Week:Three
Date:20 April - 24 April
Name:Begum Farah

This week we had a meeting with the rapture gaming company, where we cleared up a lot of misunderstandings and unclear instructions. So now, on top of everything else, we have to worry about getting our own server to run the game on.

Level arts need some revamping. Artists are bit behind. Programmers are doing pretty okay. We need to work a lot faster now. We have 12 weeks, starting from next week to complete the flash game, in order to be able to finish the facebook version.

So, in order to catch up with the artwork, we'll have to put in more hours next week so we won't be behind anymore. I want a proper working prototype for level 1 and 2, with everything except the video in the beginning done. So hopefully by the end of the week, we'll have caught up with all the work.

April 24 2009 WEEK 3

Name: Wee You

We had a meeting with Rapture Gaming this week. Because I am a new member in the team, this is the first time I saw the Rapture Officials, and the first time they saw me. We cleared up misunderstandings and talked about server details.
Also, I had to research more on Actionscript. I learnt about the powerful tool called Event Listeners in actionscript. The level one graphics is out, so I put in the code from the prototype into the game. A problem I had was the collision detection, as there were literally hundreds of “trees” that the player could collide with. A solution me and Wen Yan came out with was to draw rectangles of 0% alpha to act as collision boxes. This way, the player are colliding with the much fewer invisible boxes instead of the hundred of trees. By doing so, memory is saved and hence the program is much more efficient.

April 24 2009 WEEK 3

Name: Peifen

This week we went down to Rapture Gaming. We really prepare a lot of things before meeting them. Including meeting up with chongming to discuss what thing to ask and about server. Also, we prepare the edited GDD with the changes we’ve made. When we went there, the in charge seems quite blur but his colleague help him to explain the server thing to us.
Beside the meeting, I’m still working on my level 8 prototype. Still quite not sure about something and errors keep popping up. Let’s just hope it would be ready soon.

Week: Three
Date: 20 - 24 April
By: Yani

This week we went to Rapture Gaming for a meeting. We will need to have a meeting with them once a month to tell them about our updates.

I have done the ship and the background stuff for the animation to start. I've started to begin animating level 1 and hopefully able to finish it by this week. It takes quite a bit of work than I expected but everything is going well I guess.

Week: Three
Date :20 April - 24 April
Name: Mei Yi

This week we had several meeting for project discussion. School had begun so we had lesser time for doing our major project. But we still had some progress of work.

Finally I have finished level 3 drawings. But now I am still managing the drawings that are required in Yani's animation. So I did several research on Sang Nila Utama's picture. As I am unsure about his appearance. And luckily I found a couple of images in google. I am halfway done with that, next I will move on to level 4 drawing. Hopefully we can finish all the drawings and let the programmers do their job.

Tomorrow we will also be having a meeting with the NHB people. There are certain statement in the contract that we need to sort it out with them.

Week:Two
Date:13 April - 17 April
Name:Begum Farah

Week two was pretty much the same as week one. More artwork done b the artists, mosr programming done by the programmers. We decided that it would be hard on everyone if we set specific times for everyone to be in the lab, since some of us have different timetables. Also, it's really really very exhausting to be so strict about the time, especially since we're doing this in our spare time from class.

So we're working on a weekly milestone. At the beginning of the week, we decide what needs to be done, and at the end of the week we'll put everything together. Also, we'll regularly update each other on our progress throughout the week. This is a better way of working I think, because it's less of a burdeon on everyone, as we also have schoolwork to think of.

Prototypes for level 1 and two are up. With level 5 and level 8 in progress. Animation is still a pain. Why did we opt to add in so much animation in the game? Haha, oh well. It's all for the game is it not?

Week: Two
Date: 13 April - 17 April
Name: Mei Yi


This week, all of us know what are the tasks each of us need to carry out. I have finished level two drawings, so I continued with level three. I also had pass the level two drawings to our programmers to carry out some dummy testing for the codes. Wee You had did something, and it worked.Level three is almost done now.

Level three requires more animation than the previous level. It also requires more scenarios, so it's really tedious. I also met some problems with the animation. I have to try several times before i know how to do it. But i then i get to learn something new again. For the animation, I will need to draw the front view and side view for the character. This is because I need to make it seems like it is walking and moving side way. And when it stop, it will be facing the front view.


This week was a fruitful and tedious one. I bet there will be more work next week as next week will be our the start of our school lessons.

April 17 2009 WEEK 2

Name: Wee You

Today, Meiyi passed me the graphics for Level 2. Because of the design of the game, I had to research on the drag and drop capabilities of Flash. I learnt about startDrag() and stopDrag() from the internet. This has allowed me to create a prototype for Level 2.
Also, we discussed about the design. Meiyi felt that the collision box for the drop target was too small, and will cause frustration to the player. I looked into the code and after tons of hard work, I found out the reason of the problem. It was because I set the drop target collision to be on the lid of the pot instead of the whole pot. I found difficulties trying to use the whole pot as the drop target collision as Flash somehow did not recognize the variable name and instead named it “Instance 23”. Ahh! I used the height and the width to differentiate it instead.
Level 1 is a maze type of game, so I experimented with the function hitTestObject in order to create a very simple maze game. It worked! And so the baby level one is born.

April 17 2009 WEEK 2

Name: Peifen

This week I’m started researching on how to work on level 8. As my levels are the last three levels, I won’t be getting the graphic soon. Hence I went to flashgameu to learn about matching games coding. I learn that beside coding at the timeline, I can also use .as script for coding. Where I could create object class just like programming codes. Also, I learned that we could use code to make the card flip effect. With these things I learnt, I started to create a prototype level 8 with dummy graphic.

Week: Two
Date:13-17 April
Name: Siti Haryani

Begum suggested weekly miledstones so this week I plan to research a lot of animation on flash as I will be doing the 'videos' and if time permits, a little bit of trailer on the game. I'm now doing the 'ship' for Sang Nila Utama. It takes quite a bit of time to get a little bit of details on the ship.

I have been looking at video tutorials online and doing drawings for the animation. It is going well so far. By this week I plan to finish the necessary stuff for level one animation so that I can start animating the next week.

Week: 1
Date: 6 apr - 10 apr
Name: Ling Pei Fen

1) What tasks have I done this week?

This week, i basically finish editing my level design as a lot teacher has reflected that the game is too long. Also, this week we have seniors to come down to teach us action script 3. Lastly, i finish story board

2) What have i learnt this week?

flash scripting

3) Where have i obtained information?

lecturer, seniors, internet

4) What were some difficulties i faced? How did i overcome these?

Although i've programme in C++ before, action script is a bit different as how you type in the code is quite different. I think i just need time to get used to the input of code. but overall, it's ok as it's like C++ except how you type the code. Also, i find it difficult to edit my level design as to me, all the small details are need to boost the gameplay. To solve this, i ask my group members point of view and try to edit it.


5) How have i contributed to my group?

I've contributed to my group this week by giving ideas on how to edit other levels in order to preserve the fun gameplay and not making it too long.

6) How well did my group work?

My group work very well this week especially the artists. They artwork is very good and i am very proud of them. Also the programmers has done well, especially weeyou, who have tried out lvl 1 using dummy artwork.

7) In what ways can the group perform better?

For the time being, i think the group has perform quite well.

Week:One
Date:6 April - 10 April
Name:Begum Farah


So basically, this is the first official week of working on the project. I think we started a bit slow, with everyone still trying to get their bearings and get used to the feel of things.

This week, we worked on finalizing the GDD and working out all the other details like, our roles, expectations, and timeline for our project. One concern we had was if we were being too ambitious with our project, but after some discussion with the programmers, and scrutinizing the game proposal, we decided that it was possible to finsih within our set time.

Yani, Mei Yi and I sat down and had a good discussion about the art in the game. We had to make sure we were all on the same page concept-wise, and at the same time delegate jobs. So, one of the first things I did was to compile an asset list containing every object/character/location/prop that needs to be designed for every level. Yani and Mei Yi helped with this.

The asset list proved to be a very good idea, because it has made it easier for us to just sit down at our PCs and work on our individual tasks. So far, Mei Yi and I have decided to split the job by working on the art of separate levels individually, so I have been working on level 1 while works on level 2. After finishing the design of the maze, I passed it to the programmers to work on adding the codes.

I think level one still needs to be edited though. The original plan was to have the words "SINGAPURA" spelled out in the maze. This wasn't very possible when I was actually designing the maze because of the small resolution size. A possible solution will be to speak to the programmers and see if they can work on making the level side-scrolling, that way I can work with a bigger map and add the word in, as well as make a more satisfactory maze.

Right now, level one is mostly done. What's left will be animating the main character. I'm following tutorials on how to do onion-skinning.

So, at the end of week one, I have completed an asset list, confirmed the contents of the gdd, successfully delegated work amongst the other members, worked on level one, and began learning how to animate my main character.

April 10 2009 WEEK 1

April 10 2009 WEEK 1

Name: Wee You

This is the first week of MP. Wen Yan and I are invited to join Squareroot 25 in a competition known as the Mission Darkstar. In this competition, we are supposed to create a browser game based of Singapore Heritage.

SquareRoot 25 consists of Yani, Peifen , Begum, Meiyi, and now me and Wen Yan. Begum and Meiyi are the artists, Yani is the animist/sound engineer, and the rest are programmers. I got introduced to my groupmates as I have never worked with them before.
Prior to MP, they have designed a game called Back in Time. Our responsibility for the week is to read and understand the game, so that we are ready to create it. We were also introduced to basic actionscript.

Week: One
Date: 6 - 10 April
Name: Siti Haryani

Well, its a holiday and I'm in Major Project Lab working on our major project. What 'joy'!. But it's pretty cool because I get to do it with my fave dudettes and learn new things which is always a plus! Here's what we did this week:

All of us also spent some time learning/refreshing our minds on flash and at the same time I started to play around with FruityLoops 8(also known as FL Studio 8) for the music part(my fave part!!) of the game. The software is pretty cool if you want to make your own original sounds and its pretty easy to pick up. There are also online video tutorials to help aspiring composers. I find it helpful so far. They have it divided for beginners and advanced. Check it out at http://flstudio.image-line.com/. They have a free demo available for download with a lot of features similar to the full version.

Begum and Meiyi have done some drawings of our game levels which I think is going great. The programmers i.e. Peifen, Wee You and Wenyan are getting along well as well. I spent this week doing the storyboard for the animation, researching on facts and the narration script for the game.

That's pretty much what we did. I'm done with the storyboard and researching by now. Next week I'll continue with the narration script as I only manage to do till level 5 this week.

Till then folks!..

First Week

Week:One
Date:6 April - 10 April
Name:Mei Yi

This week is the official week for us to start on our major project which is also a competition for the Mission Darkstar. This project is about Singapore's heritage and culture game. We came up with a lot of creative and innovative ideas for our game. Then we sat down and discussed how our game levels should be like. We also have considered what are the things that could be done and what could not be done with our own ability. We went through a few times of all the levels with all the group members and from there we amended a few elements in the game. We started off with rough sketches and drawings of how our game should be like. And from there, we moved on to Flash. Where we seriously have to draw it out and apply it into the game.

My group consists of 6 people. Three programmers, two artistes and one animator/sound engineer.

Our game have a total of 10 levels accompanied with many little animations in each level. So I started off with the Level 2 drawings while Begum is in charged of the Level 1 drawings. I have little skills of manipulating the tools in Flash as there are more that I do not know. In order to get familiarize with Flash, I went online to search for Flash tutorials. From there, I get to learn some useful and amazing technics of Flash.

Step by step, I slowly drew the scenarios and the props that are needed for Level 2. I also get to learn animation in Flash. Some parts of the level require animation in it and from there I learnt a lot more. So in order to make the animation, I have to draw several pictures for it to animate.It took me almost one week to finish up the whole level. It's pretty tedious but I am glad that I finally had completed the drawings for a level.

While drawing,I have learnt a few important points of using Flash. After learning that, I applied them in Flash and it is really helpful. It helps me to save a lot of time and from there, I could really move on to other drawings more quickly.

For now, i am about to start off with the other levels drawing.

Intro

Hi everyone. This is Peifen, one of the members blogging. This would be our major project journal. We decide to use a blog instead of printing. Save the earth! Anyway, we will have to blog once a week about what we've done that week la. i've found one the project journal i've done for my interdisciplinary project work in secondary school la. Hope it can give some ideas on what you write. You guys don't need to use all the thing. It's just some ideas to write..



Week:
Date:
Name:

1) What tasks have I done this week?
2) What have i learnt this week?
3) Where have i obtained information?
4) What were some difficulties i faced? How did i overcome these?
5) How have i contributed to my group? eg. giving ideas
6) How well did my group work?
7) In what ways can the group perform better?
8) Other observations