Week 1

May 3rd-9th
This week, we were welcomed into Professor Gooch's graphics lab and introduced to several of the graduate students who we would be sharing the space with. Some of the projects the graduate students are currently involved with include restoring color, tracing objects in video, single-interaction photograph relighting, and procedural non-photorealistic rendering approaches to create aesthetically interesting effects (generating illusions).
We proceeded to set up our desks and the machines we will be working on. Our mentor then made sure we had the keys to access the necessary labs in the Computer Science Department.

We met with Professor Gooch several time at the beginning of the week to discuss meeting schedules, a general time-line for our project, our goals, etc. Because we both have experience with the process of game design from taking CSC 212 with Amy, we were also able to begin discussing the steps involved in creating a Game Design Document for our project.

The rest of the first week was devoted to background research. We play tested several online games, as well as reviewed several journal entries and articles centered around gaming. After playing each game, we proceeded into game analysis: What makes a game appealing? Entertaining? Are users engaged - cognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally? What is the best method to present educational information? What approach makes information easiest to understand? How do we prevent educational concepts from being overshadowed by the game mechanics? We also reviewed several articles which discussed how to successfully create an entertaining game, and the use of computer games as an educational tool. We posted our reviews on a blog so that we were able to examine and discuss each others entries.

Furthermore, we downloaded different types of game software like Game Maker, RPG Maker, and OHRRPGCE (Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Creation Engine), so that we will be able to determine which piece of software will best fit our project. We both have experience using Game Maker, so we are aware of it's capabilities. However, there is a possibility RPG Maker or OHRRPGCE have some components that would be more helpful when implementing our game . We would like to explore the strengths and weaknesses of these other pieces of software, so we choose the right one to successfully execute the project.