Wendy.Foster

Final Project :: Part 1

Description

Overview:

This project supports my general research interest in casual game development, and the re-

This Processing project will operate as a functional prototype for further development and extension to mobile platforms. The Processing Breakout game produced for this project will be the basis for ports into Mobile Processing and Objective C, using the iPhone SDK, for iPhone implementation. I am particularly interested in exploring the multi-touch and accelerometer affordances for gameplay that can be accessed through the iPhone for a Breakout clone.

I am comforted by the knowledge that Jobs and Wozniak created the original Breakout coding in 4 days (although legend has it that Jobs downloaded all the work onto Wozniak who went without sleep for those four days in order to complete the project). Sadly, the Jobs and Wozniak version never made it to implementation on the Atari system. Wozniak claims that evil Atari engineers broke his code; however, their industriousness will operate as my motivation to create a version, that, at the very least, will have a ball, a paddle, and some bricks that will, in some fashion, respond to each other.

Key Functionality:

Intermediate functionality: User customization options for paddle-

Advanced functionality: In the “alpha-

Libraries:

controlP5 gui elements (to provide user configuration options); oscP5 open sound control network protocol (to base facilitate wiimote connection); darwinosc extension for osc (darwinremote application for osx to support wiimote); and ezGestures gesture recognition library (to analyze Wiimote movements)

Plan Framework:

1. Build core functionality
   • implement minimum functionality (baseline gameplay elements)
   • optimize code for baseline functionality
   • implement gui widgets for user-defined elements: includes determination of which game aspects will be controlled through widgets and how to place widgets in relation to primary game space
2. Incorporate gameplay enhancements into core build
   • implement scoring system into gameplay
   • determine differential effects for base elements to be linked to advances in gameplay
   • create and implement bonus items into gameplay
3. Incorporate advanced functionality into application
   • attempt wiimote controller implementation
   • allow for user customization of the environment through gui controls (ability to modify, perhaps, background scenes, paddle appearance, etc.)

1. Ports
   • play with opportunities for mobile implementations through Mobile Processing and Java Sun Wireless Toolkit (formerly J2ME)
   • investigate alcheMo for iPhone which automates J2ME to iPhone porting
   • start playing with the iPhone SDK to determine level of difficulty in becoming fluent enough with Objective-C that a port is possible in the future by re-writing the application instead of translating the code through alcheMo

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Project 2: Part I :: Editor Proposal

Tmesis via Editrix v.0'

Drawing Tool Proposal : IAT 800 Wendy Foster

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[T]mesis is a seam or flaw resulting from a simple principle of functionality; it does not occur at the level of the structure of languages but only at the moment of their consumption; the author cannot predict tmesis: he cannot choose to write what will be read.

(Roland Barthes from The Pleasure of the Text (1973). A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. Ed. Antony Easthope, et al. Toronto: U of Toronto P., 1992. 108-109.

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tmesis [a. Gr. a cutting]

   The separation of the elements of a compound word by the interposition of another word or words. 
 (Often a reversion to the earlier uncompounded structure.) 

1586 DAY Eng. Secretary II. (1625) 83 Timesis or Diacope, a diuision of a word compound into two parts, as, What might be soeuer vnto a man pleasing,..for, whatsoeuer might be, etc. 1678 PHILLIPS (ed. 4), Tmesis,..a figure of Prosody, wherein a compounded word is, as it were, cut asunder, and divided into two parts by some other word which is interposed, as Septem Subjecta Trioni, for Subjecta Septemtrioni. 1844 Proc. Philol. Soc. I. 265 Though the constituent parts of compound terms may be disjoined by tmesis, the elements of truly simple words never are. 1889 Athenæum 23 Mar. 373/1 Forgive the quaint tmesis of his opening line: How bright the chit and chat!

(Oxford English Dictionary Online, Second Edition, 1989. <http://dictionary.oed.com>)

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Abstract

As an exploration of the interactive affordances and constraints produced in collaboration between application designer and user, my drawing editor will incorporate the following tools and functionalities:

Editor Environment

Non-traditional drawing tools both complicate process and liberate the user from expected representational forms and practices. The editor drawing tools and features are designed to promote curiosity and play.

i) Mouse-controlled brushes: 3 brushes will be selectable via GUI buttons : one brush will have a variable x-axis stroke based on mouse speed, 2 brushes will have their size and appearance controlled programmatically. Brushes are non-standard (i.e. no pencil line tools).

ii) Keyboard controlled drawing: an “etch-a-- and y-axes via the keyboard (UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT). Note: Users will initiate the etch-a-

iii) Colour palette: a programmatically determined palette of 16 colours is available to the user to change brush stroke and line colour

iv) Alpha slider: a slider tool will allow the user to control the alpha transparency values of the brushes to assist in the creation of layered compositions

-based applet export without a php to web-server hook that I will not have time to write and incorporate by due date.