Due Wednesday, April 16 at 8:15 PM
Project: Build a simple arcade-style game for delivery on a handheld computer or Personal Digital Assistant.
Platform-Specific Specifications
- Set the dimensions of your project (main movie) to 227 pixels in width and 233
pixels in height.
- Save your source file (.fla) AS FLASH 5. This is crucially important.
At the moment there is no Flash 6 player for PocketPC devices, though that will
change very soon.
- When you export your object file (.swf), be sure you have selected
Flash 5 under the Flash tab.
- All graphics must be vector, not bitmap.
- You may control interaction either with Flash buttons (Symbols within the movie) or with the four directional arrow keys: Up, Down, Left, and Right. (See the demonstration examples for code.)
General Specifications
- The player must be able to control some element of the game through
mouse (stylus) or direction-key input.
- The game must display a running score.
- At minimum, it must be possible for the player to lose the game
either by running out of time or "lives." You may also want to allow
for winning, though this is not required.
- The game must become more difficult as the player progresses.
You may want to define distinct stages or levels, though this is not required.
If you do create levels, there must be at least three.
- Design and production of the game must involve significant problems in logic and scripting.
Simple guessing games like Hangman and Battleship do not qualify.
Games of minimal strategy such as Tic-Tac-Toe are also excluded.
- Animation must play a significant role in the game (this is a multimedia
class, after all). Though card games like Concentration, Three-Card Monty, and Blackjack
present valid scripting challenges, they do not lend themselves to animation.
Avoid card games.
- Do plan to use sound. Flash now saves sound with MPEG-3 compression, meaning that you can get a lot of information into a small file. You'll still need to be judicious with sound, but it's a crucial element of most games.
Due Dates
The completed game is due April 16.
On April 2 you must submit a feature analysis of your game--the assets and behaviors you will need to build and any logical problems you anticipate having to solve. More details of this part of the assignment will be given out separately. If you don't submit this specification on time, you cannot receive an A for the assignment.
Technical
- Your object file (.swf) must be no larger than 200 kilobytes and must
conform to the platform requirements given above.
- Export an object file (.swf) using the Flash 5 setting, as well
as the usual HTML index file.
- Export an appropriate JPEG and include this graphic on your main Crow index page in place of the dummy currently installed for Assignment 4. Check to be sure the link is working. Remember that your index page must be correctly configured for your peer respondents.
Testing and Reference
Though you must meet the platform requirements, I will grade your work using a desktop PC, so you're not required to test on a handheld.
See me if you do want to run a test on my PDA.
