Great Example of Drag and Drop

Here is a great example of drag and drop code in a game. This game was made by Lindsey, one of the Gloabloria interns. The animals in the game are pets that she actually has. Aren't they cute! Drag and drop is an easy way to add player interaction to your game. It is one of the first coding practices that you will learn to do in Flash. Enjoy Coming Home as you discover the wonderful world of action script.

Join the Community

In this lesson, you watched a video that described what the speaker described as a "single story" and you were asked to answer the following questions in a blog entry. 1.What does it mean to have a 'single story' about a place or community? 2.Describe a single story you have heard told about your community. What is missing from that story? How could people learn more about that community? 3.Describe a single story you have heard about another community. How did you learn that story? How could you find out more about that community? 4.How could a game let players experience many stories about a place or community? The single story you may be aware of may be different than what anyone else in the classroom is aware of, but that doesn't mean that it is incorrect. Everyone has experiences filtered through the lens of their own perspectives. To be narrow-minded though is not something that anyone should be guilty of no matter where that individual lives or what he/she has experienced. Share your stories of single stories of places and communities you are aware of as you address the questions above.

Drawing Backgrounds for Hidden Object Games

Students have been busy drawing backgrounds for their hidden object games in second and third block classes. This was the first experience working with Flash and so far it has been a positive one for most of the students. We have been experimenting with using some different examples of items from the internet and putting them onto the stage so that we can trace them and use realistic colors and make the objects our own. This has been working very well. Flash offers many options in drawing and the students have been doing some experimenting and some learning has been taking place for this first game of the semester. Some students have already started working on the hidden object items for their games. Before you know it, we will be ready for coding our hidden object games and then on to presenting them. Let's get these games going.

Issues with Blogging Again

It took two days, but our classes finally got their blogs set up and we are blogging. Not that everything is perfect because it is not. I don't think the problem is with the way the blogs are set up at all or with the way that you configured your blogs or with your backgrounds or with your gadgets. I think it has to be an Internet Explorer issue. When I view your blogs on my laptop, I can see them as well as your comments. I can make comments as well. I have Internet Explorer as well as Google Chrome on the laptop and both of them allow me to see your blogs. Our browser is outdated I fear. You know when you saw the warning that you have to dismiss when you go into gmail and when you were setting up your blog account? I believe that was the issue that is causing the distress and I'm not sure what we can do about it right now. Hopefully we will be able to finda a solution soon. We have a lot of blogging to do.

Groundhog's Day

Do you know what today is? It's Groundhog's Day! If the groundhog see's his/her shadow, we are in for six more weeks of bad weather. Today the weather is cold and snowy. Maybe in six weeks we will see signs of spring; maybe before six weeks we'll see signs of spring. That would be nice. Either way, winter is on its way out according to the groundhog. Whether the groundhog determines the end of winter in six weeks or sooner, think spring. We sure could use some sunshine and warmth. I've had enough of the cold stark days of winter. How about you?

Snow Days

Snow days....it's that time of year when we don't know whether we'll have a day of sunshine or a blizzard and lately it's been a day of snow ad cold and wind. We've had two snow days in a row, and that will put our class schedule behind in our new Game Design classes. It's hard to keep pace the way it is without the snow days. But, there's not too much we can do about the snow days unless we anticipate them. These really surprised me. We were looking for a couple of inches of snow and we ended up with about eight inches of fluffy white powder and lots of driving wind. What started out on Wednesday as a nice spring-like day with temperatures in the upper 60's changed abruptly by Thursday when we had flooding and then ice and then snow. Life is like that sometimes. When things are going well, something hits you totally unexpected and knocks you for a loop. The important thing is to get back up and keep moving forward. It isn't always easy; nor is it always fun or exciting. But, it is a necessary part of survival. We can't always anticipate everything that is going to happen to us, but we can prepare for some things. We can prepare for our classes and we can prepare for our future occupation. We can't prepare for natural disasters. We can prepare for setbacks though and attitude and determination play a large part in your success in whatever you do whether it be in Game Design or in gym class. So, whether it be in a snowstorm or on a test, determine to do your best. Prepare when you can, and when you can't use your best judgement and strive to succeed. Stay warm. Stay focused. Stay the course.