Game design#7

This week we have been looking into the use of classes. I decided to see if this would be of use within the game I was developing but after experimenting with codes it became clear using classes would be too complex and it would be easier to just have the action script within the timeline as the class was not recognising the stage. I would also need multiple objects for one class as I was hoping to achieve a ‘correct’ class and a ‘wrong’ class but within AS3 again this is a complex procedure and not worth it in the long run. I am however going to use a class for the ‘Swiper’ object, as it will perform the same task each time.

I have also decided to change the timer from being an animation of a clock clicking to a simple countdown, as within the design there was not room for the clock. However using a number countdown I can incorporate it easily into the design within a cloud.

I also realised I needed to add a variable into the coding so that if all the food was collected before the time ran out the player would move on to the next level. This was achieved with a true/false statement so if the objects had been hit (true) and it was both that was listed the player would progress.

Game design #6

I have completed an introduction to the game and a homepage where the player has a choice to play, read instructions or quit. I know have a background design that I have applied to each of the levels and a plate with the food to be collected on it. Information pages were also created to go in between the levels once completed telling the player what food group the food was from keeping in the educational theme of the game. The next step will be to create the tweens for the falling food for each of the levels.

Game design #5

I created a really simplistic version of the game with tweens to work out the AS3 that I would need, it was a simple key function to make Dora move to collect the food and then an if statement to see if the food had hit Dora or not. However it came apparent that when Dora was still the IF statement was not occurring. To stop this from happening I added a timer to check if there had been a hit every 10 seconds so it wouldn’t just apply when the Dora was in movement but static as well.

After completing this simple version I added a variable for the score and included it within the IF statements for the food so if the correct food was hit then 10 points were added and if an incorrect food was hit the player looses 5 points from there current score.

Social network #5

I have created a night’s page that has all the nights listed and a link next to each for the member to join them. This however is going to have to be included within the site simply as a design of the page as with the time we have left I will not be able to achieve this as the coding would be complex.

I have also created a larger form from the simple comment form I have already achieved within the night profile pages for the homepage as a registration form. However at the moment I only know how to input text fields and a registration form has to include other data such as dates for example. Therefore it will either have to be submitted partially working or similar to the night join page be included simply for design aspects.

Social network #4

I have now achieved a working login and changed the coding of the SQL statement so the ‘WHERE’ is related to the login id of the user. Initially I had the login on the profile page with a link from the home page and had the PHP underneath the login to show the profile however when trying to add sessions this caused problems and the user wasn’t being recognised when returning from visiting other pages within the site.

I therefore decided to have the login on the homepage and then a menu link to the profile to over come this problem as others had achieved successful sessions by doing it this way. Once I had then added the session coding to all the pages when the member moved within the site their session was remembered. The only problem I now have is that I wanted the ‘log out’ button to both log out and return to the homepage, unsure on how to achieve this I overcome this problem by having the logout button within the profile page return to the homepage where you then have to click the ‘log out’ button to fully log out of the session.

Social network #3

I then completed the same as I had for the profile page discussed before but instead sucked the data on the night from the database. I will create a page for each of the nights individually and create links from the member profile to them so the member can only view the information on the nights they are part of. At the bottom of the page I have a simple form that inputs comments into to the database and then displays them next to the form on the page once submitted. At present I am having a few issues with the form as it seems to enter a blank input every time the page refreshes however I am hoping to sort this within a surgery session with Simon.

Social network #2

The first pages I created where the profile pages for the members as this involved sucking data out of the database, which I could now achieve successfully. Once I had the data how I wanted in PHP I could then apply CSS to it and fit in into the feel of the design. The profile page coding will need to be altered when I look into logins so that the data shown is dependent on the log in id but to test I simply have the information showing from one member. I also want to have a section in the lower half titled my nights with picture links to the night page according to which night groups the member has joined. However at the moment I am unable to achieve this as my linking table does not seem to be working correctly but I am hoping to resolve this after a surgery session.

Social network #1

After advise from David and now after testing having an understanding of how the design fits in with the PHP I have created simple static layout designs for pages and profiles. The PHP can then be inserted within the designs once completed. I based the designs upon the testing but have developed them further, changing the colour scheme and altering the layout slightly. I wanted to move away from the dark design as when looking at existing club social networks they are often dark and consist mainly of black. However I wanted to achieve a fresh feel to make this social network stand out from the rest and represent the ‘New Vibe’ the club would bring by being different.

Social networking….PHP islands testing and Dynamic CSS

I was having difficulty seeing how I would apply the design aspect within the PHP we were currently learning so I decided to experiment how I would put the PHP into a simple page design within a table. Therefore creating a PHP island within HTML page.

The PHP however was still not aesthetically pleasing so I tried my hand at dynamic CSS. I managed to get this working and the PHP to then include some design aspects. However after I had created this test profile page I decided that for the actual pages I would apply normal CSS rather than dynamic as I already have background knowledge using it from the previous restaurant re-design.

Dulux advert leads to PRP idea!

Thinking more about the dulux advert and where we are doing social networks I have decided to do my research project on personalisation and look at if this is the way future within the world of web! I will look into developments such as iGoogle and as research ask users to use highly personalised applications and see there reactions. After disscussing this idea with Shaun he also suggested looking into a newly developed highly personalised social networking site 'Virb'.

I also disscussed my ideas for possible client projects one being a resteraunt re-design and the other a photography site. It was decided the photography project gave greater scope since a resteraunt re-design has already been achieved this year.

New Dulux ad...come join us!

Advertising has taken on a new level it seems where the viewer is part of the advert not only through visiting the website shown on the tv advert but by being asked to come back in the next ad break for the result of the advert! This was demonstrated today with the latest dulux advert during dancing on ice where as a viewer I was told 'Join us after dancing on ice to see the results!'. This definately gave the advert a personal feel as though it seemed it was talking directly at me, is this the way forward in advertising?

Game design #4

I have now finalised the idea of the game that I will achieve. There will be 5 levels each representing one of the food groups. The objective of each level is to move ‘Dora’ from left to right and eat the food shown on a plate and that food only within a certain time shown on a timer clock. As the levels progress the amount of food on the plate will increase, the falling food will quicken and the time length will shorten. You will have 3 lives and there will be a falling ‘Swiper’ (a badie character on the show!) which they will have to avoid or loose a life, catching the wrong food will also loose points. At the end of each level there will be an information page showing what food type was being collected and what it gives to the child i.e. Energy.
I have also created the instruction pages which include short animation helping to explain the instructions visually as a lot of children’s games include this incase the reading skills of the child are of low ability.

Game design #3

I decided upon using the idea of food falling from above and moving a character to eat it as the game play of the game. It was also decided that there was not enough scope for calories to progress through levels within a game so I reverted back to the use of food types and set about ways of incorporating this into my game in a new way that had yet to be done. I also created a basic version of the game with falling food and the character moving meaning I now have the basic Actionscript for the game.

Game design #2

After looking at existing nutritional games it became apparent that most incorporated the idea of food groups into the game play. I thought about this but then decided if possible I could incorporate perhaps calories into my game play as this would be something not yet done. This brought about perhaps a gage showing the calorie levels of the food eaten or perhaps a character getting fatter the more calories they consumed. I also came about the idea of using a character already recognisable to children, as they were then more likely to play the game and take in the information provided from the game play. After looking at the ‘Nick Jnr’ website for shows available and characters well known to children I decided to use ‘Dora the explorer’ as she is widely known and already includes educational aspects within the show itself.

Socail networking so far!

At present I have now as far as I can see completed all the tables and fields within the database and can now extract data from them and present it in a ‘php island’ within an html page. The next step I feel I need to take is to create designs for the pages I wish to include and then finalise them and covert them into html pages ready for the ‘php islands’ to be inserted into. I now also need to review the use of thumbnails and then progress into uploading photos, realistic logins and registers, email within a site and linking the pages together.

ERD #1 = redesign of idea!

After completing my initial ERD I realised that within the time frame available and with my limited php skills the scale of what I wanted to achieve was too large and far too complex. The original concept as demonstrated by the ERD was to create a social networking site for Nightclubs within the Essex area where I live. You would be able to create a member profile explaining briefly about you and your music preferences, join groups for the different nightclubs which then had in depth pages on the nights available where members would be able to leave comments and upload photos of them attending those nights. I also wanted the site to have a more social feel by having comments on the member pages so they would be able to organise attending these events as a group through leaving comments. Within the homepage I also wanted to include a graph visualising the most popular nights and clubs so the members would know which clubs to attend for the best nights.
However this idea has had to be reduced but the key aspects have remained the same. The main difference is that instead of having multiple clubs and multiple nights I will instead have a social site for one club with the groups being the nights that you join rather than numerous clubs. This led me to thinking of using the site as a promotional site for a new club where members join to find out information about it and the nights and then comment and upload photos and the club can then work out what nights to keep or improve, this also still leaves scope for future development into my original idea by learning some of the basics in php. The members will still be able to upload and comment however it will only be on the night pages, with a photo gallery and comments page attached to each. For the more social feel of the site I will create an inner email system to contact each other on a more personal level.

Social sites change with age?

When looking into the idea of social sites and how I personally use them I realised that the available sites all have set age groups that use them and as you grow up you progress to the next, most following the typical pattern of bebo to myspace to facebook. The future development would then most likely progress to more adult based social networks such as friends reunited. It also came to my attention that often we do not join social sites such as those we are making which are subject based and merely just to follow the trend. Therefore the sites we are designing could have a future to grab a niche market, which as such is not being promoted. What if google instead of competing with facebook explored different social networking and brought something entirely new to the table.

ERD #2

This is the final ERD of the site as it will look when completed.