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[Oct. 2nd, 2006|11:58 am] |
What was planned?
Lately I have devoted all my time for this game to completing the study and getting the data managed so that Dr. Barnes could quickly integrate into the paper. I had planned to finish ten studies, as well as getting the videos digitized and the conversation files converted to wma. I also wanted the conversations transcribed to text and the user information collected into a spreadsheet. If possible, I'd hoped to prepare the logs for easy analysis.
What was accomplished?
Well, just about everything was completed. We ran eight participants. Scott was a huge help in digitizing the videos, and I managed to convert all of the interviews (even the ones from the previous study) to wma files. Some of the other students helped in transcribing the text of the interviews, and once again Scott was a big help.
I personally ran/helped run six of the studies, which was very time consuming, especially considering the time involved in constantly setting up the computers at two different sites and updating them (and fixing last minute problems).
What problems were encountered?
Well, this was a general crunch time that was very stressful considering the time constraints we were all under. Many participants that had been signed up did not show, and that was particulary worrying. Additionally, this study really made it clear how a more integrated data collection system could really help out in future studies. We also had a few communication problems and a few introductory pains that comes with adding a new crew to a project, but we got over those and I think the new students showed themselves to be a really capable crew.
There also seem to be a few log functions that are missing from NWN.
Hours worked: Last week alone, easily 20-25 with the average being the same over the previous two.
Plans for next week
Next week I'm hoping to script out a few of the quests based upon the info we've gotten from the 1214 teachers and the feedback from our previous two studies. I'm hoping to find a way to really push the metaphors of programming, data flow, and object oriented design using the game engine. From the previous NWN game I think that the bridge builder quest came the closest without actually accomplishing what I'd hoped, that is, allowing clarity in demonstration of programming concepts. If possible, I'd like to do it in a consistent fashion. |
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| Last Week |
[Sep. 18th, 2006|12:19 pm] |
Last week Amanda and I finished up the work on the second version of the NWN catacombs quest. This version builds on the previous "Grimore" quest by adding an experience system and cutscenes to convey information to the player. The first cutscene the player sees will introduce her to a wizard instructor that is testing the player. Then she will enter the quest world normally.
Each of the the three quests award experience to the player based upon the number of questions the player gets wrong. For every question she misses, the player will be able to receive 20% less xp for that quest (though we can easily modify this so that the percent reduced is dependent on other factors, such as the number of questions). If the xp possible is reduced below 0%, then the player is turned into a chicken by her grimoire (only for about thirty seconds). At the end of the quest world the player is returned to the wizard's den where she is evaluated based on her current xp, and one of three final cutscenes will play based on her performance.
Over the last week and a half I have been working on the xp reward system as well as altering the log code of our mod so that the participant log files will provide more information. This will reduce the amount of time spent watching the videos later on during data collection. I also added the part about turning the player into a chicken. |
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| Videos - Agh! |
[Sep. 8th, 2006|12:36 pm] |
I've spent about the last week and a half with most of my time devoted to digitizing the videos we recorded in Atlanta. While watching each of the these hour long features I've been recording information about them for our data interpretation, and I think that in the next version of our software it would be wise to incorporate a lot more information in log files (something we've all been talking about).
There seemed to be a problem with the Hi8 video, but after Dr. Youngblood let us borrow his camera we discovered that the tapes are intact but our Hi8 camera is kaput. Mixture of good news/bad news. |
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| End of Summer Catch-up |
[Aug. 24th, 2006|02:24 am] |
Wow, it's been awhile since the last post. I've just been so busy! The summer is over and class has begun again. I'm really proud of everything my team accomplished over the last ten weeks or so; really, a better group of people would be hard to find.
I largely worked with two other students, Amanda and Tar, on the neverwinter nights modules. We finally got them finished and ready for the usability study, which has been underway for the last few weeks in combination with the game created by Evie, Paige and Jordan in RPG Maker. So far we're getting a lot of great data, we just have to start interpreting it all!
A big part of the reason for the huge gap in blogs is mainly due to the weeks I spent working on the Video Game workshop with the Hallym Students from South Korea. We had a blast and I have to admit, I was really impressed with the projects this year's groups produced. Hopefully I may get some screen shots up on my website soon - you'll have to see these to believe 'em.
Also took a trip for a few days to Boston with Evie, Amanda, Tar and Dr. Barnes up to Boston for the Sandbox Symposium. WHAT an experience that was! Not only did I get to meet some really talented people in the field of game development, but also some researchers from other fields interested in the more serious applications of games. And, I won two of the video game tournaments!
My last big adventure this summer was to head to Atlanta with a whole crew of the REU students for the STARS Alliance workshop. We spent a week learning about a host of programs to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in the fields of computing and information technology. I met a slew of people from all over the southeast, and I really think a lot of us are going to keep in touch as our individual projects come to fruition.
That's pretty much it, as you can see the last couple of months have been action packed. This semester's looking pretty good. We're taking a look at some of the projects we could take on this fall. We're also getting a new lab! |
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| Useless book! |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|11:08 am] |
I've finished reading the Unrealscript All-in-one book and found to my dismay that it never ventures into the classes of UnrealScript. It seems to me that this, the most important function of a book on UnrealScript, would be included if only with a cursory glance. I could kick myself for not realizing this sooner. At the very least I can say that I'm now very familiar with UnrealScript as a language and I've gone through a refresher course in introductory programming that may help provide insight into those learning programming from the very beginning.
The book is aimed at teaching programming to those who've never before written code: UnrealScript is merely the chosen language. It might as well have been Perl for all the relevance the material had to programming Mods, Maps, or Total Conversions for Unreal Tournament. For those who are already familiar with programming and want to work with Unreal Tournament I suggest sticking to the Unreal Wiki or the Unreal Developer's Network. |
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| More UnrealScript Fun |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|10:55 am] |
This week I finally managed to finish the incredibly long introduction to UnrealScript and start getting into the meat of the language. On Friday I gave a short presentation on the file system to Evie, Tar, Paige and Dr. Barnes.
From what I can ascertain so far, the language differs very little from C/C++ in most respects, though there are a few additional feature and functions (and I'm certain many that are not present). Those who are familiar with either language should feel right at home.
Next week I'll be delving further into modifying actor classes and creating potent mutators. More on that later! |
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| Week Ending 6/02 |
[Jun. 2nd, 2006|10:41 am] |
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This week I spent the majority of my time focused on learning UnrealScript. For the most part, the early sections of the book are dedicated to teaching the file system used by Unreal to interpret the source files. These sections also give a basic review of the DOS scripting languages and a useful way of setting up a series of shell scripts to automate much of the compiling process. These shell scripts can be executed from within ConTEXT, a freely available development environment. |
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| Week ending 5/27 |
[May. 31st, 2006|02:06 pm] |
This week I spent most of my time setting up the lab for the Reu program. Currently we have eight computers set up for everyone, all loaded up with 3D Gamestudio. I've also spent a fair amount of time researching CVS systems for our project, and I've come up with quite a bit.
It seems that the newest iteration of the original CVS system is Subversion, and it supports all the standard CVS commands. There's a Subversion server offered by the school that we should be able to get access to with relative ease. We should also be able to use Tortoise CVS or WinCVS as a simple client solution - Tortoise seems to be receiving a fair amount of praise for its simple interface. I know we tried to use it before, but I think that was under different conditions that shouldn't affect us this time.
I would recommend that everyone spend a little time learning about a CVS system and familiarizing themselves with Tortoise CVS. It shouldn't take too much time, and you can probably find the basics on the wikipedia. |
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