PRP - Ninth artefact, Designing stage 2

The designing of the game was complete, now onto the flash/coding side and this wasn't easy. Through the tutorial I learnt how to create an array which could detect when the users clicked on the correct symbol, once the correct sequence has been played the array would restart but with another symbol added to the sequence.
Overall the creation of the game was fairly simple and I am getting a stronger understanding as to how the sequence is created, there were many elements that had to be taking into consideration. The coding that had to be inserted included:
- Not allowing the user to click on the lights when the sequence was in play
- If user clicked wrong light then the game would be over
- The timings for how long the lights would work

On top of this I decided that I wanted a 'fake' intro, this included a start button with a loading bar and a 'game over' button which allowed the user to play the game again. I found this part the hardest as I had to edit external document class. What I was unaware of when editing the code was that the tutorial created the document class as a 'sprite'. Sprite classes are purposely designed to only work in one key frame however as I was using three frame I needed to change the sprite class into a 'Movieclip'. Initially I did not realise this and was getting frustrated because the game would automatically start rather then playing the intro frame.

Overall the design of the game ran smoothly, I have past the design over to a few people (children and adults) to get their opinion on the whole design. I have explained to them the purpose of the game so they understand that it is not complete.

PRP - Ninth artefact, Designing stage 1

Wanting to stick to the theme of the Moshi Monster site I decided to look around at the theme's that Moshi Monster used. From looking at the website I had two choices; either place the game within the puzzle palace or move it onto the 'main square'. The aim of this artefact and the overall project however was to highlight education and so the decision was made to design the game around the theme of the 'puzzle palace'.

For the design at this current time I have used a screen print for the background. It will be easy to edit the gaming stage so the whole theme of the design has been easily created. When thinking about ideas for the symbols which will be used like the background I also wanted this to be incorporated into the design. The one thing that has always been mentioned when playing these games is that there is always an incentive, in terms for Moshi Monster, 'Rox' (Moshi Monster money) Having looked at the symbols I have managed to create a design for the symbols that represents 'rox' I have also tried to add a 3D look to the symbols by using colours.

Now that the design has been created the next step will be actually creating the game. As I am very short on time I have found a tutorial that explains how to create a memory game so I will follow that, hopefully it will create a game that could represent a memory game.

PRP - Ninth artefact, The Memory game

Ok after looking at my previous artefacts I have decided that I am going to create a simple memory game. The aim of the game will be to follow a certain sequence be it light or sound. Every time you get the sequence correct the will get longer until the player make an incorrect move.

Having played on these games before I find them very addictive for such a simple game and I think that this would be an ideal game for children and in Moshi Monsters. A good example of this was a simple game that I found on 'the kidz page.com' it is a little different to how I imagine my game but when playing on it I found myself wanting to continuously beat my score so I can imagine the competition between friends. The game is called sequence memory, on each level the player has to memorise different set of imagery. The imagery will then disappear and a set of images will appear, the player has to select the correct images to move onto the next stages.



I plan to design the game around the same theme as Moshi Monster so when I present my ideas to people they will have a rough idea as to how it will look if the game was actually on Moshi Monsters. I think that I will work with sounds and colours as I have played these type of sequence games the most. I have also received opinions from other game players and they all agree with me that the game that I intend to design will be the more successful game to use in a competition for a younger target audience.

My next aim now will be to actually start designing the game,however I think that this will be a ideal way to end my research project.

PRP - Ninth artefact, The Puzzle palace

As I had previously mentioned, Moshi Monster contains a games area called 'The Puzzle Palace'. Within this area puzzles have been designed that are consist of different learning items. When researching into the site for the previous artefact I had a play on all of the games to get an idea as to what the site offers in terms of education.

I was positively surprised at the games that were on offer to the members. Different games including naming countries flags (geography) correct spellings, telling the time and maths. They were all subtle yet if the children were asked these questions in everyday lifes I think that they would know the answers because of playing this game.

I understand why they have placed all of the games in one area however it also gives me the impression that all of the educational side of the game has been isolated in this one area, however I am being picky and so this was a minor detail that I wanted to point out.

In the previous artefact many of the users mentioned that they were not earning enough rox to afford different foods/accessories. A good incentive to make the members play on the game is that for every game you play you earn 5 rox. You can only earn 5 rox per game per day however if the member wants the rox I can guarantee that they would play on all of the games to earn those rox. It is a very good way to lure the members in. Another incentive that I noticed was that the more you play the higher the level you go. Members want to be higher levels because you get the option to go buy better items and have more games to play on.

From the past few artefacts I have mentioned that children need an incentive to continue a game and for that reason that is why I have chosen to make a game a competition against their peers. The incentive could be the person with the highest score wins a prize, in Moshi Monster world that could be rox, or even a free membership for so many months.

PRP - Ninth artefact, ideas

For the final artefact rather then creating a game that could be tested I wanted to create a something that could improve the results from artefact eight. The results were not as promising as I expected however a main point that was mentioned was that the children would have preferred if they could communicate with people who they know rather than strangers. I think that this is understandable and to round up my research I wanted to try and create a game that could collaborate friends, schools etc within the Moshi Monster site allowing the players to not only compete against there fellow peers but would hopefully feel more at ease knowing that they are playing with someone who they know.

Another aim of this artefact is potentially create an idea that could work in and out of school, and in a results hopefully improving the Moshi Monster educational side. The game that I plan to design will be quite simple and will focus not so much on education but more on collaborating children and allowing them to work as a team and hopefully result in improving group-working and social skills.

The game has to be something that will make the children compete so a simple scoring system will be in place. I am still deciding on which game to design but the main points that it will have to address will be to allow collaboration and be simple enough to appeal to everyone.

PRP - Eighth artefact, The diary designs

Below I have attached some examples of the diary that I have distributed to 29 students as you can see in the designs they are straight forward and quite simple as the students are doing this in their free time.

The front and back cover

The introduction letter (instructions were also provided on the opposite page)
The inside pages, students would write on these pages.

Overall there was a lot of photocopying involved but they have been distributed to the students and I will be collecting them in the next few days. I am unsure as to what results I will receive but hopefully I will get some feedback.

PRP - Eighth artefact, The diary

Thinking about ways to to get users to test this site wasn't easy. My aim was to get the users to play on the game for a certain amount of time and record their findings, thoughts and potential improvements.

The idea came when I left the school after doing my previous tests. It came to my attention that the test subjects had been in front of me all the time...the school students. Although the task that I was setting required older students (9-10) who had stronger reading and writing skills.

The plan was to create a diary for the students to keep to record their findings whilst on Moshi Monster. Within the diary the students would write about what they, learnt, liked/dislike and improvements. The was contacted and it was agreed that a class of year 5 students would do the testing for me.

The will consist of five days and I will also have to write a letter to the parents explaining my research project. Hopefully I will get some opinions from the children and this will help me see how children respond to this virtual world.

PRP - Eighth artefact, Moshi Monster

After quite a long time of searching I have finally found the site that I want to use for my artefact and that is Moshi Monsters (Designed by Mind Candy). This site has been designed for an audience aged around 6-15.

"Our intention when creating Moshi Monsters was to a produce a ground breaking new entertainment experience that would be fun, safe and educational for kids of all ages."

The site has just hit the 15 million user mark and its been said that Gordon Brown's children are addicted to the game. When I enter the site it became apparent that you had to pay membership to visit the whole of Moshi Monster land but there was also a free membership option that allowed the users access to certain areas of Moshi Monster land.

When I signed up the first few steps were to design my monster. It was made clear to me plus any new member that rules had to be obeyed, if broken you are out of Moshi Monster land. Following the designs and parental confirmation your are free to play. This could be an issue when asking participants to do this test.

Once in Moshi Monster land I could immediately see why the younger target audience would find this appealing. The design used has bright and bold colours, the general illustrations used are fun and with the added animations makes this virtual world for children an enjoyable experience. The main educational part is held the 'puzzle palace'. What is good about these games is they have a rewards system. To get money (or rox) the player has to get as many questions right in order to raise more rox.

I think that the rewards system will work quite well and it is for all of the reasons above that I intend to use this site as my test subject. The only issue that I may have is that the site appears to have separated the educational games away from the other activities, although this is a minor issue (just being picky).