My Flash Game:

Once I had a good idea of what I was aiming to achieve with my game it was much easier to begin. I also however wanted it to be different, I had originally decided to make a game that was in the style of a pigeon shoot, or a space kind of idea, but after hearing of some of the games my fellow classmates had produced I de

cided to change the subject of mine completely. to mix things up I decided to change the vi

ew from shooting things in the air, to being in the air and shooting down. This then led to the theme of the game that the user would become a gunman of a helicopter and the aim would be to catch an escaped criminal. This still uses the same principle of an aim and shoot game, but at a different point of view which I liked.

I definitely wanted my game to have a start screen. The purpose of this is to introduce the game by setting the scene and giving the user some instructions. Once the user had clicked a play button, it would then go into the game play screen where the user would be set a specific time to shoot the criminal before the time ran out. Once the user had hit the running criminal for the required number of times in the time limit, the window frame would show a win, but failure to do so would result in a game over screen with an option to go back and try again.

The game play will involve the user having to catch a criminal that I place randomly on screen using action script with the position (Math.random). once the user has clicked on the criminal 10 times, they win. Although to limit the user from winning every time, I placed a timer so the game play was limited to 10 seconds. I also purposely did not show how much time the user has left, this should give a little more excitement. If the user is unable to click the criminal 10 times in 10 seconds, they fail.
After a few days of writing the action script and checking the game fully worked, this is what I came up with:

Start Screen:

Game Play (day):

Game Play:Winner Screen:

Failure Screen:

For the game change due to an external change, I decided to change the background of the game play frame. Seeing as the criminal is running in the streets, I decided to simply change the background from a map during the day, to a street map that looked as though it was night by giving it a green layer to imply the user is now us

ing night vision. The data pulled in would be the time of the users computer to change this depending on weather it was day or night equivale

nt to real time (If day, game would display day fram

e, if night, game would display night vision frame).

[External Data Change] Time Screen (night):

Now that the game is complete I am happy with the way that the game looks and plays.

I also tried to keep the look of the game specific to my website. The colour scheme on my website consists of red and black, so for the game, I h

ave made all text red on top of a black back ground to try and keep them related.

Below is how the game appeared once I had uploaded it to my webspace, Happy days!

Flash Game Research:

Our 2nd assignment for this module has been set and is to make our own Flash game using action script. To begin, I decided to get a ganda at what games I enjoyed to play myself before making my own. After a hard hour of research work by playing games, I found that the games I was most attracted to were shooting games. Games that involved the user having shoot or destroy a target. On this basis, I decided to make a similar game myself.


Below are some print screens of a couple of examples I came across when searching online:


This is also a very simple style of game to reproduce as it doesn't require a high level of skill to create. With this being my first flash game it definitely seems like a good place to start.
The brief was was to create a flash game that had either a scoring system or a timer which would limit the user in some way and also had to extract data from an external source that would change the game. So with that in mind, Its time to begin making my game!

Examples of GPS

GPS has not only been used for navigation but also involved in creating art. gpsdrawing.com has many examples of such GPS involved projects and is well worth visiting to gain a better understanding of the possibilities this technology has.

Work produced by Jeremy Wood show many different ways in which this is used to such projects. One of which was the vegas dollar.

This was drawn by displaying the journey he mapped out using GPS and results in a clear image of a dollar symbol, perfectly representing its the way many feel about vegas, which is very much money money money!

This was taken from: http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery.html

BMW Advertisement: BMW also used the same principle of drawing using GPS to advertise. Below is a video taken from: http://urbantick.blogspot.com/2009/05/bmw-advertisement-gps-drawing.html and shows the way that it has been used.

BMW Unstoppable GPS Drawing from Max Rider on Vimeo.

I think this is a very effective way to advertise as it definitely draws in the attention of viewers. The fact that the drawing is created by a BMW product definitely brings both the product and GPS system together.

The Biggest ever drawing by using GPS was a hoax produced by Erik Nordenankar. The video below shows how he made it appear he sent a GPS system on a wild journey around the world to create a self portrait. Although it was not real, there is no reason why it couldn't be done.

Locative Media:

Definition: "Locative media is many things: A new site for old discussions about the relationship of consciousness to place and other people. A framework within which to actively engage with, critique, and shape a rapid set of technological developments. A context within which to explore new and old models of communication, community and exchange. A name for the ambiguous shape of a rapidly deploying surveillance and control infrastructure."
Reference: http://web.archive.org/web/20060720212044/http://locative.net/tcmreader/index.php?intro;russell .

The reason I am now interested in this type of media is that I can use GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking to map out a series of factors in an area, then take the data to show some kind of visual relationship with the route. GPS was first developed in the early 1940's and used during world war 2, providing the US navy an accurate method of fixing their position before firing missiles.

An example of the use of GPS is the ARQuake project. This involves a GPS signal being read by a computer strapped to the back of a user. When the user wears a head set then they can play this game in the real world but have virtual enemies to fight.


Another use of GPS is infact the use mapping yourself and the path you have taken or want to take. This is how I will be using it.

How It Works:

The way that GPS works is by triangulation from satellites. It does this by a GPS receiver measuring distance using the travel time of radio signals. The GPS receiver must also know exactly where in space the satellites are.

RFID:

Radio Frequency Identification is the use of an object applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. An example of such used are passports etc.

Our Findings:

After going down to Union Street with the group and taking readings along different point at the site, we managed to gain a list of results as shown below:

Bluetooth data:
Andy
Marcus PNot Assigned
Smurf :)
Hoegarth the..
SGM - E2500V
C920
Saunders
x * Kath * x
Lardass
CoolAngel
SS230X Lush X puppy x
007
Alex brav
Malteasers
Nokia 6700cla..
Bernie
Ali Kat
Mark James
Loui

Once I had all the names recorded I was able to produce a map with all the names found on our bluetooth device and where they were found on the map of union street. We stayed focus on Union Street as this was the focal point of our site from last term.

The blue spheres represent the bluetooth signals given off, with the bluetooth names inside to show which signals were where. The red line in the middle is simply to highlight Union Street.

To pick up all the bluetooth devices in the area, me and my group decided to record one device on one side of the road, and cross over to pick up a different signal and continued to do this through out the journey which gave a zig-zag effect. Below is the path we took shown in black.

Combining Communications: Hertzian Space

After a short break during the Christmas period its back to work. The project has now developed into looking at Stonehouse and monitoring the Hertzian space.

Hertzian Space: Hertzian space is the electro-magnetic radiation emitted by electrical objects, an electrical aura extending around the object's physical space (Dunne, A. & Raby, F., 2001)
These cannot be visibly seen, but are definitely present and as part of this project we in the group will try to determine what these emissions could possibly look like in the Stonehouse area.
We also considered other methods of communication that we could monitor in the Stonehouse area, still focused on Union Street such as recording Blue-tooth signals we were able to pick up just by using our mobile phones.

There are various methods of connecting to people to communicate, but in all cases it is the use of frequency waves that allow the sending of data from one location to another. Such waves include Radiowaves, Microwaves, Infra-Red, Visible light, Ultraviolet Light, X-Rays and Gamma rays.

To begin looking into this, my group and I went down to Union Street and walked from one end to the other, stopping every 20 meters to record Bluetooth readings from our mobile phones. This was to find out how active the area was.

Bluetooth: Bluetooth wireless technology is a short-range communications technology intended to replace the cables connecting portable and/or fixed devices while maintaining high levels of security. The key features of Bluetooth technology are robustness, low power, and low cost. The Bluetooth specification defines a uniform structure for a wide range of devices to connect and communicate with each other. ( http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Technology/ ). It can also connect to numerous devices which allows synchronization. It has a limited span in which it can connect, but ranges between 10 - 100 meters depending on the device class.