Conclusion and Evaluation

Overall, I am very pleased with how my project turned out.

I have learnt a lot about how to use Flash and Actionscript. I now feel I could confidently write actionscript for simple animations and games. I understand how variables work (happiness-ometer!) and how to use various functions. I am also much more confident on making movie clips and buttons, which before this project, I struggled with.

I enjoyed working on my own for several reasons. I was able to use completely my own ideas, and I could get on with the project whenever I felt like it. I also had to sort out any problems by myself, which sometimes proved very difficult, but in the end I learnt from my mistakes and improved at Flash significantly.

I like how "cute" my project is overall, as it would appeal greatly to young children. Everything from the colours, fonts, animations, and sounds were all carefully selected to suit the overall feel of the project.

I am also pleased that I got the happiness-ometer working, since it gives an aim to the game: to keep Pebbles happy.

However, I had to change my idea from the original Project Proposal:

"For my individual interactive project, I have decided to create in Flash an interactive screen “pet”.

• He will be very simplistic yet effective.
• He will be rounded and cute.
• Aimed at young children, particularly girls.
• He will be able to sit in his own screen while the child is busy on the computer and make cute noises/movements if left alone for too long.
• He will have several different movements/ characteristics:
• His eyes/head will follow the mouse
• After a certain amount of time he will become hungry and whine for food/attention etc.
• He will fall asleep if he is tired or bored."

The green represents things I managed to achieve and the red shows things I wasn't able to include.

I could have improved my project by making the pet have more of a mind of his own, and by making him move more freely. However, I think this would have been a bit over my head and I'm glad I decided to make the project more simple than this because I still learnt an awful lot, and was able to spend time adding minor details like sound effects and a 'Game Over' screen.

Another thing I would have liked to change if I had more time was to make a more challenging game. The reason this game is so simple is because it was a last minute idea. If I was making this product for use in real life I would definately have spent more time on the game, probably making an option to play 3 different games, and the happiness-ometer would go either up or down depending on whether the games were completed or failed.

Problems writing project to CD

Throughout the making of my virtual pet, I was constantly checking it worked in "Test Movie". Although there had been some minor problems along the way, I had managed to fix them so that everything worked correctly in the Test Movie option.

However, when I came to play the swf file as a final check before writing it to CD, what was supposed to be the main interface was now a blank purple screen. Panic! I then previwed it in an html screen and it worked perfectly. So on the cd I put: the fla files, the swf files, and the html files, along with some instructions explaining to open the game in the html files.

BUT, when I tested the CD on a PC, the html files no longer worked. Again, panic!! So I tried playing the swf files and they worked even better than the html files had worked on a mac, because the user is able to maximise the game screen.

So I will go to babbage before presenting my project to see which files I need to open on the PC we usually present on, to save any embarassment!

Finishing touches- neglecting Pebbles..

Today I was able to find the actionscript that created a timer. If Pebbles is neglected for 30 seconds (I used this short time-span so that I could show this when presenting it in class. If I was to make this product for use in real life then I would make this time longer.) If the buttons on the main interface are not touched for 30 seconds then the happiness-ometer loses 2 points. Here is the coding for the timer:

ACTION SCRIPT!!!!

Game Over

If Pebbles' happiness-ometer reaches zero, he runs away and it is the end of the game.
The actionscript for this is:

if (happy=0) {
gotoAndPlay (115)
}

Sound Effects

Now that my virtual pet was pretty much completed, it was time to add the finishing touches, which make all the difference to the final product. I didn't have time to record my own sounds, so I had a look at Flashkit.com to see if they had what I was looking for: fun and catchy sounds which would appeal to young children.

For the buttons, I managed to find and download some "popping" sounds, which play when the mouse is rolled over them. When pressed, they make a fun clicking sound.

I found a simple tune which plays throughout the game. When the user plays the drag and drop game, some jungle-type music plays to fit in with the animals.

The Well Done screen after the game has the sound of children cheering.

Opening scene

I made the opening scene in a different flash document, so in order to link this scene to the rest of the game, I had to put this actionscript onto the Play button:

on (press) {
_root.loadMovie("FEEDING PANDA etc.swf");
}

I also used a Transition effect on the text which makes it swirl in at the beginning.

Well Done screen

After the game is completed a well done screen appears

I made the "Well Done" almost jump out at the user. I did this by inserting a keyframe with plain black text, then adding another keyframe, changing the first letter into a bright colour and larger text size. I did this for each letter and in the final keyframe I also added two buttons, Play Again or Main Menu.

"Play" button

Since my virtual pet is aimed at young children, I decided to make a short, simple game for the play button.

The user has to drop and drag the food to the correct animal's bowl.

I downloaded a jungle-sounding tune from www.flashkit.com that plays when the user clicks to play the game.


I applied the actionscript that makes the food draggable and the bowls into drop targets, but when the game was completed nothing happened. So I had to introduce a new variable:

var finish=0;
if (bluefish.onTarget)
finish=finish+1;
if (grass.onTarget)
finish=finish+1;
if (banana.onTarget)
finish=finish+1;

if (finish==3)
gotoAndPlay (100);

This tells flash that when finish is equal to 3 (because there are three drag and drops involved) it must then play frame 100 (where the well done screen is).

Pebbles' facial expressions

I managed to get Pebbles' facial expression to change depending on whether he is happy or sad. I made him into a movie clip and added a different facial expression to each frame. Then in the main movie I added actionscript to each part where his mood changes:

mc_panda gotoAndPlay (10)

This is telling flash to play frame 10 of the panda movieclip, which incidently is his unhappy face.

"Hurt", "Sleep" and "Happiness-ometer"!

Today was extremely successful.

I created the animations for "hurt" and "sleep" and put actionscript on both these buttons telling flash to play the frame where the relevant animation is when clicked.

This is an example of the actionscript coding I used on the buttons:

on (release) {

gotoAndPlay(20);

}

For the "hurt" animation I made a key frame with a "foot" in and converted it to a movie clip. I then added another key frame in which the foot appears to be kicking the pet with the word "POW" flash up. I motion tweened these frames so that when the "hurt" button is pressed the panda appears to be kicked by the foot.

I did the same process for "sleep" but using a bed and some "zzz's".

I also created the "happiness-ometer" by putting a variable in:

var happy=10

This code makes the happiness level start at 10 (the middle). At the end of each movie clip I added:

if (happy <20)

happy=happy+2;

or

if (happy >0)

happy=happy-2;

depending on whether the movie clip makes Pebbles happy or sad.

Designing user interface and movie clips

Today I designed the main user interface for the virtual pet.

I have decided to make my panda a bright green colour, since it adds more colour to the page, and looks more fun to younger children. I think it also makes him seem cuter.

I made the buttons fun shapes with bright colours, which also appeals to young children.

Also today, I created the movie clip of what happens when the user "feeds" him. I put actionscript on the 'Feed' button telling flash to play frame 20 (where I made the movie clip) when clicked.

I will do this for the three other activities (Play, Hurt, and Sleep) on Monday.

Storyboard

This is where the storyboard will go

Problem solving

After speaking to Katina about my problem, she suggested I try writing a storyboard for the different activities the pet would be able to do, and then use the timeline so that the user will be able to control which activity the pet will do and when.

I would also like to be able to create a "happiness-ometer". The pet's mood will change depending on what the user is doing with it (e.g. if the pet is being fed, happiness will increase, and if the pet is being hurt or neglected, happiness will decrease). If the pet's happiness decreases to a certain point (lets say zero), he will run away.

Problems

I've been having problems with how to bring the virtual pet to life.

I tried following some online instructions (http://www.moock.org/lectures/introToOOP/) on how to make a virtual "tamagotchi". This took me a long time, and after getting it to work I discovered this was not the kind of thing I wanted to produce. I could only get the pet to "digest" food and then die.

I have tried looking on www.flashkit.com and www.actionscript.org for some advice but this is not proving very successful.

I will have to think of a different way to produce my virtual pet.

Character design

I have designed a simple, cute looking panda in Flash.

I think he's very cute, and would appeal to both boys and girls.

However, I am not sure I would be able to get his eyes/head/features moving. I'm going to have a look on http://www.flashkit.com/ to see if there are any examples to get me started. If not I will have to re-think my project proposal.

Cute characters

I want my character to be very rounded and cute. I looked for some examples on google images search:

I found these creature toys called 'MoonBeams' and I really like them because of how simple they are. They're made up of simple circular shapes and give a very cute effect.




I really like the colour of this
MoonBeam, although if I made my character this colour then it would be very much more popular with girls than boys, and I would like my screen pet to be used by both sexes.





I think the colour scheme of this animation is suitable for both sexes. Again, I like the way his features are made up of simple shapes, and although it's in the shape of Apple's logo, we can still see it as a cute penguin.











This grumpy looking bear is very sweet, and I'm sure little children would like him. However, I am looking to design a character that is much more simple, without much detail.




Conclusion
I will design a character using very simple shapes for it's features. The colour scheme will be suitable for both boys and girls.

Project Proposal

For my individual interactive project, I have decided to create in Flash an interactive screen “pet”.

• He will be very simplistic yet effective.
• He will be rounded and cute.
• Aimed at young children, particularly girls.
• He will be able to sit in his own screen while the child is busy on the computer and make cute noises/movements if left alone for too long.
• He will have several different movements/ characteristics:
• His eyes/head will follow the mouse
• After a certain amount of time he will become hungry and whine for food/attention etc.
• He will fall asleep if he is tired or bored.

I will think of the exact timings/movements/actions I want him to do and write them down in the next blog, so I can start writing the flash code for this.

Research

I decided to look at the different kinds of interactive characters available to children today. The game ‘Catz’ I used to play has come on a long way since it first came out. Users can now interact with other Catz players, allowing them to trade tips and pictures of their own interactive pets.

I like this game because of how cute the characters are, and the fact that they need looking after in order to stay healthy and not run away.

http://petz.uk.ubi.com/catz/

After putting into Google ‘interactive games’, I came across an ‘Interactive Buddy’. The user can drag him across the screen, tickle him, play catch with him, and hurt him, as well as many other interactions. The user makes money by the amount of time they spend interacting with him, and can buy new items to use on him. His emotions change as the user plays with him or hurts him.

I really like this Interactive Buddy because of how simple he is- just 5 circles imitating his head, body, arms and legs- yet he is still extremely cute!

http://www.addictinggames.com/interactivebuddy.html

Initial Ideas

I initially started thinking about the kind of interactive games I enjoyed playing as a child; ‘The Sims’, ‘Sim City’, ‘Sim Safari’ and ‘Catz’.

In all of these, the outcome of the game depends on how much the user decides to involve themselves- with little or no interaction the game can turn into complete mayhem, and none of the characters are happy, whereas if the user gives the game their full attention and fills all the characters needs, the game can grow into an entire network, and therefore gets progressively harder to fill everyone’s needs.

I wanted to base my individual interactive project on the idea of a character having basic needs that the user must fulfil to keep it happy.