Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Doug Shook
Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining what
the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of the
games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner and
 Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll make the
 image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of the
 image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image but
 still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards to
 the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take a
 minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for adding in
 some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however, when I
 use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster than when I
 use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt, and I
 plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've been
 working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to fix up
 too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be done,
 the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of classes, as
 well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor, but
 they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should also
 be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the grass
 graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get an
 installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be many
 changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm aware of at the moment.  Not really
 directed at anyone in particular, mostly just talking out loud to keep my
 own thoughts straight, but please feel free to add things to this list as
 they come up so that we have a record of what all needs to be done before
 launch, thanks.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.comwrote:

 My apologies for not sending an acknowledgment e-mail sooner, I've been a
 bit busy this weekend.  Every looks really good and I've very happy
 everything is tied in now.  I've been testing it off and on all weekend.  BS
 did have a hiccup when I tried to load Pedro's Journal vocab, but I get the
 feeling that was more my VM being uppity.

 The menu is functioning perfectly and I couldn't be happier with it,
 great job on that Doug.  The only thing I've noticed is when the Launcher
 pulls the files.  It takes some time, at least for me, to pull each file
 down from the iLocker account.  The kids won't have the terminal to let them
 know what its doing.  I think either a progress bar or even just a message
 box saying something like Retreiving files, please wait would be adequate
 to let them know that the game is doing something and didn't freeze up.

 Otherwise I haven't encountered any problems with the menu system and the
 games.  Zach, the blood smear is awesome.  It really adds to the game.

 I'm hoping to have the new levels up by Tuesday.  I plan on 10 for now.
  If you think there should be more, please let me know.  Doug, thank you for
 adding those new enemies in, they look great and add some more flavor to the
 games.

 Thats about it from me.  I'll keep play testing and get those new levels
 done.  If I run into any problems I'll post a bug report or let someone
 know.  Cheerio!

 Ian Crotty
 UTS Hardware Technician
 Ball State University


 On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 6:01 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 I just put up a bunch of changes on the repo.  A summary:

 The question set ftp stuff is up and kind of working.  The Question
 Generator appears to work but some of the features are still missing, and
 some of the uploading/downloading functionality is still buggy, especially
 in the Question Manager.  I would avoid using the Question Manager for now,
 unless you're attempting to fix the bugs.  I uploaded it because it mostly
 works and because I was hoping that I could get some help from you guys to
 fix some of the bugs.  I'll report all of the ones I'm aware of to the
 tracker later tonight, and I hope to have most of the 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Zach Elko
Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
that.

Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for answers.

For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
answer.

For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.

Zach J. Elko
Ball State University Unified Technology Support
Certified Hardware  Software Technician


On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining what
 the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of the
 games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner and
 Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll make the
 image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of the
 image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image but
 still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards to
 the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take a
 minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for adding in
 some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however, when I
 use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster than when I
 use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt, and I
 plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've been
 working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to fix up
 too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be done,
 the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of classes, as
 well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor, but
 they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should also
 be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the grass
 graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get
 an installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be
 many changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm aware of at the moment.  Not really
 directed at anyone in particular, mostly just talking out loud to keep my
 own thoughts straight, but please feel free to add things to this list as
 they come up so that we have a record of what all needs to be done before
 launch, thanks.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.comwrote:

 My apologies for not sending an acknowledgment e-mail sooner, I've been
 a bit busy this weekend.  Every looks really good and I've very happy
 everything is tied in now.  I've been testing it off and on all weekend.  
 BS
 did have a hiccup when I tried to load Pedro's Journal vocab, but I get the
 feeling that was more my VM being uppity.

 The menu is functioning perfectly and I couldn't be happier with it,
 great job on that Doug.  The only thing I've noticed is when the Launcher
 pulls the files.  It takes some time, at least for me, to pull each file
 down from the iLocker account.  The kids won't have the terminal to let 
 them
 know what its doing.  I think either a progress bar or even just a message
 box saying something like Retreiving files, please wait would be adequate
 to let them know that the game is doing something and didn't freeze up.

 Otherwise I haven't encountered any problems with the menu system and
 the games.  Zach, the blood smear is awesome.  It really adds to the game.

 I'm hoping to have the new levels up by Tuesday.  I plan on 10 for 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Ian Crotty
Based on the current font and font size for RR we have only 7-8 characters
for answers in RR.

Ian Crotty
UTS Hardware Technician
Ball State University


On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

 From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
 maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
 about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
 location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
 multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
 to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
 the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

 The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
 case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
 that.

 Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for answers.

 For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
 answer.

 For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining what
 the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of the
 games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner
 and Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll make
 the image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of
 the image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image
 but still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards
 to the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take a
 minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for adding 
 in
 some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however, when 
 I
 use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster than when I
 use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt, and I
 plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've
 been working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to fix
 up too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be
 done, the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of classes,
 as well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor,
 but they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should also
 be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the grass
 graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get
 an installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be
 many changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm aware of at the moment.  Not really
 directed at anyone in particular, mostly just talking out loud to keep my
 own thoughts straight, but please feel free to add things to this list as
 they come up so that we have a record of what all needs to be done before
 launch, thanks.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.comwrote:

 My apologies for not sending an acknowledgment e-mail sooner, I've been
 a bit busy this weekend.  Every looks really good and I've very happy
 everything is tied in now.  I've been testing it off and on all weekend.  
 BS
 did have a hiccup when I tried to load Pedro's Journal vocab, but I get 
 the
 feeling that was more my VM being uppity.

 The menu is functioning perfectly and I couldn't be happier with it,
 great job on that Doug.  The only thing I've noticed is when the Launcher
 pulls the files.  It takes some time, at least for me, to pull each file
 down from the iLocker account.  The kids won't have the terminal to let 
 them
 know what its doing.  I think either a progress bar or even just a message
 box saying something like Retreiving files, please wait would be 
 adequate
 to let them know that the game is doing 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Ian Crotty
This is assuming we want the answers to fit entirely inside the confines of
the gates.

Ian Crotty
UTS Hardware Technician
Ball State University


On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:34 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.com wrote:

 Based on the current font and font size for RR we have only 7-8 characters
 for answers in RR.

 Ian Crotty
 UTS Hardware Technician
 Ball State University


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

 From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
 maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
 about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
 location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
 multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
 to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
 the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

 The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
 case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
 that.

 Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for
 answers.

 For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
 answer.

 For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining
 what the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of
 the games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner
 and Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll 
 make
 the image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of
 the image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image
 but still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards
 to the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take
 a minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for 
 adding
 in some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however,
 when I use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster 
 than
 when I use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt,
 and I plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've
 been working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to 
 fix
 up too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be
 done, the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of 
 classes,
 as well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor,
 but they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should
 also be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the
 grass graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get
 an installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be
 many changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm aware of at the moment.  Not really
 directed at anyone in particular, mostly just talking out loud to keep my
 own thoughts straight, but please feel free to add things to this list as
 they come up so that we have a record of what all needs to be done before
 launch, thanks.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.comwrote:

 My apologies for not sending an acknowledgment e-mail sooner, I've
 been a bit busy this weekend.  Every looks really good and I've very 
 happy
 everything is tied in now.  I've been testing it off and on all weekend. 
  BS
 did have a hiccup when I tried to load Pedro's Journal vocab, but I get 
 the
 feeling that was more my VM being uppity.

 The menu is functioning perfectly and I couldn't be happier with it,
 great job on that Doug.  The only thing I've noticed is when the Launcher
 pulls the files.  It takes some time, at least for me, to pull each file
 down from the iLocker account.  The 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Doug Shook
The answers are a consideration as well as the questions.  I have already
been toying around with this idea for Battleship and have a ballpark figure
for what I think each should be.

While I think that moving the questions and answers for frogger would
greatly improve the game, I'm skeptical that we have time to accomplish this
given that in order to make it happen ALL of the graphics would need to be
redone as we can't afford to make the application window any bigger than it
already is.  The questions aren't so much of an issue for frogger as the
answers.  To get more space out of the answers I'd suggest possibly reducing
the font size as the most viable option.  It was never designed as a
vocabulary game per se, so while the answers will have to be relatively
small (7, 8, maybe up to 10 depending on the font) it will still function
well for math and a lot of vocab type questions.

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

 From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
 maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
 about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
 location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
 multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
 to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
 the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

 The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
 case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
 that.

 Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for answers.

 For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
 answer.

 For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining what
 the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of the
 games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner
 and Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll make
 the image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of
 the image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image
 but still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards
 to the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take a
 minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for adding 
 in
 some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however, when 
 I
 use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster than when I
 use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt, and I
 plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've
 been working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to fix
 up too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be
 done, the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of classes,
 as well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor,
 but they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should also
 be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the grass
 graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get
 an installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be
 many changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm aware of at the moment.  Not really
 directed at anyone in particular, mostly just talking out loud to keep my
 own thoughts straight, but please feel free to add things to this list as
 they come up so that we have a record of what all needs to be done before
 launch, thanks.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Ian Crotty archangel...@gmail.comwrote:

 My apologies for not sending an acknowledgment e-mail sooner, I've been
 a bit busy this 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Doug Shook
Also, moving the questions to a different spot on the screen will take the
users focus away from the rabbit more than we already do.  Its difficult
enough the way its set up now...I think trying to keep an eye on the rabbit
and another part of the screen (potentially far away from where the player
is) at the same time would be too difficult to keep up with.

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:37 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 The answers are a consideration as well as the questions.  I have already
 been toying around with this idea for Battleship and have a ballpark figure
 for what I think each should be.

 While I think that moving the questions and answers for frogger would
 greatly improve the game, I'm skeptical that we have time to accomplish this
 given that in order to make it happen ALL of the graphics would need to be
 redone as we can't afford to make the application window any bigger than it
 already is.  The questions aren't so much of an issue for frogger as the
 answers.  To get more space out of the answers I'd suggest possibly reducing
 the font size as the most viable option.  It was never designed as a
 vocabulary game per se, so while the answers will have to be relatively
 small (7, 8, maybe up to 10 depending on the font) it will still function
 well for math and a lot of vocab type questions.


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

 From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
 maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
 about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
 location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
 multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
 to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
 the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

 The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
 case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
 that.

 Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for
 answers.

 For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
 answer.

 For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining
 what the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of
 the games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner
 and Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll 
 make
 the image have the labels we need, and I'll apply the stats text on top of
 the image in the appropriate places. This allows us to have a fancy image
 but still get our data on to it.

 Also, Ian, make sure you either inform Tom, or work with Tom in regards
 to the game manuals since you and I had discussed how we wanted to do that.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks for the suggestions Ian.  I, too, have noticed that it can take
 a minute for the sets to load up and there is an item on my list for 
 adding
 in some sort of a notification about this.  On the bright side, however,
 when I use it on campus (as the kids will be) it goes much much faster 
 than
 when I use it at home.  Still, making the ftp UI more friendly can't hurt,
 and I plan on making it happen.

 Battleship still isn't equipped to handle vocab sets very well, I've
 been working on that off an on for weeks.  It's on my list of things to 
 fix
 up too.

 And while I'm on the subject of listing work that still needs to be
 done, the FTP needs to be tweaked to allow the addition/removal of 
 classes,
 as well as the ability to change the server settings.

 The window headings for Battleship and BF are blank right now, minor,
 but they should probably be added in.

 I think that the green background for the stats screen in BF should
 also be changed to something graphical.  Nothing complex, maybe just the
 grass graphic or something perhaps?

 Hangman also has an issue with the Launcher in that it's only running
 through one word at a time before automatically quitting.  I believe that
 this has to do with how it's interacting with the launcher.

 Also, next weekend I'm borrowing an iBook from Burris so that I can get
 an installation ready for the PPC macs.  Hopefully there won't need to be
 many changes made to the software to accomplish this.

 These are the only issues that I'm 

Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

2010-04-19 Thread Ian Crotty
Thank you for the reminder Tom.  I meant to send you an e-mail after I got
home this afternoon, and I'll just chock it up to my own forgetfulness.

We decided that for the actual game manuals, we'd do them in similar style
to something like the manuals you get when you buy a new xbox game.  For the
teacher manual its simply a straight forward document giving step by step
instructions for how everything works, including installation instructions,
how-to's for the question generator, and everything else that they need to
know about.  Ideally the teachers manual will contain all of the information
the student one has only expanded and in greater detail.

The student manual, as I described above, I'm envisioning screenshots to
showcase various parts tied in with explanations of what each interaction
will do.  They need to explain the rules and do's and don'ts of each game.
 I've found some PDF templates for actual xbox manuals that I will include
in another e-mail to you as the mailing list does not like attachments.

Ideally, we'd like to see all of this documentation finished by Friday,
April 23rd,  so we can proof read and double check everything, including the
instructions that are written.  Thats all I have for now.  If you have any
questions get with me or send an e-mail and I'll try to answer them as
quickly as possible.  I'll send you those templates right now.

Ian Crotty
UTS Hardware Technician
Ball State University


On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Mast, Thomas O tom...@bsu.edu wrote:

 I'll talk with Ian in class tomorrow about the Manuals for sure.

 Tom
 
 From: 
 destiny-bounces+tomast=bsu@lists.launchpad.net[destiny-bounces+tomast=
 bsu@lists.launchpad.net] On Behalf Of Doug Shook [dssh...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 6:40 PM
 To: zache...@gmail.com
 Cc: destiny@lists.launchpad.net
 Subject: Re: [Destiny] Big Changes

 Also, moving the questions to a different spot on the screen will take the
 users focus away from the rabbit more than we already do.  Its difficult
 enough the way its set up now...I think trying to keep an eye on the rabbit
 and another part of the screen (potentially far away from where the player
 is) at the same time would be too difficult to keep up with.

 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:37 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.commailto:
 dssh...@gmail.com wrote:
 The answers are a consideration as well as the questions.  I have already
 been toying around with this idea for Battleship and have a ballpark figure
 for what I think each should be.

 While I think that moving the questions and answers for frogger would
 greatly improve the game, I'm skeptical that we have time to accomplish this
 given that in order to make it happen ALL of the graphics would need to be
 redone as we can't afford to make the application window any bigger than it
 already is.  The questions aren't so much of an issue for frogger as the
 answers.  To get more space out of the answers I'd suggest possibly reducing
 the font size as the most viable option.  It was never designed as a
 vocabulary game per se, so while the answers will have to be relatively
 small (7, 8, maybe up to 10 depending on the font) it will still function
 well for math and a lot of vocab type questions.


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.commailto:
 zache...@gmail.com wrote:
 Well, there are a few ways to look at this...

 From the perspective of the Question Generator, we need to be aware of the
 maximum size that each game can support graphically. Some talk has been made
 about relocating the questions and answers in Rabbit Runner to a new
 location and replacing the answers in the gates with A, B, C, D for the
 multiple choice element. I almost feel we *have* to go this route in order
 to make Rabbit Runner useful for more than a few types of questions, because
 the size of those gates is really limiting us at this point.

 The same concerns are there for BS, but for different reasons. So in that
 case, just find out how much space we've got and limit the stuff based on
 that.

 Also though, we only really need to support reasonable lengths for answers.

 For vocab, there is no way they'll need longer than 25 characters for an
 answer.

 For math, I'd venture to say that 10 is a safe length.


 Zach J. Elko
 Ball State University Unified Technology Support
 Certified Hardware  Software Technician


 On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Doug Shook dssh...@gmail.commailto:
 dssh...@gmail.com wrote:
 Another task that I just thought of to add to the list is determining what
 the maximum input size should be for the questions/answers in all of the
 games and adjusting the Question Manager to enforce this.


 On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Zach Elko zache...@gmail.commailto:
 zache...@gmail.com wrote:
 I've already talked with Ian about the stats screens for Rabbit Runner and
 Battleship, so him and I are going to tackle that. Basically, he'll make