Game Quest

In January 1822 Stephen . F. Austin settled 300 families in his colony named after him , Austin Colony. of Texas on the lower of Colorado/Brazos. Back in the day there were many challenges that the settlers faced. One main thing was the food that they ate. They ate things like dried vegetables and dried meat throughout the most part of the year. Imagine doing that ? . One main thing was also the housing that they lived in , they lived in log cabins and made rock structures of about 1 or 2 rooms. Even the mattress's that they used were made out of  corn husk\moss. Life wasn't as easy as it is now , I mean can you imagine living life that way ? That's why your goal for this game is to step in the shoes of the settlers back in the day and go through what they did in regards to working , eating , living and just being there. I want you to be able to feel what was it really like and go through the experience. Your mission will be to first choose a family to be part of , this will be an actual family that was settled in Austin's colony. After that you will be given the level of going to gather the necessary tools to help out to build your house. There will be objects like wood , moss , boards that you will need to collect to build your house. Keep in  mind that there are going to be things that you will need to avoid like tools that we use now to build a house. You will be given the challenge of collecting tools but also being able to resist not to choose the other ones that are more helpful.
This is one of the many challenges that you are going to face , others will consist of the food that you are going to eat and the environment that will surround you and your reaction to it.
Good Luck on it !

Learning to Design for Mobile Games

Playing a game on a console and playing a game online are two very different things. You can play games with both of them but what separates them is the way that you play with either one of them. When you play a game on a console, you are using a physical form of it to play. It's like a control with buttons except that it has a different shape for you to be able to use it the proper way. You tend to get a harder grip on the console and play it your way. It can also be kind of hard because most console games have a cord attached to them , so if you move a lot or tend to get crazy when you play you might lose your console and the game will be over. Yeah , you can start over but what fun is that if it's gonna happen all the time. Either way playing a game on a console can have its disadvantages and advantages , it all depends on how you see it. Now , moving on to a mobile game. Playing a mobile game is quite different from a console , let's say it's about the same thing. Playing a mobile game mainly focuses on a electronic device like an ipad , tablet , Ipod , phone or anything else. There are many different varieties of games that you can choose from and you can play them as long as you want. One thing that isn't so good is that maybe when you are playing, something pops up on your device and automatically changes your game. That kind of would suck . The main difference is that mobile is on a screen and console is on a TV , most of the time . 

Semester Goals

Another semester is already here and that means new goals. Last semester I was a pretty big mess so this one I'm gonna try and better. One of my very IMPORTANT goals is to turn in all my homework . Whether it's not done or half complete , I still hope to turn in all of it. It's a pretty big part of my grade and I need to keep it as an A or a B. My second goal would definitely be to ask for help when I am stuck on something or don't get it. I tend to stay quiet and not say anything and in the end I just stay confused. This semester I hope to change that and start asking my teachers for help and have my grade be well. My last goal would be to study a lot for any upcoming tests. I didn't study much last semester , so let's just say my grades weren't that well at all. So , this semester I hope to study my butt of for any important test and ace it ! I hope that I can stick to these goals and accomplish them by the end of the year. I'm pretty sure that I can , I just need to work really hard on them. 

Sal's Water Run

Special Video Blogging Assignment

Big Idea : What is the MOST important concept you want your players to learn ?

The most important concept we want our players to learn is to conserve water. Since we are doing our game towards a young audience , we will try our best to show them how to conserve water. 

Making Decisions as a Team : How did your individual ideas from "Imagining Your Game" come together for your team game topic ?

Our individuals ideas came together based on the interest we all had in the same subject. We noticed that we all had the same interest in common , so we narrowed it down to the top one that was the best and we chose it. 

Roles & Responsibilities : Describe your specific roles and how you work together .. ,

Our team is called "4Green" and it consists of :

Salvador "Chava" - Programmer \ QA Tester

Paige "Peaches" - Artist\Designer 

Estefanie "Bacon <3 'er" - Writer\Producer

Robert "Gandhi" - Writer\Design Helper

We all work together by dividing up the work and making sure each and one of us is doing our part and doing the work that needs to be done. We work really well by just being focused and concentrated on what needs to be done , and making sure we help out one another.

Research : What kind of research went into the way you will express the game topic ? What sources are you using and how do you know they are reliable ?

We as a team found some pretty good websites that had the information we needed and we did our best to gain knowledge about it. In those websites it had really good info that we could use to express what we are trying to teach in our game. We knew that these websites were really helpful because they were actually blogged by actual people who care about the conservation of water.
That was a really helpful advantage we had that could really help us.

Impact : Could the messages in the game concept or images in your game demo offend anyone ? If so , how can you avoid this ?

As a team we certainly did not in any way portray something offensive to our viewers. Our message consists of a positive message to the audience and nothing else. We hope that we don't in any way offend anybody by our message or pictures. If so , that is to happen we will definitely take it into consideration and look over it and decide upon the situation. We won't have to worry about it because we are certain that our messages and pictures will not offend anybody in any way.

The User Experience : What actions does the player take in the game ? Has this changed since you first started planning your game ? Why ?

Our game has about 3 different levels , so there are 3 different things it needs to do in each level. For example in one of the levels , it's called "Patching Pipes" in this game the player will have to jump some platforms to collect pieces of a broken water pipe and put them back in the pipe and fix it. This level and others were not the  main ones that we were going to do , we had planned other levels. We first decided to do a game about a migrating bird that would go around everywhere and try to help out others to conserve water but based upon the feedback we got from our charity we changed it and now we have our game planned and ready to start on it.

Mastering Flash : What Flash resources have been most helpful in your learning so far , and why ? How did you locate these resources ?

I think that the resource that has been helping our learning so far would have to be the programming. I mean without the programming a game wouldn't be able to work at all. With programming we get to learn to do many things at a time , like for example it has taught us to do the certain codes for the things we want to do. It sort of gives us the chance to prepare, look over the codes we are going to do and try to study them very well. We also have the chance to use the rest of the tools on flash that I know will definitely help our game work amazing.

Overcoming Challenges : What curriculum has been most difficult for you this far ? How did you overcome this difficulty ?

I think that Planning the game scene for our game would have to be the most difficult curriculum we've done. Basically , in the beginning we had our ideas mapped out and everything but then we had to change it because of our charity's feedback. I would say that we didn't have such a hard time on it but we did have our problems. Since everything was already planned , and we had to change it - it took us a while to restore everything and start thinking again. Now it's good that we figured out what to do , by the help of each and everyone on our team we made it possible to work and we can't wait to finish our game successfully . :)

Reflection on Game Idea

Who are you designing your game for ?

We are designing our game for younger kids , ages 6-14. We feel that the youngest kids are the ones who mostly waste water while brushing it's teeth or maybe washing it's hands so they don't really care about it. We wanted to target that age range because the kids don't really know about water conservation and that's what we want to target for them to learn. Our game will definitely not hurt or offend anyone group of people in any way. This game is meant for a younger audience but that doesn't mean an adult can't help out a kid playing it. It might be a different age range but our game will definitely teach something valuable. 

What will the your game teach the player about your topic ?

Our game will teach the younger audience to give an effort to not waste water. I mean , I know that they are little kids and don't know much about conserving water but we are going to do our best to try and show them how to save it. We will also teach them specifically the many ways that they can learn how to save water. Like for example , not leaving the water sink on or something else. We hope that our message gets to the audience clearly.

Where does your game happen ?

Our game happens in a house , outside pond and other places. In the house , the player (salamander) will go around showing others what not to do and why. The player will learn the many ways that it can save water in the house and the pond. The settings will definitely have an effect in the learning process because the player will understand it in a less complex way.

How does your game world teach the player about your topic ?

Our game world will basically show a clearer picture of what's going on and what the player needs to do. Like I said before , the setting around will be understandable to the player by the way the things are drawn. It is intended for a younger audience , so the things that we will teach will be in a easier way to understand rather than using big words . The setting will definitely won't be too complex for the player to not understand.

Choosing Team Game Topic

My Team (4 Green) decided to work on Environmental Issues around everywhere. We all agreed to work on this topic because we all had the same interest for it. At first we had to choose 3 different organizations on our own , that we would like to work with. When we got put into a team , we noticed that among our chosen organizations we had some of the same ones. Since we all were interested on the same topic , we narrowed our websites down to the one that we liked the most and looked very interesting. The chosen organization was Environment Texas and Research Policy . We all agreed on this website because we thought that it was the organization that focused on the environment issues around , I mean it wasn't the only one but to us it had more research and interest in it. We really liked how it focused on many issues but also works with one at a time. I think that Me and my team (4 Green , Salvador, Paige, & Robert ) really nailed it at working with this topic. We hope to make an extraordinary game that teaches others about the environment issues around that need to be taken care of but also to have a little fun with it. :)