Project B Documentation!!!

Welcome to Balance！！！

https://lisa-huangzijin.github.io/CClab/final%20project%20B/

For Public readers:

Project: Balance

About:

Balance was a two-week-long project I made with the help of my professor. Moon and my classmates. As the project for my final, I aimed to let players keep the balance between different colors.

These blocks with different colors can be interpreted as multiple tasks in our lives. I am a person who is really bad at multitasking. I can only fully devote myself to one things, and turn to another when this thing is finished. 

So how to strike the balance between different tasks annoys me a lot. As the player in this game. When they jump up to reach to another block (task), they’ll find that the block they are stepping on right now disappears and can no longer support them. I try to visualize multitasks with the disappearance and appearance of blocks.

So the better way out is to get a rough idea of the time distribution of all tasks and walk confidently to your desired finish line. Two modes of this game allows the player to get the idea where different colors of blocks are placed. With this and the destination in mind, they are able to quickly get to the point they want. Please try to play this game to find the feeling of keeping the balance!

 

 

For myself and my instructor:

1) Process: Design and Composition

At first I struggled a lot with the concept of my project. I want to let my project B build upon project A, but with my limited skills, it is hard to exhibit the project B on a very large screen with interaction part. I thought it over and over again but failed to get an idea that I was happy with.

The turning point came in the second week when, after receiving some advice from my professor, I suddenly wondered what would happen if I didn’t continue with Project A. While my initial intention was to explore the aesthetic and mathematical aspects of geometry further, I realized that I had neglected to showcase my artistic skills and talents in this project A. As a result, I turned my attention to researching parkour games and decided to use a hand-drawn style to construct 2D scenes with various layers (so that it can still has a sense of 3D).

However, I soon realized that the remaining time until the end of the semester was insufficient for me to draw backgrounds that met my expectations. Although this idea was not realized, I managed to break away from my original thought process and temporarily set aside my project A.

2) Process: Technical 

There are three main challenges in my process while developing this project. The First one is the collision detection. Since I have two modes and need to detect the top, left, and right, I set four collision detections to fulfill this. And to let the player able to check each block’s position, I use the technique Moon taught me. 

The second one is about the keyCode. The value stored will be replaced as soon as I press another key, so when I tempt to jump while moving left or right, I can only jump horizontally without the speed in the x direction. Following the professor’s instructions, I use the condition of “true” and “false” and the function “keyPressed” and “keyReleased” to fix this problem.

The last issue is about different status and the “back” function I want. I don’t use html and hover because I don’t want my game be divided into different pages. So I use different stages in jsp5 to get different levels and menu. For the back bottom, I want that if I click them, I can return to where I stop the game. I make it very complex and finally failed to do so. I, again, turned Moon for help. The solution provided by my professor is really smart and I appreciated it a looooooooot!!! Moon simply use an empty variable to store the value of the states, and by clicking the button, the value of the previous stage (stored in the variable) will be assign to the stage value!!!! I became so exciting when I was taught to do so!!!!

3) Reflection and Future Development

I hope I will be given the chance to reach out to my professor again because I find myself trying to avoid the bug instead of solving the bug.

The first big bug: about appearance of blocks. Since different amount of blocks are applied to different level, I find out that when I finish the whole game and start again, the following blocks in the next level will appear as well. For example, I have two for the level 1, and five for level 2, if I complete level 2 and play the level 1 again, the 3rd, 4th and 5th in the level 2 will also appear in level 1. I only avoid the bug by setting same amount of blocks for each level, and then move the extra blocks to the invisible place. But I don’t think I fixed it in this way. (sad😢)

bug 2: For the setting page, I originally organize it like the main menu (buttons stay in the same place). However,  when I click the button on the setting to back to the main menu, the computer also detect that I click the same position in the main menu page. I click only once, but actually the computer says that I click one button on the settings, and one on the main menu. This lead the player automatically to skip the main menu and start playing the game. To avoid this, I personally adjust the buttons’ position in the setting. But I’m still wondering a better way out.

bug 3: the collision detection. This appears in the level 3, for the blocks that are placed like a wall. Because I have the collision detection for the player to step on the blocks. However, if the player jump on the wall (the collision detection doesn’t apply for wall according to my personal setting), the computer will first check the wall’s position first, and then the blocks the player can step on. This will result that even the player’s position allows it to step on the block, it will check the wall first and let the player fall to the ground. To avoid it, I make the block where the players prepare to jump longer, to avoid land on the position that is close to the wall. But I don’t know how to fix it with counter🥺.

4) Very important!!! Lisa!!! Please remember the following part!!!

In conclusion, I really appreciate what my classmates, professors, and our LA have done to help with my project B. I’d like to say that I really value the chance to have this class with you guys all!!! I felt really sad after I finished the last course (and cried) because I felt like I lose the chance to stay in such a great class with such nice people. I miss the time I stayed with Rachel in IMA studio to help her solve her problems. I appreciate Cissy when she taught me how to make zoom in effect with her own-designed sample code. I like to stay with Pacy to discuss our ideas for our IMA projects. I appreciate each meeting with Moon and his support no matter for my course project or other aspect of my study and life. I appreciate each weekend and night he chose to come to school at the sacrifice of his rest time to help students with their project. You cannot image how moved and regretful I am when I received moon’s sample code at around 3:00 AM. I’m not a person who is good at express my feelings in front of others, but I actually appreciate and love them a lot, in my heart. So, Lisa, please not forget this valuable memory with those great people. Please. Please. Please.