Yellow Lab A Blog 4

Green - Completed, Red - In progress, Blue - Scheduled

Accomplished this week

Entire Lab

The entire lab did the same thing this week because of the shortened week, therefore, we will not break it up into tables.

This week everyone worked on their programming and recorded their testing results. Everyone also fixed the errors from the testing results.

To be Accomplished Next Week

Next week everyone plans on finishing their games and recording final testing results. As well everyone will work on the final report, instruction manual and poster.

Optional

McGuire's Monster Performer of the Week

Mike and Nathan for a superb game design.

Yellow Blog

Accomplishments This Week

• Lab has familiarized themselves with game maker.
  
• Tables have developed initial ideas on adapting game idea to game maker.
• Tables have found images and backgrounds for game.
• Tables have divided tasks into programing and writing.
• Some tables have thought of starting final report.
• Sprites have been made for games.
• Sprites have been programmed to move around screen.
• Questions have been modified and adapted to suit game maker.
  

Goals for Next Week

• Finish individual mini games.
• Begin compiling mini games.
• Begin writing instruction manual.
• Begin writing final report.
• Start brainstorming ideas for poster and presentation.
• Select two representatives for open house.

Schedule

Lab D: Status Blog #3

Tasks accomplished this week:

- Teams submitted their design proposal report for grading.

- Stephen Dixon invited and organized a visit by a Mustard Seed client, Tim Barber, who talked to the lab about his life, the Mustard Seed, and homelessness.
- Some members participated in tour of downtown Mustard Seed facilities.
- Begun design stage:
- Developed pseudocode for computer game components.
- Developed & refined game structure for hands-on components.
- Begun preliminary construction of game boards for hands-on components.
- Encountered testing error: Virtual Machine at Labs does not have the video card necessary to test GameMaker 8.0 files. Consequently, teams are advised to use laptops or make the game outside of class.
- Assigned responsibilities and roles for writing the lab manual. Each group is responsible for submitting technical specifications of their component, which is to submitted no later than Sunday, April 11. In addition, Matt Schroeder is responsible for writing the introduction. Yang Zhang was appointed as the editor of the document; it is her responsibility to ensure that all necessary information is included in the report, and to have the first draft completed by class-time on Wednesday, April 14. At this point, teams will have the opportunity to look at the report and check for technical accuracy. The lab manual will be submitted on the Open House day.
- Stephen Dixon and Matt Schroeder will represent the lab at Open House.
- Prototype evaluation will be done on April 16th, after the Open House.


Plans for Next Week:

Computer Game Groups must:
- continue construction of game coding and testing as they go.
- finish game design by April 9th. Afterwards, teams will be expected to debug and enhance the software until Open House day on April 16th.


Hands-on Groups must:
- Continue construction of activities
- Design fun, interactive, and aesthetically pleasing games that can be played by multiple players.

Lab:
- Begin work on instruction manual and technical support sections, to be submitted by April 11th to Yang Zhang.
- Continue to ensure integration with all surrounding table groups.

Monitoring and Control



- Teams continue to submit inadequate information regarding how their accomplishments relate to their schedule. For all teams except Andrew Paul's, information relevant to this section still takes the form of "on schedule" but fails to clarify what schedule means, even after warning.
-

Additional Information
- Clarified project theme by narrowing "adventure" to "travel adventure". Each team was assigned a unique continent which must be integrated into their prototype. In addition, we interpreted "travel adventure" to be about conquering the world, continent by continent.
-Motto changed from Building Self-Confidence Through the Building of Knowledge”...
to “Building Confidence through Learning”
-Lab Progress check on April 14th. All prototypes must be completed to be examined in public; this will help the lab control and monitor progress in preparation for the open house.

Lab C March 26

Accomplishments

Individually

C2

• Began creating backgrounds and sprites
• Became familiar with Game Maker

C3

• Built content for the game
• Structured the game
• Gathered backgrounds and images for game

C5

• Built majority of question bank
• Got familiar with Game Maker and got it working on Mac
  

C6

• Finished Functional Requirements and Design Proposal Report
• Made NPC's to interact with
• Added a few extras like sound and effects
• Experimented with getting questions to work properly

C7

• Gathered all information needed for questions in the game
• Started programming with Game Maker

C9

• Became familiar with Game Maker 8
• Planned all levels of game and found sound and image files to use
• Started programming first level of game
  

Next Weeks Goals

Management Task

• Determine Open House presenters
• Discuss integration as a whole lab
• Status updates from each team

Individually

C2

• Finish making levels
• Start writing question and lessons
• Incorporate lessons and questions into game

C3

• Complete content
• Integrate content into game

C5

• Finish programming and put questions into game
• Figure out how to keep track of which questions have been answered correctly

C6

• Finish question material
• Add all information into the game
• Finalize how questions will be accessed in game

C7

• Finish programming game

C9

• Start writing text for question
• Set up research stations in game
• Complete programming

Optional

• All things are going according to schedule
• Everyone seems to be adapting to using Game Maker 8 quite well
  

Yellow Lab A Blog 3

Green - Completed, Red - In progress, Blue - Scheduled

Accomplished this week

Entire Lab

Handed in Functionality Report

A1

Began writing code and doing game

A2

Started programming, and found out what gamemaker is able to do.

A4

Programming game

Divided programming tasks

Developed game base

Decided on health meter/score counter

A5

Started/worked on programming the game

Decided to make one level that works really well before working on more levels

A6

Started programming

A7

Worked on programming the game

Came up with the idea of a multiplayer option

To be Accomplished Next Week

Entire Lab

Continue Programming

A1

Complete at least one part of the game and get it ready for testing

A2

Have at least one test

Decide improvements for game

A4

Game development

Record any testing for final report

A5

Be a good amount into the programming

Test game

A6

Finish programming

A7

Work on programming of the game

Optional

McGuire's Monster Performer of the Week

Oliver for setting a high score in bubble spinner

Update #3 - Friday March 26th, 2010

Accomplishments This Week

• Project Management finalized the board game theme
• The lab decided to work with a military based theme
• The board game will have 30 spaces
• Each table will be assigned a color and 5 spaces
• Each color representing a different aspect of social cues
• For every time the player lands on a specific colored space, a harder level of difficulty will be tested with respect to that social cue
• Each table will create a minimum of 3 levels or a maximum of 5
• A level consists of a mini-game style
• After successfully completing a game, player will receive a certain amount of points, depending on the difficulty of the completed game
• The game will end after a certain amount of rounds, where the player's total score will be tallied and player will attain a corresponding ranking
  
• After the finalization of the theme, the individual tables got to work on the first levels of the game
• Base "Rooms" for the first levels of the games were established
  

Goals for Next Week

• The lab expects for everyone to have a minimum of one level complete by next Wednesday
• After completing one level, the next levels will be accomplished much faster
• This is due to the main concepts of the game already being covered
• Developments towards the final game will continue, this included the board game format itself

Schedule

Lab D: Status Blog #2

Status Report (March 19, 2010)

Accomplished this week

-Teams have begun integrating with table groups before and after.
-Familiarization Presentations were completed and teams have an understanding of the direction of the rest of the lab.
-A meeting was held with the GED representatives from the Mustard seed and table groups now have a sense of the overall needs and requests of our client.
-The representative of the Homeless community (Tim) has said that he will come to speak about issues that face Calgary’s homeless and to answer questions from lab groups.
-Development of a persistent character and its role in each step has continued through the week.
-The mustard seed visit has been scheduled so students can gain an understanding of the operative structure of our client.
-Work on functionality reports has begun

To be accomplished next week

-The functionality report is due next Wednesday (March 24 2010) and teams should focus to have these complete ASAP.
-Solidify interfaces between groups before any major construction can begin on final project
-Prototypes should continue to be developed and tested regularly throughout the week
-Teams should ensure that they are not falling behind schedule
-Character design MUST be finalized by Wednesday.


Monitoring and Control

Figure 1: Weekly Gantt Chart


The Gantt Chart above shows strides in some areas, but not in others. Teams have done a remarkable job of researching their presentations, which was made evident by the presentations on Friday. However, on the whole, coordination of the lab needs improvement. Currently, there is no plan on the table to integrate all components from all groups into a single cohesive package. In addition, there are some discontinuities in group interfaces, where they exist. In particular, the two teams working on logic must work to clarify their interfaces and relationship to each other. Thus, the bar for lab coordination is marked as behind schedule.

In addition, there are some new emails floating about in the PM team about a possible change in theme. It is not clear whether the change intends to narrow the scope of "adventure" into the frame of "travel", or alter the scope to travelling itself. The decision for theme was made two weeks ago; it remains to be seen whether the emails will bring an important milestone or a distraction.

In summary of monitoring and controlling the group's progress, I make two suggestions: increase disclosure of information. Emails sent to just the PM team should be automatically forwarded to all members of every group, because delegates may forget or not keep up with them. It may also be helpful to centralize the management structure, so there is more accountability for keeping group representatives organized and focused.


Additional Information

Information discussed during last 2 PM meetings.

USER NEEDS:
D1: Learning Disability
D2: Short Term Memory Loss
D3: Lack of Education
D5: Addiction
D9: Social Skills
D11: Decision Making
D12: Low Self-esteem

-Consitent Character used throughout the adventure.
-This is being manually drawn by a fellow lab member.
- More details about character design may be presented during one of the labs this week, but it will for sure be present by next week's weekly online blog.
-Discussion about a Master Score Card will be produced towards the end of the lab timeline; this will ensure that the guests can visually see their progress/ improvement in all 7 systems.
- NOTE: ALL lab teams must create a scoring method to accommodate this proposal.
-GREAT WORK on your Familiarization Presentations everyone!

Yellow Lab C - March 19 Blog

Accomplishments this Week

Individually

C2

• Familiarized ourselves with Game Maker 8
• Completed Familiarization Presentation and presented it

C3

• Familiarization Report Completed

C5

• Finished Familiarization Presentation and presented it
• Had a question and answer time with the MS representatives
• Acquired Game Maker 8 for Mac thanks to Danielle
• Set overall theme

C6

• Finished and received an excellent grade on the Familiarization Presentation
• Started designing curriculum
• Built game world environment and main character
• Achieved a better understanding of other groups game concepts

C7

• Completed design process
• Prepared and presented the Familiarization Presentation

Next Week's Goals

• Check progress of each team
• Update project tasks and design proposals

Individually

C2

• Begin game production
• Complete and submit the Functional Requirement and Design Proposal Report

C3

• Functional Requirements and Design Proposal Report
• Work on game design

C5

• Finish Functional Requirements and Design Proposal Report
• Begin working with Game Maker to design
• Start gathering information to create question bank

C6

• Refine curriculum
• Start and finish Functional Requirements and Design Proposal Report
• Develop game objects/interactions and NPC's

C7

• Finish Functional Requirements and Design Proposal Report
• Begin creating game

Management Details

Overall, everything is progressing according to plan and even slightly ahead of schedule. Having the Mustard Seed representatives come in today helped to clear up some uncertainty and confusion in regards to what exactly the end use of our product would be.

Yellow Lab A

Green is accomplished, Blue is Original plan, and red is current plan.

Accomplished this week

Entire Lab

Logbook familiarization questions

Individual Teams

A1

Familiarization Presentation

Started Programming

A2

Familiarization Presentation

A4

Familiarization Presentation

Explored Gamemaker

Started Functionality Report

A5

Finished and presented Familiarization Presentation

Started learning how to use gamemaker

Split up functionality report

A6

Split up Functionality report

Finish Familiarization Presentation

Began programming

A7

Worked on Familiarization Presentation

Divided functionality report among eachother

To be Accomplished Next Week

Entire Lab

A1

Start/Finish/ Hand in Functionality Report

Programming

A2

Start/Finish/ Hand in Functionality Report

Start programming

A4

Finish/ Hand in Functionality Report

Start Programming

A5

Finish/ Hand in Functionality Report

Start programming game

A6

Have game planned out

Most of programming process done

A7

Finish/ Hand in Functionality Report

Majority of programming done

Optional

McGuire's Monster Performer of the Week

Group A5 for getting 9.75 on the presentation

Unfortunately we are behind schedule on the Functionality Report, additional work will have to be passed on to next week.

Update #2- Friday March 19th, 2010

Accomplishments This Week

• This week we have mainly focused on our familiarization presentation
• Each table gave a eight to ten minute overview on what the group was focusing on
• The different aspects were:

-End users (who would use the program developed)
-How we would engage the client
-Implementation (how the game would be used)
-Key players (the main people that will be a part of the process and will be impacted)

• NEW* integrated theme- lab decided to deviate from original idea of compiled mini-games to a fully integrated board game theme
  
• Virtual board game idea will be the interface we plan to use
• Theme of the broad game has been decided to be military oriented (without extreme display of violence) in order to attract the interest of a mainly male dominated homeless population
  
• Player's motivation will be the progressing of ranks (ex. starting at private to general)

Goals for next week

• Want to get the first level of the game completed
• Start putting the overall virtual game board together
• Each group will have the "easy" step of their game contribution by Friday of next week
• Management team is in charge of designing the board game itself (main screen)

Schedule

Lab D: Status Blog #1: March 12, 2010

ENGG 253 Status Blog
Yellow Lab D
March 7 - 12, 2010


Tasks accomplished this week:

- Formulated structure of Mustard Seed Program:

- There are 4 teams who will focus on a hands-on aspect of the design.

- There are 3 teams who will focus on an interactive computer game aspect of the design.

- Teams will work in groups of 2 or 3 teams to design a computer game and an activity that are to be integrated together and collectively develop and apply the skills of either logic, memory, or focus.

- Overall theme of the program was chosen to be "Adventure".

- Team contracts were completed on schedule.

- Entire lab contract was completed on schedule.

- Research into familiarization presentation has begun. Each time was assigned a area of focus for the user needs to reduce redundancies between presentations.

- Representative of the homeless community has been approached to come into the lab and speak about the issues facing the homeless of Calgary and answer questions from teams. Authorization has been confirmed by Ningxu Cai and Doug Sephton. An invitation was sent out to Tim (the representative) and is pending reply.

- Persistent scoring system for entire program has begun development.

- Persistent character throughout all designs in program has begun development.

- Teams working in common areas have approached each other to start designing interfaces. Negotiation has begun to wrinkle out any inconsistencies and/or redundancies in the interfaces. More to come of this later.



Project Monitoring and Control



Figure 1: Gantt Chart monitors the progress of the group according to the events which were scheduled this week. This Gantt Chart is most copied from the lab contract, but some things are adjusted and grouped. For example, the original lab contract had three bars earmarked for "project introduction", "sensitivity workshop", and "research workshop". These three categories have been grouped into the new category "Lab Workshops".

The Gantt Chart shows each specific task as a blue bar, and milestones as diamonds. The black bar going through each task represents the degree to which the tasks have been finished. In this case, the lab contract, workshop, and concept/theme categories are explicitly marked as done (since the workshops are completed, the theme was defined, and the lab contract was submitted).

Two tasks are not marked as done: team coordination and research. Team coordination is defined as communication between groups working on the same area of focus (ie. two groups working on logic must coordinate their efforts). Team coordination encompasses two main regions of research: the developing analysis of the user needs that the design specification must satisfy, and the development of interfaces between components of the lab's prototype.

Since most teams are still in the drafting stage of their design proposals, team coordination has been worked on but has not yet been fully realized. In our schedule, team coordination and research phases are scheduled for completion next week. We have done considerable negotiations to develop the grounds for the design proposal, and individual teams have undertaken considerable research measures to meet the impending deadline next week.



To be accomplished next week:

- Completion and rehearsal of familiarization presentations as early as possible.

- More development of interfaces between teams working in similar areas.

- Prototype design and construction to begin on Wednesday Mar 17.

- Design Proposal Report to be done by Mar 22.

- Finalize scoring system.

- Finalize character design.

LAB C - March 12

Accomplished this Week

• Created overall functionality
• Determined theme
• Determined general scope
• Divided scope into roles/sections for each team to focus on

Individually

C2

• Researched GED requirements for Algebra and Functions
• Started working on game flow and design
• Stared on Familiarization Presentation

C3

• Researched Game Maker
• Beginnings of “Mario” style game
• Planned scope of game

C5

• Divided up sections within Life Sciences
• Researched GED requirements
• Distributed work for Familiarization Presentation

C6

• Researched GED curriculum and sample tests for Physical Sciences
• Researched Game Maker and its potential
• Beginnings of “Zelda” style game
• Acquired curriculum guideline for Physical Sciences

C7

• Planned basic structure of game
• Researched curriculum for Numbers and Number Operations
• Planned how to incorporated problem solving into game

C9

• Researched key players that influence such things such as dyslexia and aphasia
• Researched existing data and statistics learning tools (basically none or geared towards kids)
  

Next Week’s Goals

• Check progress on Functionality
• Scope Refinement
  

Individually

C2

• Experiment with Game Maker
• Prepare Familiarization Presentation

C3

• Familiarization Presentation

C5

• Complete Familiarization Project
• Start Functionality Requirements and Design Proposal

C6

• Divide up Familiarization Presentation and assign sections
• Refine scope of program into smaller levels
• Design curriculum and game flow

C7

• Familiarization Presentation roles
• Experiment with Game Maker
• Divide work for Functional Requirements and Design Report

C9

• Familiarization Presentation
• Become acquainted with Game Maker

Gantt Chart

The blue is projected, Red is accomplished.

Blog 1 - March 12,2010

Accomplished this week

• topic
• individual team contracts
• lab contract
• game idea

Individual Teams

A1

• Game maker tutorial
• created test games
• familiarization research/discussion
• Worked well as a cohesive unit.
  

A2

• familiarization research/division
• contributed to a positive working environment.

A4

• In a flash of genious, they came up with our theme!!
• Familiarization research/division/discussion

A5

• Familiarization research/division/discussion
• Did a lot of research for their video game.
  

A6

• Familiarization research/division/discussion
• Research for game
  

A7

• Completed familiarization report
• created test games

To be Accomplished Next Week

Entire Lab

• Prepare questions for mustard seed representatives (Friday)
• Familiarization presentation (Friday)
• Logbook familiarization assignment (Friday)

A1

• continue game design
• start design proposal report

A2

• start design proposal report
• Complete familiarization report
• Begin game design

A3

• Practice for familiarization presentation

A4

• Practice for familiarization presentation
• Start design proposal report

A5

• Practice for familiarization presentation
• Team meeting Thursday for design proposal

A6

• Practice for familiarization presentation

A7

• Practice for familiarization presentation

Optional

McGuire's Monster Performer of the Week

Rabih El-Hendi - For doing the team contract

Note: Gant chart is included in separate post

Update #1- Friday March 12th, 2010

Accomplishments This Week

• Lab was assigned topic of Social cues
• Each lab table chose a sub-topic to focus on:
  
  • B1: interview skills
    
  • B2: facial expressions
  • B3: posture
  • B4: teamwork
  • B5: handshakes
  • B8: conversation
• Each sub-topic will be the main focus of each labs tables contribution to a lab wide game which has the theme of social cues
• Teams are currently researching their sub-topics in-order to present familiarization presentations next Friday
• Lab tables are also currently familiarizing themselves with the Game Maker programming software
• Tables have commenced brainstorming ideas for their section of the game
  
• Specific dates have been set by project management team (see schedule below) for aimed completion of certain parts of the project

Schedule

***Please note, to view click image***

To Be Accomplished In The Coming Week...

• Research is compiled and perfected, into the familiarization presentations
• The tables will present on Friday
  
• Ideas of the game should now be finalized and ready to implemented into the software
• Basic sketches and manuals will take form