Post no. 1
Week 1
Obtained the brief today, I have always been intrigued with typing games. Also, I have always wanted to code my own game in HTML5. Out of the jealousy of my previous classmates who had the opportunity to do it in their last assignment, I stuck with this idea.
The story of this game complements my individual character, I personally love to correct grammar. I feel like it's important that proper use of acronyms and grammar should be used. Looking at a text on Facebook which says, 'Your so pretty' drives me nuts. It's 'YOU'RE!' pants. Misspelling Nazi might trigger the inner Grammar Nazi in you to correct it's spelling. Oh, did it also in case as it is quite a sensitive word to throw around.
I started researching on a few typing games online, both coded in Flash and Javascript. It's somehow always easier to code it in Flash, but I feel more comfortable with good ol' HTML.
Went home, did a couple of sketches on my notebook of the characters and logos.
Post no. 2
Decided to combine two posts into one due to late blogging. So here are some of the sketches and references I looked at. Have fun playing them!
TouchType
Pros: It senses the keys automatically and the animations are great.
Cons: Once I press a letter, like say.. "T", all the T's in the text would be selected and that would be a mess.
TypingMonster (Flash)
Pros: That it works well.
Cons: It's graphics and animation. I get a little tired trying to type the text and numbers flying by me.
ClockWorks (Flash)
Pros: Graphics and animation
Cons: Too much going on in the items section.
Ztype
Pros: Graphics, animation and mechanics
Cons: That it's not on Mobile!
Now for my learning progress.
I hacked the typing game and put in my own text. It's possible!
Another typing test that I managed to hack.
Some of my sketches for my grammar nazi character. I'm going to name him Harold Natzy.
In case you were wondering about the other two characters beside him on his left and right, I initially wanted to create two modes, a Facebook girl mode and a Shakespere mode.
I figured no one knows what in the world is Shakespere even saying in his novels and poems. So I planned to do a typing game that masks ancient words with its original meaning. Four weeks left, looks like I'm stuck with a more relevant character, the Facebook Girl. I only have time to do one mode.
I tried out sprite and it is ridiculously difficult. I had to align the pictures exactly symmetrical to one another if not it wouldn't work. They had to be the same size, height and width. This LOL sprite down here 'somewhat' works. A bouncing red ball, not so much.
Above is a before and after picture of my in-game interface, after I consulted with the tutors Kelvin and Zui.
I wanted to have the same game mechanics as TypingMonster(link above) But it was suggested to refine and make it simpler.
I took out the text box and fully focused on the flying words instead. I put the scores and the hp bar at the side as well. It was suggested that I maintain one input instead of two. It wasn't encouraged that I make the user switch between inputs, mouse clicks and keyboard. So, I integrated the volume via type of numbers.
So that wraps up the past couple of weeks.
