Blogging in Globaloria

     Blogging is apparantly a major part of Globaloria, one of which I don't personally like. It's not that I don't like blogging in general, but more of the topics we are required to blog about. I don't agree with making us blog about our game design, or a specific topic in general. I believe that the topics should be more broad, and about our everyday lives, such as events in the news, disasters, our weekends, etc. I believe that if we had to do reflective and expressive blogs, everyone would enjoy them much more, and we would learn about similarities and differences in our classmates. Also, I believe that posting your updated game on the Wiki is a sound teller of how well you are doing in your game-making.

Our Presentation

     Our presentation will be a very well-constructed powerpoint, telling of our journey as we made our game, followed by us showing them the game. The first few slides will tell the viewer why we chose the topic we did, and tell about the topic. Next, we will talk about all of the parts we used to assemble our game. The last few slides will tell about what we hope to accomplish with our game. We will also be rehearsing some lines to say so we won't get confused, and we will show them the game itself.

It's a Crazy World...

     I don't understand why everything happens at the worst times and in short succession. Four major earthquakes have rocked the world in the past two months. Flooding has devastated countries, cities, and towns. And human disasters, like the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, kill the hearts of the families and friends of those who cared about them. It always seems like there is NO mercy for the hearts and souls of anybody.
     In my life, I've had my share of heartache. I've lost my father, two grandfathers, and many other loved ones. I've been to more funerals than anyone could bear to be at. Sometimes it seems like nothing is ever meant to get better, because as soon as one wound starts to heal, something cuts you up again. But things do get better, and you learn to cope with everything that happens around you, good or bad.

     The mining accident has especially been killing me lately. I didn't hang out with Cory Davis; I have never said that I did. But I love his family, and the few memories I have of him during baseball. His father, Tommy Davis, is one of the best men in the world. He picked me for all-stars twice during Junior League, and was the first outsider to ever believe in me. Cindy also helped coach, and I played with his brother, Seth. I really don't understand why these kind of things happen to the best of people, but my heart goes out to them, because I know exactly how losing someone close feels.

This Class So Far...

     This class hasn't been so bad thus far. I came into this class thinking that it would be really hard and unenjoyable, and although it is extremely challenging, it's not nearly as bad as I thought. In fact, I like it to a degree.

     This class is a mixture of independent work and working with your partner(s). Although you're only going to create one game, you must work together to reach the common goal of completing the game. The independent work comes into play because you'll find that you have strengths and weaknesses. By figuring these out, everyone can do their own work on the game, making the time necessary to complete it much shorter. Also, most of everything you learn to do is self-taught.

     I'd also like to say in this blog post how much it's killing me that the Davis' and other families must go through the loss of loved ones... Been there done that. The Davis family has been one of my favorite groups of people in the world. I played baseball with Seth, and we were coached by Tommy and Cory helped him. Tommy was the first coach I've had, other than my parents, that believed in me. He said I was one of the best kids he's ever coached. We've all been through too much in our lives, and I wish it would stop. I hope with everything in me that these 4 unfound miners are found safe and sound, and are able to return to their families.

Sound's Good to Me

Sound is a very vital component of any game. First, it adds realism to your game. Do guns shoot without making a noise? Do bombs detonate silently? The answers are both no. It also adds help to the game. Would you know if somebody was shooting at you on Call of Duty if there was no sound? Would you know that the enemy set off the tactical nuke? These are also no. Third, it adds functionality to the game. It makes the game seem more complete because even games made on the Atari had simple sounds and were used as alerts when a collision occurred.

Adding Animation is Awesome Opussum!

Adding animation is not so bad once you get the hang of it. The coolest part about this whole process is watching your creation come to life. Your people and objects actually move! It's so cool to actually have something you've done come alive. Also, it makes you feel like a game developer. I've played video games my whole life, and I think it's amazing what they do. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is especially mind-blowing in my opinion: here's some game footage and Infinity Ward's (the makers of the Modern Warfare games) website!

The BEST Game Devs on Earth!

This Pushed My Buttons

This whole "Adding Navigation" thing was really confusing at the beginning, but it's getting easier now. Our team has successfully completed this activity, and it's been rough, but we've done it. This section teaches us the main technical components of our game because we have a quiz-type game. Therefore, it's to our best benefit that we learn this section to its fullest extent.



Since Destiny, Zhane, and I are working together, we are able to help each other out more often and blend ideas much better than just two people could. With each others' help, we'll figure everything out, slowly but surely, using teamwork to reach our goal.

Our Plans for Frames and Keyframes

Frames are individual points where you can implement a change in Flash. If you want to change animation in a movie, you must insert keyframes. Keyframes are made by adding anything to a frame, and cause a change in what is shown onscreen. They are indicated by a circle inside the frame. By using frames and keyframes, you can set the length and smoothness of a movie.

In our game, we are just beginning to learn to use frames and keyframes, and really have no plan on how to do so. It is so hard to understand though. It frustrates me so much because I can usually understand everything just by skimming over information about it, and I can't do that with this. I hate it more than anything! I can't stand not being able to comprehend this on my own. However, I think that with a little bit of hands-on guidance, I can definitely understand it. Until then, our team has little to no idea of how to make this game.

Importance of Paper Prototyping

Paper Prototyping is a very important part of the process of making a game. It is a very cost-effective way of implementing your ideas without using programs and eliminates error. You create a different scene for the game you want to create, and see if it runs smoothly. You can easily add a slide anywhere, and therefore errors can easily be corrected. Also, it lets even those with very little programming expertise contribute to the creation of the game.

Finally Finished!

Yesterday I finally finished the Mini-Game Project. And I have to say that it was actually really fun:


Once I got the hang of it.


The whole process became really easy at the end, but getting to that point was a challenge. ActionScript is pretty tricky to learn, and I'm not going to tell you that I'm the master at writing codes, but I do know the basics, finally. Every single character and its capitalization and placement matter. Something may not be capitalized, and your whole code may become invalid. But when you finally learn it, you get a huge feeling of accomplishment.


It made me happy to finally learn how developers make video games. I know it isn't exactly the same, but knowing that the process they go through is a thousand times longer and harder is amazing. I've played video games for my whole life. I started with the NES and I now have an Xbox 360, and I've always wondered how they make them.


If you want to see my played games and how much I play them, go to http://www.xbox.com/ and look up my gamertag, razgriz317.

One of My Favorite Blogs

I chose Destiny's blog as my blog of choice. First of all, she's a cool cat and sits beside me in this class. Second, her blogs are really, really good. She stays on topic, uses correct grammar and spelling, and completes everything. She's just awesome opossum, just like her blog says!

Blogs About Coal Mining

I have picked three blogs about coal mining and mountaintop removal, the topic which I may make my game about. One is the blog of a coal miner from good old West Virginia, while the other two are about stopping mountaintop removal. I chose these three blogs because they give you some very different points of view.

First of all, let me start by saying that I do not support environmental activists, but these two blogs against mountaintop removal do give excellent insight of the effects of mountaintop removal on the environment. Streams can be polluted and the mountains we've grown up around and love are temporarily destroyed.

Then the blog by the coal miner changes things. He gives you insight about how he feels the world looks at him, and tells of the town he lives in and about his job. Without coal, this man couldn't make a living. Both blogs make you really think twice about supporting one side or the other.

Playing to Learn

Today for my assignment, I played two games. One was made by an outside source; the other by a student just like us. While I thouroughly enjoyed the games made by outside sources, the games made by the students were very glitchy and not good at all.

The first game I'll talk about is called Consumer Consequences (follow this link: http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/). This game was very interesting to me because it basically told me how many earths we would need to sustain 6.6 billion of myself through a series of questions about my lifestyle over a set period of time. It came out to be 6.7 earths; I'm wasteful but hey, I won't be around when we run out of nonrenewable energy sources and land space.

The second game I'm writing about, called Go Rabbit Go!, is a very different story. This game is very glitchy and unchallenging. First off, the controls are terrible; hitting onlythe spacebar to turn right is not fun by any means. Second, the game functions poorly in its objectives. The tortoise that is trying to catch the rabbit never gets faster, making the game too easy. The only reason I would die is when I got stuck on a multitude of invisible barriers throughout the game. And third, why put a ton of warp circles when the game is easy, anyway? I know I sound like a complainer, but I play video games a lot, and there is no way I could play this game for a long amount of time and not lose my sanity.

The Importance of Online Safety

It is extremely important to take safety precautions wherever you go. However, the internet requires a whole new level of safety. With so many viruses and hackers out there, one little slip-up could mean that you no longer have your identity. Another huge thing about the internet is that you never have any idea who is on the other side of the computer. You can be whoever you want to be on the internet; so can anyone else.
Your identity must be protected over the internet. Did you know that if a person has access to your Social Security Number, they are basically you, in a sense? They can apply for jobs, get credit in your name, and find out a lot more about your personal life. But not only is your Social Security Number at risk; your credit/debit card numbers and personal information are all posted on the internet as well.
You never know who is on the other side of the computer, either. All cases of identity theft can be prevented; however, cases of stalking and other like things are extra preventable. You NEVER talk to anyone that you don't know over the internet; and two, you NEVER post your address, phone number, or even full name on your personal websites, because all of these can be used to find your location.

http://www.youridentitysafe.com/ is one site that can be used to help you understand how to be safe and stay safe on the internet. It talks about identity theft and how to prevent it. Another site, http://kidshealth.org/teen/safety/safebasics/internet_safety.html, brings this information down to a teenage understanding and makes you clear of the do's and don'ts of the internet, and the consequences that could follow if you don't listen. I found both of these to be very good websites.