nav.boo.onPress = function(){
   
    oldh = newh
    oldw = neww
    newh = 1000
    neww = 800
   
    new Tween (boxOne,"_x",Bounce.easeOut,oldh,newh,1,true);
new Tween (boxOne,"_y",Bounce.easeOut,oldw,neww,3,true);
}

nav.goomba.onPress = function(){
   
    oldh = newh
    oldw = neww
    newh = 500
    neww = 100
   
    new Tween (boxOne,"_x",Elastic.easeOut,oldh,newh,1,true);
new Tween (boxOne,"_y",Bounce.easeOut,oldw,neww,3,true);
}


That is a segment of the code used to make the tweens, although it only shows the X and Y being changed the size of the shape was also changed. To preview it; click here

Full screen

Stage.align = "TL";
Stage.scaleMode = "noscale";

sizeListener = new Object();
sizeListener.onResize = function()
{
    fullsize();

};
Stage.addListener(sizeListener);

_global.fullsize = function()
{
    navBar._width = Stage.width;
    boxOne._x = Stage.width/2 - boxOne._width/2
    boxOne._y = Stage.height/2 -boxOne._height/2
   
    buttons._x = Stage.width/2 - buttons._width/2
    game._x = Stage.width/2 - game._width/2
   
    fox._x = Stage.width-30 - fox._width/2
    fox._y = Stage.height-50 -fox._height/2
   
    fokk._x = Stage.width-90 - fokk._width/2
    fokk._y = Stage.height-50 -fokk._height/2
};
fullsize();

//----------BUTTONS----------\\

buttons.herp.onPress = function(){
    boxOne.gotoAndStop(1);
   
}

buttons.ahh.onPress = function(){
   
    boxOne.gotoAndStop(2);
}

buttons.derp.onPress = function(){
   
    boxOne.gotoAndStop(3);
}


Today, we learned some stuff, and then this happened. So, here it is.
Starting to learn how to use align and such. Stuff be cool.

GL basic game

I'm terrible at it.

I've progressed and the game now looks playable, although I need to try and get sound and the splash screen to work. I also need to work on the sprites but I'm leaving that until I've finished and got the code correct.

Overall I'm happy with the progress I've recently made.

Typography

There's a typography design I created in around an hour, give or take.
Now that I look back on it many hours later, I do like it although think the figure could have used better defining. That and it also looks weird and not right.

The exclamation mark isn't in the same font either, at the time it looked good. Maybe it would have been better in the same font.

Speaking of which I think I used the font "Bebas" or "Impact" one of the two, I think Bebas, but for some reason I'm think of impact.

Yay for a submission that isn't about a project or assignment!

Reflective analysis

I decided to make a video rather than write a lot, again. Honestly I'd rather do it like this, its quicker, less stressful to do and allows for some fun to be had!

Pretty much covered everything in the video and it was over 4-5 minutes, easily. Although I'm not the best speaker, I did try to make my voice louder although I do mutter at times, bad habit.

User generated content and such!

As technology advances, so does advertising. An easily noticeable example; advertising on applications. Normally free ones, which you then have to purchase/donate to, to then remove the ads. Another example would be YouTube, now one of the biggest websites in the world. It too has advertisements to earn revenue. (YouTube is so well known, spell check recognizes YouTube as a word, it got angry when I just typed "Youtube") The site, as mentioned in another post, allows popular users to become partnered with them, meaning they can have a few banners, and they also can have advertisements on their videos which can earn them some money. Cynically, this is given to those who have a large amount of views and a following, good or bad. For example a hated, but known user could still become partnered.

Quickly, an example of old advertising; when you bought a game (I'm referring to PS2 ones) you would normally also get a leaflet advertising another game inside the case, and/or you would have a viewable trailer on the disk. I'm unsure if they were a very effective way of advertising but I kept some of the leaflets and have them on my wall, and I remember watching trailers. Demos! They would also be released with games. Though they still exist and I assume are doing well still. In the time era I was talking about demos were on disks. Not normally downloadable things due to the technology. Which again, is another example of how far technology and the use of the internet!

In the older days of the internet, advertisements were merely just flashing banners on a page. Whereas now they seem to be mainly interactive ones, "Hit the target to win a ....." something that normally involves the users' attention and a small part of their time. When really, it's just a cursor and no matter where or when you click, you will be redirected to the advertisement's page. Although I personally haven't seen any ads for awhile due to my installation of Adblock plus, an add-on for most browsers which disables adverts. The main time I see them is when I'm at college even then I just ignore them and continue with whatever it was I was doing.

Now, for more about YouTube, because the site is so large it’s impossible for advertisers to miss the opportunity with this site. From what I remember YouTube aims advertisements are specific groups of people, they do this by putting game related advert on a gaming video. This is made somewhat easier to do because the site uses a category system for all videos, so if a video was in a certain category it would then have certain advertisements placed on it. This is assuming that the video poster has enabled ads to be on the video.

One problem with advertising like this, which I mentioned earlier, add ons for browsers that disable ads. No matter how nice or horrible the advertisement is, it will just be blocked and not seen.  Although I’m not sure on this, I doubt that a large percentage of the users of the site have such a plugin installed. The main people who I assume would have it installed would be gamers, very nerdy ones at that.

Back to YouTube, because the site is a video sharing site of course there will be popular/viral videos , videos become viral by attaining high popularity and a large number of views and ratings, note the ratings must be positive. Some companies have taken notice of this and have tried to make a viral video, for example Apple tried to create a video of everyone in an Apple store dancing. Although most people saw through it, it still became popular because of that. Personally I do not like when companies try advertising like this as it feels like their crossing the line of advertising and into the realm of the users.

More on YouTube, I believe it has become such a big site because of the advancement of technology and such, for example cameras are now cheaper and better than several years ago. Mobile devices are also pretty much camera too, some even have the ability to edit footage and upload it from the device. Because of these advancements in technology the options to create and upload media has become widely available for more and more people. YouTube the site actually takes a lot of different formats of video for users to upload, although when the video is uploaded I believe it is automatically converted to a flv file.

The site alone has gone through many different updates since I joined it originally in 2007, at that stage there was no HD or HQ option for viewing videos, now YouTube supports up to 1080p videos. Although obviously the higher quality and longer the video the longer it will take to render (save), and upload and publish on the site so you don’t see many high quality long videos. Although at the time of writing this my internet can’t always stream 720p video perfectly at times, however Wifi is being updated in areas I believe which will obviously increase connection speeds and might encourage more users to post or at least give them the option to do so.

*New*

When uploading to a website, obviously you will want to use the smallest file size possible, at the highest quality possible. Of course it will vary depending on your connection, for example if you have a good upload speed, you could upload a higher quality video. Although it will increase render/saving time, which also may be a factor for video makers. File size and quality are variable when using different formats, for example .avi is a good quality format, however the file sizes are huge. In comparison to .wmv, which is lower quality but a lot smaller in file size. Which makes it a popular choice. It is also the default video format for Windows PCs, making it popular by default, but of course only with PC users and not Macs. Most file formats are accepted when uploading to Youtube, from looking at the support page you can see some supported file formats, and ones that are not supported. (http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55744)

*End of new*

Augmented reality is creating something out of nothing, to say it simply. This, personally I don’t see having a huge part in the future of advertising or gaming, although I do see it becoming more common, which is great honestly it’s a very cool thing and I would be amused for hours with it. Although it would only be for a casual game, I very highly doubt that the new Call of Duty in how many years will be using that, I don’t see how it would.

“Today, Sony Santa Monica Sr. Manager Dave Thach returns with two new augmented reality games, Fireworks and Cliff Diving. Both are part of the Augmented Reality Suite coming exclusively to PS Vita on Feb 22nd on PSN for free. Also, packaged with your PS Vita will be six AR cards which will also work with Reality Fighters, and other great AR experiences.” –

Rey Gutierrez. (2012). Dive Into PS Vita’s Augmented Reality Suite. Available: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/02/08/dive-into-ps-vitas-augmented-reality-suite/. Last accessed 6th March 2012.

Looking at the PSVita (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOHe9fhrJnU) reminded me of the Eyetoy for PS2, not the same thing however, both Sony and both look fun. Generally you can start to see a trend emerging within gaming now and that is interacting with the game itself, changing it or controlling it. Now the Kinect and Move have been out for a while there are a flow of games for them, most of the adverts I actually see on television are for Kinect or Move. With all that said, it appears Nintendo was ahead with the Wii.

Now I look back, this has gone way off topic of user generated content, however one thing I always used to want when I was younger was a game I could truly interact with and create and control, that’s probably why I was a Sims addict for the first years of my actual gaming life. (I miss the original Sims, it was awesome, just because.) Which is in a way related, I also loved making skate parks on Tony Hawk games, which is user generated content, and from what I remember, there used to be premade parks and I assume eventually that then went online and allowed users to share parks. I say assume because the Tony Hawk series died when EA launched Skate. This also links into this! Skate2 had a feature that allowed you to create graphics for boards, I loved this feature. Although the way you actually made the graphics sucked and was terrible. That reminds me, since the original Skate, you were able to capture the last minute or so of gameplay, edit it in the game and then upload it to the EA server, thing which you could then access on a computer and download.

Colin McCrae; DiRT 3, one of my favourite racing games also had a feature similar to Skate’s replay one. After a race you can view the replay, you’ve been able to do this for a while now, but with DiRt3 you can upload the replay to YouTube from the game, as far as I know this feature is on all platforms, whereas Just Cause 2’s replay feature was only on the PS3, the quality was also terrible (240p!).

There, one thousand and three hundred something words! Well, more now. The assignment said the post had to be 1,500 but honestly I think that’s a bit much, although I nearly covered it and I probably could. So, I’m going to leave it here, as I think I’ve covered most things, except referencing.  Scratch that, I just put in one for the Vita! Pfft, writing “articles” is easy, much easier than essays!