Eye-Tracking Game PPJ

After reviewing our presentation with Felicia the next day we realize a lot of our fail attempts to communicate the progress and development in our project.  We re-worked the objective of our presentation and focus on our advanced techniques that make our game unique to others developed already.  We are creating a game using eye-tracking technology which has never been done before.  We have implemented ideas in our game based on the eye-tracking functionality.  For example, the tracker itself is a little jerky but we have added many reinforcements so when the eyes focus on an object the eye tracker can still read what the eyes are looking at.

In addition, we have still worked on our game fixing up bugs and adding additional artwork where needed.

-Autism

[content forthcoming]

This week we tested our game with Aden, our first design informant. He brought up a lot of excellent points about game usability, intuitiveness, and bugs we may have not seen.

Then, with a big list of notes, we set out to repair and polish the game. Here’s what we’ve done toward that goal so far:

Zip: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~klw47/game/WEEK7new_v1.zip
Html/Swf: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~klw47/game/WEEK7new_v1.html

Kristen Ward

This week our game has background music, thanks to Music Industry major Kiley Cubiciotti. I met with him this week to talk about the feel we were going for, and he was able to write three songs. So far they have received very positive reviews.

My main focus was revising the instructions walkthrough, so we can send it off to HESAA. It will appear in this finished state in the main game next week, minus title wrapping and plus voiceover. I added a navigation demo and a replay last example  button, which works by either clicking or pressing the left arrow key (so that it can be used by facilitators)  instnew4

I also vectored and buttoned the new title screen from last week and put it into the game.

As a group, we had a number of meetings this week to work out stray details. For one, we decided on an official title: Toy Detectives. We’ve even worked the story out to fit this, and our walkthrough will end with the avatar saying “Thank you for helping me find it! We sure make a great team!” . A child will come onscreen saying she left her toy at the train station, and can we help her find it? The answer will lead us to level 2…or to the end of our demo for now.

In this same vein, I redesigned the map screen, so that the avatar can stand on a hill near her “clubhouse” and look out over the remaining levels. We changed the police station to a museum, and the candy store level, which was deemed useless, is gone too. I have two versions of this map. The latter is in the file now, but this can be changed pending Dr. Hurewitz’s approval.

We had a long discussion about story flow, and decided that this new map could add an overall introductory element to the game, a starting point from which the story can jump off, and a “home base” – where the avatar brings her toy once she’s found it. In later levels, when you help other friends find their lost toys, those friends will meet up in the clubhouse once their toys have been found. This would turn the clubhouse into a place to mouseover and play with toys…but also a social gathering spot, reinforcing the core goals of our game.

In the game, I added the “got map” screen that appears when the ranger gives you the map, and added animations to the endgame sequence (duck drops off the helicopter now in the swf).

I also wrote down comments and helped fix problems which surfaced during Aden’s test, as well as facilitated the actual test.

Apart from that, I worked with Chris Alex on the Character selection screen’s button selecting functionality, and parked www.eye-venturers.org since we love the name and the mission so much.

Hours: 25

90% (still the animatic, but did a lot besides).

Next week:fully functional working avatars (nearly there, but they still need a few minor tweaks as Aden pointed out),  powerpoint, intro animatic, reinforcer sounds with Kiley C. and Chris Alex.
I will help my team get the game all finished for the faculty and plan a good presentation, with our visual and verbal explanations being paramount to our success (aiming  to improve greatly on last term’s presentation). Might try to make the ducks turn around smoothly.

Chris Alex

MAIN FILE
SWF
ZIP

TESTING
During the test with Felicia’s son, I monitored and noted selected navigation, perceptions of working/broken elements, and time spent on each element.
The informant demonstrated an active participation in the game in seeking tasks and rewards. There was consideration for exploration of the level, but each section of the level was explored to seek tasks/rewards. Little attention was initially placed on character interaction/dialogue, however, as the game progressed, the informant understood the characters as source of interaction and information, and began to readily check their input.

DIALOGUE BUBBLES
I spent a lot of time updating the dialogue bubbles to reflect the recent adjustment of opening the level and improving dialogue lines. The new dialogue is designed to give the player hints not just about where they can/should go, but also the tasks which they should be performing. For example, if the player has picked up the soccer ball, but not returned it, characters will hint to the player that a boy at the soccer field had been playing with the ball. They will also hint as to how to get to the soccer field.
This functionality has been tested up until the start of the duck game. It has not yet been tested beyond the play of the duck game.

DIALOGUE AUDIO
Another recording session is required for the updated dialogue. This will be done next week.

MUSIC
I added to the game three music tracks which were provided by Kristen and Kiley. The Main Map Screen, Park Level, and Duck Game all now feature a music track. This track can be muted on the options screen.

AVATAR CREATION SCREEN REDESIGN
I added functionality to the male/female selection. If male is selected, a dummy avatar will appear and can be modified with current color palette. This palette will be adjusted next week to fit either and/or both male/female avatars. Also, this data is preserved if the player exits and re-enters the Create Avatar screen.

I added feedback to all parts of the color selection. The selection for male/female works as it should. The feedback for the main menu (skin color, hair color) works while on-screen, but resets to its default highlight state if the player exits/re-enters the Create Avatar screen. Also, the feedback for the color picker has the problem of not actively remembering which color was last picked. This is a problem I’m still looking into.

DEBUGGING
I worked on some issues pointed out during last week’s meeting, such as one of the signs being cutoff, and some conditions related to entry to the level. Much of my debugging efforts went specifically into systemically checking and fixing errors in the dialogue bubbles. The dialogue bubbles have been tested up until play of the duck game.
There are still some errors in trying to get into the level before the Avatar has finished speaking (but if she does finish, it all works!), as well as re-entry from the main-map screen.

HOURS
Team meeting: 2hrs
Testing: 1hr
Music: 1hrs
Avatar Creation Screen: 9hrs
Dialog bubbles update: 9hrs
Dialog bubbles testing: 2hrs
Debugging: 5hrs
Total: 29hrs
Percentage: 90%

NEXT WEEK

• Add in-game Avatar color changing functionality/gender swap
• Add sound effects
• Finalize testing of dialogue bubbles (after duck game is played)
• Record updated ADR and place dialogue audio in game
• Debugging

Yan Zhao

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~klw47/game/WEEK7new_v1.html

This week I squashed a ton of bugs. We also tested the game with Felicia’s son, whom provided many helpful feedback and found additional glitches that I worked on this week. The overall opinion from Felicia’s son was that he found the game fun but a bit too short, which is very good to know.

• The park level’s conditions now gets saved even if you leave the park level back to the stage selection map. Meaning no matter how many times you enter or exit, all the stage changes will remain intact (such as the gate being opened, the stuff in your backpack, and the dialogues).
• There were dialogue bubble issues with the park ranger when you first enter due to the Avatar speaking on her own. We had to set a constrain which FORCED you to listen to what the avatar says when you first enter the stage, meaning looking at the park ranger wont do anything until 3 seconds AFTER the avatar finished speaking her initial dialogue. This is to ensure the player knows what they are suppose to be doing when they first enter before messing around with things. This is also the only instance where we constrain what the player do.
• Fixed soccer ball issue. It appears where it should and it will transition correctly if you do not pick it up and moves left or right.
• I fixed almost everything related to the soccer kid. All his dialogues appear when they should now, I added a new condition to check if you got the Duck Whistle for some of the conditions for word bubbles. I also got the soccer kid’s pointing function to work.
• Soccer kid now removes the soccer ball from your inventory when you return it. I was able to prevent the soccer ball from returning to the scene when you no longer have it.
• The Soccer kid’s Hotspot had some issues, this is now fixed. You can mouse over anywhere on his face to trigger responses now.
• There was a bug where the soccer kid would give you the whistle over and over as well as making the soccer ball returning to your backpack. This was fixed.
• Worked with Chris to get many of the Avatar’s hint dialogues to trigger correctly depending on the situation, since we changed the level around a bit and opened it up, a lot of old hint dialogues had to be tweaked to fit the new situation.
• TO TED AND JERVO: When you guys are testing the game, try to talk to as many people as you can before doing any of the tasks such as picking up and returning the soccer ball. Try the following: Speak to park ranger to get the map and open the stage, go to duck pond to talk to soccer girl, go to soccer field to talk to soccer kid, talk to soccer girl again, pick up ball, talk to soccer girl again, return ball to soccer kid, talk to soccer girl to play game. Note that all these steps are NOT required to win the game, but they do show the possible varried conversation that could trigger depending on what you learned so far.

Based on some feedback from Felicia’s son, I’ve changed the following:

• Duck game was way too easy (I told you guys so…), so I made the game slightly harder with difficulty increments. The game now works like this. You goal is to find the ONE duck that is one of a kind in color. The first stage will have 5 ducks, 2 colors, 1 for target and 4 others of the same color. Pretty easy. Second stage will have 7 ducks. 3 different colors. 1 for target, and 3 for each of the remaining 2 colors. Third stage will have 9 ducks with 3 colors, 1 for target and 4 for each of the other 2 colors.
• Right now there’s no clear indication of what the goal is to win the duck game, I find it weird to have the target duck floating somewhere no matter what we do, so instead we will have the soccer girl tell you what your goal is before playing the duck game. This will be implemented next week.
• Due to the increased numbers of ducks, I removed the duck colliding function because it would be too crammed with 9 ducks later. They will overlap again. However this is a necessity. The duck overlapping however will NEVER interfere with tracking the correct duck, because the game is set to ALWAYS put the target duck on the top-most layer.
• You can now play the duck game over and over. But the difficulty increment will never exceed the third stage (9 ducks).

Overall I worked 15 hours this week.

Percent 90%.

Stuff for next week:

All I’ll be doing from now on is quality assurance by finding bugs and fixing them as more stuff gets implemented into the game, as well as whatever the faculty and Felicia requests.

Bridgette Smith

This week was very productive. We met with Felicia and went over our game. We also had Aden her son come in and play our game this weekend. The meeting last about an hour, and I wrote down 3 pages of notes from Aden’s suggestions and comments.
This week involved working on alot of in-game assets still and designing new things to be put into the game. I worked on the boy avatar’s shirt,so that it could move fluidly with the boy and his sleeves and torso can change colors. This week involved alot of work that I have continuously been re-designing and we drawing. Here are some slight element changes to the game

Here are rocks for the pond area in the level 1:

Here is an example of a few ducks moving if looked at (or mouse over) like the merryGOround:

duck_flap

Here is the whistle i first made, and the actual duck lure whistle which i made at a later date:

And here are some frames I did of the avatar boy’s shirt:

Total hours:  18

Percentage: 84%

Next week:

Complete more in-game assets

This Week:

The swf file: Week6 SWF

The zip file: Week6 ZIP
Our team did a lot of group brainstorming this week. Putting our heads together we came up with new solutions to most of the current problems with the game.

Team meeting summary: Week6 PDF

Kristen Ward

Game Dynamics/animations

First, with team, I helped write out new dialogue to go with new soccer girl/duck whistle story flow. With that, I made a word bubble movie clip and coded in a few of her bubbles. all her animations and functionality will be done by child testing. main swf (same as above)

-ranger now points to the gate when prompted, has a 3/4 view

-soccer boy now points to the duck pond when prompted

Music Composition

On Saturday I met with music Industry major Kiley Cubicciotti to discuss music, both background loops and audio cues. These include musical sounds for specific occasions such as reinforcer blinks, 3 second hover completion,  and item acquisition. We also worked out their placements within the game. We will be meeting this week to record these sounds. Music sound sheet

Graphics additions
Redesigned the character selection screen with Chris Alex:

This unique wheel-shaped interface was designed with the eye tracker in mind. In theory, we could operate this entirely with mouseovers, using no clicks or waits. The top 2 buttons change between male and female, the 6 large buttons (3 on right and 3 on left) select an active asset to change, and the 4 bottom buttons  serve as a color picker and dynamically update. The curved shape of the design allows users to saccat back to the center to see the updated character without passing through new buttons to select in the process.

*note- blue icons in the shape of hair, shirt, pants, eyes, etc will be added to those blank circles to serve as visual cues for the non-verbal.

Here is another design Chris and I came up with this week. It is a new title screen, with buttons based on the idea of thumbnails that take you to the screen shown once you activate them:

It’s just a psd concept for now (game name and colors still pending discussion), but these are the sort of buttons thumbnails that we would like to incorporate throughout the UI. The buttons are thumbnails which show a picture of where the button will take you, rather than text which might be useless to nonverbal children with autism

boy avatar still has a few bugs to fix before he works as well as the girl. His skin changes colors really nicely though, and will be included in next week’s file. I will also replicate the method used on the boy (high contrast face to start, tinted with each other to keep light and shadow) onto the girl.

Story additions

Next I wrote a script for the intro animatic. Actual finished boards got put off til next week.  Right now all the intro animatic does is introduce the characters and wrap the story somewhat. here is the script for it: dialogueimptstuff2

Some more possible changes we thought up this week.

hours: 25

90% (didn’t finish full animatic, but took on a few pressing tasks)

for next week: keep bringing it home, intro animatic, plans to present to faculty, fixes as detailed by felicia, get boy avatar working with color changing, make instructions pretty, make navigation easier.

Chris Alex

MAIN FILE
The swf file: Week6

The zip file: Week6 ZIP

AVATAR CREATION SCREEN
I worked with Kristen to redesign the Avatar Creation screen. Last week, I had added functionality which utilized color swatches for the color selection. This week, we reformatted the layout to conform better to the use of the eyetracker.

This design allows the user to read from any menu to the Avatar (center) and down to the color selection. It also allows for greater readability in that the player’s eyes will not have to move over an undesired menu option or color selection to view results. We also worked to apply a similar design to the Main Game Screen.
The Avatar Creation functionality in the main file has been updated to integrate this design. I also began adding user feedback functionality to this design. Feedback is currently only operational on the color swatches from a mouse over/out state. Samples of the feedback for male/female selection and color menus has been included (yellow and red outlines respectively). The outlines will indicate the selected menu option. Still needed for next week are updates to the fonts/icons, as well as finalized user feedback.
Functionality to the in-game Avatar has not yet been added. Some final adjustments still need to be made to the in-game Avatar to accommodate this color changing functionality.

SOUND
The addition of adding all dialogue sound clips into the working file has been pushed back a week due to the above mentioned changes in the Park Level. However, we have determined that we can control the timing of the dialogue bubbles with the length of a sound clip, regardless of whether or not it is heard. To that end, I added an options screen, from which the player currently has the option of turning on or off the dialogue audio. This functionality does work, and will be expanded to include the dialogue text and sound effects.
As for the sound quality not being what it should have been last week, we traced the problem to an export setting. This error has been corrected.
DIALOGUE
I spent some time working with Kristen to revise the dialogue sheet so that character dialogue conforms to the new idea for opening the Park Level.
Level 1 Dialogue Sheet

DEBUGGING
I didn’t do a whole lot of debugging this week beyond the Avatar Creation Screen. I did, however, spend some time with Yan working to get the duck game working better, specifically the hittestobject functionality. I also corrected the error of the merry-go-round spinning without looking at it.

HOURS
Sound (volume control): 2hrs
Dialog revision: 2hrs
Avatar creation screen revision: 8hrs
Avatar creation (feedback): 1hr
Team meeting: 3hrs
Debugging: 2hrs
Total: 18hrs
Percentage: 85%

NEXT WEEK

• Work with Kristen to finalize Avatar Creation Screen design
• Work with Kristen to add in-game
• Record new dialogue to reflect changes made to level
• Implement new dialogue in game (audio/text)
• Debugging

Bridgette Smith

This week we met up with Felicia and discuss some of the issues with our game.  We talked about mostly minor issues like the soccer ball floating, the word bubbles, and other various topics that came up in the discussion.

As a team we decided to open the levels navigation to the user.  We felt that it would allow the user to explore the environment.  In during so, we slightly changed our game design.  We added in more dialogue and gave the soccer girl a more important role in the Park.  Instead of the girl standing by her brother, she will be by the duck pond looking at the ducks.  By her being there, this eliminates the park ranger being in two positions, and still provides a character there to assist the user.

This week I worked on the soccer girl’s head.  Since she will be interacting with the user I created a frontal perspective of her face.  I got rid of the weird sliding leg movement since now she is a part of the storyline.  You can find her frontal perspective down below:

Since the soccer girl has an important role now, she will also give the user/player binoculars to look at the ducks.  This eliminates the need for a camera (or old Polaroid) and the standing in-position binoculars.  However, since the binoculars are now an object that can be stored in the inventory (backpack), we need many different angles for it.  With that in mind, I created a 3-dimensional binocular in Maya to assist us in any angles we need.  Below you can find some sample angle renders of the binoculars:

Lastly, I added some of the mini-game ducks to the main file.  I create another background for the duck game for perspective purposes.  I also work on some re-designs for the city backdrop and the stoned path of the level. However, I am not pleased with the results and so I will continue to design much better assets.

duckbgd

Total Hours: 16

Percentage: 80%

Yan Zhao

Stuff I did this week:

The swf file: Week6 SWF

The zip file: Week6 ZIP

Duck Game:

• Implemented new updated duck game into the main game file.
• Ducks will now no longer overlap. They will bump each other and move towards the opposite direction.
• Simply go over the duck pond area and click the binoculars to check these out.

Main File:

• Opened the level up so the signs no longer restrict you (except for the very first room, you MUST speak to the ranger to proceed no matter what).
• Added functionality to the new Soccer Girl NPC in the duck pond area.
• If you returned the ball to the soccer kid, soccer girl will trigger a reinforcer on the binoculars.
• Soccer Kid now hands you a duck whistle which you can use to play the duck game. This item will go in your backpack.
• Right now you can still play the duck game without it by simply clicking the binoculars, but by next week, the pay-binoculars will be replaced with smaller binoculars the soccer girl will lend you after helping out her brother the soccer kid
• Added many trace commands to the locations of where and when the new NPCs will need to speak.
• Cleaned up graphic placement bugs and issues. Duplicate of Park Ranger and Soccer ball are no more, while preserving original functionality.

Stuff to do next week:

• Fine tune whatever other bugs and errors pops up in the main game to prepare for presentation.
• Add duck animation after you complete the duck game of duck swimming to you handing you your toy.
• Add any graphical updates for the duck game background currently in the works by Bridgette.
• Do whatever Felicia/Faculty asks this week.

Hours: 15 hr

Percentage: 90%

This week:

The swf file: Week5

The zip file: Week5

Kristen Ward

This week I made a couple changes to the main file and then worked on the new instructions movie.

First, I added a cobblestones to add the necessary gradation to the path:

Then, I fixed the avatar so that she looks at you upon mouseover, as seen here: swf

After that, I worked on fixing the instructions screen. I restructured it so now it plays like a movie until tasks come up to be solved. The tasks to be completed each feature their own animated demonstration, which plays immediately before the player is asked to test a skill. This is based on my research into a type of autism intervention called  video modeling, in which a child with autism is given a video of a task or interaction successfully being completed before being asked to repeat it.

The movie also features new graphics with perspective fixes as advised by the faculty and includes demonstrations on use of the yellow button (seen in Dr. Hurewitz’s meeting room).

instnew4

We spent a number of hours on meetings this week, and we came up with a lot of good ideas to really bring the game home and present it as a completed package by senior show. This includes an intro animatic which introduces the story, the park, and the characters.

Overall I spent about 15  hours

85%

next week:

• Any fixes to instructions screen
• Intro animatic. This will (hopefully) tie together the loose ends still present in our story.
• Boy avatar: ready to go with all animations and cleaned up by next week.
• Add all stray animations I’ve done that still havent been added to the final game.
• Reevaluate and fix any problems regarding the instructions movie or existing animations.
• Other actions as dictated by our Tuesday and Wednesday team meetings

Chris Alex

MAIN FILE
SWF
ZIP

AVATAR CREATION SCREEN
Based on input from Ted and Felicia, I changed the layout of this screen slightly. The problem with the previous edition was that buttons were too small and close together to be accurately sampled by the eye tracker device. I enlarged the selection buttons, as well as added more space. I also changed the color selection functionality from that of two arrow buttons to a color swatch grid. This changed the code significantly, but the result is the same in that colors can be selected and preserved. All color selection is now available. It should be noted that right now, the color changing functionality works only on the ‘dummy’ Avatar seen on this screen. The in-game Avatar does not yet support this functionality (except for the hair color, which we used as a demo to prove that we can transfer and preserve these colors throughout the game). For next week, I’m planning to work with Kristen to apply the color change code to the in-game Avatar, as well as add feedback to the color selection (screen) so that selected/applied colors are indicated on the menu and swatches.

SOUND
Continuing from the work on dialog last week, I added all sound files to a sample .swf file. FLA file is available through an external hosting site because I ran out of storage space elsewhere (this one’s not in German). The problem encountered last week was that sounds were exported at 24 bit, and flash can only handle 8 bit or 16 bit. All files were converted to 16 bit.
In adding these files to Flash, we noticed a loss of quality in the audio from that of the original (16 bit) files. Specifically, what we noticed is that the Flash file voices sound deeper than those heard in the original (16 bit) files. As a result, the characters may sound older than intended. We’ve determined that the length of time for each sound is the same in Flash and played externally, and are considering that this may have something to do with compression in Flash. This is something that we would like to correct next week.
I also began adding the dialog sounds to the main game file. Right now, only the Park Ranger has audio. The audio currently appears simultaneous to his textual dialog. Next week, other characters will have audio, and I will also be working on adding an option for audio or text.

INSTRUCTIONS SCREEN
I worked a little with Kristen in determining the flow of the Instructions screen. This screen will be played upon the start of the game and then go to the Main screen. The main screen will feature the option to replay the instructions. I also helped to format the flow of the instructions – a movie clip will play, and then a task demo will allow the player to perform the action viewed from the movie clip. I did not work on any artwork or Flash animation.

DEBUGGING
I fixed the ‘back button’ issue – when entering the park level, it was possible to return to the main map screen, but not go beyond that. Full navigation is now available between the Main Screen and Park Level. However, the Park Level will reset with each return from the Main Map screen. This is an error that I will be working on next week.
Before meeting with Felicia, I found a glitch in the color changing functionality, specifically that the colors on the ‘dummy’ Avatar would not preserve colors in navigating between some screens. This error has been corrected.
I also spent some time working with Yan on the Duck Game, specifically in applying the code which flips the ducks (left and right) to face the direction of its x movement.

HOURS
Avatar Creation Screen: 13hrs
Sound: 12hrs
Instructions Screen: 1hr
Debugging: 5hrs
Total: 31hrs
Percentage: 95%

NEXT WEEK:

• Avatar Creation – adding functionality to in-game Avatar, adding user feedback to selection
• Sound – adding all dialog sound clips to game, checking better method of play (less loss of quality)
• Audio option – add option to turn sound on/off
• Debugging

Bridgette Smith

Last week, I completely realize that the media files I posted were not updated on the site.  Nor were my complete statements of what I did.  It was a fault on my behalf that I did not check again to make sure the files were up.First are the sounds that I record with my voice from last week.  I did the Park Girl and the soccer girl.

ParkGirlA01

SoccerGirlA01

Also from last week I completed the camera icon, the backpack opening, and implemented the merry-GO-round into the main file.  Here below is the camera icon for the duck game and the backpack.

This week I worked on a soccer girl for Level 1. I sketch a design of a her character.  I wanted her to be facing a different direction then the soccer boy, and to also seem uninterested.  I admit, it was a little difficult copying Kristen’s art style but overall I think it came out well.  I also animated her to slightly kick her leg as if she is brushing her foot across the grass.  I admit the arms look a little bit awkward. I am not sure if I should animate them swaying or maybe redraw them crossed over her since she is a minor character in the game and does not give help advice.
SoccerGirl_v1

I also created some assets for Chris Alex and the Avatar Creation screen.  I made some eyeballs which roughly took no time at all, and I made some skin tone colors.  The skin tone colors were a bit troublesome because I had to break the image up into different sections and color it. And lastly I created different tints for shoes, pants, and tops for that screen.

Total Hours: 12

Percentage: 80%

Tasks Next Week:

-Fix any issues
-clean up level 1
-eye tracking testing
-Other issues presented by Felicia by Wednesday

Yan Zhao

This week is mostly a continuation of debugging and bug fixes. for me.

Duck Game:

• Smoother and more realistic horizontal movement.
• Ducks less inclined/likely to hug the edge of the boundary box nonstop when they hit them.
• Jervo helped getting the flipping to work when ducks move the opposite direction.
• Removed target duck window to replace with prompt by looking at the camera icon on the upper right, this is still buggy however, target duck wont appear in the box. Will be taken cared of soon.
• Duck Game SWF

Main File:

• The LEFT ARROW sign in the main area (with the girl looking at her watch and male NPC) stopped working anytime you return to area 0 (screen with the park ranger and park gate). This was fixed. Left arrow sign should always work AFTER returning the ball to the soccer kid.
• Many instances where 2 characters would have their word bubble appearing at the same time. This should no longer occur EXCEPT for the park ranger due to his 2 part bubble that takes 6 seconds rather than 3.
• Fix’d a few minor object placement bugs here and there.
• Week5

Other stuff:

• Team meetings to brain storm new ideas and solutions for stage look and flow.
• Awaiting feedback from Felicia on updated duck game.

Bugs:

• Soccer ball duplicate causes bugs when removed, this will be looked into and fixed this week.
• Some reinforcer from dynamically placed NPCs would not kick in. Will be fixed this week.

Tasks for next week:

• Fix soccer ball bug.
• Fix reinforcer bug.
• Fix any other bug tat arrises.
• Implement new duck game into main game IF Felicia is happy with it.
• Do new tasks base don Felicia (and faculty) feedback.

Hours: 13

Percentage: 85%

This Week:

The swf file: WEEK10_v1

The zip file: WEEK10_v1

Kristen Ward

In our meeting on Wednesday, we discussed a need for visual cues that would take away the frustration of not being able to move through all levels freely. To aid game flow, I added a gate that opens once you talk to the ranger for the first time. You can click the gate to walk through in addition to using the wooden sign. I also cleaned up the area surrounding the gate to make it less complicated, more symmetrical, and pleasing to the eye.

Screenshot featuring a new gate and an enthusiastic little buddy.

We are working on ways to add more visual feedback like the opening gate to replace frustrating areas in the game.

I also made a new, 20-frame animation for the  avatar character. She now waves when you need a hint. [as seen in the main swf] This will go along with the “hey, look at me!” dialogue recorded by the team, and is also something we talked about in our weekly meeting.

Then, based on faculty advice, I added code which allows the NPCs to look at you once addressed. This can be seen in the main swf. Then, I spent time reintegrating new characters into the new main file.

The soccer kid can catch the ball rolled to him from the backpack region: soccerkid2.swf

Lastly, I worked on a new demo screen that will be featured on the instructions page. This will be finished next week and will include simplified versions of game situations for practice.

Instructions Screen demo (swf)

I ran into a lot of bugs that I had to fix for this week’s iteration to run flawlessly, especially where the avatar’s new animation state was concerned. That, in addition to meeting hours and planning, brought my total hours up to 19. The instruction demo is not finished and the “got map” screen was put on hold in favor of the gate. We will decide if we want to do those extra screens this week. With that,my percentage this week is about 90%.

19 hours

90%

For next week: finish instructions screen, clean up the boy avatar and make him wave, got map screen, map interaction, refine according to meeting with Dr. Hurewitz on Wednesday.  Since we have been altering our gantt charts on Wednesdays after our meetings, I think its best to leave it open until then.

Bridgette Smith

This week involved many different tasks to be completed.

I tidied up the merryGOround animation and implemented that into the main file.

I created a camera icon which is suppose to be use for the duck game.  It will be utilized in the corner as a reference cue to find the specific duck in the mini-game.

Chris Alex

MAIN FILE

ZIP
SWF

COLOR CHANGING CODE
This code has now been implemented in the working game. Currently, the player can choose from four hair colors for the Avatar. Any hair color chosen will remain with the Avatar throughout the game. This code will continue to be implemented for other options.

AVATAR LOAD DYNAMICALLY
It was expected that this would be needed to utilize the color changing functionality, but it has been found that this is not a necessary step at present. This may or may not be implemented later, depending on future needs.

DIALOG BOX FIXES
The NPC dialog boxes now load in relation to their random position. The issue of opacity (seeing through the dialog boxes and not being able to read text clearly) has also been corrected.

DUCK GAME
I spent some time working with Yan on the duck game, specifically in cleaning the game up to display only four ducks and meeting with Jervo to determine code for creating movement for all ducks.

DEBUGGING
The main issue I addressed this week was in the navigation. In earlier editions, some buttons would not work on some screens. All buttons now work on the main screens. Also, the ‘back’ sign will now take the player from the Park Area back to the Main Map. Unfortunately, the buttons break (don’t work) from that point onward. I am still addressing this problem.
I also found a small problem with the NPC dynamic loading code. As generated, the Park Boy could be loaded directly behind the Avatar. I constrained the Park Boy’s random placement further and corrected the character overlap function accordingly.

SOUND
Much of my time this week was spend working on sound. I worked with Bridgette to record the VO for Level 1 Park Area. We also recorded dialog for the start of the game, as well as the main map screen. Characters featured include: Avatar Male, Avatar Female, Park Ranger, Park Boy, Park Girl, Soccer Boy, and Soccer Girl.

Sound File Zip
Our team would like to extend a special to thanks to Cara Schroeder, Neil Myler, Kevin Phillips, and Dave Myers for devoting their valuable time to recording voices for this project. Time spent on this part of the project includes setup, casting/auditioning, recording, editing, and creating individual sound clips and organizing them in a library.
In trying to import these files into Flash, I received the following error: “One or more files were not imported because there were problems reading them.” Although the files are .wav and should be read by Flash, the bitrate may be too high. The only documentation I could find on this problem recommended converting the files to another format.

INSTRUCTIONS SCREEN REVISION
Incomplete.
Due to the time allotted for recording VO, this task has been pushed back one week.

HOURS
Duck Game: 1hr
Color Change Code: 3
Debugging: 2hrs
Sound: 11hrs
Total: 17hrs
Percentage: 80%

NEXT WEEK

• Instructions screen revision
• Sounds functionality (sound on/off, implement dialog)
• Debugging

Yan Zhao

This week I have worked on most of the new stuff requested by the faculty and from our meeting with Felicia. I’ve decided to prioritize those things over the things I said I would do this week.

Things I got done:

Duck Game:

• All ducks now scale according to their Y Coordinate position (the higher they are, the smaller they get, the lower they are, the bigger they get.)
• All ducks have subtle random movement.
• All ducks are bounded within a square area inside the pond (they cannot exceed a certain X/Y range). This ensures they stay in the pond.
• Duck Game SWF

Main Game:

Tons of debugging and bug fixing as well as new feature implementation.

• Backpack now slides open when you look at it and stays open as long as your mouse stays over the backpack (NOT the blue strip). If you mouse off the backpack (looking at blue strip counts as mouse off), a timer of 2 seconds will run before the backpack closes. If you should look at the backpack again before those 2 seconds are up, it will reset, thus keeping the backpack open.
• There was a bug with the soccer ball not appearing inside the backpack when you pick it up. This was fixed. However a new bug arrived with a new soccer ball placement. This will be fixed soon. It is not big enough of an issue to bring to Jervo.
• Timer hint now becomes an avatar reinforcer. The avatar will now grab your attention instead of saying hints. You must look at the avatar to trigger hints.
• Reinforcers from the hint function now loops and continue playing as long as you are looking at the avatar’s face. Due to the 2 seconds delay for the reinforcers to kick in (time to give player to read whatever the avatar says), an 2 second delay before shutting off reinforcers was also implemented after you mouse off the avatar’s face.
• Concerning the above, there is a minor bug where shifting the mouse from the avatar too fast to the corresponding reinforcer hint object will continue triggering reinforcer until you mouse off that character. This was fixed by simply shutting off reinforcer when you look at anything of importance, but when these code was exported into external AS, they no longer work. This will be looked into, again, not major enough to jot down for Jervo’s meeting.
• Main Game SWF

Known Bugs unfixed:

• Reinforcer not kicking in for some dynamically added characters. This will be fixed soon.
• Duplicate of soccer ball on stage. This will be fixed soon.
• Duck game layering, because of the scaling, some ducks may appear in front of others despite having being higher on the Y coordinate. This will be brought to Jervo’s meeting at 12:30PM Tuesday.
• ADR sound having problems being implemented into the main game.

Other tasks I listed down that I was going to do this week:

• Dynamic NPC placement: Done
• Color Changing function: Chris Alex got this to work already. I’ll be helping with the rest of it this week.
• ADR Stuff: Task given to Bridgette and Chris, ignored. But will try to help get them to work this week.
• Duck Game function: Looking good minus the small problem listed above in Bugs.

Things to do next week:

• Help Chris with Color changing code for avatar creation.
• Tons of debugging and bug fixes on Main Game files.
• Make whatever changes necessary to DuckGame/MainGame by faculty/Felicia request.

Hours worked this week: 15

• Duck Game: 8 Hours
• Main Game: 3 hours
• Debugging/Bug fixes: 3 hours
• Meetings/Others: 1 hour

Percentage: 90%

This Week:

WEEK10_v1 (3) (zip)

WEEK10_v1 (swf)

Kristen Ward

After being advised not to continue with level 2, we focused our efforts on finishing level one. Toward that effort, I made a number of changes to the main file. I will try to be specific this time to avoid confusion.

• Fix avatar bugs:
  • First, I wrote a new function which allows the avatar to point at something static (i.e, not a randomly placed character) without making a new animation/frame state for that. To call the function, you insert the number of degrees you want the avatar’s arm to rotate as the argument. That code can be found in the swf, inside the avatar symbol on frame one. The function is called “avPointToDegrees”. zip
  • Next, we had an error where the avatar was walking and then sliding. I fixed this by wrapping all code telling her to stand (after hint timers expire, etc) in if-statements which make sure she isn’t walking.
• Implement reinforcers
  • you will notice in the swf that if the avatar’s hints are set off, the park ranger waves and a star reinforcer appears behind his head. This works throughout the level.
    

    It looks like this

• First avatar word bubble pops up instead of being up already:
  • At the advice of the faculty, I fixed this error by adding the variable “timerRunCount:int” to the main timeline (frame 5)’s timer code which checks to see whether the hint timer has run through more than once. If not, when the timer gets to 3, the first word bubble pops up. swf
• Fix word bubble interference: To fix the problem of word bubbles intersecting with NPCs faces and blocking their face timers, I changed the way they are removed from the screen. This code can be found on the main timeline (frame 5) and in the .as file. zip
• Add (code) bouncing soccer ball : the soccer ball now bounces into the game frame but can be picked up and used just as before.

• Create endgame animation: duckcarryingheli
  • this will be added to the file next week

In addition to numerous hours of debugging, all of which is crucial to our game’s success, I spent about 2 hours helping Yan and Chris with the duck game code, which I adapted from an old game I’d made.

Hours:19

95% + surprise code problems and fixes

For next week:

• add (code) endgame animations/screens
• add (code) soccer kids animations
• “return soccer ball” animation
• add (code) ranger 3/4 point state
• work on the new instructions screen

Bridgette Smith

This week involved fixing up issues with last week.  I changed the ducks colors to the suggestions Felicia gave us at the meeting.  I created a new background pond for the mini-game as well.I also worked on adding shadows to the MerryGOround which took much longer then expected.  I had to render out shadow passes in maya and vector/draw them out.  It took awhile because the merryGOround is slightly different then the maya version.  I also slowed down the animation for it as well.

MerrygoRound2

Lastly, I worked on some basic assets for the avatar creation screen just some hair assets for testing purposes for Yan and Chris.

Percentage this week: 70 %

Hours: 9

Tasks for Next Week:

• Continue to make assets for instructions screen
• Fix backpack gui
• ADR for Level 1

Chris Alex

NPC PLACEMENT
Three of the NPCs from the park scene are now added dynamically. Their placement is random within a container. Last week, one character was added. This week, two others were added. Although this was expected to be a simple ‘copy and paste’ move from the first NPC, it turned out to be much more complicated. Much of my time was spent on creating a function which checks to see if the characters are being loaded ontop of each other. This would be an undesired result because having the characters loaded ontop of each other would create errors in recognition for the eye tracking functionality, as well as potentially confuse the user as to which character requires their attention. If the characters are loaded ontop of each other, one character is moved over, depending on their placement relative to the scene. This code took longer than anticipated because I underestimated the complexity required for this function to work correctly. The code checks for character position (relative to each other), and finds the difference. If the characters are within a certain proximity (slightly more than the width of the largest character), then it checks (based on position relative to the scene) which character should be moved, and in which direction. I methodically tested each step of the code until I got it to work. Testing alone took hours because, with each step, I examined (in detail) every relevant permutation. The code now works not only to place NPCs randomly within a container, but also ensures that NPCs are not loaded atop one another. One NPC (Park Ranger) is not loaded dynamically because his placement is integral to the scene and there are no specific tasks which require his position to change.

ZIP
SWF

DUCKS
Because it was pointed out that the Duck Game had problems, everyone worked to fix this even though it wasn’t tasked on the gant chart. We talked with Felicia, and agreed to simplify the game by making the target duck ‘pop out’ from the others. Our solution to this was to reduce the potential colors for the ducks to six (primary + secondary colors) and, at least for the first play of the duck game, set one duck to one color, and set the other ducks to one other color.
Duck Game
I set the ducks to be placed randomly on the stage and confined to the stage area. I also worked with Kristen to get the ducks moving. Unfortunately, we were only able to get one duck to move. I started working on a code from scratch to test the implementation of each step. This code worked up until the ‘splice’ functionality, so, we ended up using the original code and continuing to modify it. The game works to the extent discussed as a test game except reducing the color selection. The final version still requires some work, such as reinstating replay ability to create an increasing level of difficulty.

LEVEL 2 FLOWCHART
Incomplete.
Explanation: advised by faculty to discontinue.

COLOR CHANGE
I created code for the Avatar Create Character screen. Using a test file, I set two buttons to control a color transform on an object.
SWF File
FLA file (zip)
Each of the two blue buttons can be clicked to change the color of oval in the center. The color change is cyclical, meaning if one button is pressed repeatedly, the color of the oval will continue to change in a predetermined order (green, red, blue, yellow). This means that if yellow is reached by clicking the Right Button, clicking the Right Button again will display green. Conversely, the Left Button will display the previous color. Justification: we want users to reach their color of choice for an item as quickly and easily as possible. This system draws on the existing artwork already established in the Avatar Creation Screen and allows users to sample colors in a cyclical fashion.
This code will be implemented in the game this upcoming week.

DIALOG BOXES
Refer to DEBUGGING section.

DEBUGGING
-Signs (w/ Kristen) – sign pointing to the left would not work after the reinforcers were added. After adding reinforcers, a function for that sign was no longer called. After finding no evident break, we reloaded the sign instance and it worked.
-Avatar dialog box at initial load of park (w/ Kristen) – dialogue bubble now loads one second after initial load, and should now allow user enough time to read
-Hand pointing (w/ Kristen) – Avatar now points to sign in addition to park ranger
-Dialog boxes (w/ Kristen) – due to time constraints, we added a quick fix so that the dialog boxes appear ontop of the other content and appear/disappear correctly. Also, there was some question about the opacity level of the dialog boxes. The level was dropped intentionally before I joined the group.

CONSULTATION
While meeting with Felicia, I also learned about the eyetracker and did some preliminary research on this topic because I hadn’t yet done so. Felicia recommended the following references:

http://www.yale.edu/perception/Brian/bjs-demos.html

I am still reviewing the content of this site, as well as checking other sources.

AVATAR LOAD DYNAMICALLY
Incomplete.
Explanation: time reserved for this task was applied to the duck game instead.

INSTRUCTIONS SCREEN
I detailed how to change the instructions screen.
Word document
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to start implementing this effectively.

HOURS
Code (NPC): 10hrs
Code (ducks): 11hrs<
Code (color change): 2hrs
Code (debug): 5hrs
Consultation + research: 1hrs
Instruction: 1hr
Total Hrs :30
Accomplished Percent: 80%

NEXT WEEK

• Pause Screen Functionality
• Avatar load dynamically
• Dialog box fixes/conversion
• Color changing code implementation
• Instructions screen revision
• Fix bugs (cont’d)

Yan Zhao

This week mostly involves me debugging and fixing the duck game based on faculty/Felicia’s feedback. Many hours were spent/wasted on debugging the old code in order to setup for what Felicia wanted, which was to have 1 duck pop-out from the rest. This was more difficulty than it sounded due to the nature of the original game, which had to load each duck once, so major debugging was done in order to convert the code to work for the new criteria. Kristen made a random movement code, I got the duck’s random placement to work, I was able to load only 2 colors randomly, with one popping out, as well as finally being able to load the target duck last to make sure it always stay on the top layer for eyetracker purposes.

Duck Gane

For the most part the game is working as far as functions go except for one last bug, only one duck can move. I assume the problem here is that the instance names of the other ducks but the last one loaded are not being read as the same instance name. I requested an appointment with Jervo to look into this. Aside from that, the game only need some X and Y boundary tweaking to make them fit into the duck pond background Bridgette made.

Preliminary color-changing code for avatar creation system was started. I was able to make the basic colorTransform function to work, which Chris Alex then used to put them into an array to load 4 pre-chosen colors.

SWF File

Tasks from last week: 80%

• Dynamic NPC placements: all working except park ranger.
• Avatar color changing code: Started and got a working code, have yet to implement it into the main game, will be a task for this week.
• Dynamically load avatar into stage: Imcomplete due to time restrains on extra work not listed on our task (Duck Game) that ate all our time, will be pushed back to next week.
• Stage 2 Design: Dropped due to faculty demand.

Tasks for next week:

• Finish avatar and NPC dynamic placement (only  2 left).
• Implement color changing function to avatar creation screen.
• Start on ADR sound recording.
• Finish duck game’s final function.

Hours Breakdown:

• Duck Game debugging: 15 hours
• Main game debugging: 4 hours
• Color Changing code: 1 hour
• Others (meetings and such): 3 hours

springweek1.swf

Current Project files (zipped)

Chris Alex

FAMILIARITY
My main goal for this week was to get familiar with the project. I met with the group several times, as well as Felicia, and have a suitable understanding of the project and its progress to date.
CODE
My first programming task involved adding code for NPC dynamic placement. I created an external AS file and wrote a function to be executed on load of the game which will generate a random number for each character. This number is then assigned in another function as the characters placement. Because the number is generated on load of the game, the placement of the character will remain the same within the play of the game, but be different each time the game is opened. I wrote another function which adds the character dynamically and places the character within a container. The character inherits the properties of the container, which moves across the timeline with other elements of the game as the active area changes.

Click for sample image

springweek1.swf

Current Project files (zipped)

Testing of this code also involved moving some previously written code into the AS file. The ‘hotspot’ feature works. There are some errors in the dialog boxes, though, specifically related to placement and occlusion of other elements. These errors will be fixed next week as the dialog boxes will also be added to the stage dynamically. Because this week was spent getting the code to work properly, this code will be applied to the other NPC characters and Avatar next week. I also assisted Yan with developing code for the trigger reinforcers as well as base code for changing the gender of the avatar on the Creation screen. As an extra task, Yan and I fixed an error with the map on the park level. The map would appear before being triggered by talking to the Park Ranger. This error has been corrected.
SOUND
In reviewing the game, I assessed the potential for sound effects and music.
The list is available in a word document.

HOURS
Familiarity: 4.5hrs
Code: 9.5hrs
Sound list: 1hr
Total: 17hrs

Percentage: 95%

NEXT WEEK

• -NPC dynamic placement for other characters
• -Avatar dynamic placement
• -dialog boxes overhaul
• -avatar color changing functionality
• -level two flowchart
• -instructions screen revision (2wks)

Yan Zhao

This week I worked mostly with Chris to get the NPC Dynamic placement function working. Chris created the basic framework for the external AS file and I helped in the conversion of existing code, due to all the bugs that occured after the initial conversion, such as hotspots glitching and scrolling issues for the NPCs on the stage. After hours of troubleshooting we finally got one NPC to be dynamically placed on the stage with all of its hotspot function and dialogue functions still working. Please refer to the SWF/FLA file uploaded to test the soccer kid (his X coordinate will have different variations each time you open it).

Tasks done:

Timer for Reinforcements: Done, at the moment they are using a trace command placeholder, where Bridgette or Kristen can change to the Reinforcement graphic when they finish those. This timer function is inside the HINT function, meaning if you wait 10 seconds without anything happening on the stage, after the HINT kicks in, the Reinforcement function will trigger 2 seconds afterwards. The only way you can check this however is through the trace command, meaning you have to open the FLA file uploaded and Run the game from there.

Dynamic NPC placement: Loading NPCs dynamically to the stage with actionscript. We were able to get this working for 1 NPC as mentioned, the Soccer Kid. So for the rest of the NPCs, it will be as simple as copy/paste for next week after we figure out their available placement range. Again, this can be checked in the SWF file when you arrive to the Soccer Kid in the far-right screen.

Park Ranger and Word bubble bug: This was ignored for one main reason. This will no longer become an issue once we dynamically load all the NPCs into the stage, they will always appear where needed, and their word bubbles will be part of the NPC MovieClip themselves, meaning they will always be correctly placed in relation to the NPC.

Male/Female Avatar selection: Code for the Avatar creation has somewhat started. This week we got the buttons working for selecting Male or Female in the Avatar creation screen, as well as making Flash remember which your choice was. The default is always set to Female (because most of the female avatar’s actions and animations are done already). You can test this by going to the Avatar creation screen, which will result in FEMALE being selected by default. If you switch to male and leave the screen. then go back to the character creation screen, it will remember the choice you made. NOTE that this function does NOT swap the Avatar with a male or female at the moment, since the male Avatar is not complete yet. This is just pre-eleminary code once we start the avatar creation code for next week.

You can check the SWF and FLA files here:

springweek1.swf

Current Project files (zipped)

Overall hours worked: 12 Hour

Percentage: 90% (again, ranger/word bubble bug are no longer an issue that needs worrying, this will all be gone next week when we dynamically load every NPC on stage).

Things to do for next week:

• -Work with Chris on finishing Dynamic NPC placement.
• -Work on avatar creation system, primarily color changing through actionscript.
• -Dynamically load the Avatar through external AS file.
• -Work on Stage 2 idea/flowchart/script with team.

Bridgette Smith

This week I focus on the tasks I needed to complete.  First off I design three backgrounds for the duck mini-game.  Each one slightly different from the other, but incorporating the ranger this time and a better layout for the overall mini-game.

I also worked on some designs for the pause screen.  These are some sample art designs or styles we are hoping to go with for our pause menu.

I also animated the merry go round for our level  1 scene.  To make it easier on me, I model a 3d version first, and vector trace over for the animation.  Just click on it to see it twirl.

MerrygoRound

And last but not least, I also worked on some visual cues/reinforcers for level 1 to assist with feedback for the audience.  Here are some basic ideas here, we are hoping to go over them with Felicia and have her pick an appropriate one for us.

Reinforcers

Kristen also animated a pretty good soccer ball, so there was no need to animate another.

Total Hours:  15

Percentage: 95%

Update!

Here are more simpler ducks with Felicia’s advice from the meeting and and more stable background game design for the mini-game.

Tasks for Next Week:

• _Work on flowchart for level 2
• -Begin layout and background/foreground designs for level 2 train station
• -Clean up/fix any issues with designs for this week

Kristen Ward

Tasks from last week:

1. Update NPC animations

As seen in above swf: The Park Ranger now looks around while idle, making him a bit less creepy. As a reinforcer, I added a wave (Ranger will wave at the player when avatar suggests you speak to him).  NPCs now point to things about which they are speaking, as seen in the swf. The soccer Kid has a “looking for his ball” state for before he has the ball, and a “holding the ball” state for after he gets it (I hope to finish instead an animation of him kicking the ball around)

Since Chris and Yan were working on loading the soccer kid dynamically, I did not yet add my revision to the file. Here is a swf of the new states: soccerkid

2. Create a “level one completed” screen:

Background gets slightly greyed out as this screen pops over lake area; buttons show exactly which screens players will reach when they click.

3. Soccerball Bounce animation

bouncing_soccerball

4. Create Boy Avatar

boyavsetup

Note: this task was given several weeks. Along with improving the details,  I will spend time next week helping Yan and Chris implement the code for controlling this character in the same way I did with the girl character.

Total Hours: 16

Percent of work completed: 93%

Explanation of missing 7%: NPC animations took longer than anticipated. The gantt chart reflects my desire to improve these animations and appropriate time has been allotted.

For next week:

• Make a flowchart for levels 2 and level 3 (with Chris/team)
• Using flowchart, design layout for level 2 (with Chris/Bridgette)
• Build level 2 in flash (with Bridgette)
• Create background art for level 2  (with Bridgette)
• Create all NPCs for level 2, sans major animations
• Avatar: make any fixes necessary for Yan and Chris’ color changing code to work, assist them with coding wherever possible

This week we welcomed our newest teammate, Chris Alex into the group. We had a meeting, filled him in on our progress, and really cracked down on our gantt chart for this week.

Bridgette Smith

This break I did not work on anything so I have nothing to report.  My detail tasks for this week are to work on the re-inforcers with Kristen, visual cues to help direct attention like the sign sparkling or lighting up.  To create a better background for the Duck Game for Yan.  To animate the merry-go-round in the game to add some moving artwork, and animate the soccer ball bouncing in.  Also to create some sample Pause screens for Yan and Chris.

Hours:  0

Percentage: 0

Kristen Ward

No work over break for me, but this week I have a pretty big load to take on and make up for it. The detailed list is as follows:

1. Adding animations to the NPCs, finishing all of the animations relevant to game flow first. As listed on the gantt chart, this includes looking and pointing animations and idle state animations.
2. A bounce-in animation for the soccer ball.
3. With bridgette, I will make “highlight” or “blink” states for clickable people and objects for use as reinforcers in the game. These reinforcers will appear after the avatar’s hints.
4. Make a “level one complete!” win screen.
5. For Boy avatar: finish all sprites to match girl’s, where still unfinished
6. In anticipation of finishing more than one level, I would like to create the backgrounds for level 2. We have allotted several weeks for this task because we’re trying to finish level one completely.

Over break hours: 0

Yan Zhao

I have no done anything over the break.

For this week I will be:

-Working with Chris to convert some of the code we have into external AS file(s).

-Work with Chris to make some (or most/all) NPCs/Avatar be placed on the stage via addChild function for randomized location.

-Fix bugs of the park ranger not hiding/appearing at the pond area.

-Fix word bubble bug in pond area which always appear above the duck instead of the park ranger.

-Add timer function for eye-catching highlights on important objects inside the hint function (example, person’s face light up, or a sign glowing when you are suppose to look at it).

Hours: 0

Chris Alex

Today (Tuesday) was my first day on the job for this group, and I’m very excited to be working with everyone here. This week, I’m going to be focusing on getting familiar with the project and how the team operates. The meeting held Tuesday morning was very informative for me. I learned, in more detail from last term’s presentation, what the team has accomplished and what still needs to be accomplished. For the most part, I’m going to be working with Yan on programming. Specifically for this week, I’ll be:
-Reviewing the AS3 script and revising as needed
-Working with Yan to develop a function for NPC dynamic placement
-Assisting Yan with code for trigger reinforcers and avatar creation
-Assessing the potential for sound effects and music (type, placement).

Hours: 0

This week we worked on and rehearsed our presentation for faculty.

As for the project itself, we did mostly collaborative work this week working on 1 FLA file which was passed back and forth to add more features and fix bugs.

Main Game

Kristen Ward

I worked on the coding for the pointing feature this week, but first I fixed a few problems preventing us from expanding the level. I moved the avatar into the main timeline where before she was inside the level one movie clip and fixed all the accompanying code. The sign buttons had been acting up, so I adjusted their hit states. Then we realized that the word bubbles were actually interfering with the mouseover, so the word bubbles might go in the final version.

To make sure the avatar can recognize where to point, I wrote functions that returned values of the coordinates of the NPCs heads, since in the final  iteration of the game the NPCs will be randomly generated and those coordinates will change.

Then, for the pointing feature itself, I had to reset the character’s arm and hand registration points so I could control their rotation with the mouse just as I had done with the eyes. Then I used the coordinates of each NPC to control the direction in which the avatar’s arm/hand rotate. I assisted Yan in implementing this code all through the level and adjusting the buggy word bubbles.

Finally I made a few improvements on the NPCs, which are far from finished but will be moved to completion in the coming term.

Hours:  17

Percent:33

Bridgette Smith

This week was just some basic cleaning up and refining on my part. I built the basic foundation for our ppt, and together we added the needed information for it.  Most of the time was preparing for the presentation on Tuesday.

The Eyeventurers

Hours: 7

Percent:25

Yan Zhao

This week I tweaked the duck game so that it start with only 4 ducks and I added the difficulty scaling functionality where the number of ducks increase per replay. For now it goes from 4, 9, 16. And also I made sure that it never goes higher than 16 (for now). It can be viewed here:

http://kristenward.net/ppj/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DuckGame21.swf

As for the main game, I’ve fixed the timing issue with the word bubbles, now they all vanish after you mouse off the hotspots that triggered them after 3 seconds. I’ve also fixed a few bugs involving word bubbles and timing issues.

Hours: 10

Percent: 37