Prototype #6 and Presentation

Basically Prototype #6 will be the final prototype of my game in this semester; but again, hopefully I will improve this game and update the info through the blog in the future as well! :)

Here is the prototype #6 of my game:

Peter the Cockroach

Things Changed:

Here are some changes I made from prototype #5:

• Tutorial text description change from myself(creator) to Father
• human trap scenario added

Things That Will Be Added(hopefully in the future):

1. Understanding 'map' command to display the map of the game world.
2. Human beings' attacks scenario
3. Dog chasing scenario
4. World extension
5. More variety of food

Presentation

Thank you very much all for creating very fascinating game and interacting together! :) That was really a lot of fun learning how game programming works, steps needed to develop the actual game, and version control system (Github), and more.. I think I really learned a lot from this course - again, thank you Sam, thank you all! :)

Shohei Sasahara

Project Presentation for HPU Men's Basketball Team

I have recorded myself talking what I have got so far for the project and made the presentation of it. After recording, I have realized that I talked very slowly with my poor English.. but bear with me for those people who watch this video..

I have briefly talked about what I have got for my Github Wiki page as well as Code page(including User Stories and Scenarios), and things I learned from this course.

I think 2x speed would be recommended!
And Happy Winter Break people! :)


Shohei Sasahara

Making Use of JavaScript

ELLS Book Talking About JavaScript

While I was reading some of the pages in the chapter 11 'Enhancing Saas With Beautiful JavaScript' of Engineering Long Lasting Software, I learned several ways of how JavaScript is used nowadays by developers, not only the way I had thought in my mind.

I am also currently watching Edx course that mainly teaches JavaScript, but I have not finished watching all of them(hopefully will finish watching by tonight), so if I have some revisions to make in this post, I will do so and notify here as well.

JavaScript

JavaScript, the language itself, was developed by Bendan Eich, an employee of NetScape at that time, and was named firstly as 'LiveScript'. However, Java, the language developed by Sun Microsystems, was getting popular and popular, and since both Sun Microsystems and NetScape was doing tie-up enterprises at that time, the developers of LiveScript thought it would be better for LiveScirpt to be named somewhat similar to Java.

Thus, eventually LiveScript changed its name to JavaScript as it is known nowadays.

How JavaScript Could Be Used

According to chapter 11 of ELLS book, JavaScript is used mainly in three ways when development of SaaS(Software As a Service):

1. Creating client-side applications such as Google Docs, comparable in complexity to desktop apps and possibly able to operate while disconnected from the Internet.
2. Creating server-side apps similar to those we've been building using Rails, but using JavaScript frameworks such as Node.js.
3. Using JavaScript to enhance the user experience of server-conyric SaaS apps that follow the Model-View-Controller architectural pattern.

To be honest, I did not know until I read the book that JavaScript is used as 1 or 2; I only somewhat knew that JavaScript could add visual movements to Web so that improve user experience on the web.. so I was surprised while I was reading the chapter.

Although the book drives into more about how JavaScript could be used for SaaS development and focuses on 3, and jQuery, which is one of the JavaScript libraries that enhances the power of JavaScript a lot, I would like to write specifically about 2, server-side JavaScript, which is Node.js. (If you are interested in more about JavaScript for SaaS development and jQuery, click the book image on the top-right side and please read the actual book :))

Introducing Server Side JavaScript - Node.js

Since I have briefly researched Node.js in Data Communications course, I thought here is somewhat appropriate place to share what I was impressed about Node.js through the research. As JavaScript could be used for creating server-side apps, I hope it will help anyone interested in Node.js or creating server-side apps.

According to the official website,

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Impressive Scalability

What it impressed me was how simple the 'Hello World' code on the official website and what it does. It basically creates the new server and allows user to set how it respond when the request comes in. The code is available from the official website of Node.js

Basically what it does is that it creates new server at http://127.0.0.1:1337/, so and if any request comes in, then it will display 'Hello World'. If you are interested in, install Node.js from the official website and try code using Terminal or command prompt. What you have to do is just copy and paste the code to whatever the Text Editor, save it as a javascript file, run it by typing: on your console and then type the url of the server on your browser's url tab.

What I was impressed about Node.js is that although it just looks like a small normal javaScript codes, it actually allows developers to create a new server and decide what server does when requests come, which I thought was just amazing..

I have actually made slides for Data Com's presentation, and fearfully uploaded on slideshare, so if you are interested in please take a look at it, and give me some feedback if you have any! :)

HPU Men's Basketball Project

User Stories and Scenarios

I have written two user scenarios for my user stories for my project of HPU Men's Basketball team, so I would like to share it. For writing user scenarios, I referred to my professor Sam's Github Repo of his project for local non-profit as well as Engineering Long-Lasting Software (ELLS), specifically Chapter 5 of it where it talks about BDD, User Stories Cucumber scenarios and so on. Here is my user stories and scenarios for HPU Men's Basketball Team project:

I will improve user stories and scenarios more and update gist, so this embedded gist may look different in the future, but this is what I have got so far.

Github Repository and Pivot Tracker

I have also created Github repository and a Pivotal Tracker story specifically for this project, so do check those out if anyone is interested in :)

The semester almost ends, and I think it is nearly possible for me to actually develop the complete solution within the semester(and possibly alternatives not just what the customers is currently willing to have), but I am strongly eager to try to help them out in some way next semester, in the future as well.

Playtesting Three Games!

Here are three playtesting videos from me.I am very sorry for not screencasting well enough but I hope what I have done somewhat helps the games developed even more! :)

My Screencast for Jurassic Survival

My Screencast for Refugee game

My Screencast for Road of Vision

Prototype #5 - Peter the Cockroach

Here is the prototype #5 of my game:

Peter the Cockroach

Things Changed:

Here are some changes I made from prototype #4:

• Informing viable direction when the player tries to go to the not viable direction.
• Some sort of auto understanding functionality when mistyped.:
  if the player accidentally pushes enter, then the game will recognize it as 'Look', and so on.
• Visual change in the game play page:
  Cockroach image, cover image, and so on(the flexibility of the size of texts are still under construction..)
• Welcome and info text section at the home page:
  Players can go there by clicking 'homepage' button on the right side of the game play page.

Things That Will Be Added:

1. Understanding 'map' command to display the map of the game world.
2. Human beings' attacks scenario
3. Dog chasing scenario
4. Human Beings' traps scenario
5. World extension
6. More variety of food

Information

I have updated my Github page for Peter the Cockroach, Github Wiki page and Github Issues page. If anyone is interested in, feel free to visit and take a look at those! :)

Prototype #4 - Peter the Cockroach

Here is the prototype #4 of my game:

Peter the Cockroach

Things Changed:

Here are some changes I made from prototype #3:

• Added tutorial functionality:
  asking a player whether they wanna go through the tutorial or not - if yes, then start the tutorial which tells a player the basic commands in the game.
• Added 'help' command:
  if a player types 'help', then it will show up the basic commands in the game (just like git --help in the terminal prompt.)
• Added food in the world:
  onion

Things That Will Be Added:

1. Understanding 'map' command to display the map of the game world.
2. Human beings' attacks scenario
3. Dog chasing scenario
4. Human Beings' traps scenario
5. Auto-spelling completion
6. World extension
7. More variety of food

Information

I have updated my Github page for Peter the Cockroach, Github Wiki page and Github Issues page. If anyone is interested in, feel free to visit and take a look at those! :)