Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Drawing Scenes

This is the part of Globaloria that I enjoy the most. It is the making of scenes and making them work. I am definatly going to add more buttons to my main screen because I have learned a lot more as my time in Globaloria has gone on. I used Wikipedia a lot in the researching of my social issue. It was very accurate and it really helped me understand the topic of sports injuries better. I also used websites that talked about reducing the risk of an injury caused by a sporting activity. I've already drawn a scene for my game that's supposed to be the scene where you choose what you want do to like playing the game, a help screen, a team choice scene, and so on. Here's the scene. I'm definatly going to add to it but for right now it will do. I also don't have buttons working yet but I will get there as soon as possible.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Video Blog

As you might be able to tell, messed up at the beginning of the video by laughing. I do that in almost anything that is put on camera. The only reason why she didn't start over was because I had had many outtakes before becasue of a giggle attack so she kind of got sick of it after a while so she kept going. I expected it too. You'll notice how I'm holding a piece of paper which included my responses for the question my teacher was asking. Naturally, I barely used them at all. It's just something I've always done. Since I always do that you're probably asking why I even bother answering the questions on a piece of paper. Well, I can't completely wing something right out of the top of my head. I need some prior knowledge about what I'm going to say and I used that paper for reference. Well, enough with the chit-chat. Here's the video.

*   The Big Idea: Describe your team's game topic. What is the most important concept you want your players to learn?
*   My game topic is sports injuries. The concept I want to enforce the most is order of operations because many kids that I know struggle with that topic and if you don’t learn order of operations, it’s going to be very hard to do other math above order of operations.
*  Making Decisions as a Team: How did your individual ideas from "Imagining Your Game" come together for your team game topic? How did your team decide the topic?
*  When I was doing Imagining Your Game, I had just decided that sports injuries was going to be my social issue because of all of the injuries that were going on currently at that time. Some of those can be career-enders.
*  Roles & Responsibilities: Tell us more about your team process. Please each talk about your specific roles, and how you work together.
*  Since we are not in groups and we are by ourselves, everything is our responsibility. I like that better because there’s no arguing over what you want someone to do and what you have to do.
*  Research: What kind of research went into the way you will express the game topic?
*  Wikipedia played a huge part in the researching of my game topic. It was very useful and accurate because I had prior knowledge of that topic and it all was on there. I knew about concussions and ACL tears and all of that kind of stuff.
*  The User Experience: Explain the game play. What actions does the player take in the game? Has this changed since you first started planning your game? Why?
*  The player in my game has to answer order of operations questions and after they answer it they get an opportunity to run with the football. You cannot run out of bounds and if you get tackled, depending on whether you got the problem right or not you get injured or depending on what spot they hit you at, you will be alright. It has not changed from the start, my idea of the game play because I felt that I had a great idea that will teach the game players more about football, order of operations, and sports injuries.
*  Mastering Flash: What Flash resources have been most helpful in your learning so far, and why? How did you locate these resources?
*  The Flash movies on the actual Flash program have helped me the most because when I’m in the middle of making a scene with movement, I can see my progress and if I have something wrong I will be able to fix it to where I can make it better so I’m learning from my mistakes. I located these resources from Mrs. Sheppard’s tutorial on Flash.
*  Overcoming Challenges: What curriculum topic has been most difficult for you so far? How did you overcome this difficulty?
*  I think staying caught up with the rest of the class has been the most difficult for me so I have had to come in for lunch zap away from my friends to work on my Globaloria work. It has paid off though and now I am caught up.

Snow Days

What do you think of snow days. Personally, I love them and dislike them at the same time. I love snow days because I get to sleep in and not have to wake up early. I don't like them because of how behind you can get on your work. We've already had 7 snow days up to today. That is nowhere near how many we had last year at this point. We ended up finishing with 20 snow days last year which is a scary thought since we've had 7 before Winter Break even begins. Snow days also make me very behind on my assignments. That's one reason I do not enjoy snow days as much as other kids might. Also, when you have a snow day, that means no extracurricular activities that were scheduled for that day. We were supposed to have a dance last Friday which is really my only oppurtunity to party within school  limits without getting in trouble. That got canceled because of the snow. What do you think of snow days?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Adding Scenes Blog

The game "What Would You Do" uses narraration to explain what is going on in the game and what you should do next. I believe that narration makes a game way easier to play because it gives me a better perception of what the game is about is so I am able to play the game in a more fun way because I'm not screaming and shouting at the game to work even though it is working and I am not doing too well at it. There are also games with help screens that tell you how to play and that also helps me because I'm able to narrarate in my head what to do. My game has an example like that. Here it is.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Traditions

How does your family celebrate Thanksgiving? Is it the same thing every year, kind of like a tradition. Mine has been up to this year. For as long as I can remember, we have always celebrated it with my mom's side of the family. We usually go up to northern Virginia for Thanksgiving because that's where most of my mom's side of the family lives and is right in the middle of where everyone one of my mom's family members from when she was little. We watch football, eat lots and lots of food, and play sports. We watch professional football (NFL), we eat turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, and ham, and we play darts, pool (as in 8-ball), and football (sometimes in the house but don't let the parents know that.) This year though we're at my dad's parents house with his side of the family. It's just as fun. Right now we're watching football, we haven't played any sports, but we did eat turkey and stuff like that. Also, instead of having Thanksgiving dinner, we had Thanksgiving lunch. It's still fun.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Paper Prototyping

My game is about sports injuries. The concept I'm trying to teach in my game is order of operations. I feel this subject is very important because many people do not understand it but once you do you can do a lot more in math. We weren't assigned teams so it was all up to me on what my game was about. I like working by myself better than working with a team because I don't have to argue with anybody about what's right for the game and what isn't. I had to use lots of sports injuries websites to come up with my game. Some of the pictures I came across on some of those websites of sports injuries made me think to myself "is that even possible"? I don't think anything has changed about my game since I first started imagining. I really like my game idea and can't wait to get started on the actions on the game. My player will be moved around with the keys on keyboard and the answers will be typed down with the number keys. I have been using lots of codes from the mini game to help develop other things that will help me develop my game. The toughest part for me so far has been working with the time alotted for us in Globaloria. I've had to come into lunch ZAP a lot because of it. Here is my video.



On my first try on my video I didn't do too well. Right in the middle of it I started giggling then I looked at the camera and said, "I got the giggles." Then Everyone in the class was laughing and the whole video was ruined.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Planning My Game

I am the only person on my team just like everyone else in the 7th grade Globaloria at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School. My role is everything except for stuff that I don't know how to do. When that happens I'll ask my teacher for help. I am good at this job because I feel like the more that I can do in a project the better I do. Since we aren't working teams, I am looking forward to not having to argue with anyone over what to do. Working with other people is difficult because you don't always agree with the decisions thay make. When you are on your own, it's all you. Nobody else (except for the administrator).