AUTHORS STATEMENT
When I began working with Inform 7 in my sophomore year at SHU, I never thought I would get to the place where I am now. I have for the first time successfully completed an entire interactive fiction game. Not to say there were not hard times where I wanted to throw the computer out the window; or even great "AHA moments" ,as I call them, where I had figured something out on my own or coded correctly.
Though fiction writing in general has never been my forte, I did learn skills with computer files and problem solving that I did not realize until I was nearly finished with the game. Through the frustrations, it is kind of rewarding to see a finished product come out. tow years ago I never would have imagined to be able to accomplish the detailsm writing, and coding this game now has. I am even surprised I came up with the concept on my own.
Though I knew I wanted to create a more realistic fictional game, I never thought I would end up doing a game about a familiar surrounding such as campus. I feel like I did meet my goal of being original with the plot idea of my game. Players will enjoy the down to earth, college student feel of "Seton HIll Game."
I am most proud for tackling some of the harder coding. You will learn more those details if you look at my youtube presentation. So feel free to look and click around at my experience with Inform 7.
PROJECT LOG
Here is a log of my work on this final project. The start of it actually goes back to earlier in the Fall 2008 semester
September 22, 2008 -
September 30, 2008 - The first bit of scripting for the game
October 9, 2008 - The first Alpha test of my game - got some good info on how to expand what simple a game I ad from classmates. Added in more characters and made things more accessible in the game.
October 18, 2008 - Let my friend mike beta test my game. He was not familair with the kind of game but had some good pointers of what he thought would make it better.
Oct 21, 2008 -
blogged about my IF revision
From October 28 - November 18 did serious workshop time on the game
Novemeber 20, 2008 - Alpha release of game - Let the class tst what I considered to be somewhat of the finished project. Daniella and Tiffany were my testers in class.
November 25, 2008 - Put a tester youtube presentation up.
December 1, 2008 - Reflection blog of the end of my work
RELATED RESOURCES
Here are some links to some resources I was using throughout my work with this Inform 7 game
This is a website that I tested some IF7 games on to figure out what kind of game I wanted to make
This is a website where you can downloard the actual Inform 7 program
A little wikipedia summary of what inform 7 is
TO SEE MY INFORM & YOUTBE PRESENTATION AND MY ACTUAL INTERACTIVE GAME PLEASE GO TO my EL 405 FINAL PROJECT MAIN BLOG 2
]]>Since this was my second time delving into inform 7, I was somewhat familiar with the genre and the coding. I have to say that as I worked on a slower and more "bit by bit" basis, I was able to gain more of an understanding on the technicalities of the game.
For now I have bought the game to better and more complete piece of work than I ever thought I would be able to make. Through a bunch of "aha" moments as I like to call them and some alpha and beta tests, I have found out what to include in a game and why I should put them there.
Though inform 7 was not one of my favorite things to learn, it is interesting to see how I have come such a long way from Writing for the internet to the game I have made now.
]]>I like the book so far because it is explaining to me simply the how and why of the book. So far I feel that this book will be a good journalistic guide that I can use in the future. The examples the author gives of his own experience with first seeing flash make me confident that this part of the class can hone journalism skills. I liked doing the podcasts back in media lab. I have always been a fan of the NPR style of reporting usinf audio. I see that I could somehow also work that into the slideshow work that is used in Flash. Flash also seems to be able to get some real feedback from an audience. As a writer, it makes me feel good to know people want to read my work, or that someone wants a copy of the Setonian. I think Flash takes that kind of audience feedback to a new level also.
]]>Since we will be moving onto using anothe program, My inform 7 days are probably done. I think this is an effective tool i teaching amore creative/fiction type of writing. It has the potential to really get a story that writer has going and feed their creative side. The problem solving aspect of the work in making a game is what I dealt with more in my experience.
I got my friend mike to take a look at my game over the weekend. Since he is a college guy, he has definitley dabbled in video games. He isn't really into problem solving games liek inform 7 but, he liked the relatable setting of SHU. He through the personal touch of characters liek the dudes in Havey were funny. He did get a lost on how to get the right commands at first, but he got the hang of it somewhat. When somone making an inform 7 game can relate to their audience's interest, it makes a difference. It was fun to see someone battling with inform 7 like I used to.
]]>Ms. Taylor remind me of how some people come into the new media journalism program here at SHU. At first it seems like "how is this to relate to journalism?" In her case, it is how will the original ideas and mediums of journalism be able to relate to the new age of journalism and technology that comes with it (i.e blogs, online papers/articles).
I think she needs to open herself up to the old school rules and blue prints of what made journalism what it is today and put it where it is today. She complains of having to bring a copy of the New York times to class because is bulky and journalism classes in NYU tend to have their students do this. She should be happy she has an award winning paper to look at and use in her classes like a text book. Most journalism classes at some point require a compare or contrast of print to online. I wouldn't mind if in newswriting or writing for the internet class, we looked at one media or the other. It is a form of teaching and learning in this field. You cannot more forward without taking a look at the past. Without a paper like the NY Times ( which I find offers a great selection of online sites and articles) maybe there would not have been the writers who thought up her precious blog.
Not to bash on blogs or new media. But the public needs to see how both old and new news media play a big pat in journalism. Taylor makes a good point when she says that in the next few years people will be looking for writers who can write an online style and use online tools. The need for print writers still is there though too. I feel it is another tool in getting news to people. What we learn here in the SHU New Media Journalism program is not fluff. Though many of us are even having issue with the relevance of some of what we are learning in this class, the skills we gain cannot hurt. Just using an academic blog in the past 3 years for me, has helped me hone my skills in online writing.
I feel that Taylor really needs to open her mind and eyes to how she perceives journalism. No profession gets anywhere without paying respect to the styles and people who came before it. If the New York Times kills some trees to bring people the articles and writers they want...so be it. If blogs on facebook and Mashable make serious writers seem different...oh well. You cannot please everyone all the time, but you can learn from eachother if you open your ears, eyes, and mind.
I think Amanda Cochran had it right in her response. She pointed out what anyone else in this class would point out. That our experience with new media classes and traditional journalism classes has done good for us as writers. We allowed ourselves to be emersed in both the past and future of the profession. Maybe Taylor should try a schedule like ours?
I would really like to discuss these blogs in class further....I think they could bring on good discussion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQvlkABZ23o
I thought that something that involved griffin gate would be appropriate for this exercise. Since I see people still having difficulty wth it, I hope this helps. The on thing I do not like about this program is how it takes up soo much space on my zip drive. Hence why it is so short and sweet.
]]>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qshjl2I025A
Here is also my script for my tutorial (the one I was working on in class was much better) :
"SHU and You" by Rachel Prichard
Sullivan lawn is a room.
"You wake up in the middle of the lawn. You really must find out what happened last night. To the west is Havey Hall. To the east is Canevin. To the south is Reeves library. To the North is Sullivan Hall."
The gazebo is in Sullivan Lawn. In the gazebo are Billy, Buddy, and Mac.
East of Sullivan is a room called Canevin.
The description of Canevin is "You enter Canevin Hallway. There are offices with different names on each side of you. Students are rusing both ways down the hallway."
A lot of students are people in Canevin. The description is "They must be going to class. Or leaving it just as quickly. Just then, a girl runs into you."
This portfoilio consists of blogs having to do with digital culture, the last part of the class
COVERAGE
TIMELINESS
pretty much all my entries follow this, but here are some of them
INTERACTION
DEPTH
DISCUSSION
]]>