The Tales of TakeDown

STEM Thinking 7

2010-05-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

I think that America should regain its position as leader of the world, but it is highly unlikely because most people don't really pay attention that much anymore. Also, because of how our economy is compared to the economy of others, it is unlikely that we would ever be able to gain our position as leader back.

STEM Thinking (My STEM Games)

2010-05-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

For the STEM competition we're in, I have to do a blog about a STEM-related discovery or invention I would like to support or make in my lifetime. The discovery I would like to support is the discovery of a cure for cancer. The reason I support this cure is because I have had family that has died from cancer, and because my dad just recently had surgery looking possible cancer in him. If a cure for cancer was found, then many peoples' lives would be saved each year.

STEM Careers

2010-05-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about my career for quite some time now, and I am still unsure. This class has made me think about it more than I was before though. Right now, the career I have been considering the most is being a pharmacist, although I am still uncertain. Being a pharamacist would tie into the STEM topics of math and science.

Engagement through STEM

2010-04-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

This STEM blog assignment is to tell how Globaloria has cause me to become more engaged in our classes. Form me, this is hard because it hasn't really caused me to be engaged my in any of my classes. I have looked at other peoples games and have saw how it could engage students in their classes, but from how our game is about social issues, it won't really engage us. Another reason Globaloria doesn't help get me engaged is that I just don't think that I could be engaged very much more. I always get A's in all of my classes, and even in classes I don't like that much, I still do well. I am in Algebra II earlier than 10th grades should be, and I also do well in the other STEM related subjects. Although Globaloria doesn't help me much, I can understand how it could help other people.

Careers In Technology

2010-04-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

I can think of only a few careers in technology that I might pursue. The one that really stands out to me is being a game developer. I am inspired to become one by The SmackDown vs Raw game series. The game series started in 2000 when the game, WWF SmackDown1 was released under the production of THQ and Yuke's Future Media. Since then, ten more games have been released under the production of the same people, and one more is currently under production. The success of the game, and the producers of the game is what gives me the idea to make games that could potentially rival their games. This class and that job are related because the job would require people to know how to create basic games themselves.

Important Inventions

2010-04-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

I am going to do the second STEM blog now. I am supposed to talk about what I think the three greatest inventions or discoveries of all time are. The invention that has the biggest effect on my life is the invention of the Internet. The Internet allows us to talk to people on the other side of the world, or just down the rode. The Internet also makes finding needed information easy. Another important invention that most people overlook is indoor plumbing. The reason that most people over look it is because it was invented by the Romans over two thousand years ago. before then, people would put their waste into a bucket and just dump it into the streets. If there was no plumbing, people would still do that and there would be waste everywhere u looked. For me, television is one of the greatest inventions to date. It provides much entertainment and another may to receive important information. These three inventions that I have mentioned makes life easier for all, and without them, I don't know what I would do.

The Hardest Concept of Our Game

2010-04-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

OK, well the class is supposed to do some blogs for the STEM Games Contest, so here is mine. What were supposed to write about is the hardest concept of our game. The hardest concept for people to understand is that gambling is only a problem if you are addicted and unable to quit. Once one is addicted, quitting is almost impossible for them to do by themselves.

Character Effects

2010-03-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

We finished our final game development topic, the character effects for our game. Character effects changed the properties of an object. The character effects we made changes the color of an object as you scroll over buttons.

Here is the link to our file:

Timer

2010-03-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

We finished the timer the other day. We were so late getting it finished that i couldn't do the blog. We set the timer up so that it counts down from ten seconds to zero, and then begins counting how long it has been since it reached zero. This is shown as a negative time.

Here is our timer:

Score Keeping

2010-03-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

We just completed the development topic, score keeping. This topic involved changing the variables in the games Fly Catcher and Go Rabbit, Go! We also created a simple game that involves pushing a button to raise and lower your score.

Here is our score keeper file made:

The green button raises your score by 100 and the red button lowers your score by 75.

Adding Sound

2010-03-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

For the past few days,JDLee and I have been trying to add sound to our game and today, we finally succeeded. We used a volume slider to control the loudness of the volume and made play and stop buttons that actually makes he music stop when you want it to.

Here is our volume slider:

And here is the link to the video tutorial that we used to make our slider.
http://sclipo.com/videos/view/volume-control-sound-slider-in-flash-flash-tutorial

Preloader

2010-03-09T09:42:00.001-08:00

We started the preloader section of our game on the Monday of this week. At first, we could not figure out how to make the preloader work right, but Mrs. Halsey showed us a link that she posted a while back that lead to a preloader tutorial. We then had trouble uploading it to the wiki. JDLee asked Meredith what she thought it could be, and she just said that if we had to, we could fake the preloaders using animation.
Here is our preloader:

(The file attached messed up because it loads instantly. Right-click and push play to see the preloader for a second.)
Here is the link to the tutorials:
Part 1:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/dorklessons/videos/12/
Part 2:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/dorklessons/videos/13/

Learning From Others

2010-03-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Awhile back, we did the Learning from Others section on the wiki. We learned about using movie clips, scenes, or codes from others games to help our own. This can be helpful by reducing the time needed to create your own movie clips, scenes, or code.
A friend showed me this webstie with a few tutorials:
http://www.entheosweb.com/Flash/default.asp

Programming Practices

2010-02-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

This topic helped me understand a little more about action script. I have already had much experience with with action script, but this helpede me go more into detail. This topic will most likely help me in adding more action script to our game. Here is a like i found that might help me a little, and might help you also. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/as_bestpractices_04.html

Intro to ActionScript

2010-02-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

On the last Monday we had school, we went over the Intro to ActionScript development topic. We tried to watch a video, but the words did not match the movement on the video. The scuba diving game did not work right for me. I liked making the Fly Catcher game easier. I increased the brab length to where is I even pressed the space bar, I caught all the flys. The last thing we did was find a link to another help website, but it turned out to be a link to five different other websites.

Development Plan

2010-02-19T09:29:00.000-08:00

On the second of Feb., we went over the development plan for the game my group is making. As a class, we went over parts of our game an talked about how me could improve it. One thing I know we need to fix is our about screen. We need to include more facts about gambling and make it more clear what the purpose of our game is.

Game Presentation

2010-01-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

This Monday, we gave our practice game presentation. I feel we did well. We were well prepared and collaborated together. One place we needed to work on is explaining how we made our game. The main reason we didn't explain how we made the game very much was because we hadn't seen the grading sheet and didnt know we had to talk about it. I think The Epic Failz has the best looking game so far.

My Dream Job

2010-01-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

My dream job is to be a pharmacist. To be a pharmacist, I will need an undergraduate program based around biological chemistry and physical science. I will also need to earn a Pharm.D. or a Master of Pharmaceutical Science degree. This class has helped me with typing and record keeping, which will be needed in the job of a pharmacist.

2009-12-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest things to do in this step was to add motion guides to the game. Assembling the game was harder than I actually expected, but looked good once we had it done. One thing we knew we'd have to do from the start was mask each game screen on one profile, which made it easier when we started assembling the game. One other question I must answer is "if you had money, influence and power, what would you do to make an impact for the better?" If I had all this, I would improve the world by helping to raise money for charities that help people effected by natural disasters

Adding Interaction

2009-12-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

So far, i like working in class, I like the challenges of finding out ways to make our game to work the way we plan. Right now, we are trying to figure out how to randomly show a fram by clicking on a button. We are also wanting to know how to start a guided motion sceen by clicking a button with actiopn script. We have many plans, and we are going to have to do a lot of lookin to find what we need.

Adding Animation

2009-12-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

I am doing this blog late because I didnt even know we were suposed to do it, but here we go. Out of all the games I've played, the animation I found the best was the animation from SmackDown! vs. Raw 2010. Each wrestler looks just like they do in real life. Here is a link to a picture for the game.
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/103/1035969/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2010-20091016011501704.jpg

Adding Sound

2009-12-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

In class these last two days, we learned how to add sound to our games. Sound can add a mood to a game and help the player enjoy it more. When playing Conflict: Desert Storm, The music playing from area to area helps warn me if I'm coming up on something dangerous. Our game has a lot of potential in the soound area, but unfortunatly, I'm not getting much information out of the blogs I follow.

My Favorite Part of Class

2009-11-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

My favorite thing we have done so far has been adding navigation in flash. I like watching things that I drew move around the screen. The thing I liked the least was drawing out each screen on paper. I'm not that good of a drawer and don't like drawing much either. I like how we're being graded. We aren't being graded as much by our quality of work as by the amount of work and participation we do. If I could change the class in any way, I would probably only make the internet cooperate more. I tell all my friends about this class and tell them that they should try and join it next year. The main reason I do this is because I like the class and think that they would to. To view some of our teams drawings, go to
http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/lhswiki/index.php/Team:Elite_Shuffle

Adding Navigation

2009-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

We have been practicing using the four types of navigation in flash. The four types are fram-by-fram, guided motion, shape tweening, and motion tweening. Figuring out how to do guided motion was the hardest to do, but once I figured out the process, became the easiest one for multiple objects. I'd have to say that fram-by-fram is the longest and hardest. Guided motion is the type of motion that we plan to use the most when we make our game.

Drawing in Flash

2009-10-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

We have been drawing the background to our game pages in flash, this has be hard. The line tool has been one of my best friends while making the game pages. We've gotten far, we only have about 3 or 4 pages left to do, that means that we've compleated about 8 pages. Soon, we will start adding characters. When we get finished with that, It will be time to start adding buttons aon motion. We've been hard at work, and I am pleased with what we have acomplished so far. I'll keep you updated.

Technology can be a pain

2009-10-28T09:45:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, technology can be a serious pain, like when I first started getting an MP3 player. The first one I had just randomly stopped working after having it for 10 days. My second one that I got was a trade in for the first one. After having it for a three days, I accidentally got a little bit of water on the screen and it somehow seeped in and the screen no longer worked. About three months I finally got a new MP3. It was great, I had it for eleven months without anything wrong, but I got the memory full, so i decided to buy a SD card for it, when i did this, it deleted all my songs and ruined my MP3. Because I had it under warranty, I was able to take it back to the store, thy sent it to the companies workshop, and when they couldn't fix it, gave me all the money back. I curently have an iPod and have had it for almost a full year. So far, it has been just perfect for me, I would hate it if something caused my iPod to tear up.

Planing Your Game

2009-10-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

In my team, I got the roles of content expert/client, project manager, instructional designer, interaction designer, programmer, and visual designer. I am good at these jobs because I am willing to search for information I need, will do my best to get a job done fast and correctly, and have an idea. We have some disagreements about who is team leader, but we all take charger when we need to. I can't wait till we start actually make our game. I hope that with this game, we can show some of the problems that gambling causes, and that it can ruin a persons life.

Paper Prototyping: The Gamble of a Lifetime

2009-10-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

We finally got our paper prototype made. At first, we had a hard time choosing who would be the speaker for our group, we decided that since Honaker came up with the idea, he should be the speaker. I was the one flipping each new page over, and Brock held the camera.

The name of our game is "The Gamble of a Lifetime". I think we have one of the hardest games to make. I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the work of our game.

Mountaintop Removal Blogs

2009-10-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

I chose Mountaintop removal as my game idea that I'd like to do. I had to look for three blogs that talked about my Idea. This was hard because not many people posts blogs that talk about mountaintop removal. I finally was able to find three, all of which seemed to raise points that I see everyday in my home town. All of these gave ideas of coal companies and the ideas of the people that live in those areas. With the help of these blogs, I should be able to make my game as informative as posible.

Imagining My Game

2009-09-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

I am excited we are finally starting to make our games. Today we formed our groups and made a one frame flash movie about our game ideas and posted them onto our wiki's. Our game is going to be about the effects of gambling on people and society. I cant wait till we start making the game.

Mini Game

2009-09-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

For the past two days or three, we made a mini game. It was hard to get everything to work. The best part of making the game was when I got to play the final version of my game, it made me proud of the work that i put into it. The worst part of making the game was when the code didn't work right. It still never actually worked right, but the class found out that if you right click on our game, and click rewind, that the carrot would start moving right and the game worked properly. I spend most of my free time playing video games. The kind I play most commonly are action and sports games. I like sports games like Smack Down v.s. Raw 2009 and Madden NFl 09. They allow me to watch my favorite sports when they're not on TV.

Working with Flash

2009-09-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

OK, today we made our own little movie clips if you will. Making them was hard, but also got fun when we figured out what to do. At first, I was lost, but with some help of Ms. Halsey and other students, it became fun. The job was to move an object we made to the side, which was real easy to mess up. All in all, today was a simple day.

Playing to Learn

2009-09-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

OK, today we played games to learn. We had to play games made by MyGLife users and professionals and then choose two to make comments about. For my games I chose Jimmy vs The Splurge and Climate Change.

Jimmy vs The Splurge was made to promote healthy eating. The game uses comical images to show bad habits and unhealthy foods. The designer had a great idea and got his point across very well to me. The quality is very good for someone that had no prior experience and the instructions were easy to understand. The only way I could think to make the game better would be to add more levels to it. I would like to be able to create a character that moves with the mouse and acts at the click of the mouse just as expressed in this game. If you would like to play this game, click the following link.

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/resources/en/play/Social/jimmy

Climate Change was made to show players what could be done to help the Earth's climate. The player learns what

could be done to help the Earth by making decisions for Europe. The designer had an excellent idea and was able

to get it across effectively. The quality was good compared to other games I found. the designer was able to teach

me how to play very well. The only way I think this game could have been better is if you had a choice for what

country you took control of. I would like to be able to offer different playable characters as this game does. I

would also like to be able to offer different choices of which to do, as this game uses very much. If you would like

to play this game, click the following link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/

Ladies and Gentelmen, Start Your Engines!!!

2009-09-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm three weeks into class and were finally starting with our blogs. So far, everything has been slow and steady. We created our Gmail accounts first, and then after doing that, requested our Wiki accounts, and set them up the way we wanted, taking a week to do all of this.

When deciding that we had enough time to work on our Wiki's, we took a break and created our Blogger accounts. This is my first post, and I'm amazed how much I have done in just these three weeks.They have seemed to fly by, and there is still a lot to do. We will be breaking up into our teams soon and I am hoping that my friends and I can work together to come up with some great game ideas.

I'm sorry, I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Aaron, and I am one of the people that are taking part in the Globaloria project. I have lived in West Virginia all my life, from being born in Huntington, West Virginia, to moving to Clear Creek, West Virginia when I was five.