Globaloria Mini Workshop 11/08/11:

Tips for Teaching the topic: Developing Your Primary Game Scene

Vicky Neal – Greenbrier West High SchoolChristina Waybright – Randolph Technical Center

PRIOR STEPS:

This is a great tutorial to review with your students. Saves time and a great deal of work. It is crucial that students understand why to use layers in the beginning.

PAPER PROTOTYPE SCAN OR TAKE PHOTOS OF THEM DRAWING A SCENE TOPIC

Today’s Topic – Developing Your Primary Game Scene

Beginning to develop their scene…The Primary Scene is the first level of the game.

The students need to decide:

What will the player have to do in this scene? To complete these actions, what controls will the player need to use? Students must identify the ActionScript codes needed to create the

actions and controls they want in the primary game scene.

The Developing the Primary Game Scene page uses Mario as an example.

In that scene, all Mario needs to do is move using the arrow keys and jump.

There is also a scrolling background.

Where can they go for help?

Flash Tutorial Finder lets you look for a topic by game genre or by the kind of action you want to create.

Flash Tutorial Finder is also linked from Flash Tips in the Help area.

You can add a direct link to it in your sidebar menu if you like. Steps are on the Educator Wiki: http://www.myglife.org/usa/educators/index.php/Edit_Sidebar_Clip

Game Ingredients lets you look for a tutorial by game genre.

From the Developing Your Game topic, click on the genre of your game to see a list of commonly used motifs for that genre, and helpful tutorials.

(Game Ingredients also has a sidebar link under Help)

Ask your students to make a list of what they are going to need for this level of their game and then, as a team, divide the topics and then teach them to each other or to the class.

Christina Waybright -

WATCH THE TUTORIALS…Skip this step? NO!Tutorials explain realistic movements of symbols.Tutorials explain opening and manipulation of symbols in

your library.Play them in front of class on a White Board if possible,

then encourage students to review on their own if needed.

Creating and RecreatingStudents can redraw if they don’t like the symbols they have.

(Or if you don’t like them... Challenge them to excellence! Stick figures are not okay!)

• Some things are not worth tracing… some things are:

Simple Animation Ideas

Try making your character look like they are moving realistically though the game.

For example, if they are walking, animate a walkcycle. If they are swimming, make it look like theyare swimming.

Even redrawing the character a few times in its timeline so that you get a “squiggle” effect can make a game more dynamic

Here’s an example from Help Larry Eat Tonight.

Modifying Symbols, TweeningIf students do redraw symbols, they can easily swap in

Flash using Modify>Symbol>Swap Symbol. The wiki topic covers this very well…

Tweens are important in flash animation. Simple tweens can make your game more interesting to play because they “feel” interactive. Here’s an example.

• Adobe TV is a very good place to find more tutorials on tweening. The Adobe TV site can be challenging to use, so I like to Google the entire topic.

3: Try one: Make Something Move using Keyboard Control

This step is similar to the Mini-Game lesson of making the bunny move with the keyboard.

Remember: The goal is to work toward the Game Demo, not getting the entire game done right now.

Advanced Students: Direct them to lessons on the wiki such as Character Effects and Navigating the Timeline.