn't have anything to do with our game but I still find it to be a wonderful invention.

Vaccinations and medicine go hand in hand with the power to figure out would-be-fatal conditions and illnesses. When someone has cancer they're given the option to go through a process of chemo and other things; that tends to be why people "get rid" of cancer. Vaccinations are used to keep people from getting harmful illnesses in the first place. How is that NOT amazing? While, thankfully, I've never had to go through the process of "chemo" or anything like that and I've never had any horrible illnesses (Knock on wood...), whenever you look at it even from a distance it's easy to see how far we've gotten and what we are so capable of doing.

-Once again, this doesn't really apply to our game, either. It may apply loosely, seeing as you've got to give the animals medicine afte you rescue them but that's a very miniscule part.

STEM Thinking

2010-04-12T11:49:00.006-04:00

I would think that it'd be common knowledge not to abuse an animal yet it is still something that's rampant among the U.S. and other places. I'm guessing the reason that's it's hard to understand the concept of animal abuse is because people don't really "care". Our game isn't too in depth so it might end up hard to get our point to set in deeply. Instead we'll have to rely on more of a "cutesy" emotional impact.

It's not uncommon for someone to stop paying attention to an animal because they're bored with it or because they don't feel it suffers any, so our problem is getting this across; Animals DO suffer and if you've got an animal, you need to take care of it. It can be fun.

Score!

2010-03-26T14:02:00.003-04:00

So...the team has been working on scoring for the past week and there were some problems to begin with. Anytime Madii would get the scoring to work in the slightest bit it would pop up as "NaN". I don't think that's quite right. ;)

Today she finally figured out what she was doing wrong...and it proved to be a pain to fix because there was a lot of re-doing things...(WHICH I WOULD LIKE TO STATE SHE HAS ALTERED SOME OF MY ARTWORK AND I WON'T LET HER LIVE IT DOWN BECAUSE THE SKY DOES NOT SHIMMER. Lawlz.) She ended up getting that to work and it's turning out just as well as everything else. (Minus the rain.) She's currently working on the outside scenes and once she has done that, she'll be moving to the others that give you points for certain actions. (And then you can buy my cutely designed outfits. ;D)

Once again, I find it necessary to tell you I'm super excited! (: I'm such a nerd. <3

Do I HEAR something?

2010-03-26T13:46:00.006-04:00

So, things are coming together for us quite nicely, if I may say so myself! We've not got much of the sound done on our game but we've got the music at the beginning now. (Thanks to Madii.) Today we finished the basic things on our chosen Game Development Topics and in the next little bit I'll be getting into detail with it all. I can't wait! (:

I've got to give credit to the creator of our background music on our game. Madii's friend Zack made it and I think it sound wonderful. ^^ I'm hoping he'll be able to do another for the boutique screen because I think it'd mesh well with everyone. It certainly beats trying to find free music online. : That's what I like to think of as IMPOSSIBLE.

But yea...we've got some of the sound on the game and I think (Or hope...) that everyone will be impressed. x: We haven't been in the lab a lot in the past two weeks so we had to cram it in today and I think we did decently well.

P-p-preloader.

2010-03-17T11:48:00.006-04:00

I don't have a whole lot to say about the Preloader because it's not really done. Madii was working on it but couldn't get the code to work so she used frames and what-not to make it look like the loading screen was...loading. Instead of it actually loading, though, the liquid in the syringe just goes upward and loops over and over. Hopefully we'll get this fixed before we start to assemble the main game, as it's kind of something I'd really like to have in it. Rigging it like it is now will suffice for a while, but we need to get on the ball. (:

Now we only have Score Keeping and Sound Effects to do. I'm kind of psyched about the sound effects. I think they'll be fun. :D

Drizzle azzle drazzle

2010-03-15T12:33:00.005-04:00

...Yea.

Anyways...

I'm doing my blog on Drag and Drop. I've been working on it for a couple of days now and I've finally got it to where the animal outfits can be dropped to the animals to "dress" them and the bath, shot, and band-aid can be dropped to them as well. (: I'm pretty happy with the outcome, too. It's nice to see the game starting to come together. It's amazing to me, haha. Not to mention it's entirely cute to see the animals dressed up. ;D

I've still got to go in and figure out how to cause the proper "reaction" after the things are drag and dropped to the pets so I guess I don't have it *entirely* done, but I've got the main part of it. I may end up adding that stuff after we've got the other development topics finished.

Either way, I'm super happy about how the Drag and Drop has turned out. :D

Rain, rain...don't go away. ;) (Scrolling background.)

2010-03-05T11:46:00.006-05:00

We're working on making it look like the rain is falling on our "outside scene" in our game. (The one with Madii/John going to rescue the cat/dog/chinchilla.) So far it's going pretty well but after it cycles through once it wants to stop raining. Usually that would make me happy, but in this case, not so much because we need it to loop through.

We got the action script code off of the tutorial linked on the Globaloria wiki and we changed changed some things like "x" to "y" and some "-" signs to "+" signs in order for it to work for us. That worked out swimmingly. :D

I've asked one of the World Wide Workshop members to help me figure out how to get the code to loop through for us but that answer is a little delayed because I didn't upload the fla file. I was going to yesterday but I had forgotten to save everything that I had worked on...(Thankfully I had pasted the code to Meredith. x: Otherwise that would've been quite horrible.) so I had to wait until today to get ahold of Heath and have him help me figure out what else needed to be done other than the code. (He wasn't here yesterday.) We got all of that together so I uploaded the fla file to the wiki and posted the link to it for Meredith. Hopefully she'll be able to figure out what we're doing wrong. :P

It shouldn't be long until we're done with the rain falling. After we figure out everything I intend on going back and doing a few touch-ups on the scene and making the rain fall faster. It looks like it's going to come out pretty nicely. ^^ I'm kind of excited about it, haha. I'll feel accomplished.

I'm sure after I have the code and everything working properly I'll type up another short blog on it and have a link to show you how it turned out. It might be a little cheesy because of our art style, but from what I can see, it's going to look pretty cute. :P (Not that that's what we're going for...but...well, I've to admit...it's a little "cutesy".)

Also, kudos to Heath helping me out with the coding. (: (I wasn't here when we worked on a lot of it in class so he was a ton of help.) Also, kudos to Meredith for looking at the code and everything for us. :D You two are life savers right now.

Message to Heath: This isn't a "short" blog! ;)

Learning from others...a little late.

2010-02-24T12:03:00.004-05:00

Hey-o. (: I wasn't here yesterday when everyone went over the topic "Learning from Others" on the wiki page so I'm catching up on it today. Apparently they looked at a couple of tutorials and then did a blog on it.

This topic goes into a few details about how you can move clips from another .fla, copy layers from another one, copy scenes from another one, and copy action script from another one. There's not a whole lot to type about it, as it was a short wiki, but it seems decently convenient and useful. There are a few examples on how to do the things mentioned and there are some links at the bottom of the page for more information. :D

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/lhswiki/index.php/Learning_from_Others Go here if you want to observe what I'm talking about. ^^

Tutor me with tutorials. ;o

2010-02-22T12:14:00.002-05:00

Today we watched a tutorial on Action Scripting then we read another tutorial which instructed us to download a game called "Go Rabbit". After that we had to go in and alter the actions and save it and then upload it onto our wiki. When we finished that, we were told to find some more tutorials and to read them. I found one that I think would be useful to a lot of people. (: It has a ton of information with action scripting.: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/as_bestpractices_04.html

Click it if you want to learnn! ^_^
Actually, that was pretty cheesy. But I do think you can learn from it.

Off to update my learning log!

Script-o.

2010-02-19T12:27:00.002-05:00

Last time we were in class...which was a long, long time ago...like...centuries ago due to weather, we watched some tutorials on action scripting. After we finished that we played a couple of flash games and downloaded them so we could alter them. We changed how fast they went, the lengths of some things, etc.

We had some issues with the tutorials; the voicing isn't very in sync with the video. Aside from that there weren't a whole lot of issues other than the first game we were supposed to be changing didn't download on everyone's computer properly. (I was one of those people so I didn't get to mess with it any.)

All in all, I thought the games were pretty cool and I think it's awesome how we can change the things in the games so easily. (:

And The Epic Failz present...

2010-01-29T11:33:00.007-05:00

I don't really know what to say my strengths were in our presentation; I didn't seem to have any but I was overpowered by weaknesses. Madii did the presentation, I controlled the screen, and John recorded it. Whenever we did our presentation I wasn't very prepared because it was finished literally directly before we gave it. I didn't know we could bring up both the Power Point and the game in the task bar so that caused a bit of a problem, too. With Madii's "awesome" naming skills, there were numerous files similar to the file name that we needed to use and that caused some confusion. (I asked her to make sure that wasn't the case beforehand but I don't think she was listening. xD) I definitely epicly failed. ): Whenever we do the final game presentation I'll make sure I know where everything is and make sure it's capable of easy access. Beats having to do it over again. In the end, I found that Klangfarbenmelodie had the best presentation because it was planned out, enthusiastic, and thorough. Kudos, guys. (:

Occupation, education, life evaluation.

2010-01-14T11:19:00.004-05:00

So, we've been given the task to write a blog on our "dream job", the education/training requirements, if this class has helped us prepare for that job, and in what ways.
...
...
...And I was hoping to avoid this. I'm the most indecisive being you will ever encounter in your life.

To be honest, what I want to pursue depends on the day of the week and the mood I'm in, along with what's going on in my life. I've taken art, literature, psychology, culinary arts, and video game designing into high consideration, but obviously I'm not going to go into all those; it'd be pointless, expesnive, and hard.

I'm currently looking more toward psychology, art, and literature. We'll see how that pans out! To practice psychology you have to go for like, 8 years and I don't think I have the patience for it. Art...I'd love to do art but you don't really get recognition until you're dead. Not to mention, to make any money on it I'd have to go out of state. I plan on doing that one day, but I'm not ready to yet. Literature seems nice to me but I'm scared it'll be hard to get anywhere for a long time. Everything in life has downfalls, though, so I wasn't expecting any less.

I don't really feel like this class has helped with any of those a great deal, but I suppose it has to an extent. We worked on drawing in flash some and that's artistic, plus we've blogged which helps with literature.

I don't know the education or training requirements for any of these jobs, really. It kind've depends on what I want to do in them. Art and literature are very broad areas. I do, however, know that with psychology you have to go about 8 years...but I've already said that so now I'm being repetitive. o;

...Wish me luck on decision making! Tomorrow I'll probably want to do interior design, game design, or hobo-ism or something.

Lalala.

2010-01-12T12:32:00.003-05:00

Sooo, we've been off for like, ever and it was wonderful. (: Sadly...we're back at school. I missed to things; Madii and John. They're the only plus to being back here! Thankfully we've been on a two hour delay since school has been back in. The whole...two days. ;)

We're not in our normal computer lab today so we can't do a lot of work. :/ This one is lacking horribly with good programs to work with. Plus it's uber hot in here!

Como estas? Lulz. (NOOO. ...Don't ask.)

I'm feeling awfully random today.
And.
To "Anonymous"...if you find my most recent blogs better than the ones I started off with, you're obviously not getting the point of these blogs. From what I get, you like the more random ones...which are the ones that don't really count. << Glad you like them, though, I think? As pointless as they may be.

Sooo...yea, it's snowing and I'm hoping for the day off tomorrow! I'm such a slacker.

I have some video gaming to do anyways. (<

Dragon Age...yum. <3

SPEAKING OF WHICH...uhh...
I'll get back to you.

Saved by the bell. ;D

Blahh.

2009-12-15T11:36:00.005-05:00

Hmn...today we were told that we're basically on our own for the rest of the class. Fine with me.
...Of course it'd help if we could get everything that we need done thus far...done.
But.
Whatever.
Anyways.
Here's an update, I guess: Still behind. Still. Can't really work on things without the animals, but Madii is finally almost finished with them, so we'll be getting caught up soon enough.

While I'm waiting for her, I'm blogging, obviously, and listening to music. I crave socialization and wish I had someone to talk to right now!
Or sleep...
Sleep sounds nice, too.

Bored. So laggingly bored.
o; Angsty too, methinks. For today, at least.

I'm stuck at this horrible point where I want out of high school, pronto. I want more friends, and I want to go on with life...
But, I don't want to leave. ):
So stressed right now.
Just thought you should know that. (:

Ily. 8D Whoever is reading this.
Or not...
Most likely not. <3

Ciao.

"Hey, wait...I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice..."

2009-12-11T12:55:00.005-05:00

Sooo, I'm on the ball with blogs today! This one is just for fun. We can't really move on with everything until Madii gets finished with drawing the animals to the game, so I'm just kind've passing time. This blog might be a little random, but I'll let you know what's going on. :D

A.) We have our characters drawn in flash, but not the animals...
B.) We don't have our animation because...waiting on the animals.
C.) We don't have our game assembled...because...well...of A and B.

We're kind've behind, no doubt, but I can't do anything about that. : When Madii actually finishes the characters, we'll be rushing to get everything else finished up.

Anddd, school was on a two hour delay today, so we don't have much time to get anything of that done, really. But...that's okay in my opinion. ;) Sleeping in two extra hours is wonderful.

We've only got a few weeks of school left (Well, that might be a little, underexaggerated) and we're getting along in this class pretty well. We've all got our little cliques, but when it comes down to it, everyone is willing to help out. :D It's an uber fun class. Sometimes it can get a little confusing, but I love it. ^^ I'm scared that next semester I might have to drop it for college purposes...: And, I *won't* be happy if I have to do that. I'd miss everyone like crazy. This class entirely makes my day, haha. Helps crawl outta my shell a little. Even if it's only momentarily, it's good enough for me. It's how I socialize. (:

New subject...
Hmm...
I dunno?
I can sing to you. :D Not that you can hear me...but you can pretend...
"I'm gonna fight 'em off. A Seven Nation Army couldn't hold me back..."
Yea, encore...I know you want one.

Uhm, anyways, there's a blog for you for today. Another one...but since this was done from my own free will, cherish it. <3

Also...for my own "THEY'RE OUT TO GET US." conspiracy purposes, I give credit to Nirvana and The White Stripes to the song lyrics I used.

Money, influence, and power! WORLD DOMINATION?! ;D

2009-12-11T12:35:00.006-05:00

Baha, anyways...I'm supposed to be writing about what I would do if I had money, influence, and power. Well, what I would do with it to impact the world for the better. I guess it has to go along with our game? Even if it doesn't, I'd still do the same thing. (This goes with the "Assembling the Game" thing, by the way.)

I'd love, love, love to start my own animal shelter. If I could, I'd take in, like, a ton of dogs and other animals in need. The thought of helping so many of them makes me happier than you'd ever imagine! :D My mom and I always joke around about it. All of our dogs are dogs that weren't being take care of, so, it's an entirely heart felt thing for us. I'd also try to get things set up in a lot of different communities to collect things for animals in need. I'd definitely donate to programs that are aiming for the same thing, too. (: Hopefully I'll get there one day! I'd like that more than anything.

ALSO, because I feel like you should know this...the reason I don't put photos or anything in my blog posts is because the few different times I've tried, it entirely screws up my post. Weird stuff! Sorry mine are so bland. I try to spice them up with my own style. (8

Tropico topic-o!

2009-12-09T11:22:00.004-05:00

This goes with the "Adding Interaction" part of the whole "Game Design Topics" shabang. It gave suggested post ideas, and this was on of them, so I'ma write about our game topic. I'm sure I've already done it, though...

Our topic is on animal abuse and I still stand FIRMLY against it. I'll be brutal and say in most cases, I like animals A LOT more than I do humans. o; I'm kind've grumpy today, so I don't feel like sugar coating life. I'll still be nice, though. 8D Aside from saying this...which I feel needs to be said: "How would you like to be chained up, no food, no shelter, no anything? Dying, while whoever does it just watches when they could easily stop it?" I think people should get the same thing done to them as punishment. I'm sure my beliefs are "too cruel" though.

It's like this; without animals, we wouldn't survive. Without us, in a lot of cases, animals wouldn't survive. Yea, yea..."But we have technology! We'd be able to make our food and anything else we need!". That only lasts so long, you know. And animals...they were here long before us, to my knowledge. I'm pretty sure they can cut it. Might take them a while to get used to, and the more domesticated ones even longer, but they could get by without us.

Sooo, my point to this blog is...animal abuse = bad. Stop. (: Because, I promise, if I catch you, I'ma force you to play the game my team is making over and over again. You shall learn!

(: I absolutely adore all of my animals and I will forever take care of them and treat them well. Always! They're muh best friends. <3

/stealth (A belated blog on animation.)

2009-12-02T11:35:00.003-05:00

Alright, so, I was apparently supposed to do this before the blog on sound. Once again, this is due to me missing so much school. (It's not my fault! Horrible migraines!)
I'ma try to keep up a little better and come to school a lot more. I'm here a decent amount, but I seem to miss when we're doing big things, and then when I ask people what we did, they've already forgotten. (Nice. -Sighhh.-)
Now for a blog on animation! :D
Hnggg...let me go back and read what exactly we're supposed to blog on...
...
...
...Ho'kay. I'm back. >>;

I think the coolest thing about learning to animate is you're seeing your creation "come to life" right in front of you. I never really thought I'd be making something like this, and it's nice to see a cloud I've drew with flash flost across the screen. Kind've cheesy, I guess, but that's okay. (: Sentimental words from a sentimental person. ;D (Lol.)

As for animation in other games, I've been really impressed with Final Fantasy and WoW. Final Fantasy just looks amazing in general. Everything is so realistic. Graphics, movements...you name it. Not that I think when you're running in the woods, little monsters are going to pop up and attack you, but you get my point. As for WoW, some things in movement are a little stiff, but when you go to /Heroic Strike or /Cleave, I have to admit, jumping in the air and twisting and then attacking, that can be pretty cool. And the Trolls...when they use some spells, they totally look like they're doing some Dragon Ball Z action. That's to die for. o; My favorite, though, is Femme Belf Stealth. Sorry, but it looks cool. 8D (I now feel like the biggest loser ever. Srsly.)

Ear appeasement or disagreement!

2009-12-02T11:19:00.002-05:00

I feel that aside from graphics, sound is one of the most important parts of a game. (As far as basic details go, of course. Everyone knows that it's the game play that matters most.) It helps keep the player amused and can add humor, intensity, interest, drama, and fun to a game. There have been numerous games I've played in the past that have had horrible sounds/music, and I've turned the volume off just to keep from hearing it. On the other hand, I've been pulled toward some games just for the sounds and music. Although a lot of people play games mainly for the game play, what kind've sounds you put in a game can boost your game up or drag it down when it comes to interest.

Miss Opinionz.

2009-11-19T11:55:00.003-05:00

So, we were given an assignment to think about and blog about what all we've done and decide which has been our favorite and least favorite assignments. Along with that, we're supposed to give our opinion on the grading system, the class, and if we'd recommend other people to take it. Guess I'll hop to that! (:

I really liked doing the art for the scenes of our games. That's the kind of thing I enjoy, so I found it really fun. It let me get my creativity out, and that was definitely a plus. :D

I really dislike updating our learning logs, though! >< >> Too bad I don't have a super memory; that'd make it a ton easier. I could always do it at my house in the evenings...but to do that, once again, I'd have to be able to memorize everything.

The grading system in this class is okay. If you miss, though, and you don't get every single assignment from people, that can kind've get in the way. Since other people forget, that's not always too reliable, and if you have to watch tutorials to do your assignments, it can be even more of a pain. I hate that some of our stuff is based on creativity, too. I think that's more of an opinionated thing, and although everything should look neat, not everyone lives up to the standards of other people. It's one of the things where someone might love something, and another person find it awful. Like with art class, I don't think that everything is gradeable if you want to be fair. Could just be me, though. I hate that we have to comment on other people's blogs, too...but that's something I can see being reasonable, since a lot of this class is based on participation and socialization. Too bad I forget to do that. ): That's made my grade slightly lower in the past. I'm a really opinionated person, but honestly, I never know what to say. My comments are always repetitive.

I'd like to throw in that it seems I'm absent every single time we go over the coding process. Do you know how stressful that can get? : That can be some tough stuff.

Can't say I'd change much about this class. :D I like it. I'd recommend it to anyone who liked to be creative, likes video games, or just wants to try something different. Like I've stated in a previous blog entry, in this class, everyone kind've learns together. Including the teacher. That can be kind've inspirational. (: Can also be a little discouraging, too. >> It's a little hard to do some things when no one has a clue how to. That's what trial and error are good for, though! You live, you learn.

This is our team page:
http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/lhswiki/index.php/Team:The_Epic_Failz

Have a look if you want to. :D
At the bottom of it, you'll see the scenes we did. Like I said, that was my favorite part. <3

Flash Speed. (8

2009-11-03T12:06:00.004-05:00

The Epic Failz have finally finished drawing our scenes in flash. (Assuming I've missed a few days and the scenes are decently detailed, I think we got done in a pretty good amount of time.)So far, that has been my favorite thing in this class this semester. :D It definitely let me artistically vent a little. John and Madii didn't participate very much, though, so...none of our "styles" or colors really go together. I ended up doing seven on the scenes, Madii did three, and John did one, so there isn't too much difference, thankfully.

On that note, I think Madii might be addicted to shopping! She's spam stalking Forever21 and some other places I had no clue existed. I feel so out of the loop! Baha.

Dowwwwnnngrade. ;(

2009-10-28T11:25:00.002-04:00

Haven't posted a blog in a while, so I figured I should. :D

Our group has been working with flash on the art for our game. I think we have like...three...maybe four screens done for it, and it's actually turning out pretty nice. I like how flash works and the things it allows you to do. It's providing me a nice little outlet for creativity. (:

We haven't been working on our screens the past few days, though. :/ We've been in a computer lab that doesn't have flash and...well...it's a huge downgrade in general. We'll be back in the nice one again next week, I think. At least I hope we will be.

"Role" Call. ;)

2009-10-15T12:08:00.004-04:00

Once again, The Epic Failz are behind. You can still thank the prototyping for that. We're gettin' there, though.

We've finally decided our team roles and updated our team page. :D

I have content developer/writer, content expert/client, and information architect. Madii has graphic (visual) designer, programmer, and producer. John has project manager and end user. (He's such an under achiever!)

Hopefully this will all work out right. This class is proving to have a ton of distractions, but all is well; it's still fun. ;)

Prototyping. :D

2009-10-08T11:56:00.004-04:00

We've been working on paper prototyping of our games for the past few days, and we finally finished. It took a while because there were a lot of roadblocks. >< There were a couple of days that not all members of "The Epic Failz" were present, plus we had a lot of elaborate artwork to do. Madii and I worked on the art and John was the, uh..."brainstormer". It definitely had our own flair to it. When we finally got the prototyping done and had to record it, we realized we had forgotten to make an ending screen so we took this picture of a whale with an afro that Madii and John and drawn and threw that in there. It makes the piece, haha. ;) The video turned out kind've funny because I'm laughing in it, Madii is erratically moving the pieces around and ends up throwing a dog, and John can be heard saying "CLICK" every time he's supposed to "click" a button or item. Even if it wasn't perfect, I think it turned out nicely. (: We're allowed to have projects that are a little "off", anyways. After all, we ARE "The Epic Failz."

If you'd like to watch the video we made, go here: http://www.viddler.com/explore/Kitailec/videos/1/

Other blogs. :D

2009-10-02T12:14:00.002-04:00

About a week ago we were told to find three blogs that other people have that pertain to our topic. I had been absent, so I'm just now getting to it. The blogs I chose are all surrounding animal abuse and I think they really help show what it's like. There are photos of animals that have been through horrible things, and although it's sad, it can really have an effect on you. By reading the blogs and looking at all everyone else has to say, it'll really make you think in depth about how things are, and how you can change them.
As much as I hate going to the blog sites because they're so...real, I like reading the comments people leave on them. It's extremely nice to know there are a ton of indiviuals who believe in the proper treatment and care of animals. Even if there are people out there who kick them to the ground, there are so many other people trying to have it stopped.

Description of the Day!

2009-09-29T12:29:00.002-04:00

Today we finalzed our team names, game names, and game ideas. Mine, Madii's, and John's group name is "The Epic Failz." (Kudos, Me.) and we decided on a game about animal abuse. It was hard coming up with a game name without it sounding cheesy or out of the loop, so we settled of "WV Animal Rescue Squad". (Kudos, John.) Within this game, you'll be able to rescue three pets; a bird, a cat, and a dog. You'll feed them, bathe them, give them shelter, etc. and earn points for it. As a bonus, you'll be allowed to go to an animal botique and buy it clothing with your points. (Kudos, Madii.) For educational purposes, the game will have informational tidbits and photos on caring for pets and it'll also have facts about animal abuse in the world. This isn't only a game; it's real.

Bunny = Fail...x2.

2009-09-28T12:05:00.001-04:00

I got my bunny fixed. :D Apperantly we were naming it incorrectly. So, my bunny now functions right and eats it's carrot for a score. /clap

Bunny = Fail.

2009-09-28T11:37:00.003-04:00

We're supposed to be at the Flash level where our rabbit symbol can move up and down and eat the carrot symbol to give you a score point. The only problem is...my rabbit is anorexic. Whenever it "eats" the carrot, no points show up. ); Madii needs to use it for her project, baha. Anyways...we're currently working on fixing this. To our knowledge, the coding is right, so we're kind've stuck. I'll get back to you when it's fixed. :D

Movie Clip Alien, ftw.

2009-09-22T11:55:00.003-04:00

Today we were to do an assignment from the wiki page. We've been experimenting on Adobe Flash the past couple of days, so our assignment was to create a "symbol" and to alter its actions. Even though we're only playing around with Flash a little bit so far, it looks interesting to me. (:

A social butterfly? Maybe! (But that might be an exaggeration.)

2009-09-16T12:23:00.005-04:00

I must say, I didn't think this Globaloria class would be like it is. It's fun and in a way it's rejuvenating. Not only was this a good way to help me better my computer skills, but it has helped me broaden my social horizon. I've never been one to sit and laugh at things, or to have inside jokes, but it seems I've been seeing myself do that quite a bit lately. This is a pleasant experience and I'm glad I get to do this next semester as well. It may have taken 13 school years to get here, but I'm finally enjoying my school days. (: Thank you for starting this class Mrs. Halsey! I can't believe I almost passed it up; I feel happy and social for once! That's a very spirit lifting thing.

Game On. (:

2009-09-16T11:40:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we were to play numerous games created by 1.) people on the web and 2.) students who use Globaloria. I've never been one to play a lot of webpage based games, but after playing those, I think I like it. (: I'm so used to games on consoles like the PS3 that it was a nice change-up. (Minus World of Warcraft, but that's far from being anything like the "webpage based" games.)
There were two games in particular that I found very intriguing. Both were similar to RPGs and I found them quite fun.

Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City (http://tempestincrescentcity.ning.com/game) is about a girl who lost her mother in hurricane Katrina. When she falls asleep, she dreams she's in the beginning, middle, and aftermath of the hurricane and she's trying to locate her mom to save her. Along the way she must help neighbors and other citizens of the town to get information that will help find her mom. Overall, I thought this game was set up very well and I enjoyed my time playing it. I like the challenges you face, such as dodging debris, saving your neighbors, and getting the information in time to help your mom. At some points it's a bit difficult because you're on a time limit. You have to achieve all of the set goals before sunset, and if you don't, you have to start over. When I make a game, I'm definitely going to take this one into consideration. I'd like for it to turn out even half as well. To me, the game had very good graphics and the game play was done quite well. There were a few times it was hard to jump onto a platform, but all in all, I thought the game was nice and the directions for the game are simple and easy to understand. I don't think anyone would find it difficult to play. That's a good thing, and that alone helps draw in certain individuals. Seeing as I haven't made a game yet, I don't have many suggestions for improvement. The only thing I can really reccommend is fixing it to where some of the platforms are easier to jump onto. When I make a game, I'd like to learn how to have graphics on my game like this one did. Even though the game is pretty simple, it's done in an almost professional manner as far as a webpage based game goes.

In Zeit Geist (http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/resources/en/play/Casual/zeitgeist) you must take control of a guy in the army and direct him through the past in different stages to defeat the boss. For a game made by students, I was quite impressed. I enjoyed playing and thought it had an interesting "storyline". If I were to create a game, however, I'm not sure if I'd use the same game concept. I thought it was somewhat choppy. It seemed to me that the people who designed this game actually cared to think out how they were going to make it, though. It was very creative and had a fun concept. Although the graphics aren't what I'm used to (which was to be expected!), I must say the game set-up is quite nice. It looks okay and it's easy to grasp the idea on what to do. Even though in some cases it's hard to hit the enemies, it was fun. In my opinion, I think the game would be more appealing if it had a slightly better art style to it. Our class hasn't worked on any games yet, so I don't know if that's possible, so don't quote me. Comparing my ideas with this game, I'd like to learn how to control the character from my game without it being sloppy. It'd also be nice to figure out some ways to better the "graphics" once my group and I have started to make one.

First blog. My expectations, hopes, and thoughts when it comes to Globaloria.

2009-09-09T12:27:00.000-04:00

While in Globaloria, I'm hoping to learn a lot more about computers. I've always been at least slightly tech savvy, but this is more than I've done before. Even though I've had a computer at my house since I was a young child, I never thought about making a blog, really, and certainly not a wiki. I assumed a blog would be too hard to keep up with and a wiki would be too difficult to properly maintain. Seems I was wrong though. Everything is simplified in this class and everyone works together.

I joined this class because I knew we'd be making a game. This program, to me, is a wonderful thing to have in school. It's appealing to a lot of people, isn't based on gender, and you can learn so much from it. Not only does this give you the knowledge and everything you need to create a game, but it's an educational game. You learn team work, you get to socialize, and you're pushed each day to achieve one thing or another pertaining to technology and the internet. Even if you're not that good on computers, this is something you're very capable of. You have different steps you follow, and then voila, you've done and learned something new. So much is shared through this program, in my opinion.

I can't wait until we get started on the game. I think it'll be a nice change-up for this high school. Everyone in here is so friendly with each other and they all seem interested in what we've done. That's inspiring in a way because I'm so used to classes filled with fighting and sleeping. In here, though, everyone is part of it and our teacher is even learning things, too. Although I have a few fears, such as the socializing factor and no one liking my work, I think this is and will be a good experience for all of us. I look forward to this class everyday, and I'm excited to see what else it has in store.

http://www.globaloria.org/
A link to the site of Globaloria. (: