Puzzling Math

Well, its near the end of the semester.  Sorry I haven't posted anything sooner.  This semester has been extremely hard!  Chemistry, Statistics, Linux, Biology, and Flash.  So I haven't kept up on alot of blogging or logging. But I will add some posts now.  I got my game pretty much finished except for an ending scene and some sound.  I will work on Friday most likely.  Looking forward to seeing what everybody has done.  I think my game is rather simple in programming design, but I think it introduces some good concepts.

Two week update.

I am still in the process of familiarizing myself with some of the flash tutorials, still trying to generate ideas to incorporate into my game.  I would like to include some of my ideas of video but I have such a big load course load for the fall semester.  Chemistry, Biology, Statistics, Linux, and this class. It will be a challenge but I know I will pull it off and have a very successful game.   If time permits, A BIG IF, I will try and incorporate better looking characters for my math game.

First Day of Class - Wikipedia II

Well, I refreshed my memory on the globaloria project and the social wiki site.  Updated my timeline and will continue to still work on it, most likely on a weekly basis.  I would like to have all my characters and scenes drawn by the end of september.  Have all my programming done by October, November will be used for debugging of hardware.

Last Day of Class

Wasn't instructed to blog, but I am anyways.  I enjoyed everyone's presentation.   I enjoy seeing how everybody's mind works and what makes them tick.  Everyone, had a great concept, I think some were more programmed than others.  That is to be expected, its hard to learn flash in 8 days.  I think the class should begin by using the "skeleton" design and adding functionality from there, it would be better for the students this way.  Everyone, have a safe and happy summer.  I'll be my cheery self, of course, in the fall.

Second to last Day of Class.

I am going to change the screen size for the fall semester.  I am also going to make sure my library materials are better organized.  They tend to get out of organization very quickly.  My layer organization went very well.  Unfortunately, I am having no luck of uploading my final project to the Globaloria Wikipedia page.   Well, Torie knows I did the work and I can always present the game off of my flash drive.

I will incorporate more ideas to the game this fall, I am planning on having video presentations of math concepts, trivia, and tricks and tips from a math instructor that would be great for educational instruction.  I will be working on this throughout the summer to hopefully have an head start for the fall semester.

Towards the End of the Class

Well, I pretty much got my flash project done for a game demo.  At least all that I am going to do for right now.  Having a year of flash experience helped alot in this class.  Making the game demo went very well.  However, I think it would be beneficial to start the class making the game intro screen and continue with rest of project.  I think for students this doing flash in four weeks is a little too much too quickly.  I do need to finish timer event and I do have a problem making my enemy characters stop inside the button function.  I will probably work on this over the summer and obviously into the fall semester.  I think I have the hit test movement down and I will make my game play screen bigger in the fall semester to make the game more playable.  550 by 400 is not a big enough screen to use.  I will work on making pendulum move and my clock hand to move within the timer function.  In another note, final exam for math 100 on thursday.  Wish me luck.  Then off to Math 126 June 13th.  No rest for the wicked this summer.

Learned facts from designing game.

One item that I have learned about this project is how challenging math is for the students.  I've come to learn this through various news articles stating how deficient math is in America.  I gained most of this information through internet access of various stories.  I used various informational sources such as Wikipedia, USA Today, Math websites, library research such as the NexusLuxus and other online research sites. and student journals.  These websites are sources are trustworthy and informative because they are peer reviewed by "experts" in their related field.   I really enjoyed drawing the primary scene of my main scene.  It was a lot of fun, hope you look at my page and enjoy what you have seen.

My Video Blog About My game.

Graphics for Game

This is a shot from one of my favorite games called "Red Dead Redemption". Its not really a learning game but the artistry is just stunning!  I want my game to function correctly but from what I have noticed in a lot of these educational games is that they don't look artistically inspiring.  The main thing I would like to incorporate into the game from this photo is basically the realism of the background scene.  This should draw the player's attention immediately into wanting to play the game.  I want the game to look like a real world setting so the player can feel like he is immersed into an actual classroom environment. One game that I did play and like was a game called "Youre Toast".  It was really easy to play.  It kept a  basic score and the player uses the "w", "s","d", and "spacebar" to move your piece of toast around so that you don't get eaten by the monster chasing after you.  The player can also create bonus items for points. The user interface for this game was easy to use and the instructions were easy to follow and read.  I think it will be important to have your game's instructions concise and easy to follow.  If not, then the players and their review of the game will be off to a bad start.

John's Game Idea.

Who are you designing your game for? (Include the player's age, abilities, and prior knowledge of your topic.)
I am designing this game for students that have basic math skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  The age range for this game will be from age 8 through 12.  Students in this age group should be able to have basic understanding on how to read instructions, interact with a puzzle game, and be able to avoid hit-test objects since students of this age group play several video games of this dynamic.

What will your game teach the player about your topic?
This game will teach students how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using the correct symbols for the problems.  This game should reinforce ideas already learned during basic math classes.

Where does your game happen?

• Describe the world you will design for your game.

               The game will happen in a class room building using a blackboard where the student must select the correct symbol in order to get the question right.  I will use chalk board as the main focal point.  I will have the hit objects fly into the classroom board where the students must avoid while trying to get the correct symbol to the spot.  I think these symbols might include pi, sin, cosine, and other "evil" symbols signifying harder math to come later in the students studies.

• How will this setting add to the learning experience?

                  The learning experience should become apparent because the learning environment takes place in a classroom setting.  The students will fill like they are in school while playing the game.  So this setting will give the student "mindset" that they are suppose to be learning.

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

• The game world of a classroom signify a learning environment.  I think a classroom will have a good effect on learning about mathematics because so much of learning math is done on a chalkboard.  The students being able to interact with the chalkboard will simulate what they would learn in classroom math class.
• The player answering the correct question will be prompted to the next screen where they will have to answer a harder question.  At the end of the game, stats will be posted on correct answers. Incorrect answers will have areas on where the student must study to improve their math competency.

Why is a game a better way of understanding your topic than a quiz?

The game is a better way of understanding your topic than a quiz because a quiz is boring, not much interactivity.  In a game, the student is more involved in a game which can facilitate the learning experience.  This will make the learning experience more fun.

MiniGame

Considering I had a couple semesters of flash, I had a little bit a trouble getting the project to work correctly.  But, as usual, I was able to get it to work.  I think what threw me off was that we are using actionscript 2.0 instead of 3.0.  I got a little use to having the computer install my own brackets for me.   The project was fun and glad I was able to get it done.  The context of the code is very simple and being able to manipulate the pizza to do what it should have been easy for beginners to do after experiencing the tutorial .  :()  This post combines Thursday's work and Friday's work

Game Genre's

I think I am most interested in the puzzle genre because that one would most reflect players using math to solve and logic.  I think the game should require quick response since this is developmental math for K-12 students.
The game i like most that did use the puzzle genre was "Punctuation Dawn".  I thought it was a neat way to learn the various elements of the english language.  Actually, it was a good refresher course on sentence structure.  I loved the turrets in the game that defeated the "invading horde".
I did not like the game FRETS.  I have no idea what educational value it represents.  It looks like a dulled up version of Guitar Hero that is impossible to play and the graphics are too simple, even for a novice at computers.  The directions leave a lot to be desired.
This post was supposed to happen yesterday but I had some technical difficulties as usual.(My brain doesn't function well sometimes!)  Tell me what you thought about those games if you played them, would love to hear your comments and bounce ideas back and fourth to each other.

Introduction to the class!

Hi my name is John Fox and I have been a student here since January of 2010.  I was a manager in Automotive Retail before I decided to go back to college.  I enjoyed the business but I went as far as an high school education would take me. I currently have a 3.95 GPA and I have thoroughly enjoyed my studies at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. I have decided to do a Math game.  Every time I am in a math class, all I hear is "how is this skill going to benefit me in the future?"  I want to create a game which will use math principles in a real world setting.  I was thinking of designing a game where you have to figure out how much of "x" you can by with "x" amount of dollars.  I was also thinking of designing a game where the player has to solve a puzzle to get the right answer by using the correct symbol variable for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I did create a flash game last semester that I called "Cannonade".  Please feel free to view and play on my social space page.  For a first attempt at Flash Programming, I thought I did a pretty good job.  Teacher thought so too, got an A.  If anybody needs any help, I do have a flash book for reference we can look at and I am more than happy to help with other students when I can. I have several links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_games  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Challenge , http://www.math.com/students/references.html to  help me with my research. If anybody else is doing a math game, I would like to talk to you so we can bounce ideas  off each.  Thanks!

Internet Security

Internet security is very important.  The reason being is that their are so many people that can gain access to your personal information that it can use it against you.  Some of these things are identity theft which can leave a person bankrupt with people charging to your personal accounts without you knowing it.  Also, be very careful with facebook when you are going out of town, I would suggest not posting that your going on vacation or going to be out of town for a few days.  I'm sure hackers could pinpoint your location or if you put your personal address in your info page of your facebook, people could rob your house.  You might as well leave a big sign in your front yard stating "Please Rob Me" and oh by the way, the doors are unlocked.

It is also very important to make sure your home internet router is secured. It would be ill-advised to have people have access to your internet through use of your personal network.  Make sure your internet connection  icon in the lower right hand corner(pc) says that the network is secured.

Tuesday at the Wiki Class

Well, doing much better today. I somehow managed to arrive on time for once!  Its cool starting to learn how to interact with the wiki interface.  I tried adding my flash game I made last semester to the website but I am having a hard time getting it to work.    I will try and some of my other projects I have made in the past semester to the wiki and possibly here on the blog as well.  I have included everybody to my blog and looking forward to comments about it.  It should be fun to have my peers critique my work.  By the way, its never fun coming to class in a jeep when its raining outside, when the top and doors are off!

First Day of Class

Well, after a little mishap this morning by arriving late to the first day of class.  I think I have finally caught up to the rest of the students.  I am really looking forward to this class and all that offers.   Its always important to expand your horizons and learn new things.  I am really looking forward to working within teams and creating new games and avenues of learning.  Should be lots of fun.  It better be, I gave up my month off to do this class.  Well, not exactly, still working on a Math class as well which I have been procrastinating on.  Its good to be back in college learning.  What a full classroom, Im surprised.  I guess everybody likes to learn.