Course Overview

From Mwiki

Summary: This is an introduction to the Globaloria platform and program. Explore the steps in the Game Design and Development units that you will use to make your own game.

What is Globaloria? How do I explain it to my friends? Check out this video, made by intern Noalee, and you'll know exactly what to say!

What We Will Do in Globaloria

1. Use the Wiki-based Curriculum to learn Game Design and Development.
2. Post and share our Assignments and Games on the Wiki to get feedback and help each other learn.
3. Collaborate with each other and with Game Development experts using the wiki "Talk" tabs, message boards on social profiles, G-Chat, and Skype.
4. Write in our Blogs to reflect on the game making process, gaming, Flash, and other subjects of interest to the community.
5. Use the MyGLife Resources website, with all its Resources, Tutorials, and Game Examples.
6. Develop original game concepts from idea to paper prototype to game demo.
7. Make professional presentations of game demos and final games in class and to online guests.
8. Publish our final Flash games in the Game Gallery.

Topic Assignments

The course consists of three Curriculum Units: 1) Getting Started, 2) Game Design, and 3) Game Development.

Each Unit contains a set of Topics. Each Topic page contains Assignments that will help you to learn Flash and create an original game.

Getting Started Unit

Getting Started is a very short orientation unit that introduces you to the course structure. It will help you to set up your own Profile and Blog, and understand your rights and responsibilities as a member of this online learning community.

1. Course Overview - (This page!) An introduction to the course, the tools you'll use and what you'll accomplish.
2. Create Your Profile - Get started by creating your Wiki account and designing a cool, personalized User Profile page.
3. Create Your Blog - Learn how to create a Blogger.com blog for this course.
4. Participation Guidelines - Review and discuss the basic safety and etiquette guidelines for using this wiki and social network.

Game Design Unit

In the Game Design unit you will come up with and design a game about an educational topic or social issue. Using the Flash you are learning, you will create an interactive demo about your game concept. This unit focuses on creating a highly visual, narrative presentation with simple interactivity.

Game Design Topics:

1. Playing to Learn: Play and review games from the perspective of a Game Designer.
2. Choosing a Topic: Identify a specific learning topic to explore. Select a game genre, and begin researching your content.
3. Mini Game Project: Build a 'mini game' in Flash to learn some key programming commands for a typical 2D, arcade-style game.
4. Imagining Your Game: Present your game idea as a Flash movie using text and layout design tools.
5. Planning Your Game: Create a detailed game design plan.
6. Paper Prototyping: Create a paper prototype for your game idea and learn how to playtest an interactive project.
7. Drawing a Scene: Learn about basic Flash drawing tools, layers and keyframes and use these tools to recreate your paper prototype in Flash.
8. Adding Scenes: Add more scenes to your game demo through the use of keyframes.
9. Adding Buttons: Learn about symbols and use gotoAndPlay to make interactive buttons that navigate between your game scenes.
10. Adding Animations: Learn about animation techniques like frame-by-frame and motion tweening, then use ActionScript to add animation to your Game Demo file.
11. Adding Input I: Keyboard: Add interaction to your game demo with keyboard controlled movement.
12. Adding Input II: Mouse: Add interaction to your game demo with mouse controlled movement.
13. Adding Sound: Import and add sounds effects to your game demo.
14. Assembling Your Demo: Combine demo scenes that were by different people into a single Flash file.
15. Presenting Your Demo: Show off your game idea! Learn how to present your game demo professionally.

Game Development Unit

In the Game Development unit, you will take your game demo and develop it into a complete, playable game. You'll finalize your artwork, refine your game idea, and complete your code. You may choose to add more scenes or features than your design originally called for, or you may have to cut back on your original plans.

No two games are exactly alike, so you will develop a customized Development Plan based on the specific features of your game.

As part of this unit, you can pick and choose from the library of ActionScript tutorials. You don't need to learn them all, only the ones that apply to your game.

Game Development Topics

1. Your Development Plan: Plan the development of your game: what you need to code, and what you need to learn.
2. Pseudocode and Commented Code: Learn to write pseudocode as an intermediate step between game concept and code. Then transform your pseudocode into code comments.
3. Integrating Code: Lear how to properly borrow code and objects from other . FLA source files to try in your game.
4. Testing and Debugging: Playtest (debug) your game and then find and fix any "bugs" or errors.
5. Finding Solutions:Search the web for information and solutions for implementing your game functionality.
6. Presenting and Publishing Your Game: Time to present the final version of your game professionally, with a complete Game Page and finally submitting your game to be published on MyGLife.org.

ActionScript Tutorials

This is a library of game coding resources that you can refer to and learn from as you build your game.

1. Intro to ActionScript: Get a basic introduction to Flash programming language.
2. Programming Practices: Learn how to write clean game code to help you avoid errors.
3. Navigating the Timeline: Control the way the user navigates through the game timeline.
4. Text Effects: Learn how to use the timeline and add special effects to text and graphics.
5. Scrolling Background: Learn how to make a scrolling background that gives the illusion of moving through a scene.
6. Score Keeping: Add score keeping functionality to your game.
7. Collision Detection: Detect when two objects collide or occupy the same space at the same time.
8. Preloader: Add an animation to the beginning of your game that shows what percent of the file has loaded.
9. Custom Cursors: Jazz up your cursor for fun visuals and more.
10. Sound Effects: Learn to control and manipulate sound in ActionScript.
11. Background Music: Learn how to import and add background sound to your game.
12. Timer: Add a timer with ActionScript.
13. Character Effects: Change a character's appearance, create fade effects and more.
14. Drag and Drop: Learn how to drag and drop a movie clip using the mouse and ActionScript.
15. Jumping: Add platforms to your game and have a character jump on them.
16. Artificial Intelligence: Move and control your game "enemies" with ActionScript.