Tech Fair Evaluation

The tech fair was a great success and I enjoyed the experience very much. I think we did well and everything was amazing, many people visited us to play our game and it seemed like most of the judges liked our ideas and I am confident that we did the best we could. The only thing that I found challenging was that we never prepared how we were going to explain our powerpoint while the people were playing the game, so it was a bit tricky but after a couple of people, we understood what we had to do and we presented everything easily. Looking around in the tech fair, I saw many groups with fantastic ideas and I enjoyed going around and seeing what they had to demonstrate as they were very original and creative. Overall, I feel like we did really well, the best we could and we got great feedback from the judges and students.

Our Tech Fair Powerpoint

Design & Plan

Planning

We decided on gathering different tile sets to put the layout of the game together. Here are most of the main tile sets we used for the classrooms, halls, field, spinneys area etc.

To put the tilesets together, we used the sidebar of RPG maker vx, so it is really simple, all you have to do it select the tile you'd like to use and create a layout out of that. Here is a picture of the sidebar with a tileset shown:

Creating characters are very easy. On the software, RPG Game maker vx, you can change the preset character to your preference. You can select different features and colors of clothing and here is a picture of how to create characters:

The two main things that we needed were characters and tilesets, so to put it all together, you can create a layout out of the tilesets and then choose how you want to add in the characters. The last part that we needed to do was to add in text, as in the speech that the characters say when you go to talk to them, here is a picture of how to add in dialogue:

The last thing we needed to make the game have an aim was to put in the quests.

Some Screenshots of what we have created

Tech Fair Choice - AOI Relevance

As explained in the previous post, I have came up with 3 ideas that I can use in the tech fair, an RPG game, a lyric music video and a helicopter camera. From these ideas, I have decided to make an RPG game about a quest in school. The reason that I have chosen to make this game is because I will learn more about technology in this project than the other two. Here, I will learn simple coding and how to use textiles, but I already know exactly how to complete the other two so I won't be learning anything new. Also, I wanted to challenge myself and take a risk so I chose this, it also fits under two area of interactions; Human Ingenuity and Community and Service. It relates to Human Ingenuity because it is all about creating developing and changing and thinking in a creative and unique way. This game will need us to develop and change all the characters and textiles and we are creating the game by putting it all together. The game will relate to community and service as the game is educational and will help young students in the community with their knowledge. Im going to make it with Eman, Aline and Seema. We need 4 people in this game because we need one person to create all the characters, one person to collect the right textiles, one person to put it together, and the last person to code the quests and all of us will be making a powerpoint and poster to go with it as well.

Tech Fair- Investigation

How can I use technology to produce a master piece project to be displayed in the tech fair?

Idea 1- RPG Game

Eman, Seema, Aline and I are going to make an RPG game, which relates to school. Were going to use classroom textiles and make the game sort of like a quest at school with little mini games to earn points. There will be characters, and every place you go, there will be other characters telling you things to do etc. There will be teachers that you can talk to and each of us will be making a couple of characters for the game. It is a simple idea which will be very interesting as it will be a recreation of our school and the Spinneys area. It is also an educational game as the quests test your knowledge so it will fit into the area of interaction focused on; Community and service.

Advantages: We are already familiar with the software and each of us has roles that were better at. Its simple and easy and the most advanced idea we have, its going to be creative since its like a model of the school.

Disadvantages: We only have a 30 day trial but we can probably finish it by then, however if something happens like a glitch then we can't really fix it if it is past thirty days.

Hardware: Laptop
Software: RPG Maker vx
                 Ms Paint



Idea 2- Music Video

We can also make a music video using iMovie for a song. So we will fold papers and drawings etc. into shapes in small clips that show the lyrics. Then well put it all together and add the song to it. We can edit it by taking pictures of each of the lyric drawings and then putting them one by one after one another on iMovie. When we play the video, it will all be put together and then we will add the song of our choice on top using simple iMovie tools. This idea is very simple and I love drawing so it will be a fun creative video where we can change it to our preference.It fits into the area of interaction, human ingenuity because the process is to create, develop, and change and that is what we will be doing as we create the lyrics, but we develop it into a unique version which is also changing it.

Advantages: We have a software, something Ive never done, were all artistic

Disadvantages: Common project, weve never done it so its going to be hard, too easy.

Hardware: Laptop
                  Paper & other materials
Software: iMovie
                 Youtube converter
                                                                                                                                                                 


Idea 3- Helicopter Camera

This is the most simple one of the three, all we need is a small camera with a wireless usb so we can access the video on a laptop and a remote control helicopter . So basically, to do this idea, we will attach the small camera to the remote control helicopter, most likely with tape or glue tack not to damage the camera. We will have to balance it out though so we will attach another camera to the other side. Then, we can access the video on a laptop which we will bring to the tech fair.

Advantages: Materials are easy to find,

Disadvantages: It is too easy, and we don't learn much about technology after completing this project and it doesn't really fit into an area of interaction either.

Hardware: Laptop
                  Camera
                  Remote control helicopter
Software: Wireless USB camera software

Term 1 Reflection

I really enjoyed term 1 and I feel like Ive learnt many new things this term. One of the things we did was Dreamweaver and HTML and Weebly. They are all similar but I prefer Weebly from them. I think Weebly is a really simple and easy way to make a website. Its much easier to use than Dreamweaver and I didnt have any difficulty with anything. The page layout is really simple to make and it guides you through the steps like a tutorial. I didtn find the designing difficult either because it was already there and all you had to do was drag the elements to the page. Adding pages and pictures were also very easy. Overall, I think Weebly is better than dreamweaver and HTML as it is easier. Other things we did were about Data and how you can protect it, that was really interesting and I definitely learnt from it. In conclusion, term 1 was great and I learnt many new things.

Dreamweaver vs. Weebly

I think Weebly is a lot easier to use that Dreamweaver and thats because everything is just plain simple. The way you can organize your layout on weebly is a lot easier to use and it guides you in steps. However, with Dreamweaver, you need more knowledge on html and adding things like pictures and texts etc. is a lot more complicated than it is on weebly. So overall I prefer using Weebly over Dreamweaver because of the easier format and how easy the access to everything is.