15/09/11- completed analysis/ questionnaires etc

Questionnaire-
I have completed my questionnaire which my client has given to her students to fill in, asking them questionnaires regarding the game, for example 'Would you like animation to help you learn' & 'Are the current learning resources successful and useful' and reasons etc. This will allow me to see what I need to include in the game to meet the needs of the people who will be using the finished product.

Analysis of existing documentation-
I have looked at the current resources that my client gives to her students to teach these topic, I have then identified the issues and thought about what I could offer that would make the necessary improvements.

Interview-
My client recorded a conversation between herself and her students speaking about the game and the possibilities of what could be include as well as their likes/dislikes. I made a transcript of this recording and then took out the required information of this so that I could again make decisions about what should be in the game.

Carrying out this research was useful as it allowed me to see what the users of the game want, so that I can make the ideal game.

5/7/110 - definition of scope

Definition of scope:

I have finished my definition of scope and will have my meeting with my client this week. In the definition of scope I talk about the purpose of the project, which includes my main aim and what my finished product (the game) has to include in order to complete the proposed task. I also talk about the benefits of my game to the organisation I am creating it for, so I have looked at both the benefits for my client and her students as these are the users of the game. The objectives of the project are clear in my definition of scope and look at the objectives are the actual game itself e.g. - It must provide an interactive learning experience for the students and then the objectives for the users of the game e.g. -They must be able to easily use the game and navigate around it, the instructions on the home page of the game must be clear so that no further guidance is needed. I have spoken about the constraints I may face whilst creating the game, and I believe the main one will be making the game appropriate and hard enough to suit the needs of the user, but this issue will be discussed with my client throughout and she will help me with decisions on questions and scenarios. I also thought about the areas of risk, and looking at the main risk being not meeting the completion date as I intend to hand over to my client in February, but the time can be slightly adjusted and it just means I will have to work extra  hard and use any spare time I have. The other areas included in my definition of scope are the project roadmap which lists the key dates throughout the project, project resources which talks about the equipment & knowledge I need in order to complete my game and the project stakeholders which are the people who will have an interest of some sort in the project. 

I will show my client my definition of scope in our meeting this week and then make any changes she wishes. 

16/07/11- navigational structure

Navigational Structure:

I have completed the navigational structure for my game, this allows me to see how the game will work and how the user will go from one page to another, back & forth etc. I have planned for 19 pages including the homepage, 8 of which are question pages and the other 8 are 'scenario pages' These scenario pages will set the scene for the user and will help teach them topic, giving hints towards the answer for the next page, as this will help the user (student) to learn a long the way. The scenario page leads to the question page and you can go backwards and forwards from these. The question page leads to the 'mark it' part but this is not something the user sees, it is something that will automatically happen, from the buttons and codes I put in place.

I have created a key down the side of the page to show clearly which pages will actually be scenes within my game and which will just be behind the scenes making certain features work. I believe I have clearly labelled and set out my navigational structure. Making this has made it clearer to me on how it is going to work and which pages will be linked as well as to what.

25/11/11

In the lesson today I have completed my prototype 2. There are 15 scenes which I have to show my client in our meeting this weekend. I am pleased with my prototype 2 , but can also see what things need to be done. Now I will begin to work on my video and sound and perfect each scene. I have linked all of my scenes via arrows and these all work. I have to create make the buttons work for my answers also.

24/11/11

In the lesson today I have completed all of my scenes, some to a basic standard as I will go through the 15 scenes, scene by scene to make them perfect. I now need to go through and make the answers to the questions work, this will not take long once I have done the first question. I am also now going to work on the video and sound for my game. I have all of the things I need to do planned out and so hopefully nothing will take too long, and soon my game will be finished! I have included a good amount of animation in my game and am pleased with what this looks like.

22/11/11

In the lesson today I have worked on creating and animating a few more scenes, I have made the scene below where the potato in the cart moves along the path and then the potato in the cupboard appears. I have linked all 13 of my scenes together and have now nearlly finished producing all of my scenes, I will then work on animation and videos. I also need to discuss with my client some of the text that needs to be added in terms of questions. I worked very hard in the lesson today and did not find any problems with my work, I am getting on a lot better in Flash since I created the first few pages, the rest are a lot easier, especially animation.

17/11/11

In the lesson today I have worked on getting three more scenes nearlly finished. I am trying to get all of my scenes completed and then will go back through them making final adjustments and adding the video and sound. Since I created the first few scenes it has been a lot easier to do the rest as the images needed are easily available and so I do not have to spend time editing images or creating new ones. I hope to have all my scenes completed in the next couple of lessons so that I can then work on making each slide perfect and having meetings with my client to show her each stage of my progress and to check with her along the way any changes she thinks are needed.

10/11/11

I had a meeting with my client yesterday to show her my prototype 1. It went very well and she liked the idea so far, my client particuarly liked the potato image as it added a fun side to the game. The issue my client had was that it may become quite repetitve if it is just the same image and page each time, however we looked back over my designs and I showed her that the potato image changes and the environment it is in.

As you can see here the potato is in a frying pan in a new surrounding of the kitchen and at this point there will be an animation of the frying pan.

Here the potato is in a different scene as we see it moving along the path in a cart ready to go into the cupboard to be stored. There will also be animation here as the potato moves from the cart to storage.

I also explained to my client that every page will be different at some will include sound, some video and others animation, so although they will be similar there will be differences.
My client is happy overall and now that I have shown her these previous designs she is reasurred and is very excited to see the next prototype. She is also pleased with the effort I have put in.

15/11/11

In the lesson today I created two new scenes, adding animation to the questions. I am working on getting all of my pages completed and then going back over them to make the final adjustments. I had an issue with copying an image over but I asked my teacher for help and we have now resolved this. I will work very hard on completing most of my pages this week.

10/11/11

In the lesson today I worked on scene 3 and 4, once I have completed these the rest of my pages will be easier as the buttons and images will already be available. I am making a few changes to the text animation as I have spoken to my teacher and she found it difficult to read. I plan to have my potato speaking on every page with a speech bubble, I am going to work on the audio clips over the next week.

8/7/11

This week I had a meeting with my client to discuss the definition of scope. I first suggested my plans to make the game more challenging as my client had mentioned her concerns that it may not suit everyone's capabilities, I have decided that by adding questions with the key information for the topic (examination style) it will make sure the students learn at the highest level, my client was happy with this and thought challenging questions with added information would be ideal. My client was pleased with the objectives of the project and is looking forward to the production of the game to start. The area of my definition of scope that my client had an issue with was the project roadmap as the details are too vague, she wants the dates of completion to be clear even if these won't be met.
This is the section that my client wanted more information on. She is happy that I have dates in mind as this will mean I have targets and deadlines and she will also be aware of the stage we should be at. However it was very brief and she said that 'analysis' is not informative enough, she wants details to know exactly what will be completed in this time, for example what documents will be included in this analysis. I will make these changes and provide more detail in the future.


Debbie agrees to the completion date for handover, which can be altered if necessary. I just need to be more specific and clear throughout our meetings to always give her a clear understanding of which stage of the project we are at.

30/6/11

Today I had my meeting with my client about the purpose of my project, I showed my client both my project proposal and my purpose of project presentation. My client was happy with the idea for the project and is very excited already to see the finished product. The issue she had with the designs I showed her for the game was that they were very simple, I described the sketches to my client and she clearly understood my plan for the game and what it would look like. My client just wishes to see more images and sketches but we agreed these would be shown in  further meetings.In terms of the meeting itself my client advised that in the future I make my agendas clearer as there were parts that weren't necessary and a section which was repeated. I have taken this on board and will ensure I construct a more sensible agenda for our next meeting. We are going to meet on a regular basis to ensure that when I being planning for the detail of the game I thoroughly explore the topic and check with my client on a regular basis.
I am pleased with how this meeting went, my client seems pleased with my plans and very happy to continue, I am now excited about the development of the game and the finished product.

15/10/11

Yesterday I had my functional specification meeting with my client. We discussed the overall document and she praised me on certain sections such as the hardware and software one, but wanted more information and further images of how the information would be presented. I am going to ensure I have many pictures of all aspects of the game to present her with in our next meeting. .

This is the section my client was very pleased with as it provided a lot of detail and information, which reassured her that the game would be compatible with her work place.

My client found this section too brief, it provided her with enough information about the homepage and she was happy with this detail. However it did not give much detail about how the information such as the questions would be presented on the other pages and she had no visual aids to give her an idea of what the game would look like. 

8/11/11

In the lesson today I have linked three scenes together via the use of buttons(arrows) my text on both scenes 1 and 2 is now succesfully animated. I handed in my prototype 1 and will have my meeting with my client this week and then make any suggestions and changes she wishes.

3/11/2011

In the lesson today I realised the issue with my text not working was that every word was set to 'dynamic text' when it should have been 'static' this has now made the text work succesfully. I have added my animated text to both scenes now and they both work. I just need to make some final adjustments to my first prototype before handing it in on Monday.

01/11/2011

In the lesson today I had to delete some of my layers because my game would not work, this included the text layer. I then realised the rest of it did not play because I had the 'stop' command in the wrong place which I have now changed. I linked both of my scenes together via the 'play' button which successfuly works. I also animated my speech bubble on both scenes so that it zooms in, another animation I created was to fade my 'play' button in from transparent to the actual image. Next lesson I will insert the movie clip of the text which should now work.