Game Design Cont:

So Back to the design this will probably be my last post now until January as its Crimbo in a couple days time :-).

As you can see from my previous posts I have designed a few elements for my game, I decided to continue with the design phase before really moving onto anything else, so the next step in the design phase was the backgrounds, I thought of creating a few moving backgrounds for which they was a few tutorials on line but decided not to go with them as the Aliens in my game will be going backwards and forward and therefore not really moving off screen.

So as you can see in the images below I decided to create static background scenes:

Start Screen

Night Scene

Afternoon Scene

Morning Scene

Game Design

Well after starting to create the game I actually thought the game looked a bit dull, so I decided I should create all the elements of the Game such as the Tank aliens and the bombs.

So here are the finished elements of the game, please note that all of them have different scenes within them selves to create animations but I decided to only put a few up as it would just take for ever to upload all the images of the individual elements.

Tank

Tank - Eploded

Sheild - Full

Sheild - After one hit

Play Again Button

Play Again Button - On Mouse Over

Alien - 1

Alien - 2

Alien - 3

Level Up Button

Level Up Button - On Mouse Hover

Stonehouse Projection Idea

Well today didn't really have much to do so decided to create a little animation of what the project might look like, I have kept to the idea of sound waves eating away the built up grime and came up with a first version animation that I made in Flash just so I could get a feel of what it might look like. Obviously the final result should look a lot better and a lot neater but for now I feel this gives a good example.

Please not the animation will load, it just takes a while as its a big file 2.5mb.

Chinese Numbers

Hi I finally finished my Chinese numbers assignment for Mark Dixon, I decided to get it done earlier than needed just so I could have a nice and relaxing Christmas oh and to also concentrate more on the Flash Game as I enjoy actions script more than JavaScript.

Game Continued

Well I had an interesting day in Chris's lessons and thought I would continue a bit more with my Game and decided to put a start screen in the game so the user can press a start button that then takes him to the game.

Here it is:

Game Continued

Well after some more time spent on the Flash game project I have now managed to get a missile going up the screen and the alien going across the screen. I now just need to figure out how to complete the collisions and then the scoring bit hopefully get this project done earlier than later so get more time to do some other things in Flash.

Measurement

Today me and Kathleen decided to go down to Stonehouse and get some measurements for our projection, the measurements we got were Width: 289cm x Height 153cm (both sides) and middle x 183cm. So as you can probably tell the window we will be projecting into will be an arch window. I have attached a diagram to show this.

Window:

Start of game

Hello all, I thought for a change I will get ahead of the game and start to create the Flash game for Chris's module IDAT-102. I have decided to create a kind of space invaders game as its an all time favorite but I may put a different twist to it to make it a bit more unique. I started to do the design of it and then created all the objects that will be needed for the game and saved them as movie clips so I can do more with the objects, the next steps are getting the things to move with the user interactions and here is a demo of where I am up to so far.

The Game:

Copyrights Approved

Good news for us, our photos have been approved for us to publish them on our blog so here are the pictures hopefully they are of some use, I feel that with this information and maybe a trip to the library for hopefully some more photos we should be able to represent what it looked like at the time and also what me and Kathleen thought was to add a twist to the projection by maybe adding a scene out of the Cinderella pantomime as this was the first ever showing at the Grand Theatre .on the 26th December 1869 at 6pm.




Courtesy of Plymouth and West Devon records Office: 828/9 - Sale Particulars,828/8/2 - Page 99 of Lease Holdings, 828/8/2 - Page 104 of Lease Holdings, 1395/17 - Floor plans, 1395/18 - Floor plans, 1358/1 - Handbill for "The Eternal City", PCC/60/1/294 - Blue prints, 114/48/41 - Application for registration, 2887/22 - Photographs of interior Grand Theatre, 114/216 - Incident reports

Hand Tattoo

For the second assignment for IDAT-107 we were asked to create a new composition of our hand by inserting some biographical facts and then displaying this text at either 30 or 45 degree angles. so I decided to do my image of a dead hand to represent my love for horror movies and inserted text at 30 degree angles apart from my fiancee name wich is at 45 degree angles.

hope you enjoy my picture:

Flash...Saviour of the Universe :-)

Well OK as you can probably tell this is one of my first posts on Flash and no not Flash Gordon sorry Chris. So what did I do today... I did some Actionscript 3.0 didn't find it to hard just having to remember what goes where and how so back out with some of the older books and the tutorials. We have been asked to create a game for our next assignment so I thought why not go with an old school favourite... yes you guessed Space Invaders but I might put a little twist into it :-) so watch this space.

Collecting Data

I feel today has been a very productive day for our project. Me and Kathleen decided that for us to fully achieve what we want to do as our projection we needed to know what the building was built for and also if possible what the building inside looked like before it was ruined and after deciding we needed more info we then booked a place for us to go down to the Plymouth and West Devon archives building and find some more information out. After spending a few hours in there we found a lot information about our little (BIG) building even letter about an army truck damaging some of the building exterior and the army paying a whopping £60 out for the damages. I did take some photos of some of the information we found but we are not allowed to publish them until we get the copyrights for us to do so.

First Group Presentation

Well today was the first group presentation for this module, I didn't really know what was expected of us from the start but after seeing the first group presentation I now have a better understanding and have a few ideas that I think might work then again might not work as well so time to become Mr Motivator and get my ass into gear.

Oh for those of you who cant remember Mr Motivator here he is: Love the moves

What Next

So after getting a not to bad mark what will I be doing next...More studying that's what so out with some more books and hopefully next test I can get even better and prove to everyone I can do it when I put my head to it but for now its films time - hey I need to relax sometime.

How to get there

After having a good think on what we might do, We have decided that one of the main packages we would possibly use would be Adobe Aftereffects this is due to us taking an image of an existing building and then manipulating it to create our desired effects. So start to gt our hands dirty and start learning Aftereffect.

Going Ahead

Well after thinking about the new Idea me and Kathleen have decided to go ahead with the new Idea for our projection. So just to recap the Idea for the projection that we are going to do is the one where we take information such as traffic sound levels and surrounding pub sound levels and then project this back into the Grand Theatre (Opposite Aldi) as sound waves eating away at the built up grime and then revealing the way the Grand Theatre looked like (to certain extent) and in a way bringing life back into something that is run down and disused. so the next step is to find out what it might of looked like.

Possible new Idea

Just been having a think about the old Idea and to be honest I feel it may be a bit childish. So after listening to some more of Shaun's discussions I have come up with the idea of using both mine and Kathleen's ideas of using sound from both the pubs and traffic and then illustrating this as sound waves eating into a building and over a short period of time chipping away the out building skin and showing something new still building on the projecting life into a derelict building.

Just a bit more on this after discussing it with Kathleen we have decided to use the traffic noise and use the ambiance of the surrounding pubs and the Idea is to illustrate my traffic sounds chipping away the past whilst Kathleen's ambiance data is been inserted into the derelict building and we feel this would be achieved by both been run at the same time and the finished product should show a vibrant new interior of a derelict building.

Digital Signature Results

Well got my results for the digital signature, I wasn't to pleased with it as I have only got 50 out of 100 not to good but suppose I should reflect on what I have produced and maybe I should of taken the elements parts out of the digital signature. But I suppose i should look on the bright side of it in that I only had 2 weeks to do it in as I started the unit late so if I had as long as the rest maybe I might of got a better result.

Test Results

Just got my results for the programming test, I didn't do to bad would of been happier if I had more time to prepare but I suppose coming from a programming background (C, Java, VB) it wasn't to hard just couldn't remember the syntax of some of the coding also a bit weird writing it out on paper would of been better on computer.

Results:

Presentation - not so good

Today was our groups presentation for Joassia, I thought it went pretty bad considering we had an extra week to prepare for it. Today I couldn't get thinking what I was going to say but then again that's no excuse but all I can do is improve for the next presentation and hopefully get a bit more confidence in doing them.

Presentation

Just got an email through stating that we have got a presentation to do over the following weeks (mines in 3 weeks time 15-12-2009). The presentation is to be based on the PechaKucha Night,
presentations. We have to contextualise our blogs for the presentation and show it in 20 images that last for 20 seconds (if I'm understanding it correctly) so should be good fun maybe do some on psycho cat.

Bad Location - Maybe

After actually going down and starting to take some more notes on the Grand Theatre we have again decided that this is not the correct location as previously mentioned the main road restricts our possibilities of projecting the image across the road (unless we can get a road closure all in the name of education:-)). We are again back to the drawing board for finding a location but least now it will be a bit easier as we know roughly what we want to project.

Website Evolution

Hello all, I think my website was OK, wish I had more time to do more on it but then again if it was perfect to start with I wouldn't have anything else to build on so this is where the fun starts and the trial and errors. I still want to flow with the web 2.0 styling but maybe add a bit of old school styling into it, well if you keep a watch on my website It will hopefully start becoming more like what I visualised... That's me over and done with for know so keep a watch out for my new ideas.

Moans

Just some moans about validation. Firstly I liked how in FireFox I could create some rounded corners in CSS but the validator wouldn't pass it so had to take it out (maybe I will learn the old way of using images), Secondly I liked the Opacity features but again the validator wouldn't validate the CSS file as 2.1 but it did pass the CSS 3 validation but as I wasn't sure if we were been tested for 2.1 or 3 I chose to take the code out maybe I should of just commented it out but hey never mind.

Dooms day

Well today is hand in day, I am hoping that Chris wont slate my site to much as it still is not finished as I will be continuing to build on it but for now it will do for the assignment.

Location Continued

After been in Shaun's lesson today I feel the location we have decided on may not be too good as we are restricted to having a big white transit to haul around the equipment (in need of some Sherpas) we will have to go down at a given time and see what the location is like then we can decide whether or not to continue with our location.

Manifesto of a Psycho Cat

I couldn't really decide on what to do my manifesto on, so what I decided was to do a manifesto on our stray cat friend that wanders through our back door and reeks havoc through out the house and especially on our house mate Scatt aka Scott. Well hope you enjoy the Psycho Cat Manifesto.

Psycho Cat Manifesto

1. All Cats no matter how tamed or wild will be considered to be a psycho
2. All psycho cats will live their lives with one goal in mind, to terrorise the human race
3. All psycho cats will wreak havoc throughout the neighbourhood and taunt humans with acts of aggression
4. All psycho will not be held responsible for their aggressive nature
5. All psycho cats will live their lives in hope that one day all slaves will cease to exist and in doing so this planet will be left for the true rulers - The Psycho Cats
6. All psycho cats will at least once a day shit in their slaves house
7. All psycho cats will shred up slaves and slaves friends carpets
8. All psycho cats will exact revenge upon those who do not feed them
9. All psycho cats will continue to disrupt their slaves lives at least once a week
10. All cats that uphold the 9 previous rules will go to catty heaven and have their feast of seven virgin pussies

Psycho Cat

Projection Idea

We have decided to run with the idea of combining two elements together i.e. the flow of traffic and sound it produces and the flow of people and the ambiance a pub generates.
So the next thing on the list is deciding what to project, We have come up with the idea of creating a sort of disco that can be projected into a derelict building (we have an idea of what building but not sure if it will be possible).

The part that I will be concentrating on will be obviously converting the data I have collected and then representing this in a visual way, I have decided to use something like beat bars (bars that rise and fall depending on Decibels) to represent the sound levels and maybe (not fully decided yet) illustrate the flow of traffic by using images (stick men) obvisouly the more the cars at a given time the more the people.

The part that Kathleen will be concentrating on will be the noise levels surrounding the pubs, and this will be projected as the flashing lights (for the disco) and also the number of people in a pub will possibly be represented using stick women, This can be illustrated in the image bellow.

Stonehouse Disco:

Deadline upon us

Tick Tock Tick Tock that the sound of my bloody clock, still on with the site... still changing little things here and there but then decide it just doesn't look how I want it to look so go back to the old design. I think now that the dead line is coming up quickly I just have to finished what I have and then build on it when I have some free time.

My PDP

So you might be looking at this post and thinking what the hell is a PDP well its my Personal Development Plan. I havnt really gone to far ahead as I feal that if you plan to far ahead it can cloud what you need to do to get there. Well here is my PDP.

Validation of sites

Just checked my Validation for my XHTML and CSS both passed so pleased with that just finish tarting up the site a bit more and then validate again.

The site...

Hi again, well hopefully today we (our group) will decide where we want to project our finished project, we did have a walk around Stonehouse last week and can prove that with the soggy clothes, we saw three sites that looked promising but still couldn't decide which one to go with so today before lesson is decision time and then I believe as Shaun stated last week we will be going to our sites and taking measurements so we can get the images exactly the right sizes for what we need to do... ooh getting exciting now.

Javascript validation

Hi, in our website we have been asked to add some validation to a form so I have been looking in to this and have managed to get the validation for the email address working (thanks to Microsoft and their email string validation), the string is fairly complex when you first look at it but when you break it down its not to hard to decipher it. I have attached a link to the info as I think it is a good bit of resource.

Email String explanation:

Presentation

Hello and welcome to my second installment for this module. Today was suppose to be our groups presentation but unfortunately Joasia was not in today, so this means that we will probably have to do it next week I suppose in one sense it gives us more time to do so more stuff for it but then again if we did it today we would of had it over and done with. I suppose we should look at this with a chance to make things a bit better.

CSS Coding

Well what can I say about CSS... Only that's its bloody complicated at times but after a few hours of trial and error I got my website to look a little bit like I imagined it. The CSS was a bit confusing for the body tag in that I had to put body *{margin:0;} and body{margin:0;} to make the whole website move to the top of the page and let the site flow a bit better, the code worked but still not a hundred percent sure what the * is used for (Chris if your reading this and know why the * is needed please leave me a comment to let me know).

Freedom of Information: Manifesto

This is a manifesto for the freedom of information. I chose to do this manifesto in that I think it’s kind of funny how there is a freedom of information act and basically it tells you how you are not allowed information from given sources but I feel that maybe if information was widely distributed and free then there would possibly be a breakthrough in how computer programs are created and even system and maybe we as a human race might evolve and better ourselves.

1. Information Will be Free
All Information will be considered free, No person or Persons will be held responsible for their actions in gaining unlawfully restricted information.

2. Intellectual Property
Information that is created on or after November 30th 2009 will fall under the New Freedom of Information Act 2009 and therefore there will be no cost to be expected from the person or persons within the general public domain that wish to obtain the desired information.

3. Governing bodies
Governing bodies will place down guide lines for individuals or companies to conform to the New Freedom of Information act 2009. Whereas there will be no governing bodies regulating information that is considered to be out of the public view and therefore in breach of the New Freedom Of information Act 2009.

4. No Boundaries
There will be no boundaries that a person or persons will encounter whilst trying to source the information they desire, if any boundaries are encountered then the individual or companies that hold the desired information will be held accountable in a court of law.

5. The Cost
Any individual or companies that do not adhere to these rules will be in breach of the New Freedom of Information Act 2009, in doing so they will also be held accountable in a court of law and will pay a minimum of £100,000 to the person or persons involved.


Well I hope you enjoyed my little manifesto and if you thought it was a bit to deep then maybe you might want to look at my Psycho Cat manifesto under my general tag.

Collecting Data - Ideas

We as a group have been thinking what information we should collect and then deciding how to project that information back into Stonehouse.
We have come up with a few ideas, so we narrowed the ideas down and have chosen one we think is possible.The idea is to collect information on both the flow of traffic i.e. how many cars roughly pass through a given area at a given time also recording the sound levels of the vehicles. the next part is to collect data such as the number people and the ambiance of a few selected pubs. After we have collected this information we are then wanting to illustrate this as a sort of disco (Stonehouse Disco) and projecting this back into a derelict building and in the way bringing life back into something that is dead.

Location Location Location

We have finally decided where to project our ideas, we think the little run down pub called the Grand Theatre on Union street would be good as it has a quaint appearance, that we feel needs bringing back into the 21st century.

The main task is projecting it across the main road so we need to find out what equipment we will be using.

The Grand Theatre:

The Grand Theatre how things are added but nothing of the actual building changes:

Design Image

Forgot to upload the image of my design so here goes, I know not the best looking picture but oh well here it is hopefully you can tell I tried and keep my site similar to my design (I know lack of design).

The joys of creating...

Hello I decided to use what I believe is an elastic layout (I think)... The user can re size his/her screen and the design will stretch a shrink to a certain extent, I have added a restriction to the width when the user re sizes his/her screen so that if the area goes below 800px it will not shrink any more I think this is OK as most people use higher resolution screens that 800px but for those who still have the smaller resolution the site will still be readable (hopefully).

So how did i get to this, well to be honest I kinda done something similar before but now with a little bit more knowledge I think I have managed to create something that flows nicely for the user the only hardest bit about this is actually knowing what you want the finished product to look like so many ideas but I suppose I can always do more to it after the hand in date.

Manifesto Continued:

Hello again - I know been a long time since I've been on here but I have been so busy lately with so many things to do and not enough time in the day. Well I have been giving this some more thought and I have decided to go ahead with my manifesto on Freedom of Information as like the lecturer said its something that would happen in an idyllic world, So off to work I go with a very strong coffee.

Stonehouse - Location

Hi, We as a group have decided to do Union street as our location as we feel this is where most of the ambiance of Stonehouse is collated.

Choice Of Location: