More on the game

I wish I didn't need to concentrate more on the animation module and wiritng the literature review so much so I could work more on the game...


The plan is that the arrows adjust the direction of the for ever scrolling game (each chamber is a level)
The attack button can be clicked to punch objects out of Kareems way
The up arrow allows Kareem to jump

Latest

Coding went well today and the newest version of the game is under way.

The buttons are temporary just to see positioning and adjusting player actions
  The final game shall have left and right buttons on the left and a jump and punch button on the right

Done a final test on all the browsers since I updated the os to jellybean 4.1

Chrome = runs as smooth as can be and loads fine

Firefox = jerky: only playable if you stick with itwhich isn't one bit positive

Default android browser = takes a while to boot up and is jerkier than Firefox also cuts bit of screen off

Dolphin browser = loads quickly, but isn't playable - very jerky

Opera - Loads fine, plays smooth and offers 10 -20px more screen than chrome due to it's url bar

The game scrolls and the player can jump and fall - custome physics are yet to be coded to work with velocities rather than just a for loop via the y coordinate so that he actually falls but i'm getting there....

I will produce a vidcap of the game soon 

Development week 11/12

This weeks progress with the game has been stunted as I have came down with a cold which has slowed me down - that's one thing that a team of more than 1 person doesn't have to deal with. I plan to have the first set of features playable in the game before the 31st of December on the tablet. I have nearly completed my first draft of my literature review now which can be refined and added to the interim report when I get feedback on it.

Game world moves at a constant direction (since physics doesn't run well on the tablet browsers) Player can choose to change the direction and Jump.

Add caption

Meeting 10

WEEK 10 

• Got clean code book from library - The project management and pragmatic programmer will be available on the 14th
• Started writing the interim / literature review - taking list of quotes and building the document
• Setup the galaxy tab2 for deving the game

This week was the most productive to date!

In terms of the interim report, literature review and the game itself it has been a very busy week. To keep it short I'l number the important things that happened instead of explaining it in a long-winded paragraph.

1. I made a back up of everything I'd done that I kept on dropbox and sent it to my gmail (just incase - this will be required again but as alot has changed since then)

2. I had a look at the physics code and figured out that it was a scene issue that was causing it not to activate the physics playing

3. I tried to catagorise the quotes that I had into one file but it was messy and realised that it was better setting up what I wanted to say about a particular subject of the literature review than writing it the body and tryng to find a quote in the catagorised list. For instance; Highsmith (2001) identifies that the waterfall model required a lot of change which disrupted the development process which is a weakness using this model of software development: “A waterfall development life cycle, based on an assumption of a relatively stable business environment, becomes overwhelmed by high change.”

I shall be writing and drawing conclusions this week in my literature review.

4. I got in touch with the game engine developer Brandon from the Modulous team in Ohio and he told me that he was planning major changes in the next 6 months for the engine which would be make it work more efficiently and with more features.

 When I loaded the game onto the galaxy tab it was needed to be re-sized. Which wasn't a problem.

With the tab being a bit smaller than the ipad2 browser, incremental design comes in handy to amend and make the changes.

I plan to get on with the interim report / literature review - the clean code book I got today has been requested and a one week loan means that i will work on getting good quotes out of that firstly.

I am also going to do some more deving of the game - Add all the menu assets and begin the actual game play elements.

Week 9

I have tidied up my documentation now and have produced my Design, Technical and play test evaluation documents.

DESIGN DOC -Subject to change:https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0tgk10samozqtf/DESIGN%20DOC.pdf

TECH DOC -again may change: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5o8ucnxlgg6jr85/TECHNICAL%20DOC.pdf?m

EVALUATION FORM - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec2nveechz8bx26/EVALUATION%20FORM.pdf

I also decided reshuffle my dropbox as after assessing how much the project has developed. I have created a new record system since it was getting messy - now got a document for general progress (daily/throughtheweek) and another programming

My agile paper potential quotes for the literature review (unsorted)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rj4klatidd5zc7c/agilepaperquotes.pdf

My agile book potential quotes for the lit review (unsorted) https://www.dropbox.com/s/kqwuf1i5zx4gwwh/Agile%20book%20potential%20quotes.pdf?m


Agile project management according to Jim Highmsith encourages team meetings which use team assessment cards. I thought that I would create my own of the progress thus far (week 1 - 9)

The targets all remain consistent. While none of them are complete, the attitude remains a constant and the performance could be better - which is a challenge but a reachable one. It shows that more focus should be on the literature review as it is requires the most work. The design of the game is at a level with the programming which is rather positive and means it is easy to adapt - not least because the code is designed well. Research into Agile could be a lot better if I had more time but is still consistent.

Week 8: Honours Project

WEEK 8 

• Collected the book on XP programming from my mate at Hamilton Uni.
• Found 15 papers on agile software development 
• The meeting with Dr John was helpful yet again: he offered me use of his galaxy tablet.
• Focus should be on correlating quotes in the papers/books and finding Project management books in the library

I began the week with researching academic papers on agile software development and found a good many papers on the subject. When I had identified ones which had credible authors; I put them into a pdf table so I could refine their usefulness. Find it here (13/11/2012 version)

After I had taken care of other modules work in the week, I had a read through some of the books that I had. Armed with my newly acquired post it notes, I highlighted what I regarded as potential quotes for the literature review. Feedback was given during the meeting from Dr John that I was doing this correctly and to continue doing it: I should have about 100 in a book while only a few from journal papers so this is my goal for next week.

During the meeting, I asked Dr John if he knew of any ipad2's which would be available to loan for home use - the issue was resolved last week but I thought during the week that to enhance how efficient the testing process would be, I could seek to get use of one. He kindly offered use of his newly won Galaxy tablet. Thanks again!

The goals this week were met: 

1. Research papers 
2. Highlight good quotes

This weeks goals are as follows:

1. Research for project management books in the library
2. Keep researching good quotes and strip the papers for potential quotations 
3. Document them for later to catagorise them and keep the work organised, readable and simple to use.

I also want to carry on with my Interim report which is due for review in week 11

Week 7: Honours Project

WEEK 7

• Meeting with Dr John went well: Must remain on target for the literature review.
• Dr John assisted me in looking at a few of the books I got and identified 'good quotes' to find.
• The goals is to carry on and get Agile papers and quotes from the books

This week I analysed my progress thus far and recorded it in my record file which I'm keeping on dropbox.

During the week my tester, told me he was selling his ipad2 so I put the word out to everyone on the facebook Creative tech page (everyone on game devlopment /technical course follow it) and Dr Daniel Livingstone got back to me offering me his help in the matter. I could use his within the university if I arrange to meet him which is excellent!  

Later in the week Jof (my tester) told me that he had gotten the Ipad mini (a smaller version of the Ipad with the same resolution as the Ipad2) so, I'm back in business - I will be able to test the game on the ipad and check on Daniels how it looks on that. (Perhaps this change could alter the user requirements to demonstrate how agile development adapts to changes during the project - I have the back-up plan at least!)

Today at the meeting with Dr John, I got another lot of help with the literature review - Good quotes, citing authors within another authors paper. And researching the relevant journal ie. the chaos philosophy - not just quoting then explaining in a pleonastic way; the quote in the same way.

The project thus far has met my personal deadlines eg. for project management handins, sorting out getting the specification written, researching topics etc

The analysis stage is completed (and has been for a while now) as I got my dissertation topic sorted at the end of week 3- The specification form submission took longer than predicted due to Dr John being busy but good communication saw that the document was handed in on time.

The design stage begun with some CRC cards and thought about the UI for the game in week 4.

Implementation has now been pushed forward (deadline set with Dr John in week5 is to start it in December when I have the literature done.)

Again this plan is a mere measure of my personal progress with the development - it does not match the agility of the development as it is - ie. The game may change as weeks go on (design stage and analysis may need ot be revisited etc)

The targets for the following week are researching papers and looking and highlighting good quotes to build an abundance of citations which could potentially be in my literature review/method.

Week 6: Honours Project

Week 6

• This week I visited Glasgow Library to find that the SCONUL card doesn't allow borrowing
• I didn't pay Dr John a visit this week as I wanted to get some research done and complete my assignment for animation  - I shall be dropping in next week though.

This week, I will have time to sit and really read (at last) and get an in-depth perspective of what each book contains which I got from Paisley Library about a 2 weeks ago.

My aim is to go back into Glasgow and have another read of some of their books. 

One particularly saddening thing about not having access to the library for borrowing/accessing is that I found papers on Agile on Glasgows database but you need a full membership to get to them - Why is it only PHD students that can borrow/access, why can't the little guys doing their honours year!? 

I'll update what I get done in the next week.

Week 5: Honours Project

MEETING 5 (formal meeting 1)

• The specification form has been signed and handed in
• The formal meeting went well and I know what to do for the next 2 months

The following tasks and issues were discussed and specific actions agreed:

1. Gathering agile papers
2. Gathering software engineering book/reference
3. Discussed agile processes
4. Discussed software engineering's linkage to agile - the history of software development

The following tasks and timlines have been agreed both for the next month and beyond:

For the next month

• Literature review - Get the fundamental papers on agile
• Literature review - Research patterns in development 
• Research Implementation - Think about the game development (coding) ... 
• Research Implementation - Think about the games assessment 

Beyond the next month

• Literature review - Write the literature review
• Methodology - Design the Method

Week 4: Honours Project

Meeting 4

• The literature review should be the focus on the following week
• I have completed my specification form and Dr John has checked it over 
• I should think about assessing the game and what people want to play
• The jobs fair was very interesting and particularly useful

I had a lot of work to do this week for other modules which sort of took precedence during the week. I started my literature review and have constructed my dissertation which I can work on and get some chapters done - hopefully this week! 

I went to the library to get some books from Paisleys library just to see what they had. They had some but nothing more than I expect from what Dr John said about them being not that recent. 

1. Cockburn, Alistair; (2002) “Agile software development”, Addison-Wesley
2. Larman, Craig; (2004) “Agile & Iterative development: A manager’s guide”, Addison-Wesley
3. Highsmith, Jim; (2004) “Agile project management”; Addison-Wesley
4. Ambler, Scott W.; (2002) “Agile modelling: Effective practises for extreme programming and the unified process; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
5. Coplien O. James Et al; (2005) “Organizational Patterns of agile software development”; Pearson Prentice Hall

Alistair Cockburn and Jim Highsmith were part of the construction of the manifesto way back when it was written in 2001. 

I am hoping that I will have time this week (if not at the weekend) to visit Cale/Starthyclyde/Glasgow as I got my library card with the weird name .. Sconul! so I should be able to get more authors and materials for the coming weeks.

I plan also to start on the actual game element soon (Nb. The gant chart is just a guide: not part of the development - a mere graphical diary to let me know if I think i'm not doing enough or I'm on track for personal deadlines) I have drafted a few screens of the introduction to the game below. Images shall chance

Week 3: Honours Project

Meeting 3

• The formal meeting and specification form shall be completed next week
• I got my moderator - Dr Mark Stansfield in room E211
• I was advised by Dr John to seek the libraries outside of Paisley campus for a wider and more appropriate select of books on the area of AGILE 
• The Phd Student sitting in with us at the meeting gave advice on taking the research to the next step for a 1st class Honours (I could create my own pattern/method of dev in agile)
• Dr John said to email him chapters of the literature review and he gave advice on the subject.

I now have my dissertation title, broken down to a basic question of intent: 

 "What are issues of Agile software development when creating a HTML5 game for Ipad2"

Now, from where I left off last time, last Tuesday I still had problems with the menu acting strangely with the physics. I found my fist bug in the game engine and had to collaborate with the creator - Brandon from the modulus team - to help resolve it. He was very helpful and provided me with a solution to my problem. What was happening was when the engine game loop performed an update for the game, the physics attributes applied to my menu sprite. Although I disabled the physics globally, the engine ignored this and I was unable to make manual adjustments to the sprites position as they will always be overridden by the physics classes. Thus the physics properties assigned to my sprite actually reacted via the physics and set it back to it's original position over and over again hence why I couldn't amend it's x coordinate. How I got around this was to disable the physics on the sprite locally.

My lead game tester Jof helped with confirming that all the coding worked again and it sure did. He was kind enough to send on screen dumps. (see below)

I had a review of my progress so far on the 04/10/12 and referred to my gant chart. I seen that I was almost on track with the analysis stage of software development: I knew my dissertation question, I thought about a backup plan for my project it things fail to work out using risk management, I have priorities my tasks and plan well in advance. The project was also deemed feasible by my supervisor. I done a bit of reading on Agile software development by Alistair Cockburn and got some quotes from his book and noted them in a document i'm storing with potential citations. On the 05/10/12 as I already stated above, I emailed the game engine creators modulous team to inquire about an issue I was haivng with the physics (he works in USA, Ohio which is 5 hours behind the UK which is a factor I should take note of just incase I may require some advice latter on in the games build.

I coincidentally found my moderator whilst taking off on a journey to find his room and ran into him. He offered to have a meeting with me and we talked over my project proposal. I showed him my hard copy documentation and he advised me to 'firm-up' the details of the project. This shall be done during this week via email and verified, signed and stamped next week at the formal meeting. 

Week 3 was a certain success in my opinion regarding what I set out to achieve and I am a lot happier about the development. My next plans are to type and get creating, reading and also document my results.

Onwards and upwards...

#10 "Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.", The bible according to AGILE

Week 2: Honours Project

Meeting 2

• Dr John helped refine my dissertation question (Focus on AGILE)
• Tasks were issued for the next week - ie. Work on with the project
• Dr John suggested that we send him blog updates of the work
• The documentation that Mark wants done shall be in the coming weeks  

What a day it's been! A lot more has been accomplished during week 2 than I thought was possible at the beginning of it ...

For one the Ipad screen scaling issue was rectified on Monday.

I have been making progress with the ipad screen scaling - thanks to Jof; Jonathan Traynor - lending me his Ipad for testing during Mondays lunch(and testing my files at his home when back from work - Thanks Mate!).

The tests of all 9 test files failed to fix a problem I had of not fitting the ipad screen dimensions. A lot of research and trying to understand the css/javascript and their usefulness later, I eventually thought of something which would enable the screen to set a max and min scale property. Urika! On Monday when Jof loaded it up it worked: It had scaled the HTML5 canvas to the ipad screen!

See it below in all it's glory...

On Sunday  I tried to get the physics module working within the game (it was doing horrible wacky nonsense with the menu and twirling it around despite it having no physics code assigned to it).

Nevertheless I was able to disable it and can now work on getting the screens to display correctly as having done this to the code, it's somehow not displaying the background properly - a hopefully minor repercussion of the fix

So yeah, that seems to be it for week 1 and the 28% of my second week! I plan to get the game screen back to it's original functionality and work onto get a small platform game framework accessible via the menu. Meanwhile I want to start some more research and quoting for the dissertation - I've already got some points from papers but as John said today, I should have plenty on Agile software development and lots of research to do on the subject. 

I shall be keeping a record of daily procedures, abiding to the agile manifesto for my project, on my dropbox and shall account for what I have done since in my next blog posting .. 

My dissertation question now reads for the moment as -

---

"What are issues of Agile software development when creating a HTML5 game that is hosted online: The case of Ipad2 & the Pulse game engine"

Week 1: Honours Project

Meeting 1 The meetings shall take place on Tuesdays (unless unavailable) Dr Johns office is E260 Project proposal in talk to be accepted in coming weeks (must be completed before Oct 19th) Let 24 weeks of development begin . . .

On Tuesday, 25/09/2012 I went to my supervisor - Dr John - to review my progress and check if I was proper use of my time thus far.

During the meeting it raised many important questions that I had considered, but perhaps needed a re-think and other ideas which I had not thought of.

I have now got a dissertation topic question which has been refined to this: 

"What are the issues involved in creating a well-designed HTML5 game in
Titanium SDK and hosted online: The case of Ipad2 & the Pulse game engine"

So that's one thing. The next aspect of the development had us discuss factors of the availability of papers - this is something I will need to look deeper into since HTML5 is a recent technology, there are limited (next to none) research carried out: this is why professors and lectures wait until it has been around for a bit to analysis it.

I also brought up the question that was building for the Ipad requires an apple license so what I asked was to develop purely as a browser based game but which would be solely for the ipad2 to play. This was fine. It's certainly put my mind at ease on the matter as obtaining an apple license wasn't necessarily my plan for the project - apples hideous website alone is enough to put anyone off their products in my opinion: the company which is great at design aye right! 

Nonetheless, a further piece of advice was offered when Dr John said that it is vital that the project must have some basis to judge how well the specification has been met. Since there have been little research in this area it's going to be tough. I offered my thought on play test evaluation and this was enough of a measure. 

I developed a menu for the game but it does not fit the ipad2 screen yet which requires scaling.



So, to summarize, the project shall be a platform game build for the ipad2 in HTML5/pulse engine to be hosted online which utilizes good practice design and is evaluated via gamer play-tests (option to look into creating forms to collect the data). 

The gant chart shall be reviewed on week 7 - and a new segment of the chart shall be cut and pasted in order to view the details better.


This is the full version of the chart below..

Let the fun begin.