#glitchless

As my blogs title probably suggests, I have worked out almost all of the known glitches in the game. The big one being the victory screen portraits and the inverted palette glitch. Now that I have fixed these issues inside the fighter factory software I have been able to reinsert the broken characters into the game. The game is now much closer to completion than ever before and my list of things to do before the games completion is much smaller now.

Recently we had a google hangout where we got to answer some questions about our progress on our independent projects. We started by discussing what we would be presenting and showing for the final presentation. My final presentation topic is the fighting game I developed using MUGEN and how I have progressed through learning how the software works and developing an engine. Afterwards we talked about the artifacts and resources we used in our process of developing each of our projects. The artifacts used for the game I developed were the MUGEN software, Fighter Factory, and several sprite packs. Fighter factory is a program where all resources can be compiled, edited and organized. Using this program I was able to edit many of my resources to work properly with the game. I also used several websites and tutorials to help in the process of completing the game. There were also several challenges that we had discussed during the google hangout. My main challenges have been to make a balanced roster so that no one character can be overpowered. Some glitches have also given me issues but they haven't been as big of a deal as the balancing of the characters. I also talked about the help I was able to receive from many of the other class members. They helped me test the game throughout its production. Finally the last few things I need to do to finish the project are the arcade mode and the AI to go with it and to finalize the character roster.

Seeing as my recent purge of many of the games glitches below I will have some pictures of before and after the removal of one of the most annoying glitches I had to fix.

Before:

After:

#betaswag

Over the past few weeks, my todo list has grown, but many items have been crossed off since. I also added social links to the bottom, and I made some really cool styling for the todo list using pesudo-elements (::before and ::after). I also remade my gallery, and it works very well. I decided to not use core-list. The bugs left on my site are fairly minor points, and I have finished most of the functionality on my experiments. these are mostly style bugs at this point.

 

The End Is Near

     Since my last blog,  I haven't done much in the territory of finishing my project, but what i have gotten far in is planning my final steps and collecting all of my final resources to finish my project. My final project is to complete the tutorial of building an app on Android Studio, so far this has been going really well. I did in fact take a very roundabout route to this goal because I had no prior knowledge of coding or programming whatsoever. So if I just started that tutorial all by itself without constructing a background, it would have been very hard, so I opted to learn the basis for JavaScript, and then Eli agreed to explain to me all of the differences between Java and JavaScript because Android studio actually is programmed in Java. I have recently just finished my codecademy course and Eli has in fact taught me the differences, but he will have to do it again because there were some complicated ones. So as of now i have Android Studio ready and i have in fact created my first Hello world app, although it is the most simple app possible. It just displays “Hello World”

The several artifacts i have collected for this project so far is some programming links that i have saved in a separate google doc, I have also acquired my major tutorial for this semester which was codecademy.com. I actually feel that it was very helpful because it has many hints if you need them along the way. Lastly I have downloaded Android studio and I am currently using the starting tutorial. So far I have had many challenges, but I would say that my one very big challenge was functions. I honestly spent a lot of time on that section and i received extensive help from Eli as well. Also another big challenge for me is syntax. It is not as important in JavaScript, but if I forget ; in Java or if I forget brackets and parenthesis, the code will not run what so ever.

Thankfully I have Eli to help me, Eli has taught me an extensive amount in syntax on JavaScript and how important it is. He has also explained to me many of the differences between java and JavaScript so that I could actually begin the final stages of my final project, and i am sure he will continue to help me as i progress through the final stages. To finish my project, basically all I have left to do is finish the tutorial on how to build my first app in android...this should take me to the end of the semester

Instructional Technology & Digital Learning Update For November 1st -7th 2014 Andover Innovation Lab & Help Desk

Parth Valecha Andover Innovation Lab Student Inducted Into National Honor Society At Andover High School

I had the opportunity to attend the national honor Society induction because one of my former students that I had at the Andover innovation lab had selected me as a teacher who had inspired them. Parth Valecha  had worked on a business project last year during his time at the Andover Innovation Lab which combined bluetooth technology for headphones and sports like swimming or boating. Parth and I had many in-depth conversations on his business plan and how he could more narrowly target his market.  It was an honor that he had invited me to this important event and selected me as a teacher.

Release Of Our Help Desk Promotional Video
With the editing of Dan Brennan and the assitance of some of our help desk students we have been able to produce a video which outlines the work we do at the Andover innovation lab & Help Desk.
Check it out below!

Math Department Head Working On Blog With Bryce Corbitt

This week Bryce Corbitt from the Andover innovation lab also began working on the Math Department website with Math Program Coordinator Katherine Richards. They were able to determine a layout that they would like to use with Google sites and also begin to conceptualize some of the content that will be included on the site.  Bryce is been a great asset to the team this year and I know he will do a great job working with Ms. Richards.  This project will probably take the next couple months to complete and will become one of his projects. Bryce has been a great resource to several teachers with his great attitude and approach to helping.

Homework Document for Google Drive

In the process of trying to simplify how to add homework in a streamlined way and Sherrett with parents and students using Aspen I have been showing the use of a Google doc with a shorten link.  On this Google doc I create a table and organize the tables according to the days and weeks of the school day this is an opportunity to keep it consistently organized homework schedule on a live document that teachers do not have to go into Aspen to edit.  This is one of the huge benefits of Google Docs and using shortened personalize the links in order to share materials.  By being able to edit the doc you can consistently update the homework assignments with those who view the consistent link located on the Aspen pages.

Best Practices for Sharing & Editing With Google Drive

I recently started having conversations with both the English and Social Studies Department members about creating a series of best practices for the use of Google Docs and the editing of longer papers.  This process requires an in-depth look at what are the best ways of using the commenting features, sharing features and add-ons that are available with Google Apps for Education.

One of the very cool add-ons that’s available is the Easy Bib for Google docs.  This add on enables students to select a piece of text in their paper and then search for a source for citation on the add one. 





The add on locates the source and adds the citation to an area at the bottom of their page and organizes the citations for the student.  This tool ultimately saves a lot of time and helps keep citations organized within a document.

Flubaroo Training-Tech Byte

This past week I conducted a training for the use of Flubaroo at the Andover Public Schools Tech Byte training. Flubaroo is a great add-on to assist with grading quizzes that are you created with the Google Apps for Education Forms documents.  I have created some tutorial videos that I will link to which shows you how to get started with using Flubaroo and how it can improve the way in which you streamline your quizzes that you provided classes. View Part 1 Of My Video Series On Flubaroo.

Pixlr Tool as Web Based Photoshop Alternative

This past week I was able to recommend the Pixlr tool to our web design teacher Mike Messina.  He was looking for a web-based alternative to Photoshop that allowed him to create graphics of different resolution and size and also enabled the ability to add different types of text and layer styles.  This tool is a great web-based tool that allows you to download any of the images that you create as well as upload images into use within the interface.  Definitely check this tool out if you're on a computer that you're not used to working on our really just need a great web-based option and don’t have Photoshop.

Glitches Everywhere

This week I ran into quite a few glitches in the game. Whether it be problems with the victory screen images or issues with some of the character animations. Some of this I have been able to fix but other aspects I have had quite a difficult time trying to solve. Going into this project I knew I would run into these kind of things, but to be honest I have found a lot more than I initially expected. It's not to big of an issue though seeing as I have fixed most of them, but there are definitely a few that I need to fix still.

Besides those few (many) issues, everything seems to be going smoothly. I think I have made enough progress to say I am officially out of the pre-alpha stage and have moved onto alpha. Seeing as most of the roster is done and the glitches are (hopefully) on the way out. Once I have all the characters added and balanced into the game, I will move onto the beta stages where I will just have to refine the existing aspects of playable characters and hopefully finish up the AI for the arcade mode. In other news I did finish up the co-op modes such as four player team battles and 3 vs. 3 battles. Last post I said I would include some video content of the game. So here it is. Both these are against another human player. Next post I will show some AI battles.