Flash games

For Davids project we are to create a mini flash game using some advanced actionscript. I have been looking at some different games online that can give me some ideas. There are quite a few different gaming websites that I could use but the main two that caught my eye was miniclip.com and coffeebreakarcade.com. The two sites have a vast amount of games that can keep people entertained for hours.
I have been doing my research over the past week to see what games keep users entertained and what games are not so successful. The games that I have noticed are successful are the games that I simple, easy to play but entertaining at the same time.

Polar jump was a game that I found in the top ten games and its very basic, the rules click on the bear to make it jump higher, sounds very simple and boring but when playing it you feel you have the need to make the bear jump higher, you are continuously trying to beat your own personal score or, playing against other people. Its simple yet quick to load and fun to play.

Mahjong is a game that I have played for a long time. Its also a simple game all you have to do match the pairs but there is a twist, you can only match tiles that are not surrounded by other tiles. So the tiles basically have to be on another level or you have to work your way down and along each line to get the tiles to want. However the reason I play this game is because its quite challenging and its very hard to complete a level, and thats why I want to play it again to try and complete the level.

The final game is the idea that I will most probably be using. It is called 'yeti olympics' something that I used to play at school. It is a very competitive game, the main objective is to complete a set of five olympic sports, but they are all designed in an animal setting so, rather then a golf club they have used a flamingo and a penguin for a ball, all amusing.
Overall I think I will create a game like yeti sports something thats simple but has a challenge, but I think that I will try a few more different things on actionscript, I need to learn some more advance actionscript to create these games.

Tamrai restaurant

The 'Tamrai' restaurant is the type of theme and image that I am trying to go for. Even though it is very dark the subtle imagery and colour brings out a sophisticated look.

As you can see the designers have used the strong imagery to attract the potential audience. This is the next point that I wanted to point out, target audience. Just from looking this site I can see that the designers are trying to target a sophisticated business class audience. This is where I think the dark colours have worked. Looking at a number of different thai restaurant sites they all clearly have a target audience, this is what I want my redesign to have, maybe around the age range of a young business class age.

The menu layout is also a good set up, they have inserted a scroll bar to enable the user to view all of the menu. This is something that I might try and use because you can view alot more information in a smaller amount of space.
Overall the tamarai site is a perfect example of the type of design that I would like to design. From just doing this website I want to completely recreate the image of the Golden thai, give it a whole new image bringing in a completely different target audience.

Layout Designs

Like I said in my previous post I wanted to have a set layout throughout the site below are some sketches and ideas that I came up with that I feel will work well with what I am trying to create.

In the sketch to the left I focused on having the main text in the center with the images to the side, the navigation would also be in the center. But for some reason I don't think that this will work with what ideas I have, its also very very similar to my preivous projects layout.

For this design I went for a more simple design. I put the whole content into the center of the page, it will be alot smaller but I have seen this in a number of different sites (zizzi, sinatras) and it works really well. This design I would like to experiment with a bit more because I have taken an interest to this design.

This is a standard design for any web page but, saying that it must be a successful layout if it is used so much. The general layout is the navigation to the left, title and logo at the top and main content in the center, I would like to try this as I am still very new to this web design world but, I would like to add some flash content.

My final design layout is basic as well but this time I've moved the navigation to the bottom having the content and imagery above, I haven't tried this out yet but hopefully its going to give me results that I am looking for, which is an interesting design.
I am going to try these designs out in photoshop to get a stronger idea in what I what, I have already got some colours in my mind and that is dark purples and reds but this could also change when experimenting, who knows what will happen.

Restarant - Designing

Ok so now I have finally chosen which restaurant That I plan to redesign and that is the 'Golden Thai Restaurant'. I chosen to redesign this one because when I looked at the site for the first time I didn't realise that it was a thai restaurant, the only thing that gave it away was the name.

As you can see in this image there is no actual theme to the site, my actual first reactions was that the site had been designed for a pub mainly because of the pint of beer and the background imagery (looks like decking). Another reason why I am redesigning is because of the whole general layout. There is no set theme to any page and no actual set font. This website does not help the restaurant in any way and thats what I want to do, I want to create a site that is visually interesting.

The site that I intend to design will have a theme that I feel gives out the impression of a thai restaurant. I have started looking at other sites and I seem to see alot of dark, romantic colours. I want to keep the menu on the site like the original site because that I feel is a good idea but I would like to maybe add images of more food rather then the interior, I will also try to frame the different sections i.e. text, images, navigation etc because having looking at other site this always seems to give out a more professional look.

Social Networking - Entity Relationship Diagram

Wow!!! This I am finding really hard I am writing this post to prove that I have been trying to create this diagram but am finding it extremely difficult and that if I do come to the seminar tomorrow with lots of noted paper its not because I haven't been trying but its because I can't find a way to create my diagram.

I have come up with the idea that is based around what we are trying to do this year. My plan is to create a social network that links between the students and the companies, reasons for choosing this is because I constantly hear about the troubles students have trying to network with companies. Now I know that this is something that we students have to do independently but what if there was a networking site that helped design companies see the work (blogs) of potential employees. It would help both the students and the companies because companies always have an idea on who they want to take on, by looking at that the students work that the students have posted they can see who they want.

If I was to describe what I am trying to do briefly then I would say that it is like an online scouting service, my initial idea would be mainly for online environment people but that could expand.

So who are my entities? so far I have:
- Company
- Students
- Blog
- Course

And thats where I'm stuck potential thoughts were 'project', 'University' I could maybe use 'users' as a link entity between the company, students and blog, but I shall talk to Simon and see what he thinks.

Work experience Opportunity

A few weeks ago me and Jacqui went to Glug. Its an event held by a company called 'Studio-output' and until now I did not realise that it was an opportunity for work experience! As I was doing some research for my current project I came across a great website advertising a restaurant/bar called 'Bluu'.


I was inspired by the site that was created with a mixture of HTML and Flash methods Studio Output had used and so decided to take a look at their site.

The Studio Output site is a Flash based site so it could cause problems with users without flash software but it lived up to its expectations as a designer site. The design is simple and slick yet it has managed to provide users with a strong portfolio.

What I did not realise was that studio output has two studios, one in Nottingham and one in London. This would be perfect for me because I would like to apply for some work experience within this company and I now have two options. I intend to move to London when I leave university so I now have the option to apply for two different places.

I intend to go to the next Glug event that is taking place on February 19th and talk to more of the employees and get more information on the company, maybe this will help my chances for a placement as they will already know me through this event.

Restaurant - So many choices!!!

Having looked at various different restaurants I'm still trying to decide which one to redesign, there are three separate restaurants that I have narrowed down too.

1)Tonic - A very sophisticated restaurant offering a wide range of food selections, lounge bar and deli. They also provide a cocktail and evening entertainment with mixture of Dj's creating a relaxing venue. They already have a strong website but looking at the brief I am working with the word 'redesign'.


2) Le Bistrot Pierre - Yet again abother very well designed website but please keep in mind the work redesign. The Le Bistrot Pierre is a high class french restaurant winning restaurant awards, this place is very popular.


3) World Service Restaurant - Now this site has been designed to a very high standard but the reason I would like to this site is mainly because of the strong imagery they have. I belief that if a restaurant is successful then they should be confident enough to provide a good gallery of images.


All of these restaurants all have very professional looking sites and I feel that this would be a good place to start. Its a challenge which is what I have been told to do, I need to challenge myself in order for me to progress further. I have some rough design ideas that I am working on, I shall post these up soon, but in the mean time I need to send a few emails out because I am going to need permission from these restaurants to use their content. Fingers crossed they will.