Senior Project: The Reboot

So close and yet so far...

       I am close to finishing this project. The images have taken much longer than I thought. Right now I am scrambling to compile everything together so that all the images can be transferred to the HTML file. That is where the actual gameplay will occur. I suppose I could try to make a story without any of the images, but I fell like that would make things seem very boring. Really not much has changed since the last update except that I found out that I have an extra week before I want this to be finished. So, that was awesome. It's nice to know that I have a little bit more of a buffer before the deadline. That doesn't mean I'm going to slack off though. I am still going to try and get everything finished by the time of the next update; that way I have some time to tinker with stuff and fix any bugs.

Jake Smith

Senior Project: The Series

       Four weeks out of the way and it finally feels like I am making some amount of progress. Last week I had said that the code I learned didn't seem to be working, so even after trying (and failing) to get the code to work on the learning program, I realized that maybe javascript wasn't the direction I needed to head in. So instead I have been working on making pictures to display in an HTML5 game. YAY!

       This will make things much easier because HTML is code that I definitely know I can make a game of sorts out of. It will take a lot of show/hides and z-index changes but at least I don't feel as lost anymore. The other half of this week that I didn't spend hating Javascript, I spent on illustrator and photoshop to make the images for the game. There are times that I really wish I was a better artist, but I did what I could.  The game will look rough due to the realistic backgrounds being bombarded by weird cartoonish creatures.

       I guess I can't complain, at least I'm making something that I don't completely hate. It will probably look weird but at least I can say that I had fun making it.

Jake Smith

Senior Project: The Trilogy

       Yes, once again it's that time of the week. Coming in with a new update, I am glad to say that after several weeks of learning and falling behind by about a few days... I still know nothing! After spending some time on Codecademy; I finally began to start coding the beginning of my new game.

       I actually changed the story entirely just because I didn't really like my first option. The new story line will be based off of the main character waking up and finding a human shaped and sized flower standing in his/her room. The rest of the story is still half baked at this point but now I have a basis that I like. The rest will probably be made up on the fly or if I actually end up having any time I might be able to plan something out.

       I digress though, like I said, I still feel like I'm a little lost on what exactly I need to do. After I began to make my own, the problems started immediately when I realized that all of my questions and choices began to show as pop ups. That isn't even close to what I need it to be. My main goal for right now is to figure out how to get things to actually show up in the document. My side goal will probably be how to continue to display the part of the story that the user is on if they accidentally (or purposefully) put in a wrong answer.

       I suppose right now I have the basics, but I need to learn the more advanced stuff pretty quick. E
ven if I can't manage to find out how to make things appear in the document, I don't think it will be the end of the world if it's a pop up game, right? No?

Jake Smith

Senior Project: The Sequel

       Yes, that's right! Its back with an all new adventure, from the same creator of Senior Show: The Game, I bring the next chapter of this story into life. When we last left our main character, he was relearning javascript, but now he is doing... the exact same thing. The code to learn took much longer to learn than he thought.

       Really the lessons are taking much longer than I thought and I over-estimated the knowledge I had retained from learning this the first time. On the plus side I actually have an idea for what the story will be. I wanted to make it creepy and mysterious, but every time I came up with an idea it was something I had played before or ended up being science-fictionish. As much as I love sci-fi, I knew I wanted to stay away from that genre because I wanted to branch out and explore other interests. So, after inadvertently watching some inspiration on Netflix, I finally came up with the main idea for the story. The setting is a creepy old house/mansion and the main character (the player) is trying to escape knowing that their is someone else in the house trying to hunt down the main character. I know this isn't an original idea but I figured that I could take a general story line and twist it around using my own imagination.

       Really that is all I have for this update, hopefully I will be able to start coding the game before next week. So, until then you all have a great day.

Jake Smith

Senior Project: The Game

       Hello and welcome to my final e-Comm project for my last year of high school. I will soon never have to worry about high school ever again! I am so excited! But for now I have decided to learn just a little bit more before my freedom. For this final project we were told to make a project that demonstrates some new skill in an area that we have covered, and if you read the title, you can probably guess that it's going to be a game.

       I enjoyed using live coding when we did our javascript unit and I wanted to continue using javascript to make a game. In order to make it much easier on myself it will be a text-based game; that way I don't have to show how bad I am at drawing and animating. It is hopefully going to look something along the lines of one of my favorite text-based games You Find Yourself In A Room or YFYIAR. Of course, my game won't use such strong language or be as graphic.

       So far I am trying to relearn some of the coding we first used in the unit. It is always painful knowing that you have done something before but can't remember how it was finished in the first place. Still ever so slowly it is all coming back to me; from variables to if else statements and more.

       Soon I will come out with an update on how things are progressing and hopefully by then I will have a storyboard to put on here.

Until the update,

Jake Smith

A Flash in the Pan

The Flash Story

       Once again it is time to talk about Adobe Flash. Perhaps one of the greatest things that will never be remembered in history. Despite its obsoleteness by today's standards, when it first came out, Flash was revolutionary. It brought web-based videos, animation, and interactivity to the world wide web. It was also guaranteed to work on any computer of browser.

       Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Flash has been in rapid decline since about 2007. Apple decided not to support Flash in its latest model of iPhone with Steve Jobs claiming that Flash was "overly proprietary" and with HTML5 right around the corner, it quickly became outmoded. Flash did not simply fade away though; games and videos that many tech giants displayed used Flash kept it alive.

       It still wasn't enough. In 2011 Adobe finally realized that Flash was dying, and nothing could be done about it. They decided to move on to HTML5 with Edge Animate. Several years later, in 2015, hackers began injecting surveillance software into the Flash Player. Facebook called on Adobe to set a death date for the Flash plugin. Instead, Adobe discontinued Edge Animate and renamed the professional app to Animate CC. It was a weak compromise that would use HTML5 but still support Flash content. At this point Facebook was the only one who still really used Flash but even that is diminishing with its release of an HTML5 update. Even Google Chrome, the most popular web browser, announced that it would no longer support Flash as a default.

       Flash is dying, slowly being archived by internet historians who are painstakingly storing as much Flash that is unable to update as they can. Soon it will no longer exist, the once celebrated program it used to be now sits, waiting for its untimely end.

Afterthoughts

       Well, that is certainly a depressing story, at least for Flash it is. All in all, the author of the article Gone in a Flash is basically saying that Flash is in the past, it's time to look to the future. Personally this has no effect on me because I have never been one to use Flash. I started messing with coding long after the fall of Flash. While it may seem depressing for those who loved Flash, the rest of the world has moved on and has embraced the next big thing. Well, at least until another better updated program comes out.

Until next time,

Jake Smith

Portfolio

       Yes, it's that time again. Another wonderful post from your favorite person. I am here writing about my all new and exclusive Portfolio. yeah!! Thank you, thank you I know; Another true masterpiece.

       For this assignment we had to essentially revamp our index and utilize all of our knowledge gained over the time we've worked in e-Comm. We are calling it a portfolio because instead of just showing off recent projects, it will portray us with a bio and as someone who knows how to use code and make a website for potential clients.

       When I started this project the first thing we needed to do was to come up with a new logo. I had some trouble with this and ended up rejecting idea after idea because none of them felt right. Eventually after spending way too long on it, I settled with this logo. It is an S with two Js next to it and it looks like an infinity sign. Ya know, because some day my websites will be shown in museums across the world for infinity!

       Once I finally had the logo, I had something on which I could base the rest of the site off of. I then started to make the home page. This took a while because I knew that if I could get that perfect it would work as a template for the rest of the pages. From there it was just a simple save as new file and then put in all the content.


       This project definitely stretched my memory and I had to re-teach myself some of the details of the website. One of which was if you move the mouse over a project and the name appears. It had been close to two years since that project and I hadn't  used it since. But after a short time of reviewing the process I was back at it again. I also realized that I need to manage my time better. I wasted too much time worrying about the logo and home page that I ended up doing not as great a job on some of the other parts of the site.

       Looking back I do wish that I could have told myself not to focus on only certain things. I should have just gotten the whole of it done and then worry about the small details. After finishing the project it just seems silly that I focused on some of the less important things. But, ya win some and lose some, at least its a pretty nice site. I definitely would keep some of the design aspects if I had to do it again because they are spectacular.

       The ideas and retrospective thoughts that I had during this project will hopefully be implemented in the next installment of my amazing artwork! *snobbish laughter* I will certainly be looking out and watching my time with the next one.

Well, I think that's it. Thanks for enduring another one of my posts.

Until next we meet,

Jake Smith