Mr. Gallagan

Reflective piece

12-11-09

Reflective Piece

1. What has been a positive experience for you?

A positive experience I had was becoming a better presenter and it has made me become more professional when I am presenting something.

2. What has been surprising about your topic and research project?

I was really surprised with how hard this project was to complete. I had to do more research after the 30 hours I did before I began my product just so I would be able to have a completed and working game.

3. What has been the most difficult part of this entire project?

The most difficult part was definitely all of the programming and the entire math involved with ActionScripting.

4. What did you need the most help with? Why?

The most difficult part was definitely finding the code to use on getting the ball movement and finding the code for the walls. I probably spent the first 2 to 3 weeks on this project just trying to figure out what was wrong with my code.

5. What was the easiest aspect of this entire project?

There really wasn’t an easy aspect to this project. The research was very time consuming and product was very hard to finish.

6. How was your interview helpful?

It gave me a lot of insight and it also gave me someone to turn to if I began to run into problems when making my product.

7. What was the most beneficial aspect of this entire process?

The most beneficial thing I got out of this product was I found out that I am good at working in the clutch. I was running out of time to finish my project and had way too much to do with the time I had left but was able to pull it together and have a finished product to present to the judges.

8. What did you enjoy the most?

I enjoyed finishing my product and seeing what I was able to make when I put forth the effort and the time.

november 13, 2009 – 2 hours spent at adobe.com trying to get a better understanding of ActionScript characters. Also found a tutorial on changing scenes.

What i still have to do is figure out the problem of why its not letting me enter code directly into the movieclip. Once that problem is solved all i hv to do is use the tutorials and code to get interactions into the game. I have found all the tutorials i need to complete this game and will begin entering the code as soon as i figure out the code problem.

November 11 2009 – I have solved my code problem. I have also completed the ball movement tutorial and have the ball moving. I have also programmed the wall on every hole so now i have every hole working with the ball movement and the ball bouncing off the walls. I also created the beginning page and the end page.

Right  now i am creating the button on the cover page to begin the game but am having problems with the code. I also have to create the hole so that once the ball falls into the hole that it will switch to the next scene but it must have a delay. I also have to create the titles for every hole and find a tutorial to keep score everytime i hit the ball. The last thing i will have to do is to create the math portion of the game and then create a button on the last scene to take you back to the first scene.

2. A way to fix this problem is by everyone switching to IPv6 which uses 128 bit instead of 32 making for billions more of combinations.

3. IPv6

4. This will effect me because if the internet runs out of IP addresses there can be no more websites added to the web meaning there will be no web designers.

Salary: $69,300

Make, build, design websites.

Security: B

Future: B

Stress: C

Information Technology Project Manager

Salary: $98,700

Keep big tech projects on time and on budget.

Security: B

Future: B

Stress: B

Business Analyst, IT

Salary: $82,600

Identify Computer software and hardware solutions.

Security:B

Future:B

Stress:C

Wed. 10/21/09- 2 hours 30min. Created the layout for holes 4 through 7. Got the ball symbol and hole symbol onto all the holes. Also worked on revising my research paper to get it ready for my final draft.

Thurs. 10/22/09- 2 hours 30min. Created the layout for holes 8 and 9. Created the introduction into the game. Began to create the button on the intro to bring you into the game.

Fri. 10/23/09- 2 hours 30min. Began to make a preloader. Seperated all the holes into there own scenes. Worked on connecting the scenes with actionscript. Found a friction and a countdown timer tutorials.

Mon. 10/26/09- absent

Tues. 10/27/09- 2 hours 30min. Worked on the preloader. Tried getting the friction tutorial to work. Worked with Actionscript to connect the scenes together.

Wed. 10/28/09-  1 hour 30min. Worked on preloader. Worked on organizing my protfolio. Tried friction and and countdown timer tutorials.

Thurs. 10/29/09- 1 hour making the intro look good and working on the script for the intro button.

Fri. 10/30/09- 2 hours  troubleshooting the movieclip problem and actionscript problem. Found a tutorial on ball movement.

Mon. 11/2/09- absent.

Tues. 11/3/09- 2 hours 30min Fixed the Code problem started entering the ball movement ActionScript.

Wed. 11/4/09- 2 hours 30min Recreated the walls  worked on creating the ball movement.

Thurs. 11/5/09- 2 hours programming the ball movement.

Fri. 11/6/09- 2 hours creating the cover page and creating the end page.

Mon. 11/9/09- 2 hours finished the ball movement for every hole.

Tues. 11/10/09- 2 hours Programmed the wall so that the ball would bounce off for every hole.

Wed. 11/11/09- 1 hour. Created the buttons on the first and last scenes.

Mon. 11/16/90- 2 hours 30min trying to fix the button on the main screen and looking for a hole tutorial.

Tues. 11/17/09- 2 hours 30min Fixed the button problem on the last page and found a hole tutorial and started the tutorial.

Wed. 11/18/09- 2 hours making a next hole button and making them look good on every hole.

Thurs. 11/19/09- 2 hours trying to fix the problem on the skip hole button on the last hole.

Fri. 11/20/09- no school

Mon. 11/23/09-  2 hours finding a spelling game tutorial.

Tues. 11/24/09- 2 hours creating the final two screens.

Wed. 11/25/09- 2 hours trying to troubleshoot the next hole button.

Mon. 11/30/09- 2 hours fixing the hole problem

Tues. 12/1/09- 2 hours making the hole go to the right scene.

Wed. 12/2/09- 2 hours creating a score keeper for every hole.

Thurs. 12/3/09- 2 hours making a score counter on every hole.

Fri. 12/4/09- Finishing touches.

Mon. 10/19- Make Calendar , begin making layout of the 1^st hole of the game.

Tues. 10/20- Work on the layout of holes 2 and 3.

Wed. 10/21- Work on layout for holes 4 and 5.

Thurs. 10/22- Work on layout for holes 6 and 7.

Fri. 10/23- Work on layout for holes 8 and 9.

Mon. 10/26- Work on coding the ball to be able to be hit by the club bounce off walls and fall in the hole

Tues. 10/27- Work on code to make layer switch when ball goes in the hole.

Wed. 10/28- Work on coding the mathematical portion of the game.

Thurs. 10/29- Work on coding mathematical portion of the game.

Mon. 11/2- Work on coding hole #1 make the hole and make the ball bounce off the walls.

Tues. 11/3-  Work on coding hole #2.

Wed. 11/4- Work on coding hole #3.

Thurs. 11/5- Work on coding hole #4.

Fri. 11/6- Work on coding hole #5.

Mon. 11/9- Work on coding hole #6.

Tues. 11/10 Work on coding hole #7.

Wed. 11/11- Work on coding hole #8.

Thurs. 11/12- Work on coding hole#9.

Fri. 11/13- Touching up the coding on the holes.

Mon. 11/16- Make up day if anything is missed or skipped.

Tues. 11/17- Touch up the code.

Wed. 11/18- Touch up the code.

Thurs. 11/19- Touch up the code

Mon. 11/23- Touch up the code.

Tues. 11/24- Finish up the code side of the game.

Mon. 11/30- Touch up the graphic side of the game.

Tues. 12/1- Finish up graphic side of the game.

Wed. 12/2- Finishing touches on the project.

Delaware Area Career Center

Information Technology 2

Product Proposal

My senior project will be a mini putt putt game designed in Flash using ActionScript 3.0. I am going to make it a game that will help kids in 2^nd through 4^th grades with their mathematics. I plan on presenting my project to a third grade class to see how my target audience enjoys my game. I will then create a number of cd’s that I will hand out to all the students for them to take home and spread the word about. It takes a great deal of knowledge to understand how to create a game using ActionScript and this project will take my knowledge of ActionScript above and beyond what I ever could have learned any other way. I plan on working on this project for the next two months and am going to try for a total of one hundred and fifty hours.

ActionScript 3.0

Josh Hauersperger

Delaware Area Career Center

Information technology 2

Josh Hauersperger

Delaware Area Career Center

Information Technology 2

ActionScript 3.0

A problem with our society today is the fact that kids do not enjoy going to school. My solution to this problem is to make a flash computer game that kids will enjoy playing but will also effectively educate them. This will assist teachers with getting their students excited about learning. The way I plan on doing this is by using the flash programming language of ActionScript 3.0.

ActionScript is a language that has been around sense 2000 which is when ActionScript 1.0 was released and was available for Flash 5. Then in 2003 ActionScript 2.0 was released which put the ActionScript language on the map. “It was first available with Flash MX 2004 and was a major improvement over ActionScript 1.0.” (4) Then in June 2006 the most sophisticated and powerful ActionScript was released. It is ActionScript 3.0 and it is a very difficult language to learn but can work miracles if it is learned. “Things that were once impossible with previous versions were now very real almost anything you could imagine could be done with this version of ActionScript.” (2)

“ActionScript 3.0 is a scripting language based on ECMAScript.” (3)  It is usually used for web design but can also be a very powerful game design program. It is the 3^rd version of ActionScript and is by far the most advanced and most powerful. It is used primarily in Adobe Flash but is only available in the latest versions as it is the latest code invented.

There are two different versions of Adobe Flash that ActionScript 3.0 is used in. One of which is Adobe Flash CS3 which is the first version to contain ActionScript 3.0. The second of which is Adobe Flash CS4 which is the newest and latest version of Flash. “Also Adobe Flash CS5 will be released this winter which will contain ActionScript 3.0.” (3)

The designers of ActionScript 3.0 copied ideas from many other scripting languages the two most famous of which are JavaScript and C++ Programming. “It is also heavily based on Previous versions of ActionScript specifically ActionScript 2.0 but it is fundamentally restructured from its previous versions so someone who is very good at using ActionScript 2.0 may still have to take awhile switching over and learning the new language.” (3) As a result many Flash Programmers are reluctant to make the switch to ActionScript 3.0 even though it is a much more powerful language.

There are some major benefits to switching over to the new language. It has a much stricter code which can lead to problems but makes the language much more powerful. One major benefit of ActionScript 3.0 is the ability to make high graphic games. Previous versions were primarily designed for web design or animation and didn’t pay much attention to the game design side of the program. You could make games in previous versions of ActionScript but they were very basic games such as platform games and were very difficult and way too time consuming to make high graphic games.

In previous versions the code didn’t go off if the letters were capitalized or if the command was closed at the end but in ActionScript 3.0 it pays very close attention to detail and must be written perfect without any mistakes for it to work properly. “For this simple reason it makes it much more flexible and much more game oriented than any previous versions of the language.” (2)

“For the simple fact that ActionScript 3.0 is stricter is the reason that it has the power it has.” (3) It isn’t simpler to create a game if anything it is more difficult but once you learn to use the language you can make very high graphic fun games. Flash is not a game design program so you couldn’t make a game like the games you play for your Xbox or Nintendo wii but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a very fun, challenging, and educational game. Games that are designed in Flash are many of the online games you play and make up some of the downloadable games that you play.

A symbol is the bread and butter of game design in flash. It is what makes ActionScript work and is how an object is recognized by ActionScript. There are three different types of symbols used in flash. The first is a button which is primarily used in web design to make links sense they don’t really move much but can be utilized in designing a game as well. There is also a graphic which do not move and won’t be used much in game design. The only time you would use a graphic in flash game design is as a background. The last symbol to create in flash is a movie clip. A movie clip is the biggest part in designing a game in flash. It will be the moving parts of the game and the objects that you control they are what make a game fun and enjoyable. Without movie clips designing a game in flash would be nearly impossible.

“ActionScript 3.0 is much more advanced and you can control a lot more symbols at one time than ever before.” (2)” I big new feature in ActionScript is it is now easier than ever to make movieclips work together as one.” (1) An example is when making a character you can make their legs, arms and any other part of  their body move in sync as one making much more high graphic games. There are many benefits to making high graphic games one of which is it will make for a much more addicting game. This is a major benefit because if you can get people addicted to your game, and you have made it educational it is a great way of getting kids to learn. Also high graphic games are much more enjoyable making it possible to make it educational without kids even realizing that there learning.

This graph shows the reason that people play video games. Before ActionScript 3.0 you could make flash that only accommodated a few of the reasons people play video games. Now with ActionScript 3.0 you can make games that people play for the graphics and it makes it a lot easier to make games for people that play to master the game because you can incorporate a lot more into the game making it longer and harder to master. With these benefits it extends the audience by thirty one percent which is almost a 3^rd of everyone that plays games. This is a huge deal and a big leap forward for ActionScripting and flash game design.

There are many games today that are made in flash. The x box and wii games are much more advanced than Flash gaming but many of the games you play online have been created using flash. Some of these games include online racing games, online shooters, and online block games. Perhaps the most popular of these online games are the hundreds upon hundreds of putt putt games that are played every day online by millions of people.

This is where the idea for my senior project came about. I love playing these online putt putt games and decided on trying to accomplish making a flash putt putt game but with an educational side to it. My idea is to have a target audience of 2^nd to 5^th graders which is about the age where gaming is becoming a big deal and to design an educational putt putt game. I chose a putt putt game because it has a target audience of all ages and there is many people that really enjoy playing putt putt games making it a little easier to incorporate an educational side while still making it enjoyable.  My goal is to make it enjoyable enough for kids to actually want to play but educational enough for them to actually learn something.

Learning ActionScript 3.0 and trying to master Flash game design has been a major task and something that would take a lot more time and practice to master but I believe I am equipped with the knowledge I need to make a enjoyable yet educational game using Actionscript 3.0. I will really enjoy working on this project and hope this will begin to revolutionize the way teachers teach.

Works Citied

(1) Home Flash Magazine. 2009. Web. 4 Sept. 2009. <http://flashmagazine.com>.

(2) Adobe. 2009. Web. 9 Sept. 2009. <http://adobe.com>.

(3) Shupe, Rich, and Zevan Rosser. Learning actionscript 3.0 a beginners guide. Sebastopol: O’reilly, 2007. Print.

(4)Harris, Andy. Beginning Flash Game Programming for Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley, 2006. Print. For dummies.

Photoshop Tutorials and Flash Tutorials – Tutorialized. Web. 21 Sept. 2009. <http://tutorialized.com/tutorials/flash>.

Mr. Gallagan

Actionscript 3.0

7 September 2009

Interview Questions and Answers:

1. Q.  What is you job title?

A. My current job title would be student; but I do freelance work, so I could take the title Graphic
Designer, Web Designer, or Media Designer.

2. Q. What experience do you have in flash?

A. Flash and I go way back. I taught myself everything I know (Thanks Google!). I started learning Flash
about 5 years ago and I have done a lot of animation, some web design, and little game programing.

3. Q. What are some projects you have created in flash?

A. Here are some projects I’ve done in Flash:
I animate a cartoon series for http://shutupcup.com
A friend and I created a learning application for teachers at Findlay City Schools. http://staff.findlaycityschools.org/vpn/
My friend Jake and I worked together on http://pineacresreindeerfarm.com

4. Q. Have you ever tried game design in flash?

A. I have tried game design in Flash. Nothing final ever came from it, but I did make some
basic stuff (controlling characters, platform games). Just basic stuff.

5. Q. Have you used actionscript 3.0? If yes how much experience do you have using it?

A. To be honest, I have used actionscript 3.0 once. I haven’t tried since; but I plan on using it more
when I get more projects.

6. Q. Have you made any projects in flash in which you made a profit?

A. I have created things in Flash and made a profit:
http://pineacresreindeerfarm.com/
Also some applications for a company called APPL.

7. Q. What flash program do you prefer or use? (ex. cs3, cs4)

A. I have used CS4 once. I currently use CS3, but if I had the money I would
upgrade to CS4. CS4 has a lot of features that I wish CS3 had.

8. Q. Do you have any special degrees or certifications in flash?

A. I do not have any special certifications in Flash. I am not that good. I am great
at animating, not so much actionscript.

9. Q. What is the demand for a flash game/web/animation designer?

A. There are a lot of freelance websites out there where clients post projects for
things like Flash; but it’s hard to come across clients that are in need of a Flash designer around here,
but it is very impressive to most people.

10. Q. How much can a flash game/web/animation designer make annually?

A. Around Delaware, there aren’t many jobs for Flash Designers. But I’ve seen Flash Designers
in California and New York make from $42,000-$60,000.