Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Button Post

As I have been beginning to construct my game in flash, I quickly learned that buttons will be needed on every page. I then realized that I needed to know how to make them. So then I watched a tutorial and started making them. I have now made a few buttons that at some point will take you to another step, but currently they just look pretty and change color when they are scrolled over.

Monday, March 8, 2010

The Canterbury Tales


While staying at the Tabard Inn, the narrator of The Canterbury Tales decides to go on a pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral in London. Before the journey begins, Chaucer gives a brief detailed description of the travelers joining him on the pilgrimage. There are twenty-nine of them. Here wre some that stood out to me.
First comes the knight. He is very noble and brave. A perfect description of what you think a knight would look like. He is strong and courageous. Traveling along with him is his son, a Squire. He is handsome and delicate, a good-looking bachelor.
After the Knight's entourage, he tells of a Nun named Madame Eglantine. She is very dainty and elegant. She was religious and spoke French fluently. It is funny because she curses by the name of the saint of no cursing. Next came the monk. Not a skinny bald monk in orange as one would imagine, but a fat priest who loved to hunt.
Following was the Oxford Cleric. He is a student very interested in his studies and books, nothing else. Also ther was the Lawyer. He is a judge in the court and has as the narrator describes very dignified writing. Though he seemed so well off, he traveled in a very plain coat. Traveling along with him was the Franklin. He seemed to like the simple pleasures with an emphsis on food.
A cook was also brought long to boil chicken for them to eat. It said he was a god cook, but had an ulcer on his knee. There was the Doctor hwo was a very good doctor and studied medicine a lot. He was very healthy. The wife of bath was described next. She always wore scarves on her head and he had had five husbands. She said she knew all there was to know about love. The they told of a miller with huge muscles and bones. He was described to be able to take the hinges off of an door but had a wart and hair on his nose. The last character described was the host. He greeted everyone and gave the idea of telling stories as a game.
As Chaucer descibed all of his characters, I noticed they went in order of social class. It started at the top with the knight and ended with the host of the inn. I belive that the depiction that he gave is very believable and from what I can tell, very accurate. He descibed people as he saw them. This may not have been the way that everyone else saw that person, but we got his point of view on everyone.
When making a game or anything that involves characterization, I think that it is very important to have a character that your audience can rlate to. In this instance, I would say there is a character that almost anyone could realte to. If a person is trying to read something or play a game, it would be boring to have no personal connection to the game. You want the audience to be enetertained. Chacterization is important in all aspects from books and movies to games and even real life. Characters are the tools to making a game or story line possible. Without something to have to control, a game would be a movie. you have to have characters to take the important roles of a story or game.
I had to use a website to help me understand some of how the story was written. http://www.gradesaver.com/the-canterbury-tales/study-guide/section1/

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Planning My Game


This week we have really started to get all the plans for our game into place. Jeremiah and I came up with the idea and it is turning out better than I expected. We don't really have roles, we are kind of working together, but if I had to choose them Jeremiah would be in charge of most of the code and I will be doing most of the designing. We haven't disagreed yet and I hope we don't. Things should go smoothly. I look orward to completing each step of our game. I feel like there are a lot of elements and as we complete each one I am sure it will be exciting. The inspiration for our game was social issues in West Virginia.