Although not an official part of my Independent Study, I’ve decided that I’m going to spend some amount of project time investigating social media as a means of promotion.

I’m very new to this concept, so hope to learn via a lot of trial and error, but I’ve started by getting a Twitter account for the site @unknowntalesnet, and have created a Facebook Page where you have the ability to become a fan of the site. I’ve not yet decided exactly what I’m going to do with these two, but at least I’ve made a start, and hopefully inspiration will strike.

That’s about it for now. I’ll be doing lots of reading between now and September, so if you have any book suggestions (anything relating to website user interfaces, or social media), please let me know.

Cheers.

Not too much to say about it right now, other than the fact that I’ve started working on my Independent Study!

By ‘started’, what I mean is that I’m reading a book called Success in your Project which should give me some guidelines as to what I need to do. Once I’ve finished that, I’ll need to start working on my development plan, and then do lots more reading.

Anyway, apart from that, I have some good news. I got an A- for my Nature of Computing module, which is very nice considering I was aiming for a B, all I need now is another A, and a B, and I’ll graduate with a First! I get one of my remaining grades tomorrow, so I’ll report back then.

Update

Got my grade for Advanced Web Design earlier: A+ (I’m very happy about that.)

Just one exam, one more assignment, and I’m done for this semester. The exam is for my Database Management Systems module, a module which I’m more than happy to say I’m not enjoying at all, but a couple of days swotting up before it happens should give me a good enough grade to pass, which is all I’m looking for.

Alternatively, the assignment is for my Advanced Web Design module, a module which I’m thoroughly enjoying, even if a LOT of it is covering stuff that I already know. The problem is that the more I work on the assignment, the more I realise that I hate web design. Read the rest of this entry »

As I type, the report which is due to accompany my ActionScript 3.0 code and application, is being printed. I did print it out yesterday, but have since found some extra bits to talk about in the report, so after spending the past two hours adding them, It’ll now soon be read to hand in.

This is possibly the largest assignment I’ve ever handed in, weighing in at over 70 pages (poor trees). The report itself is only 17 pages long, the rest is made up of printouts of the code listings, the UML diagram, a test plan & log, and a statechart. Along with the report is a CD containing the source code and application.

I was going to hold off on publishing the game until it had been marked, but I’ve decided that it should not cause any harm releasing it now, so feast your eyes below for some tasty gaming action. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s just over a week until my Flash assignment is due in, and I’ve changed my mind again. Don’t worry, hopefully it’s a change for the better.

The original idea for the project was to build four or five different mini-games, each one demonstrating a different type of game play, to cover all of the requirements for the assignment. I’ve now ‘finished’ two of the games, and was just about to start planning the next one when I decided to review the requirements – and discovered that what I’ve already developed pretty much cover everything I need!

So what do I do? Build the games anyway? I could do that, but even though the game play will be different, the mechanics behind each game would be very similar, and won’t demonstrate anything more advanced. Wrap it all up and call it a day? No, that would be too easy. I’m very much aiming for as good a grade as I can: A or bust! Read the rest of this entry »

My Multimedia Scripting assignment is due in two weeks, which should be plenty of time to finish it! Or at least would be, if it wasn’t for an Oracle assignment due in a week, and the fact that I’ve just started the project again from scratch!

Why am I starting again? Well, the way I look at it, the previous editions of the game were all just practice editions, designed to help me understand ActionScript 3.0 and what it’s capable of. Unfortunately, due to the trial and error method of development, i.e. trying new things and hoping they work, I’ve ended up with something which works, but is very confusing to navigate though the code and understand, which could result in a poor grade.

As a large part of the assignment is based around OOP principles, and “cohesive object design”, I need to make sure that everything makes logical sense. As a result of this, I’ve spend most of the past two days using UML to design and plan out my classes and how they all fit together. Read the rest of this entry »

In an effort to report my progress with my assignment so far, listed below are the answers to the questions asked during the last lecture.

Establishing your basic ideas

• Topic for website: Attractions available along the river in Worcester.
• Target Audiences:
  • General desktop browser user (Firefox, Internet Explorer 7/8, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome Browsers)
  • Mobile phone user (Opera Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, iPhone and Nokia Browsers)
  • Printable pages
  • Screen reader software user (Jaws)

Planning your project

I’ve completed basic planning of the site, with a hand-drawn overview of what the different users will see with their respective browsers, but these need to be updated, polished and turned into a proper set of storyboards. I have, however, developed several prototypes to test different features for compatibility.

Building your project

The latest of the prototypes should be more than suitable for adaptation to assignment worthy work, but I’ve not yet started on a final build.

Reporting on your project

• What technologies do you intend using in your assignment and why?
  • XHTML and CSS will be used for the assignment as they’re the most robust technologies available at the moment, and the ones with which I have the most experience.
• How will your assignment satisfy the assignment criteria and at what level?
  • I’m planning on wowing the assignment markers with the quality and robustness of the build. For example, every decision taken will be justified with a view towards it’s usability and accessibility – for example, the mobile version of the site will work equally across many different hand held devices.

Sorry for the fact there hasn’t been an update for a while, but I’ve been spending the best part of the past week working on my assignment. I would love to show you what I’ve done so far, but it’s far from complete (about 60% away – or 160% based on the Pareto principle), and I’m not planning on releasing it to the public until it’s been submitted and marked.

So far I’ve built a simple game where you have to run around a dungeon collecting bags as they fall from the sky, in addition to the basic functionality of a second game, where you have to bounce people and bags, who jump out of a tower’s window, across the floor to safety. Sounds weird huh?

The last two games involve throwing items over a wall, and jumping across platforms. I might add a fifth RPG style game, but that depends on how well I get on with the rest, and if they cover the criteria I need for the assignment.

Although I can’t show you the game, I can show you it’s characters:

Created by Sofi, who is creating all the graphics I’m using for this game, they’re named, left to right, Suitman, Woman and Dude.

Anyway, the assignment is due in on the 18th May, over a month away, so I should have plenty of time to get the project finished, I just need to try and find time for my other three assignments.

UPDATE: Whoops, I almost forgot, very big thank you to Fruitloop for all the help he has been giving me.

Another day (or two), another tutorial complete.

This game is based around the idea of an Air Raid, using an anti-aircraft gun to shoot planes out of the sky as they pass over.

Air Raid

When I found this tutorial in the book, I was looking forward to completing it so I could compare it with my own efforts to build a similar game.

Shape Invaders

Vastly different as I’m sure you’ll agree. Nope, don’t expect any more large circles to appear, there is only one, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Although basic, however, I do feel that my attempt was quite good, and had I decided to work upon it more, I could have got something far better with multiple enemies, etc. I’m glad I didn’t attempt to finish it as I’ve now discovered that I was not doing as well as I could have, and have learnt a lot about how ActionScript works thanks to the tutorial.

Next tutorial is creating a paddle game similar to Breakout – but before I do that (after a couple hours playing Alone in the Dark and chilling out), I’m going to attempt to make a ball roll. Sounds easy right? We’ll see.

Just a short post this time to show the finished edition of the memory game. This edition now features a card-flipping animation, along with sounds when the cards are flipped, and a 2 second time limit on how long two incorrectly matched cards should remain before flipping back over. I’ve also fixed a bug/feature which allowed you to flip a card back over if it was the first one selected – I could have removed this functionality, but decided to set a penalty of 5 points instead, the same penalty you get for an incorrect match.

Anyway, here it is: