Sunday 13 September 2009

Take 2...

Well, all fired up, I went to try to install the game on the school machines and couldn't update it because the website was barred by our web nanny. The new installer and instructions should get round this but I'm very glad I gave myself the lead time I did before running this project.

On the other hand, I got one of the pilot pupils to try playing the game and he loved it. Even given that he only read about a tenth of the dialogue, he was still able to pootle around the tutorial quest and was very geed up about making his own game.

Take 2 tomorrow and I'll let you know how I get on!

Saturday 5 September 2009

Does this mean I'm hooked...?

Well... I finished the 2 1/2 day Making Games in Schools course with my brain threatening to pack up and leave the rest of me to fend for itself. It has been many years since I had to learn that hard but, by Friday evening, it had come together sufficiently for me to have a go at teaching it to my sister.

Now for the bad news... Despite having had it drilled into me at length the high technical specification, I had focussed on the school spec and had, somehow, overlooked the fact that my home laptop was the very cheapest option at the time and struggles to do Facebook Farmtown and Youtube at the same time. The software took several hours to load (and update) but, by golly, it was worth it.

The rush of pride seeing someone else playing my game was quite something. The graphics and all the rest of it made even my efforts (of probably 4-5 hours total tinkering time from zero knowledge of the program) look really professional! It looked like a real game and worked (mostly)!

I have had quite a few problems with unpacking the downloads but fingers crossed Cathrin and Judy can help me out there. I'll keep you posted.

If the kids love this half as much as I do, this is going to be a bit hit!

Jil

PS Anything that can persuade me to close Facebook and play with a bit of "schoolwork" for a weekend afternoon must be good...