destiny team mailing list archive

[Ian Crotty <archangel114@xxxxxxxxx>]

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 <tomast@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> I'll talk with Ian in class tomorrow about the Manuals for sure.
>
> Tom
> ________________________________________
> From: destiny-bounces+tomast=bsu.edu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[destiny-bounces+tomast=
> bsu.edu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Doug Shook [dsshook@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 6:40 PM
> To: zachelko@xxxxxxxxx
> Cc: destiny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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 <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> dsshook@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 <zachelko@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> zachelko@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> dsshook@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 <zachelko@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> zachelko@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> dsshook@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 <archangel114@xxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:archangel114@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 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 <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:
> dsshook@xxxxxxxxx>> 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 features finished and
> the bugs worked out over the weekend.
>
> I had to make some changes to QuestionSet in order to make this stuff
> happen.  Now instead of taking the index of the requested set as an argument
> it simply takes the filename and loads it directly.  RR, BS, and hangman
> have all been updated to reflect this change.
>
> The new menu system is also up and uses the Question FTP stuff.  There are
> one or two bugs in there as well, but in general it works great.  I will
> post those bugs on the tracker later as well.
>
> If you have the time please go through and test some of this stuff and
> report any bugs you may find.  Remember that in order to use the Launcher
> you will have to update the entire repo and rebuild RR and BS before
> rebuilding the Launcher.
>
> I think that's about everything, but if you have any questions or advice
> feel free to holler at me.
>
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