Black History Month: Etta James

Her real name is Jamesetta Hawkins. She was born in January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles. She died January 20, 2012, which wasn't that long.
Etta James was an American singer. She mostly sang blues, rhythm and blues, rock n roll, soul, gospel, but most of the time, jazz was her favorite genre. Despite of her drug problems, she had won grammy award nominations for her 1973 album. By the age of 5, Etta was known for a gospel prodigy gaining her fame by singing in her church choir and singing in the radio. After the age of 12, she moved to San Francisco and there, she was already in a band. She had signed lots of contracts with what became of what she sang. She also got a grammy nomination for the genre of rock n roll and she won. She still performed good by the 1990's, which proves it because her album Blue Gardenia, rose to the tops of the Billboard Jazz. In 2003, she underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost over 200 pounds! Sadly, she had leukemia and that sort of stopped her from her great performances and talent. She died in January 20, 2012 in Riverside, California. She is still known for being one of the most dynamic singers of all time.

Website Retrieved from: http://www.biography.com/people/etta-james-9542558?page=2

Presentation of Game

Describe your learning topic for the game. What is the most important thing you want your players to learn?
My learning topic for my game is Health. My game is about choosing and eating healthy foods. This is a very important topic because we want to maintain our bodies as healthy as possible. We don't want to result in having diabetes and have a high pressure. This is something that we all know. Believe me, all of us know that eating healthy is important, but people don't care. If you eat healthy, good beneficial things will come your way. You wont have to worry to get your blood tested of how much sugar you have. You will have a very tranquilizing life, with no worries.
What kind of research did you do? What did you learn about your topic?
I did research about healthy foods. All the research that I did was finding what kinds of foods are healthy and unhealthy and why they are considered to be that. I looked up interesting facts that I didn't  know, but have heard about. Now I know what kinds of foods you should consume in your everyday life. I learned much more about facts that seem a little shocking at first, but while you are thinking about it, you learn so much!
How did your ideas change as you worked on your game?
Well, at first, I didn't want to make the unhealthy objects into a button because I thought it was going to be a lot of work. Afterwards, I thought about it and it turned out that players would love to know more about why that kind of food is unhealthy. I wanted to do a timer, but then I thought that in real life, we are not to be pressured when we are making choices. As for staying healthy, we want to make the right choices.
What Game Ingredients and Help Center resources have been most useful to you so far, and why?
Well, at first, I didn't know how to program the Magnifying Glass. In fact, I couldn't get it to have the Zoom. The only way that I got it to work was by asking my classmates. I looked at how they were doing it, and it turned out to be like kind of easy, but yet still difficult. I myself learned how to add different scenes and how to go to them directly.
Which part of making the game was most difficult for you? How did you overcome this difficulty? What features are you most proud of your game?
Like I said, getting this assignment due on time, was pretty difficult. The other thing was the Magnifying Glass, but I overcame that obstacle by getting help from my classmates. Another thing was that getting more ideas was kind of hard, but in the end I just made something more simple,so that way players will have no difficulty in understanding the goal of my game. I am most proud of the way I made my game look. I didn't do it like all professional, but I drew it in a way where you would most likely have it in a situation.

Game Ingredients

Write about a problem you overcame while working on the code for one of the game ingredients.
Well, first of all, I had problems with all three game ingredients. For the Overlay Objects, I swear that I couldn't hide the objects. I mean seriously! I tried and tried, until I was beginning to experiment the layers. The problem was resolved by making the object WHERE you wanted to hide it in. For example, I wanted to hide the whole wheat bread. I had to make the toaster first and then the bread. It was something easy when I did it! Another problem was Win, and Losing Screens. I had trouble making the background. I know, at first you are like, background?...that is so easy! It turned out that I was using the brush tool. When you use the brush tool, it can be very difficult to fill in the background with the color you want it to be. You have to go through the lines and make sure that they are all closed. I didn't exactly do that. I did the background and I made another layer where I want to be like the background that I wanted it to look like. Then I copied the background and BAM...it did work! The last problem was the Magnifying Glass. That one gave me lots of trouble. On that one, I asked people for help because honestly, I didn't know how to put the mask on and all of that stuff. The only thing that I needed help with, was to get the magnifying glass to move. I mean, it did have the Zoom, but with a little help from somebody, it did work, and I am very thankful to her. Even if you are good at programming, sometimes the ones that are advanced, can have trouble with these little mistakes.

Add Hidden Objects

What was it like to program in Flash for the first time?
Well, it hasn't been for the first time, but I guess it was easy. Adding hidden objects is one of the things that I like doing in Flash because when it comes to putting the codes, it's something fun. I think that when putting the codes, it's really frustrating when you are just beginning, but if you're like me: once knowing what to do for every object, it's a piece of cake! Most people are like that, they might have trouble with it for the first time, but of course, if they keep practicing, it will be incredibly easy for them.

What kind of game action would you like to add next?
Well, I would love to start by actually having codes where the player can actually find the hidden object games. I think that when you get a jump start with the code, it will be easier to when the game is due. Plus, if you don't like the way you did something, you can always go back and edit whatever you don't like. 

Draw Background

What it was like to draw your background in Flash?
Well, drawing my background in Flash was kind of hard and kind of easy. I mean, drawing in Flash is what I like the most, but putting the codes can be a little frustrating. Well, I drew the background and the objects, but I wanted to do more than just a simple scene, so instead of making the objects movie clips, I made them into buttons. Yeah, I have to admit that I kind of forgot how to make the buttons go to another scene and for them to not be repeated in the same scene, but in the end, I started to experiment, and yeah, I only did 3 objects to make them into buttons and go to another scene. I think that the most difficult thing, was to make the buttons go to another scene. I think that I did a pretty good job completing this assignment, but if we had more time for when it was due, I assure you that I would've made the background even cooler! I know I'm no expert in Flash, but if you know like the basic things, then you can make an object do anything!

Post-Election Day 2012

Well, was your prediction correct? What do you think about the results?
My prediction was correct because I knew that Barack Obama was going to win. Well, let me be honest. I knew that he was going to win, but towards the end, I started to get worried because Mitt Romney started to get lots of votes in other states such as, Alabama, which voted him for 100%. I'm really not surprised because Obama has been a good president since he became one. He has proven in the debates that he is awesome when it comes to competing. He clearly wants to change America and that's what we all want! Well, the results were actually shocking, like I said, Alabama voted for Mitt Romney 100%. In the end, Barack Obama won! YEAH WE WON!

Paper Prototype 1

What did you learn from creating a game with paper and pencil?
Well, I myself learned about staying healthy while I was drawing some of the pictures. I researched on healthy breakfast and I found an Egg McMuffin, but it turns out that it has too much of calories. Wheat bread it way better than white bread, and I've noticed that when you eat white bread, it gets stuck to  your teeth...something that is deeply annoying! Actually, yes, I did learn while I was drawing the Paper Prototype. In another way, planning your game with paper and pencil is way better that to just put them into play. When you are planning, you are also brainstorming and you want to put a lot of ideas, that while you are working, another idea comes to the top of your head! With paper and pencil, it's easy to imagine your game.

What was easy about drawing your hidden object game? What was hard?
Well, for me, I think that drawing the unhealthy and healthy foods were easy because I have chosen to eat healthy in real life. You could say that I kind of know what is healthy for you and what not eat all the time. A real problem is to not eat much of one food. For example, hot cheetos and takis. That was probably hard for me. When I eat cheetos, I didn't eat like just a pinch, but I ate the whole bag which was...not acceptable! The hardest thing was when we had to decide what will be going on when the Primary Game Scene was in play because we had like a ton of ideas.

What do you need to still add to your game?
Well, we need to add the instructions scene, the winning/losing scene, maybe the credits page, and of course other levels, if we decide to make more.