Interesting Flash Game: Auditorium
Nov 27, 2008 Articles
Auditorium is a game which, while not completely unique, blends complex particle physics together with beautiful colours and great music together to create a addictive experience for the player. The particle physics is quite similar to another Flash game Speck Oppression, however Auditorium takes it a step further by introducing other unique features like colours, and different ways to manipulate the direction of the particles.
The game is simple enough. There are multiple “meters” positioned around the game area, which gains power as particles flow over it. However the particle colour must match the meter’s colour. There are also circles on the game area which changes the colour of the particles. The player must then position various manipulates to direct particles in the right direction. There isn’t much else I can say about the gameplay, other than you should play it to find out!
The link currently only shows a short 4 act demo, amounting to over 20 levels. but I think the game is quite promising, and I look forward to the full version.
Tags: Auditorium, Flash, Game
IDEF08 Develop: Games for Education
Nov 27, 2008 Articles
During the symposium, a session was held by Derek Robertson (Learning and Teaching Scotland), with a very interesting topic.
He is the “National Advisor for Emerging Technologies” in Scotland, and during his session he discusses the current (and growing) use of games as a tool for educating children. (To see some of the great innovative stuff happening over there, click here) Although I was already familiar with educational titles, having played them myself as a child, what Derek presents to us is the use of existing mainstream titles like Nintendogs, and even Guitar Hero as a tool for motivating and encouraging students to participate and excel in activities.
As an example, Derek shows us how students poor in mathematics use Brain Training (by Dr Kawashiwa) as a tool to “practise doing their sums”, as well as clips of the students stating that the game actually helped them improve. Further on, we also see clips of students taking care of a Nintendog in groups, while keeping a detailed diary of their activities.
What we see here is the effective use of games to motivate students. And here are the reasons why I think it works.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Develop, Education, Games, IDEF, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Symposium
IDEF08 Develop: Innovation
Nov 27, 2008 Articles
A couple of weeks ago I attended the IDEF Develop Symposium at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. During this event I had the opportunity to listen to various speakers from different branches of the entertainment industry. These speakers hailed from groups such as Pixar, Google, Microsoft, as well as Australian names like Infinite Interactive and Primal Clarity, and many of the topics discussed brought about numerous insights into their inside view on the direction of the entertainment industry in Australia. Although the topics are often discussed from an Australian perspective, I feel that some of the points raised are certainly applicable to any company globally. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Develop, IDEF, innovation, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Symposium
Back from a long hiatus
Nov 1, 2008 Miscellanous
After a year of study, I am finally “free” from the monotony of everyday life, and ready to make some progress (with regards to my site and my blog).
For the past year I have been mainly focusing on Java, PHP, C, and C++. This meant that I didn’t have alot of time to play around with AS3.0, which is unfortunate, since I have great hopes for the Flash platform. Furthermore, I felt like I wanted to take this blog into a new different direction. Read the rest of this entry »
