TED talk three big ideas

The three main aspects that I will be building off of will be the purpose, the build process, and the gameplay parts of my project.

Ted talk hooks

https://www.ted.com/talks/bilal_bomani_plant_fuels_that_could_power_a_jet

This TED talk got me hooked because of the way he got right to the subject while easing you into it at the same time. That allows anybody to be introduced to the subject and be educated about it. He then keeps you hooked by not using crazy scientific terms and using everyday science terms that most people use. But the big thing he does to keep you hooked is piling a steady amount of content that ultimately leads up to the main point of the TED talk.

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial

This TED talk gets you hooked by giving you the big scope of history. He describes how in primitive times that people were afraid of progress. And that it didn’t stop the world from moving forward. And using anti vaccinators as examples, he goes on to say “while you are entitled to your own opinion, you are not entitled to your own facts”, And how that denying something when there's proof can set us back into the dark ages. This polarized opinion keeps me captivated throughout the entire TED talk.

https://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_saenz_de_cabezon_math_is_forever

This one gets me hooked by connecting the presentation to a very iconic figure in science in math, two fields that have advanced our world greatly throughout the 20th and 21st century. Then gets you excited by saying that we are in the middle of a revolution that involves using technology to directly impact industry by making it more efficient. For example, using computers to diagnose future problems long before they ever arise, allowing people to be fully prepared to tackle these problems.

Weekly post No. 4

This post will be largely dedicated to answering one question. Should I keep doing this project?
And I am happy to say that the answer is yes. I am very certain that I will be able to complete this project in the allotted amount of time. Not only that but I have learned lots about how to fix bugs, how to optimize the program to make it run properly, and the value of little things that make the user experience that much better. And I think there is lots more to be learned in between now and by the time I finish building the game. And not only that, but I heavily enjoy making this game. Not only is designing this game fun in general, but it allows me to work at my own pace. Which let's me work on it whenever I can fit it in. And since the beginning, I saw that as a very major advantage to my project.

Weekly post No. 3

The progression of the app has come along nicely. While it moves slow, the player that you control runs perfectly. And I have a good start on programming in the trajectory and animation of the ball. This is where the app gets interesting. Because there are now multiple different aspects of the app that all have to work together. I'm talking about the game board, the player, now the ball and in the future the computer player. However what is very nice is that all the different graphical components use the same coordinate plane. I did this by making the game board and the ball on one canvas and the players both have their own small canvas. This allows me to easily coordinate where the different onscreen components should be on the screen. And once I get the ball working right I will have to make sure the collision detection is properly coordinated and put implement the scoring system. And before I go I would like to mention that on the blog I have posted a link to a google drive folder. In here there are all the different builds of my app that have accumulated over time. You can download the apk files and run them for yourself

- The blocks necessary to run the ball. Each different angle the ball can go has its own code, with the very bottom block being what draws the ball on the screen

Weekly post No.2

Some questions I have about the making of this game.

- The biggest question I have is how I will make an AI that runs the second player.

- How can I optimize the game to make it run as fast as possible?

- Will I have time to do a two player mode?

 Powers, Rich, and Brian Sandall. "Program Analysis Using App Inventor."Www.teachengineering.org. College of Information Science & Technology, University of Nebraska-Omaha, 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

Weekly post No.1

My proposal for the app is very simple, create a pong app that runs on android. And while there are probably a billion slightly different versions of the app on the google play store, I still think that it will be a great exercise in the world of game design. Which will be fitting as pong was originally conceived as a way to introduce someone into the world of game design. I plan to make the game as fully featured as the original version of pong was, with sound effects, an artificial intelligence, a scoring system, and if I have time, an optional two player mode. To do this I will be using a free online tool called MIT App Inventor. It uses a graphical user interface for ease of use while still being a very powerful tool. So far I have gotten part of the user interface made up, with all the buttons in place, the outline for the game board and the scoring numbers in place. Since these were only simple user interface components, with not many complex variables and simple blocks of code leave not much room for error and the subsequent bugs that come with it. But as I start adding in things like the ball and the two player icons, bugs will become a much bigger issue in the future. But the biggest challenge that I will probably face is a proper Artificial intelligence for the computer player, as it is something I have never done before. But by next week I plan to have the basic up and down movement of the human player working.

- A screenshot of the game board with the code with all the code necessary.

What is Pong?

Pong was the first game ever developed by Atari. It was first developed as a training exercise for Allan Alcorn by Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell was a co founder of Atari and wanted Alcorn on the development team. And while he did have a background in computer science, he didn't have a background in game design. The revolutionary yet simple concept was inspired by variations of electronic tennis on the Magnavox Odyssey, and to finish their final product, Alcorn bought a cheap black and white TV and mounted it in a wooden cabinet along with the necessary circuitry. To get their game out into the world, they had Pong installed at the Andy Capp's Tavern in 1972, near jukeboxes, other arcade machines and pinball machines. The game received instant success, prompting Atari to just manufacture the game instead of license it. And in 1975 Atari released a home version in a partnership to sell it through Sears. Pong was a rapid success and ended up shipping over 35,000 units, but this was only one third of total pong consoles, because of the sheer number of pong clones that sprung up because of it. Atari then tried to compete by introducing better versions, like a four player version of pong. That is the story of how the first ever game made by Atari became an immediate classic and well known for generations to come.