Minutes 24 Jan

Meeting points

1.     Went through items outstanding

2.     Planned the rest of the build schedule as best could, we still do not have a submission date.

3.     CWH gave BS the articles she had created for the build.

To do/ outstanding

1.     Apply colour scheme to snaps logo (BS)

2.     Find chosen font (BS)

3.     Get all components ready for build (BS)

4.     Install Flash (BS)

5.     Start building the Countryside game (CWH)

6.     Update self Gantt chart (BS and CWH)

7.     Update self and group Gannt chart for this week (CWH)

8.     List all tasks individually completed - written as speech for working presentation (BS and CWH)

A.O.B

1) BS laptop booked in for Flash installation next week

2) Other assignment due in 14/02 so may need to focus on that for the next week or two.

All kinds of software

To display a knowledge of a variety of software I have been using a number of packages to put together the 3D tutorial animation.

I created the 3D model in sketch up and recorded scenes which I then exported as quicktime movies.  I imported these scenes into Premiere Pro to stitch the scenes together and give a visual transition between each one.

The project has been exported to After Effects where I am going to give it some graphics.

Have not decided on the audio yet, that is one of my next tasks, plan the voiceover, music and graphics.

Sound effects

I played Becky the sound effects that I had selected and we chose our favourite.  These are from Audio Network.

BEACH - S_033133	2:04	Medium - Ocean Side, Many Seagulls, Low Background Waves On Shore, Occasional Splash In Water, Like Rock Or Bird Lands In Water
COUNTRYSIDE S_023592	2:31	Exterior - Early Morning, Various Steady Distant and Medium Bird Calls, Light Wind In Trees
SHUTTER S_321836_028	0:01	Close Up - Single Shot, Fast Shutter Speed

                  

Flash build, resolution/ size

I have started the Flash build.  Becky is the whizz but as yet she doesn't have Flash on her laptop so I have set up the working file.

I have done this as 600 x 800 after seeking advice on preferred sizes.

This was the most frequently used size amongst the developers who were asked, although there are many who have varying preferences

The most used game sizes:

	Width	Height
Average	617	469
Max	1280	900
Min	300	207
Most used	550 (23%) 600 (15%) 640 (13%)	400 (31%) 480 (12%) 600 (10%)

And this is the top 5 chart of the most used resolutions:

1. 550×400 (18%) 
2. 640×480 (11%) 
3. 600×400 (6%) 
4. 800×600 (5%) 
5. 750×530 (2%)

Source http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2009/04/20/the-perfect-size-for-a-flash-game/

Instructions for the game

I wrote the instructions and ran them by Becky, she liked the idea but suggested they were a little 'wordy' for kids, so I have simplified them.

To ensure I had covered all bases, to try and explain what the game was about, I made a list of the key components and purpose of the game, as well as the parts that link the game together.  I then made sure these particulars were put into the introduction.

The introduction and instructions will appear over the island, I layered Becky's image of the island in Illustrator, with a vignette and added a fine stroke and shadow to the text to make it pop out.

  

Buttons for navigation screen

Here are the buttons for the navigation screen.

Collating resources for Tuesday's build

We start the build on Tuesday before the tutorial session so Becky and I are collating our resources.

I completed the beach and updated the winning screen with the colours from the chosen scheme 'school fete' as well as adding a drop shadow (my favourite!)  I have not used the correct font for the winning screen as I don't know yet what the outcome was from the research, our shortlist font examples were put to the public to choose their favourites.  This can be changed quite easily in the psd. file.

I have not made any changes to the Countryside Game as this was completed last year.

Spanner in the works!

So 25th October I was all for punching the computer after my 3 hour stint of re-doing the Gantt charts for myself and the group, after the initial one became corrupt, these latest versions again became corrupt!

We cannot identify the reason and it has flummoxed two IT gurus.  Needless to say, I was frustrated, nay furious.

The following morning I was at the midwife's for my check up and blood pressure had shot up, not surprising after how annoyed I was the previous night.

I had to return to keep and eye on things and again on the Friday, blood pressure was high, but all in all I was feeling better than I had done in weeks.  Fast forward through a 2 hour Tesco shop and a 2 hour Ikea trip to buy wardrobes, I spent the night rubbing my aching bum and back whilst devouring a 12 inch Pizza.... all of it.  With hindsight I should have seen what was coming.

Unknowingly in labour! Horizontal in the car to accommodate the wardrobes!

I'll spare you the gory details, by the following lunchtime our baby boy had made his debut, Ayrton James Bernard Peter 'The Bear'.

Following 16 days in special care, our boy came home with us and we are still adjusting.

I'm sure Becky will fill you in on her exciting fly in the ointment, in short she has had investigative surgery on her ankle and was also rendered out of service.

Becky and I returned to uni in the New Year to find that the rest of the tutorial group have been granted an extension.  Obviously we also require additional time to complete this assignment, Allison is applying to Leeds for an exemption, hopefully for an Easter submission date.

This week we had a production meeting and agreed that we should streamline our project as we are also starting a new assignment next week, it will be near impossible to complete everything we had originally planned to do.

We went through my production log and marked off what was complete, what we needed to do in the immediate future and what tasks we would shelve.  It is hard to set dates at the moment as we have not had confirmation from Leeds of our final deadline date so the dates we chose may need to change.

This week's main tasks are to collate all the resources that we need to build the working presentation, jpegs and sound files. 

Minutes - 10th February 2012

Well we are finally back after the long break... Clare has now had her little boy, who by the way is very very cute and me, well my ankle is no different but thats another story.

1st task this week was to have a good catch up of where we were and where we needed to roughly be, slightly difficult though not knowing new hand in dates but at least we could ourselves something to work to.

We decided in order not to compromise marks on further assignments we would work to the criteria required only so the big ideas Clare and myself had took a back seat. The website portraits were first on the list to go, followed by the game character which we both said could possibly be done 'version 2' the footprints idea we said we would add should there be time at the end.

FOCUS: to build initial stages to the game for the working presentation.

what we achieved:

1. Update ghantt chart (completed)
2. Get submission dates (we will know this after 2/2/12)
3. Planned working presentation (completed)
4. Exchange sounds (decided this was not essential yet but we needed these on file)
5. create countryside game basic version (decided to leave this until later date and if we had time create others for presentation) Clare to complete basic layout and both to work on the flash version

Tasks set to Clare:

1. Create button for 3D Tutuorial, Map and Exit
2. Provide countryside image for poloroid
3. Provide beach image for poloroid
4. Create logo for tutorial

Tasks set to Becky:

1. apply colour scheme to logo
2. add snaps logo to the map
3. provide version of map with no locations
4. provide version of map with locations
5. provide mountains iamge for poloroid
6. provide under the sea image for poloroid

Both:

1. to provide congratulations screen images
2. work on individual contextual research report
3. list individual tasks completed including technical explanation