Feedback From Client

We had a meeting with the client and presented them are main idea for our game.  During this presentation the client took on board all of our ideas and seemed to like them. We then asked if there was any feedback that she could give us and she raised a few points.

• Keep the 4 different zones idea, but have 4 different characters trying to get home.
• We would like to include sound in our game, for example voices. These files however can be very large and make are game have a huge file size. This therefore can lag the game. So until we find out the dimensions of the tablet device, we need to have some sound format management.
• If one day the aquarium is quite busy it might be quite hard to hear sound. Therefore we need to add subtitles just in case our voice cannot be heard. We can also add speech bubbles to make the subtitles look more in theme.
• Include the names of fish for example, Enzo the Shark
• Maybe incorporate a map so that players can find the NPC's
• We need to make sure that we randomize questions so that the game is slightly different every time it is replayed.

Responsibilities and Task Assignments

Byron

-Character Creation
-Scripting
-Research
-Aquarium Visits/Research

Jordan

-Animal Research
-Voice/Sound
-Aquarium Visits/Research
-Game Research

Jake

-Team Management
-Scripting
-Flash
-Animation

Analysing Client Brief

Kelsey was the client that met us at the National Marine Aquarium, and she gave us a run down of what she wanted us to produce. She gave us some valuable information that we noted down.

-Has to be education
this is one of the main aspects that our game has to cover. We need to be educating people about these animals and how we co exist with them. We need to teach people about how humans effect on the planet effects these fish.

-Needs to include personalities
There are many people that visit the aquarium regularly, in fact more people visit it regularly than a one time thing. This means that we have to incorporate what people see into our game. For example, people have favourite fish in the aquarium and know what they do and how they act. This means we have to incorporate these personalities into our game.

-On a tablet or android
we need to bear in mind that our game is going on a tablet device. This means that we need to make sure we have minimal file size so that the game runs smoothly.

-Charity
The National Marine Aquarium is big on charity. We need to make sure that we give the correct information to the audience about how to find out more about the charity and what the aquarium gives back to the community and the environment.

-Breeding Programme
The aquarium has a breeding tank which all the new born are kept in. They are very keen to make sure that they continue to generate more and more fish and make sure that they are cared for and healthy.

-Behind the scenes
People that came to the aquarium were interested in what happens behind the scenes of all the fish tanks. so the aquarium installed a laboratory which you can view whilst walking through one of the tanks. Here you can see into the laboratory and see what happens behind the scenes. We need to try and get this into our game so the audience know where it is.

-Environment
We need to make the audience aware of the environmental dangers of pollution. We need to make sure that we educate the audience into seeing the problems with water pollution and habitat destruction.

-Audience
Our audience was defined as needing to be usable by all ages. This means we need to make it fun and enjoyable enough for children but still be factual for adults. Also we need to make sure that the language we use can be understood by all ages.

Initial Ideas

1. Our first game idea would consist of a simple design to do with the habitat of our main character Snorkle. You would play as Snorkle and navigate around the NPC's to gather information and answer questions.

2. Our second idea was to have a large game area which consists of all the sections of the aquarium. This makes the game more involved with the aquarium. You would still interact with Characters and answer questions. 

3. Our third idea was to combine the first two ideas into one. We would have for sections to the game. Indicating the four different sections of the aquarium. You would progress to the next section Through a  transition screen and then play the next section until you get to the end of the game.

We chose to go with our third idea because we believe that it has the best chance to be an enjoyable and educational game.

Task One

Interactive Sound and Motion

Monoface

This is a website that I found called Monoface. Monoface is an interactive website which allows you to manipulate the image of a person just by clicking on a certain area of their face. For example, clicking on the nose will cycle through different noses that have been put on the webpage. This therefore allows you to make any combination of face. 

There are several different links on the website, one for information on what the site is about. A link to shuffle the face randomly, also there is a help link which tells you how to use the webpage. The interactivity of this website is easy to use however lacks design. The webpage is very clever and can keep you entertained but it is not something to spend hours on.

The way that the different sections of the face blend in is what makes the website a good website. The process of blending each of the individual interchangeable pieces together to make one whole picture must have taken time and skill. 

Over all this is a good example of motion in interactivity, however this particular website lacks audio.

String And Spin

This is an interactive Flash programme which you can find on many different websites. String and spin is a entertaining spirograph type animation where you can create some amazing images from drawing just a few line. The way that it works is you start with a blank canvas and click to draw several lines on the canvas. Then the code in the programme starts to spin your drawing. You then have the option to "spin your string" and this is where the programme does some kind of coding which makes the lines stencil as they spin. The longer that you leave the lines spinning, the closer the lines become.

What I really like about this flash file is that no matter how random you try to make your drawing, the drawing will always come out symmetrical because of the spinning mechanic in the programming. I showed it to a few of my friends and they were baffled by how fun it was but at the same time how simple it was. Although there is a lack of sound, it makes up for it for being digitally and visually entertaining.

Animation For Output Video Tape Or Streaming Web Movies

YouTube

This is YouTube. The worlds most popular social video sharing website in the world. And to become the worlds most visited website everyday they have to have a very good flash player. YouTube's flash player is simple, well designed, visually brilliant and easy to use.

Flash players are all provided generally by adobe. The adobe flash player is the universal video player over the internet and has constant updates to match the ever growing internet. 

YouTube's flash player includes the basic play/pause button, as well as volume controls. These are located on the tool bar at the bottom of the video player. YouTube has been able to upgrade and update its video player to suit it's users needs. For example, the interface has now got extra buttons like 3D, resolution display, video player size and annotations. All of these tools can be used by users to edit there video. The toolbar "auto-hides" if in full screen mode so that all of the video is displayed. And when the video is finished, the next interface appears and the play/pause button morphs into a playback button.

At the end of the video that is being played, another interface comes up which allows you to select another suggested video to watch. This is displayed as separate thumbnails in a number of different rectangles. By clicking these boxes, it will take you to a different webpage and to the selected video. 

Radio 1

This is the BBC One Radio webpage. You can access the live stream of the radio's broadcast via the flash player on the webpage. It is simple in the way that you use it as well as design. There is a simple play/stop button and a volume button. Because the stream is live however you cant skip back through the broadcast. There is options however to listen to different episodes of different presenters. Kind of like BBC iPlayer.

There are links to the Radio 1 Website which takes you to the home page of Radio 1. Here you can browse a variety of music and presenters. There is an option to change the bandwidth of the live stream. This is a good idea because it allows people of all internet speeds to listen to the radio live over the internet.

There is a graphic animation  on the flash player, this makes the webpage look a bit more interesting because it has dull grey colours.

Single-user games/quizzes for distribution on interactive learning and testing materials for distribution over the web or on CD. 

In one of the units that we did we conducted a safety quiz as part of the unit to pass it. In this test we were given multiple choice answers to click on and progress through the quiz. The quiz was very simply designed, I think the main reason for this was because the needed it to run on the simplest of computers. Or perhaps it was made quite a while back.


The scripting for this type of quiz is rather simple. It can be applied to a lot of quizzes that are made both past and present. A simple command that tells the multiple choice answer that if the correct one is clicked you can progress through to the next question or "scene".


There are also different graphics on each question. For example, some questions are visual, some questions are text and some are both. These graphics were vector based and very simple. An example of a graphic question was "Which seat gives you the least amount of glare form the sun?" and the graphic had three different computers situated in different positions around the room.

This is a children educational game I found on the internet. There are many different educational games for children that we can use as research. One of the most obvious things that i found out about childerens games is how simple they are. For example, 

 Software product tutorials. 

Presentations, training materials or interactive touchscreen kiosks that provide instant information for exhibition visitors.

Kiosk in town

Cash point