Burky's Stuff

Learning About Civics

2009-12-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

I've learned a great deal about how the government works. The research I did for my game taught me about the branches of government and how they work in cooperation to balance each other. Each branch has its own powers and weaknesses. Like rock paper scissors, each of the branches has power over another in some way while another branch has power over them. I've also learned about the different views of the political parties.

Civics game week 4

2009-12-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

The game is coming along quite nicely. All of the pieces are coming together and the game ideas are pretty much worked out. The coding is giving us some trouble but other than that it should be fine. The game ideas are good the only problem is getting it to do what you want it to do with the coding.

Civics game week 3

2009-11-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

I've been working on this civics game but the progress isn't moving very fast any more.. I'm having trouble putting in a points system. I've been putting in a drag and drop system.. but its not working out right yet either. I hope I will be able to even finish the game in time now and get it all working.

Civics game week 2

2009-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

We've been working hard on our civics game. We have gone through redesigning our game multiple times and we are slowly getting it to work out. The game right now consists of two levels that are mostly functional. We have an idea on how to get the points to correspond but we'll have to see how everything works out when we try to combine the two parts before we know for sure.

My Civic game progress

2009-11-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

I've learned how the government branches use a power balance system to keep each other in check. And I've been working on creating a game that shows how these branches work. Although the real system is quite complicated the game is just made to represent the basic idea of the branches. The game is coming along nicely and our ideas are taking shape like we planed. We have made some alterations to the game play simply because the things we wanted to do we can't figure out how to make it possible with coding.

Civics game for the 9 weeks test

2009-10-27T09:40:00.001-07:00

Our new game idea involves the three branches of government and how they balance each other in power. The background for the game is in outer space and your character travels to the different planets and gains points from each one in order to balance the powers in the end. Each planet has 2 mini games and in each game you must correctly complete missions about the branch of government represented by the planet you're on in order to win. If you don't gather enough points on any certain planet that branch of government will become too weak and will be lost into the power which is the center of the universe that these planets orbit in.

Sound on and off button

2009-10-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

These sounds buttons were a little different than the first ones. These were movie clips instead of actual buttons. I used the code that was given, and created the music on garage band. It took me a while to figure out how to get the file saved in the proper format and got it uploaded it worked pretty well.

My Civic Organization

2009-10-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

The government program that is connected to our game is the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). This agency works to help protect the environment and one way to do this is by recycling. Here is a link to there website so you can check them out.

http://www.epa.gov/

Adding Interaction

2009-10-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Adding interaction was a bit difficult. I couldn't get the characters in my game to move? I think the coding from the previous bunny game should work for this too but I couldn't get it. I created a new game however and put in the same code, and it worked for the newly created game. I'm not sure why this is but at least I created an interaction game. I'll try again later to get the characters to move in my game.

Adding Sound

2009-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Adding sound wasn't too hard. I didn't put a button in my actual game design idea, I simply created a button that plays a sound when the mouse is scrolled over it. It took a little bit to figure out how to get it all working, but once I got it worked out everything went well.

Civics and How it Plays a Part in My Game

2009-10-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

The topic of my game is recycling. Recycling is pretty simply related to civics through citizenship. People can show citizenship by recycling. People can learn from this game that by recycling one can benefit one's community, state, country, and world. The lesson of recycling ties in very well with the ideals of citizenship. Being a good citizen means making ones city a better place; you can do this by recycling. Its a pretty basic concept. The fact that the game says that the player is helping a government agency in their recycling quest also plays into the civics role. By relating the recycling to government and having the player help the government, and at the same time they are helping their community gives this game strong ties into a civic background.

EPA

2009-10-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've been researching and I found a program called EPA or Environmental Protection Agency. They work to help encourage recycling and helping to preserve the environment. I think they would be a good agency to use in my game as the agency that the player is helping out.

Drawing in Flash (This is blog 8)

2009-10-09T09:25:00.001-07:00

Drawing in flash is a little different than other programs. It has a lot of different tools and it is kind of confusing. I've got the hang of it pretty well now, and i can do some pretty cool stuff. I also have learned how to animate the drawings now so that i can do even more stuff with flash. I like messing in flash and I enjoy trying to get my game ideas to work.

Planning Your Game

2009-10-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently I missed this blog earlier, so. The plan for my game is to have a few different levels all with different play styles. The main idea of the game is to recycle the trash to help save the environment. The player picks up the trash and then at the end has to recycle it all in the proper bins.

My Game, with some added strings

2009-10-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the prototype movie for my game idea. Its coming along pretty well. Now we've got to tie in some kind of civic lesson into the game and I'm having some trouble finding a government agency that supports recycling, or any kind of regulations for recycling. I was thinking about just making the game like you (the player) are helping a certain government agency with recycling.

Adding Animation

2009-10-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

This week I've been working in flash. I learned how to add navigation to my flash projects. I also learned how to add a little bit of animation. The navigation part was cool because it gives the prototype more of a game like appearance. It was a little bit difficult to get the hang of it to start with, but after a little bit of explaining it wasn't too hard. Over all navigation was interesting and it is an important part for any game.

My Green Game

2009-09-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

My team name is Terrifying Lettuce. Our game is a combination of different types of game styles. It contains a maze game, scrolling game, drag and drop, and shooting section. The background idea of the game is that recycling can help save the planet. The game consists of 5 levels each taking place in a different environment that needs saved. At the end of the game you have to recycle all the trash you've collected.

Imagining my game

2009-09-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

My game is going to be about recycling and going green. The idea is to have a maze with items of trash laying in it. The player would have to move through the maze and collect all of the trash in the given time to finish the level. There would also be some kind of "monster" that would patrol the maze and if the player hits them it would subtract time from the game. The main point of the game is to teach that recycling can save the world, a little bit at a time.

Mini Game

2009-09-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

The mini game project was fun. I really liked playing around with getting the carrot to move and trying to get the bunny to interact with it. It took a little while to get everything working but I did eventually get it working and I got to play my own little game. I'm interested to learn more and be able to do more things with flash and make a more functional game. Ha Ha even though this one works there's not much to it.

Educational Games

2009-09-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

The games I played were fairly educational. I liked "Climate Change" it was a game that helped raise awareness about global warming and pollution. It was a strategy game that involved making decisions that effect the outcome of the world, like global warming. In the game you are the president of Europe and you have to decide what you want to do to make the country green.

Classroom Rules

2009-09-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

I think classroom rules are an important part in keeping an organized classroom. Rules should be established by the teacher but they should be easy for the students to follow. Rules should be enforced fairly strictly but enough slack should be given that students don't feel overwhelmed. The students should be able to have fun with the rules in place and be able to respect the teacher that enforces them.

Burky's Stuff

2009-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

I recently started this game design class and I'm just starting to understand how everything works. It seems like it will be an interesting class and I'm excited to learn how to create and animate games.