Remember, you have until 11:59PM TONIGHT, December 15th, to submit your video game project. You should already have received (via email) comments and grades for your board game presentation and final prototype.

Grades will be submitted to UB tomorrow. Alice files can be sent directly to my gmail (anastasia.salter@gmail.com), or you can use dropbox or another file sharing service.

Have a great winter break!

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

1. Final Project Presentations are on Thursday, 12/8, from 11-3 in BC 143. Plan on arriving early. Attendance is mandatory for credit.
2. Video game projects can be handed in in-person. For turn-in or help with Alice, you can schedule an appointment on my Google Calendar.
3. Video games are *individual* and due by midnight on 12/15. If you schedule a meeting to turn it in, you will get your grade immediately.

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

In Class: Work and Critique

• Board Game Project
• Video Game Project
• Review: How to turn in Video Game Projects

Class Evaluation Forms

Reminder: Final Board Game Project Guidelines

At our final class meeting (12/8), we will be having a learning community board game festival. Your team should prepare a 10 minute presentation on your game, following the same guidelines at the pitch presentation but with a completed game concept.

The festival will be from 11 to 3:00 in the Business Center room 143 with presentations to start (from 11-12) followed by open time to view and play the games. You should arrive and set up BEFORE the start time. You will be presenting in the order you sign-up for in-class today.

Remember to bring:

• Your final prototype (printed, complete, with some design elements in place)
• ALL materials required to play your game
• Your Prezi for the visual component of the presentation
• A professional attitude (be on time, support your group!)

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Presentation Order for Thursday, December 8th

1. Taskforce 68
2. John, Majesty, Adam and Nathan
3. Taylor and Gigi
4. Mia, Thomas, Chris and Emily
5. Benz, Faith and Janice
6. Chris, Javon, Josh and Megan

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Procedures for Playtesting Day Two:

1. Nominate one member of your group to act as moderator and accompany your game.
2. As moderator, you will assist the players of your game and take notes on problems as they arise. Make sure players try to find their own explanations before you step in.
3. As a player, your job is to take in the game and rules and try to play as much of the game as possible. When things are confusing, make sure the moderator knows.
4. Time will be called ten minutes before the end of class. At that time, the moderator should give the players the survey to complete and collect the surveys for the team to benefit from.
5. Make sure to hand in your rulebook before you leave

Final Board Game Project Guidelines

At our final class meeting (12/8), we will be having a learning community board game festival. Your team should prepare a 10 minute presentation on your game, following the same guidelines at the pitch presentation but with a completed game concept.

The festival will be from 11 to 3:00, with presentations to start (from 11-12) followed by open time to view and play the games. You should arrive and set up BEFORE the start time. You will be presenting in the order you sign-up for in-class today.

Remember to bring:

• Your final prototype (printed, complete, with some design elements in place)
• ALL materials required to play your game
• Your Prezi for the visual component of the presentation
• A professional attitude (be on time, support your group!)

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Alice Mini-Game Two: Reacting to Player Input

Step One: Create a dialog

• Create a character in Alice to give the player information.
• Add a “questDiscussion” method to the character, and set it to run at start
• Have the character say “Hi. Would you like to know about the quest?”
• Create a Boolean function for the character. Call it “askForReply”
• Set the Boolean value to “Ask User for Yes or No” from the world object function menu.
• Use an if/then statement in the method, evaluating the function.
• If yes, have the character say “Something useful.”
• If no, have the character say. “Goodbye.”

Step Two: Make a proper walking character

• Choose a character from the Alice folder: People / Walking People
• Add the event “When a key is typed”, right click, choose “While a key is pressed.”
• For each arrow key, make a walking function:
• While <- is pressed
• Begin: (character).turn left .25 revolutions
• During: aliceLiddell.walk(howFar = .25)
• etc.
• Go to camera properties, and change the vehicle to your player character

Final challenge: using what you know of collisions, make the character only talk to your player character after they are in a close proximity.

• Add a “isNearCharacter” function to your talking character that returns true when within (threshold) of (player character)
• Use an if/else statement in a new method to evaluate proximity
• Call this collision check while the world is running
• Move the call of the “questDiscussion” method to when the collision check returns true

Review: Final Project Requirements

Remember: Bring your revised prototype for playtesting next class!

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Procedures for Playtesting:

1. Nominate one member of your group to act as moderator and accompany your game.
2. As moderator, you will assist the players of your game and take notes on problems as they arise. Make sure players try to find their own explanations before you step in.
3. As a player, your job is to take in the game and rules and try to play as much of the game as possible. When things are confusing, make sure the moderator knows.
4. Time will be called ten minutes before the end of class. At that time, the moderator should give the players the survey to complete and collect the surveys for the team to benefit from.
5. Make sure to hand in your rulebook before you leave

Remember: there is no in-person meeting next week, enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday–and use the time to set up a meeting with your teammates to revise your prototype!

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Completing Alice Mini-Game One: Escape the Forest

Alice Mini-Game One: Escape the Forest

1. Start by creating a forest (consider dragging in the forest object), a house, and approximately 5 enemies. These can be represented by any characters you choose.
2. Add the playable character (your little red riding hood stand-in). Make the character controllable by the player using the keyboard by setting up the “when player uses arrow keys, move object” event.
3. Set up the collision rules with your player and any of the enemy objects by:

• • Make a function for the enemy. Set the “Return” statement to detect proximity with the playable character.
  • Make a method for the enemy. Drag an “if/else” statement in from the bottom bar. Set the condition to the method you just built.
  • Under “If (collision with hero) is true”, add actions for the enemy. You might have the enemy give a warning, or turn to face the hero—choose from the already built methods and customize your reactions.
  • Do the same for each enemy. Vary the reactions.
  • Add the “when world is running” event to the main event list. Add the methods for collision checking to the “during” section.

1. Test your game by going into the forest and moving near the enemies. Do they react?
2. Add a bunny to your forest and make it hop following the example from page 214 to 216. This offers guidance for animating an object precisely: you can use it as an example for your other objects.
3. Have the bunny turn to face the player at the beginning of your game and hop towards the player. Use the loop to make the bunny hop multiple times: a loop allows you to call a method as many times as you need to repeat the same action over and over. At the end of hopping, have the bunny give the player advice—for instance, say “Go to grandmother’s house!”
4. Add an end game for your scenario. Choose a house or place and add it to the other side of the forest from your player’s start position. Set up a collision check for the playable character to detect proximity to the house, following the example above. When the character reaches the house (when the collision check function returns true), have the character say “I’m safely home” or similar.
5. Congratulations! You have the basic game working. Now start expanding it to include more challenges, characters, animation or objects.

When you are finished, show me your basic game for credit, then continue developing. This will be the foundation for your final video game project.

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

Turn in your essay and GDD at the start of class today.

In Class: Prototype Development

Tips and Tricks on Paper Prototyping

Using the provided supplies, continue building your paper prototype. Remember that you will need a functional rules set, board, and all necessary pieces so that someone can play your game. At this stage, clarity should be your primary focus–you do not need to worry about aesthetics.

The prototype is due November 17th.

We will be working on it in class on November 10th, so remember to bring your work in progress back on that day!

What you’ll need on testing day (November 17th!)

• A clear prototype of your game board
• All necessary pieces, dice, cards and counters — not just sample cards, but enough to play!
• A rulebook explaining your game to a new player
• 4 copies of a survey form with space to write answers (~5 questions)

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates

In-Class Lab Work: Alice Programming

Practice with key elements: changing the state of the world

• Functions (176)
• Parameters, Input and Output (179)
• Conditionals (If/Else) (180)
• Booleans (185)
• Do in order and Do together  (182)
• Random Numbers (196)

In-Class Lab Work: Alice Mini-Game One: Escape the Forest!

In fairy tales, lots of characters–Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood to name a few–find themselves lost in the forest, and it’s always a challenge to get safely home. Build a game where the player navigates a fairy tale character back to safety. You’ll need a character for the player to control, obstacles or hazards in the environment, and a safe space for the player to strive for. When the player reaches the home, they should receive some notification of their success.

To accomplish this, you will need:

• to build an environment for the game to take place in
• to set up a character to respond to the player’s keyboard navigation
• to check for collisions–if the character runs into a tree or a villain, something should happen
• to check for the character’s distance from the house to confirm victory
• to set up a text object that shows a victory message only if the player succeeds

Optional extensions (try at least one for full credit)

• have a way for the villain to win
• display a message when the player loses
• open or close the game with a cut scene explaining the story
• add a companion or adviser character

You will have time to start the game in class on November 8th, and time on November 15th to finish. Your game should be turned in (handed in on a cd or flash drive) at the end of class on November 15th.

Remember, your individual essay and team Game Design Document are due on November 10th!

posted by Anastasia Salter
Filed under: Class Updates