Final Case!!

The tenth case is done!! The game is done!! This whole task is completed!!

In the last case we had to make a win- and loosescreen, and a menu for the game. My win- and loosescreens were done, I had to make them in case 8 so that something happened when the milkmaid collected all the buckets or got hit by the cow. But I had to design a menu and also a page that told the player how to play.

The design was easy enough, but we also had to learn how to program the buttons so that you can start, restart and quit the game. It wasn't too complicated to put in the buttons, but it was difficult to make the restart function work since I had to put in a whole lot of codes taht removed the earlier codes from the previous game. As usual I didn't know these codes, and on Monday's workshop (the final workshop!), I got some help. I realize that I would never have been able to finnish without this help...because I sat there without a clue!!

Now that I am done I see all the amazing help a got from groupleaders and I wouldn't have made it without them. Coding and programming is not my strong side, and I know very little about it. During the past few weeks I have started to understand more and more of what the codes means, but mostly it is a language I don't understand.

I am very relieved that I am done within the deadline, and looking forward to see the teacher's results.

Sound

The game is pretty boring without any sounds. Case 9 is about making sounds an putting them in the codes. I am almost done with this case, but there is one sound missing, since it has to be the last thing I put in (it is the sound in the games meny, and I haven't finnished the frontpage of the game).

The most challenging part of this case was, surprisingly(!), not the codes, but finding and making the sounds. I want my game to be a production made totally by me, therefor I had to make the music and sounds on my own. I borrowed a handrecorder at school, and recorded the sounds at home. My sister has a piano that I used playing the "theme"-music. There are three more sounds in my game; the cow saying "mooo" when se looses, the sound of milk when she picks up the buckets, and a sound when she wins.

I edited the sounds using Adobe Soundbooth, and saved them as mp3-files so they would fit in Flash.

Case 8

At this point it was time to make some objects the character should pick up. And it was time for me to design the milkbuckets. It was pretty easy to design - I drew one bucket, and on the Thursdays lesson that week we learned the codes for how to pick them up.



We learned about arrays - and I must say that it was quite advanced. The purpose of an array is that an object will appear as many times as you like, instead of having to draw an object several times, and write new codes each time. The principal is simple enough, but it is complicated to make it work. But with a little help from my groupleader, I managed to complete this weeks case too. :)

I also got help making something happen when the enemy and the maincharacter hit - I have decided to make it quite simple, since this is the first time I do any sort of programming, and I want it to be a simple game for children - that is why I decided that once these two characters hit, the game is over. Therefor I made a loosescreen, and a winscreen for when the milkmaid has collected all five milkbuckets. These codes were pretty logical, and I understand what the codes says.

In this case we could also make other objects that the maincharacter should avoid - but I decided not to, since my game is quite small and short. I didn't want to fill in too many elements, since it is a game for children, and I feel it would be sort of "messy".

Case 7

In this case we had to make codes for the "enemy" we designed in case 6. That ment a whole lot of new codes that I struggled with. According to this we had to make a new .as-file (ActionScript-file), and create a connection between this file and the file we've already made our codes in. In the beginning I didn't see the purpose with this, but as I saw all the code that were written, I realised that having more than one .as-file is making the codes look more tidy, and it will be easier for me to read them and discover possible mistakes.

I still find it extremely difficult to write the codes, I don't seem to understand the "language" and the logic in it. To animate is what I like best of this task, and now know all the elements and actions that needs to be done before I put them in the game - this is something I can do on my own. But I struggle with the codes, and this case was no exception - it was particularly difficult to make the cow (my "enemy") follow the main character, but I got good help from my groupleader, and he helped me write the codes correctly.

Case 6

This case was about designing backgrounds and other characters for our games. There is going to be an "enemy" in the game that is "intelligent" and follows the main character as an obsticle. My game was'nt supposed to have an "enemy" since the obsticles were going to be slippery spots and the lake. But with this new information I had to rethink my whole game.

Luckily, having an "enemy" was not a bad idea, and it makes my game a bit more challenging to play. So the "enemy" of this game is a thirsty old cow, that will walk after the milkmaid, trying to fetch her milk. I got inspiration from my summer vacation, when I was at a farm and saw how cows behave - they are very kind and cute, but incredibly stubborn. And this cow is no exception, and is determined to get the milk. Therefore as a player you'll have to make the milkmaid jump over the cow and collect the milkbuckets. If they interact, the game is over! (When this case was due I hadn't been able to make something happen when these two characters interacts, but I will come back to that in a later blog).

This is a game for children, and the plot is quite simple - due to the young audience, and also my lack of programming skills. My plan for this game is that it shall be simple enough to play for children in the age of 4 - 6 years.

This was SO difficult!!!

In Case 5 we had to make a ground for our character to walk on. But the ground couldn't be a straight line. This was a though case, with new codes, and this time we were pretty much left on our own to figure out the crypted codes.

as usually I didn't manage on my own - I really tried, and wrote all the codes that I could possibly understand, but nothing help, and nothing came up. I wasn't able to come to the group meeting at Monday this week, and therefor I got a little bit behind with my work. The background was designed, but I had no movements in the codes.

On Today's workshop, I got some really good help, and one of the groupleaders taught me a little bit about what the different codes means. I guess that is my biggest challenge, that I don't understand any of the codes - but he challenged me to try to explain to him what they ment, and I learned a great deal from that.

The rest of the lesson I spent on listening to others getting help, looking at their codes and comparing mine with them, and tried to figure out what went wrong.
After some time with trying and failing, I suddenly cracked the codes, and managed to put a background on the screen (which is part of next case), with at scene for my character to walk on, and also enable her to walk to left and right AND jump!!!

I'm so happy, and I feel really relieved that I finally have made something work (almost) on my own!

Yahooooo!!

Finally, I've completed case 4!

This was the most difficult case so far. We've just come back from the study week, and we've been left alone for a whole week without classes. This has been challenging, aspecially since we have to hand in an assignment tonight, which includes all our four cases.

In case 4 it was time to learn how to connect the character to the keyboard - and make the character move to right and left. When nothing happens the character shall take an idleposition. This was extremely difficult for one as little in to computers as I am - surprisingly I managed to make my character move, or more glide to right and left using the keyboard, but she didn't move her legs and the idle was missing.

Since there were no classes during the study week I was practically left alone with some books that I don't understand, and I had to ask for help in today's meeting with the group. Luckily I got the help I needed, and am now ready to hand in the assignment.

Finished 3rd Case!

This week was a bit challenging - we learned about codes and Actionscript 3.0. It is rather complicated, and a lot of writing that I find quite illogical. During the lesson at Thursday we went through the codes that we need to be able to achieve the goal for this case, and I were able to make my character move the way it should - it glides over the screen from left to right, and back again.

But, I must say, that all I know is that I followed a recipe and the result came out right. Which means that I'm still not able to do this all on my own. But according to our teacher, these codes are just to be learnt - which obviously means that this is just the way it is, which is hard enough for me to understand since I'd like to know why all the time.

At this moment I just have to trust the teacher that it will all become clearer as we keep on working with this project.

On today's meeting we all had a presentation of our animations. It seems like everybody now knows how to work in Flash, and it will be exciting to see how the games develops.

I have got three animations: walk to right and left, jump and a resting position. I hadn't understood how to make a sprite, and the point of it, but I was able to ask today and be taught how to make one. A sprite is a practical way of collecting all the animations and to be able to switch between the different objects in an easy way.

But when I put all my different documents in to a sprite, I realized that I hadn't done everything quite right. I was made aware of a mistake I must have done in the beginning of this week - I hadn't converted all the layers into symbols before animating. It has probably no major effect on the outcome of the game - but it is very practical for me while working on this project, to have it all organized as symbols.

We also got the third case, and we will now start programming. Which means that I have to read a lot about codes to be able to understand what Thursday's lesson will be about.

So along with reading and learning about codes, I will also try to fix my mistakes (it shouldn't be too difficult, since our groupleader taught me how to fix it).

2nd Case

Everything has suddenly started to become very advanced, and this week we shall have enabled the character to move towards left and right, have a resting position and start a jump.

Luckily, on thursday we had a lesson about these different moves, and surprisingly I have managed to make my character move and make a jump. It was'nt too difficult once I got the hang of it.

But it takes time since every layer has to be moved on its own, and I have to make shure that they all follow each other, instead of going different directions.

This week we also have to focus on some keywords like key frames, timeline, symbols and tweening.

Character

This is the main character of my game - a milkmaid, and this is how she looked like the first week. There will probably be many changes during the next cases, due to animationproblems.

Her purpose in the game is to collect buckets of milk, and try not to loose them - if she does, she will loose points and when she has lost three buckets it is game over.

First Case

This first week we gathered in a group, and tried to solve some of the obvious problems in the case. But this case was quite easy without many problems. The biggest problem was understanding Flash.



Earlier I have worked in Photoshop, so luckily I new some of the function and were able to draw my character. The inspiration for my game came from this summers vacation on a farm, and I new quite quickly what my game would be. To make a "long" plot short: it will be about a girl trying to collect buckets of milk.

A part of this task is to create a blog and write about every case. Blogging is also new to me, so this week has been about trying to understand and cope with all the technical terms.

I am looking forward to see how this will develop during the weeks till Christmas.