A-Mazing...

I've been experimenting with the creation of a maze game parallel to the work of one of my teams on a maze game. My experiment took on a different bent, when, while doing research on the web, I came across a posting that used the maze portion of the game as a button.

This intrigued me quite a bit.

 So, I immersed myself in the posting and have been developing a simple maze situation  that I can then demonstrate to my students. In short it used the maze as a button, so that the "over" keyframe of the button programs an action to occur as soon as the cursor touches the button, (which in this treatment, the edge of any portion of the button is really the wall of the maze). It also involves the creation of a custom cursor, so that the custom designed cursor you create is the object, (the player that goes through the maze).

Of course this means that you also have to hide the original cursor.

Once I finish that, I am going to experiment to see if an object, through a hit test, can interact and activate a button, I think that would lead to better game play than using the mouse. I'm also going to experiment  moving the custom cursor by using the arrow keys.

It was an interesting take on the traditional maze, one I've been enjoying working with.

Mostly, I hope it helps my students....

working on games...

The teams are all deeply involved with solving game problems. It always intrigues me how surprised the students are when they discover the amount of work that goes into making a computer game.

They breeze in here in the fall and believe they are game masters, because they love to play games.
About this time of the year,they are pretty overwhelmed by the intricacies of designing a game.

I seem to spend all my time putting out fires and calming them down.  It is an interesting time.

Oops! It looks like I'll have to cut this blog short,  I'm being called into action—It seems there is a fire that needs dousing…

Wow. April 10.

Seems like forever that I have been gone, and the students too.

Today is the first day back from spring break.

My daughter flew in from Denver on March 23rd. So, I took three personal days on the 26, 27 & 28th.  We had a great time. It is always special when you get to spend some time with your child. You really miss them across the miles.

Then,  on Thursday,  the 29th, I was out with the WPHS Bluegrass Bands. As their faculty sponsor, we had a all day series of workshops at New Martinsville K-8 School, in Wetzel County, for an outreach grant they had received on Appalachian music.

The next day, Friday the 30th,  started spring break and today, well,  we are finally back in session.
An amazing string of days!

Back to the trenches to see where the students are, and to make up for lost time…