Image Link
May I just say that Gantt Project is one of the most horrible programs I've ever worked with. It is slow, clunky, buggy, and absolutely nothing is intuitive. Simple things like renaming or entering a date through the text box only works about half the time (if you're lucky), the program apparently has religious convictions that forbid you to start anything on the weekend - it's just an all-around BAD program.
I'm going to be the only person in my capstone class with a hand drawn Gantt chart, I swear.
10.23.2007
10.22.2007
Proposal Version 1
Link!
So, hopefully Jasper and I have this idea nailed down pretty solidly. A bit more research, and we might actually be ready to start making this thing.
So, hopefully Jasper and I have this idea nailed down pretty solidly. A bit more research, and we might actually be ready to start making this thing.
10.08.2007
Benchmark 01: Thoughts
Well, I fell a bit short of the mark assignment-wise. Juggling the work load for my own class, and what Jasper requires for his class, is a bit difficult when the expectations are so different. I do my best to make sure Jasper gets through his papers and presentations okay, and I forget to blog about it for my own benefit. I concentrate on how to best organize the wiki, and I forget to post to The Pool for my own method of gathering input.
So, what's on the plate for this week, and my remaining two days off.
- Diagrams! The storyboarding has given me ideas for interfaces, now it's time to start playing in Photoshop or Illustrator and seeing how they fly.
- Wiki! The wiki, right now, is a sort of tossed salad of information. Time to organize it, sprinkle it with loads of information, and start tossing the link in a few different directions to get some input.
- Research! As much as internet resources abound and are generously free, I'm still a big fan of the printed word, so it's time to hit up the bookstores and read the words of the experts.
So, see you all next Monday!
So, what's on the plate for this week, and my remaining two days off.
- Diagrams! The storyboarding has given me ideas for interfaces, now it's time to start playing in Photoshop or Illustrator and seeing how they fly.
- Wiki! The wiki, right now, is a sort of tossed salad of information. Time to organize it, sprinkle it with loads of information, and start tossing the link in a few different directions to get some input.
- Research! As much as internet resources abound and are generously free, I'm still a big fan of the printed word, so it's time to hit up the bookstores and read the words of the experts.
So, see you all next Monday!
10.07.2007
Interphase Interface Maunderings
So, with the first storyboarding session with Jasper down and noted, I have a few ideas in mind for how this thing will look.
First, the toolbars. In order to make a interface that appeals to all, we've chosen to make each button have a pretty self-explanatory icon. To deal with the mining and competitive aspect of the game, I'll look at the different Warcrafts and Starcraft, to see how they compartmentalized the task of managing and upgrading resources mining teams. I doubt the game will reach the extent that Warcraft manages all these things, but making them easy to navigate is a huge priority in our project, so observing the more complicated thing will be a help.
Second, the overall style of the art in the game must be considered. As I was sketching ideas up on the whiteboard, it occurred to me that a lot of what I was envisioning was influenced by the Japanese game Katamari Damacy. Katamari Damacy is a game that looks like it was designed with a younger audience in mind, yet is so zany and hilarious in both gameplay and style that it appeals to the older generation as well. With a simple objective of picking up objects and a simple interface and control scheme, it could match our game concept quite nicely. It certainly bears more looking into, and dragging Jasper over to play it so he knows what I'm talking about.
As for more interface ideas, I plan on browsing the local bookstores, and maybe ordering a few books off of Amazon, to research more into what goes into the thought process of creating an interface. I think I will also post a request to the pool for people to share interfaces and game styles that they like, hopefully to gather a large sampling of what people around our age find interesting or easy to use.
First, the toolbars. In order to make a interface that appeals to all, we've chosen to make each button have a pretty self-explanatory icon. To deal with the mining and competitive aspect of the game, I'll look at the different Warcrafts and Starcraft, to see how they compartmentalized the task of managing and upgrading resources mining teams. I doubt the game will reach the extent that Warcraft manages all these things, but making them easy to navigate is a huge priority in our project, so observing the more complicated thing will be a help.
Second, the overall style of the art in the game must be considered. As I was sketching ideas up on the whiteboard, it occurred to me that a lot of what I was envisioning was influenced by the Japanese game Katamari Damacy. Katamari Damacy is a game that looks like it was designed with a younger audience in mind, yet is so zany and hilarious in both gameplay and style that it appeals to the older generation as well. With a simple objective of picking up objects and a simple interface and control scheme, it could match our game concept quite nicely. It certainly bears more looking into, and dragging Jasper over to play it so he knows what I'm talking about.
As for more interface ideas, I plan on browsing the local bookstores, and maybe ordering a few books off of Amazon, to research more into what goes into the thought process of creating an interface. I think I will also post a request to the pool for people to share interfaces and game styles that they like, hopefully to gather a large sampling of what people around our age find interesting or easy to use.
Links for Me: if ( 1 + 1 == 1 ) { e8z = true; };
if ( 1 + 1 == 1 ) { e8z = true; };
Aside from the clever way of making you play a
memory card game to unlock the links to this group's
various projects, the website is pretty hard to navigate.
Getting to any of the game interface projects is next to
impossible.
Something tells me this is not the place to go for easy, clear,
and intuitive interfaces.
But then again, I seem to have broken formatting and word
wrap on this blog post, so I guess I'm not the best judge.
Links for Me: Tale of Tales
Tale of Tales: The Endless Forest
The Endless Forest is an online game, played mostly through a screen saver, that deals with simple exploration, communication, and looking at the world created for you. There are several different scenes (one humorously based off a Doctor Who item, which gets props from me), and your main objective is to walk around and enjoy them. You can do deer-like things, but the game presents no objectives for you to accomplish.
Communication in the game is minimal - you are limited to what you can convey in your deer form. Gender is irrelevant, as everyone is required to play a male deer - because "antlers are pretty," they say, but it is mostly to make you communicate as a deer, not as your gender counterpart.
Aside from the deer characters of this game bearing a creepy resemblance to the forest spirit in Princess Mononoke, this game is a pretty good match for the exploration side of our game - exploring for the sake of seeing what is out there. Minimalizing communication by limiting the player to a specific form is an interesting concept - making them communicate by action and emotion, rather than words, could be a concept we could use in our space exploration game. This game definitely warrants more exploration.
The Endless Forest is an online game, played mostly through a screen saver, that deals with simple exploration, communication, and looking at the world created for you. There are several different scenes (one humorously based off a Doctor Who item, which gets props from me), and your main objective is to walk around and enjoy them. You can do deer-like things, but the game presents no objectives for you to accomplish.
Communication in the game is minimal - you are limited to what you can convey in your deer form. Gender is irrelevant, as everyone is required to play a male deer - because "antlers are pretty," they say, but it is mostly to make you communicate as a deer, not as your gender counterpart.
Aside from the deer characters of this game bearing a creepy resemblance to the forest spirit in Princess Mononoke, this game is a pretty good match for the exploration side of our game - exploring for the sake of seeing what is out there. Minimalizing communication by limiting the player to a specific form is an interesting concept - making them communicate by action and emotion, rather than words, could be a concept we could use in our space exploration game. This game definitely warrants more exploration.
Links for Me: eScavenger
Only three links here to review, so let's have at the first one.
eScavengers - Let The Adventure Begin!
Aside from being a sort of puzzling dual website, this game seems to be an online game where you compete with other players in order to gain in-game currency, which can be traded for more tangible products. Online retailer subscriptions, various products, and so forth.
The method of playing involves a scavenger hunt through selected pages of companies that sponsor each game. The game gives you a hint, the answer type (image, text, number, etc.), and you have to scour the page to find the item that matches the hint and select the correct area with the crosshairs. Incorrect guesses penalize you with time, which I assume lowers your overall reward. It involves careful reading of each page, which explains why it has specific sponsors, because it forces you to read the website carefully rather than skimming over it.
As to how I think the game works, I'm guessing it's all pre-determined, rather than an on-the-fly scan and hint generation. Since the game only requires you to get about 6 answers to clear the level, then the creators can pick 20 hints from 20 different pages and just randomize them.
As to the relevance to our project, in dealing with the whole internet scanning idea, it doesn't quite match. Rather than translating the page into a whole different format, the game makes you deal with all the formatting the vendor wants you to see. The pages are likely pre-formatted and pre-loaded, and don't deal much with how pages can change and can be edited. As for the competition aspect, it kind of follows the idea of discovery, but hardly a who-can-discover-this-first, and more of a who-can-complete-the-levels-fastest. The real world prizes for game resources is a good motivation, but obviously out of the scope of a project made by two college students.
All-in-all, a good game that makes dealing with webpages a game rather than a chore (even if it is a blatant advertising ploy on the part of the company sponsoring it), and a good way to reward people for participating.
eScavengers - Let The Adventure Begin!
Aside from being a sort of puzzling dual website, this game seems to be an online game where you compete with other players in order to gain in-game currency, which can be traded for more tangible products. Online retailer subscriptions, various products, and so forth.
The method of playing involves a scavenger hunt through selected pages of companies that sponsor each game. The game gives you a hint, the answer type (image, text, number, etc.), and you have to scour the page to find the item that matches the hint and select the correct area with the crosshairs. Incorrect guesses penalize you with time, which I assume lowers your overall reward. It involves careful reading of each page, which explains why it has specific sponsors, because it forces you to read the website carefully rather than skimming over it.
As to how I think the game works, I'm guessing it's all pre-determined, rather than an on-the-fly scan and hint generation. Since the game only requires you to get about 6 answers to clear the level, then the creators can pick 20 hints from 20 different pages and just randomize them.
As to the relevance to our project, in dealing with the whole internet scanning idea, it doesn't quite match. Rather than translating the page into a whole different format, the game makes you deal with all the formatting the vendor wants you to see. The pages are likely pre-formatted and pre-loaded, and don't deal much with how pages can change and can be edited. As for the competition aspect, it kind of follows the idea of discovery, but hardly a who-can-discover-this-first, and more of a who-can-complete-the-levels-fastest. The real world prizes for game resources is a good motivation, but obviously out of the scope of a project made by two college students.
All-in-all, a good game that makes dealing with webpages a game rather than a chore (even if it is a blatant advertising ploy on the part of the company sponsoring it), and a good way to reward people for participating.
The Evolution of a Paper
So it occurs to me that I've been helping Jasper more with his assignments than I've been doing my own, so I suppose I should post them here instead of the dusty corner in the wiki that they reside to get some credit for it.
So, here's the latest version of the paper: version3.0
And for reference, version1.0 and 2.0
Next up, storyboarding and diagrams. But first, getting caught up with my end of things.
So, here's the latest version of the paper: version3.0
And for reference, version1.0 and 2.0
Next up, storyboarding and diagrams. But first, getting caught up with my end of things.
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