Scratch Game Design

Coding is very hard. Coding is very very hard. I have created a game from "Scratch" though, in "Scratch". Now I'm not saying my game is going to be the next Mario. I personally like my game even though it has a lot of bugs. I just couldn't figure out how to get the frogs to stop moving when the knight did. Not a lot of people played my game to give me feedback to improve. I tried to make it like a game where you had to chase a bunch of frogs running away, so that's why their movements are random. Their movements aren't random though. They move according to how you move the knight, but they don't all move the same way.

I definitely got better at coding the second time. I don't know everything there is to know about code, but I did get better. Now I actually know what most of the blocks do, achievement accomplished! I still have some bugs in my second game, like how you automatically lose sometimes when you start. I just figured out you can just press the flag twice though. I haven't yet figured out how to fix it, but I probably will... Eventually. Also, you might have noticed that after you lose all of the characters stop. Unlike my first game. I also have a preset timer in the first game, but a variable timer in the second. For those of you who have no clue of what I'm talking about here is a link to help you.

The best code I wrote was the crabs code in the second game. His code is all one giant block, with C Blocks inside of C Blocks inside of more code and more code. The last part of the code, with the purple and yellow blocks repeating, is my party room. You can get there by beating the bonus level of my game. How I made it was I had a lot of different backgrounds, that are filled with only one color, and switching them every 0.01 seconds. I still have some pretty big bugs I still need to fix, but I had a lot more than I had before. I overcame my most difficult bug fixes by asking the people around me. I mainly just viewed other peoples games in progress and if I saw something that I could incorporate in my game I asked them how they did it.

Invention Commercial

P1T4_Invention from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo

We finished our invention idea! In my opinion our main goal was just to make a great, funny commercial. I think we did pretty good, and in the end we got class best! Our entertainment factor was off the charts and everything else was good as well. When we first started our project we knew what we were going to do, but not how to make it. Also, we only had about one and a half weeks to complete this project, so we filmed it over the weekend. I was personally getting anxious when other teams were half way done with their filming in school and we hadn't started. In the end though we pulled through and won best in class by a landslide!

The best team moment we all had together was when preston came out of the closet. We had to film and film again that moment so many times just because we had kept laughing every time he came out of the closet. Now I am mentally scarred from that moment, because it was my closet he came out from! Even on the critique day some people went up to me and did the motion of opening a closet door. I would have to say it was the best moment filming so far for this class. We also added another moment where I asked Preston "but wait aren't ornaments only used on christmas?". Then Preston shoved my face away and said "Silly Boy".  We added a lot of funny things in our video, like when Preston was running away because technically he did sneak into my house.

During the editing stage of this project Raiden and I did the main editing, while Preston searched for a song. Editing wasn't too hard for us. It only took about two class periods for us to get this all done and exported. I thank the plan for that, without it we would have to figure out where everything went. I guess Mr. Sanderl was right, the plan actually does help you. Preston was searching up the song for the team because in our very beginning shot, which we didn't add in, Preston was singing the song that you can find in our video. At first we were thinking of just leaving Preston's "amazing" singing voice in, but then we found the actual song. There wasn't much to do after that other than place the clips into the right place and add some voice-overs if needed. Raiden and I placed the song as well, but it didn't take very long. We didn't use any sound effects from iMovie so it was easier on our part.

Composition Scavenger Hunt

P1T4_Composition_2015 from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo.

The more random votes the worse

Oh hi, didn't see you there! We are now in groups of three people and in my group are Preston and Raiden. We did a composition video about several different techniques. The composition techniques were Birds Eye, Ants Eye, Low Angle, High Angle, Flat Angle, Macro, Ground Level, Forced Foreground, Point of View and Eye Level. I think that the most important composition technique is leading lines, even though I didn't use it in my composition techniques video. I think leading lines are the most important composition technique because they lead you to the subject. We took a survey in class which showed us two images side by side and we had to state whether or not they had the technique or not. Without leading lines your eye would be taking in the whole picture without seeing what the artist really wants you to see.

The most difficult composition technique, in my opinion, is ants eye. I think that is the most difficult technique because it's just so hard to get that low on the ground to make it just low enough so it's not a low angle, and angled just right to not make it a ground angle. I think ants eye can be used more because it is an unusual angle. The film producers use unusual angle all the time because it keeps the audience's' attention.

My team was made up of Raiden, Preston and I. In our composition technique video we all did everything. For example you see everyone at least once in our video. You can hear all of our voices as well. Some people did more than others though, like how you saw me in most of the shots. Anyway, since we all did everything we all did editing. Preston did the main editing, getting all of the shots on the board, Raiden labeled the shots on which composition techniques were showing and I did the transitions. The project was pretty easy overall, it took us about 2-3 days to complete it and if you're a film maker out there you know that's nothing. Well, that's all for know folks!