Blogger spam

I have had some issues using blogger at home, hence why this has all been updated today, sorry about that.

Final

Ok So this is the game in its final state. Have done a number of things.

• Made the game scalable for different screen sizes.
• Added some colour and changed the design of the bucket.
• This also has animations for correctly collecting a shape.
• Animation for incorrectly catching a shape.
• Changed  the screen to Open GL for a massive performance increase.
• Edited the pattern shapes were expelled at to prevent objects going off te edge at te same time making it near impossible to play.
• Your now able to create a new game once a game has ended.
• Added a highscore function which saves the best score in a play session.
• Added a pause function.
• Turned the display cursor back on, as while it was off it looked better but made clicking off the screen to easy.
• Changed the life system. 
• you start gaining life back slowly after 10 points.
• you lose life for an incorrect collection.
• you lose life for missing a collection.

5 game screens

Ok have done quite a bit more. Added color and a bit of "texture" to the tunnel, makes it look a lot more 3rd, and simulates the players life(green though yellow to red). There is also a score system in place that counts the number of shapes correctly collects. These 5 images show the state of the game so far.

Decided to make the center of the rotation a bit higher on the screen as it creates more of a 3D enviroment by restricting what the user can see slightly. I have also created my bucket(the square at the bottom), this collects the objects. Have made it so if you miss 3 objects you get a game over screen.

its starting to work....

so far have made it rotate and and shoot out the 3 shapes, here is an image

Initial concept sketches

Going with the game idea...

Ok so I have decided to run with making a game.

I briefly looked into using blender for this however, due to time constraints I will use processing as my idea will be conveyed just as well.

So the goal is to create a tube like thing that objects or shapes fall through and the user has to catch. The idea being the shapes are the data and the user catches them in a bucket which is the data type.

Still intent to use more colour this project!

Text to support project

My project was looking at primitive data types within Java. In my game a type is represented by the shape the user has selected (left and right mouse buttons change this “type”), either a square, circle or a triangle. In Java we will call these respectively; a Character (a single key stoke), an Integer (a number) and a Boolean (true of false). The shapes moving through the “pipe” are described as values. These shapes must be matched with the correct shape which is controlled by the user, otherwise the program will fail (Game Over). For example, trying to squeeze a circle into a triangle would be like telling the computer to hold 4,587,361 in a space it has allotted for either “True” or “False”. Imagine asking the computer if 1+1=2 and it said “4,587,361". For the sake of simplicity I haven’t covered java machine casting at runtime type checking, so please be aware in some cases a circle should be able to fit into both a square and a triangle!

The game doesn’t end if you just miss one shape, as I wanted to show that software can run with bugs (errors) in it. As the game progresses so does the complexity, more shapes will appear at a greater frequency, just as they would in a larger program. Obviously a larger program can potentially hide more ‘bugs’, therefore the higher you score the more ‘life’ the pipe gets back. This ‘health’ is represented by the colour of the pipe.

Idea 1 - Game

Look at using java or blender, to make a simple game that would require the user to slot various shapes in various sockets

cost  - 1 - Nothing

time - 2 - Maybe 2-3 days.

Pros - costs nothing, no new skills need, would be one of the more interesting ideas for me to do

Cons - Time could get away from me, wouldn't be learning new skills just improving others

Idea 2 - Toy

Very similar to the game only will be much simpler and be a wooden frame that blocks of different shapes can slot in and out of.

cost - $50-100 + would need to borrow tools, and steal some wood stain(very expensive and need different colours but small amounts).

time - 1 - Could probably get this done in a day, other than waiting for glue and varnish to dry

Pros - Would be the most fun to make, having something physical is appealing.

Cons - Might be too simple, expensive(car still needs a front bumper!).

Idea 3 - Animation

essentially idea one but playing itself.

cost - Nothing

time - 3 - Mare time than I think I have -Would need to learn how to use blender or 3DSM :s

Pros - costs nothing, would learn a lot.

Cons - Would take a very long time, essentially the same as the game.

ANNOYING!

Ok so it sounds terrible. I have removed all of those noises. Tried lots of different variants but it is very unplesent. Have now re-themed it so all of the noises are sythetic music.

Bugs now have a pulsing sound created using a sine wave frequency when moused over
also made them pulse(grow shrink) in time with the noise to make them more like "soundshapes".

The other noises have been replaced by various "tunes" that I think fit the movement/reaction. Will see if I can upload them

Sounds

added a cats purr for a moused over happy bug
added a ladies scream for when a bug dies and all the other run around
added an explosion for when a bug was hit
added a babies giggle for when the cursor was stolen

additions

Bugs now react with the edge of there pen. If they are stuck on the wall they gradually go blue. If they are there to long they pop and die. This scares all the other bugs making them less happy and sends them all running around randomly for a couple of seconds.

Also if the user has a collection of more than 5 bugs under the cursor the bugs steal it and the user is left cursor-less.

Bugs!

So currently my creatures are round circles and will be hence forth known as bugs.

Basically the program creates a set amount of bugs(still unsure of the exact number) that wobble around the screen. They have a happiness variable that dictates there color and behviour.

Green -  happy and will be attracted to the mouse cursor.
Red - unhappy more erractic and will flee from the mouse cursor.

while the user holds the cursor over them they will purr and gradually get happier(greener) and stop moving. If the user clicks the left mouse button he spanks(hits) them and they instantly get unhappy.

New idea!

So pretty much scratched my musical drawing program. It didn't have enough personality. So now im thinking I want the user to interact with little creatures. Taking inspiration from ant farms and tamagotchi.

These creatures, there will be more than one on the order of 10-20, will react to mouse over and clicking will react with one another and the edge of there "pen".

back to the drawing board?

So having presented my ideas, the feedback I received was my software was too predictable and all user generated. ie my program had no personality.

Various ways I could fix this would be -

• Hide the play head
• Have multiple play heads that evolved(transformed!)
• Make the shapes move

However with these ideas I would still end up with buttons for the user, which again wasn't liked and with the effort the user would put in to create a "drawing" that dint "behave" would frustrate rather than entertain.

Sketches

place holder

Second project - inital ideas

First off my initial ideas were to create some kind of draw program. The user would draw various shapes and the canvas would have a play head that ran across it. The various shapes would trigger separate notes and tones. Effectively letting the user create music.

My initial sketches will be in my next post.

Very cool

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=11202
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=17185
http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=12399

Transformaton

transformation

–noun

1.

the act or process of transforming.

2.

the state of being transformed.

3.

change in form, appearance, nature, or character.

4.

Theater . a seemingly miraculous change in the appearance of scenery or actors in view of the audience.

5.

Logic . Also called transform. one of a set of algebraic formulas used to express the relations between elements, sets, etc., that form parts of a given system.

6.

Mathematics .

a.

the act, process, or result of transforming  or mapping.

b.

function ( def. 4a ) .

7.

Linguistics .

a.

transformational rule.

b.

the process by which deep structures are converted into surface structures using transformational rules.

8.

Genetics . the transfer of genetic material from one cell to another resulting in a genetic change in the recipient cell.

9.

a wig or hairpiece for a woman.

 

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transformation 

Notes on: Programming - The Bigger Picture

• Programming is great for repeating steps many times, with changes each time.
• Programming is not great for making predefined detailed static images.
• Generative(random) animation works well if programed but static(non random) is often much more difficult to program.
• Programming is good for:
• Variation
• Interaction
• Generation
• Repetition
• Calculation
• Scalability
• Code is a list of rules and instruction

reflection

So far during this course I have found....
                           
                                1) Processing is a java package with many pre-written methods.
                                2) My knowledge from COMP102/103 and SWEN221 are a massive help as far as the code goes.
                                3) Number 2 isnt as helpful as I initially thought it would be.

The design process is something I really need to work on. I tend to get one idea into my head and exclude everything else. This means rather than the iterative processing the tutors suggest, my head works  along the lines of first is best. I can defiantly see the advantage of working through and iterative tree and suspect i already do a small one inside my head before pen touches paper(or fingers to keys). So this is my main goal for the second project.

Another area I would like to give some time too is my colour theory, which currently is woeful and put me of adding colour in project one. For the next project I realise I need to stretch my self and get out of that comfort zone. So colour here i come!!! (<---- But I may need help :/).

Set of 4!

Colour

Tried adding various types of colour. However everything I tried just ended up washing out the geometric patterns. Thinking of sticking with just the black and white. Next attempt is going to try inverting every second image.

4 images im working off

Initial ideas for my wall

I decided I wanted my four panels to blend with one another and got that idea after looking up many images on various design websites.

Another 3 images

Experiments using random, loops, colour, transparency and recursion

Moirse effect

Once again images created using over lapping eclipses that have created the Moirse effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern). Colour variation using lerpColor.


Moirse effect
In physics, a moiré pattern (pronounced /mwɑˈreɪ/ in English, [mwaʁe] in French) is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern

The first image emerges!

This was created using a layering of oversized (larger than repeated canvas) ellipses that had a colour degradation. Since this image I have discovered lerpColor to achieve the same effect.