Weee, I finished the pixel layout of my main website!! It looks abit tiny.. doesn’t it? and i used random pixel pictures i have drawn in the past. I hope the links are visible..=x beh. Maybe i’ll re-make a new layout for it later on. I put my links to facebook and myspace too.
Some results and progress August 30, 2007
I started coding the html for my main website’s index page ; its still under construction.
Today I asked some potential users my user requirement questions~ Here are the results I got today:
Female, 18 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
No its not, definitely fun with other people.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Its alright, i guess.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
Nah doesn’t sound too hard.
Female, 19 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
Yes.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Sometimes when im in the mood.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
Sounds fun rather than hard.
Male, 18 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
Against others of course.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Yes.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
It sounds abit strange and weird to me.
Male, 19 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
No.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Yes.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
Doesn’t sound hard since i can multitask =D
Male, 18 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
Against others for sure.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Yes as long as other people aren’t creepy and are nice.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
It does sound hard but intriguing.
Male, 18 yrs old
1. Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
Out of single player or multiplayer, I’d prefer multiplayer.
2. Do you like meeting new people online?
Meeting people online is always fun. In games it makes the gaming experience more enjoyable.
3. Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
It sounds fairly simple to me.
Most of the potentials users said they found multiplayer tetris more fun. Majority didn’t mind meeting new people online and didn’t think the game sounded hard.
Some rough planning.. August 28, 2007
Today I started drawing some drafts of the basic layout of my minisite 1.
I have decided to create my prototype on a separate html page which popups in a new window when you click a link on the minisite 1. I’ll make the size of the popup similar to this iPhone tetris game (from previous blog ‘Tetris on the iPhone’, Aug 11, 2007). Like i said in my presentation 1, my prototype will display how each page works through the use of buttons, tables, text and links. For the game section of the prototype I’ll create a gif animation of explaining how the game works.
Now i gave to find some of my potential users (ages between 10 to 30) and ask the following questions:
1 Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
2 Do you like meeting new people online?
3 Does the double sided tetris game sound too hard to you?
Then I can determine user requirements =D!
For the graphics of my minisite, i’ll draw pixel people (since pixel graphics will be used in the actual application in the future ;D + i love drawing pixels). The content will be displayed in inline frames.
After presenting August 24, 2007
After my presentation today, Adam suggested that instead of having to use a finger to rotate the block (by dragging in a circle), the iPhone can be shaked to one side slightly? I think i’ll use this idea since Emma said that the tetris blocks might be too small on the screen for a person’s finger… but then Michael said the iPhone screen is pretty big anyways? Hmmm.. I did think of using a shaking method to rotate the block (in the earlier blog entry called ‘Tetris </3′, August 5, 2007) but that was like shaking the iPhone continously and I wasn’t sure if it would work out? But then Adam told me that there was XYZ accelerometers in the iPhone just like the Wii and they would be able to pick up movements. Hahaha why am i so slow? I didn’t know the iPhone had these accelerometers XD!!
Well I guess i’ll have to research about these accelerometers later.
Ohhh and i think, it was Rob or either Kaz (or was it Michael?), who suggested that I broaden my target audience since alot of people do play tetris x] So I think i’ll change my target audience to 10 to 30 years old.
Presentation 1 finished! August 23, 2007
Okay my presentation explains my concept, who my target audience are and what prototypes i’ll use to gather user requirements.
SLIDE 1 – Introduction to my concept
My application for the iPhone is an online tetris game and community, which allows users to play a double sided tetris game against other users across the world. Users will also be able to add friends to their friend list, buy items using fake money, modify their avatars with the items and also have mini profiles. To be able to do this, users will be able to navigate through different parts of the application such as:
- Game rooms: users enter rooms or create their rooms. Up to 5 players in one room and each game in the room lasts five minutes or ten minutes depending on the room maker’s decision.
- Inventory: items you have bought for your avatar are kept here. You can also edit your avatar here.
- Shop: different items you can buy using the fake money. Items for your avatar to wear or even game items such as items that allow your blocks of tetris to be patterned with cute faces, certain colours, etc.
- Highscores: top 50 people for that week can be displayed here. They get rewarded with a limited edition item (one that is not available at the avatar shop).
- Profile: edit your own profile, only includes your avatar pixel, highest score, name, age & what country you live in.
The tetris blocks will fall down the centre of the rectangular screen. The user will have to turn the iPhone 90 degrees to the left or right so that the iPhone sensors will rotate the block’s direction of fall to one side of the screen. Once directed to one side of the screen, the block can be rotated by dragging your finger to control the direction of rotation. The down arrow can then be touched so that the block will fall down quickly. Basically you’re playing tetris on two sides of one screen. Instead of having chat like multiplayer tetris games, users will be able to talk to each other through a mic on the iPhone.
To create a bomb, 3 lines of blocks must be cleared. To bomb another player you will have to select a bomb from your bomb inventory and then touch another player’s tetris screen. Bombing will cause the other player’s iPhone to vibrate and also gain 3 gappy lines of blocks to affect their performance in the game. Also during the tetris games fake money coins in between tetris blocks will come out once in a while. If you clear a row of blocks with coins you get to keep them. These coins can be used to buy items for your avatar or items for your friends.
SLIDE 2 – Target audience
Anyone at any age can use this application but since it is a tetris game, the target audience will be mainly young male and female people in their twenties and teens. Around about 15 to 25 years old?
The application allows these people to not only play tetris against each other but to also help establish a community of friends.
SLIDE 3 – User requirements and prototypes
What are you going to do to test your idea ?
To test my idea I’ll first make index cards by using html pages uploaded on the web. I will create a basic layout consisting of links for the different sections of my application (game rooms, inventory, shop, etc). Each section of my application will have a separate html page which will display roughly how each page works (i.e. buttons, tables, text, etc). The links allows users to test how the navigation will work in my application.
As I develop my prototype later on I will make proper graphics or create a flash.
How are you going to gather user requirements?
Firstly I need to find my target audience which are people who are in between 15 to 25 years old.
After I have finished my index cards I will show them to my target audience and explain how my double sided tetris game works. I will then interview them for feedback The interview will involve questions such as:
- Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
- Do you like meeting new people online?
- Does the double sided tetris game sound hard to you, or rather challenging?
- Is the layout of the application user friendly (efficient, easy to use, etc)?
- Would you rather touch a rotating arrow picture to rotate the block, or use your finger to control the rotation of the block?
- Do you want side arrows to be available? Would it make the game too easy?
Someone’s imagination August 20, 2007
Isn’t that video interesting? =P Someone’s imagination of a game on the iPhone.. This video itself acts like a prototype for someone’s idea~ =D
I’ve been thinking for my prototype I’ll either use index cards or a storyboard? But then I can also make html pages for my application, and a flash of the game? Is a flash and html pages a high-fidelity or low-fidelity prototype? =X Im abit confused about the different prototypes seeing how I missed out last friday’s lecture >__<;; My bad, i know but i slept in and well.. I promise it wont happen again! Anyways I did read through the lecture slides to try and keep up.
Instant messaging on the iPhone August 16, 2007
Okay so i’ve finally done some proper research about the instant messaging for the iPhone.
“Meebo Brings Instant Messaging on the iPhone
One of the major iPhone flaws is the lack of a native instant messaging client. But thanks to Meebo, iPhone users can now chat using an iPhone friendly interface. Simply browse to Meebo.com with your iPhone and you will automatically be directed to the iPhone-formatted site.”
From http://www.iphonefreak.com/2007/08/meebo-brings-in.html
Click here to go meebo.com. I just tried logging in with my msn account. Its so strange XD
“JiveTalk™ for iPhone® 0.8.3 (alpha) Now Available!
JiveTalk™ for iPhone brings the desktop Instant Messaging experience to your iPhone. With JiveTalk™, you get a complete IM solution with real-time connectivity to all of your IM buddies.”
From http://www.beejive.com/iphone/
Other websites that provide instant messaging applications include: http://www.astra.im/iphone/, http://iphone.mundu.com and http://www.skypeforiphone.com.
So yeah, instant messaging is definitely and permanently scrapped off XD!
EDIT: Check this youtube~ Sooo it says the iPhone already has a sms chat application on it.
A day in life with Lucy + her iPhone August 15, 2007
Hmm I’ve tried to search about mulitplayer tetris on the iPhone and I can’t seem to find anything…
“Any word of multiplayer games on iPhone?
Yeah, you would think. But for whatever reason, Apple has never been serious about games. The most I expect to find available for the iPhone in the first several months is some very light casual gaming, like another tired port of Bejewled or the like.Unless they actually open up development to a broader audience… then the market will take them there.”
“Exactly! 3rd party developers are already in the mix on iPod games. That coupled with the endless game control possibilities with the iPhone (anywhere on the screen with multiple fingers, multiple sensors, and tall or wide screens) it seems like it’s inevitable”
From http://www.everythingiphone.com/forum/windows-pc-and-iphone/any-word-of-multiplayer-games-on-iphone-726.html
“EA Mobile has announced a new multiplayer mobile game version of Tetris, although for the moment it’s only available in North America.
The game will feature several multiplayer modes, which all work over the network. You’ll be able to play against your friends or random opponents, and it won’t matter if you’re on different mobile operators.”
From http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Tetris+Multiplayer/news.asp?c=2610
Im abit confused about EA Mobile, does their game work for the iPhone? Either way they don’t have my fake currency system, avatar pixel head + items/bombs or make use of the sensors in the iPhone > _> So I can’t seem to find an application the same as mine? =S
Anyways in today’s lecture slides there was an activity section: Write a scenario for how someone would interact with your iPhone application. Tell a short story about how someone would use your application in their everyday life.
Interesting, this looks fun? =D
My scenario
Lucy walked slowly up her road, towards Canterbury station. ‘Stupid steep-ass road‘, she thought to herself as she used her hand to block the sunlight from her tiny eyes. Once she reached the station she walked into the newsagency to buy a red bull. After buying a ticket she made her way down the stairs to her platform. ‘Hmmmm 2 minutes left’, she thought groggily (<- haha is that a word?).
Once the train had arrived, and Lucy had sat down, she found herself staring blankly at the guy’s head infront of her. He had thin hair so that his scalp was visible. There was dandruff practically eveyrwhere in his hair. Getting bored of watching his head and dandruff, Lucy pulled out her iPhone and opened the Internet Browser and went to the (NAME OF MY GAME HERE) website. She logged in her account and looked through the game rooms until she found Patrick’s account in game room 11254. She entered the game room and began to play against him.
As the block slowly came down the centre of the screen Lucy rotated her iPhone 90 degrees so that it was falling on the left side of the screen. Suddenly her iPhone started vibrating in her hands, and her tetris screen was filled with some wonky blocked lines. Lucy then heard patrick’s voice, ’sucked in, hahahaa’ She quickly tried to get rid of 3 lines of blocks so that she can create a bomb and bomb him back. Once she made four bombs, she used her finger to drag the bomb icons (one by one) from her bomb inventory onto Patrick’s tetris screen. ‘Take that!’ She smiled to herself and then looked out her window. ‘OH CRAP ITS REDFERN!!! Get off the train Patrick!’ Lucy quickly got off the train and skimmed through the crowd of people infront. Soon enough she recognised the tall figure (of Patrick, lol) and walked quickly towards him.
Hahaha, an everyday life situation for a uni student aye? hmmm..
Javascripts August 12, 2007
“The base for this code was taken from this site: http://code.gosu.pl/dl/JsTetris/demo/JsTetris.html
Code was written by: Cezary Tomczak
The guy made an amazing code base to work off of. Arguably one of the best use of Javascript classes I’ve seen implemented. They should use this stuff to teach from. I did not have to modify the base code at all to make these modifcations. Just had to change some CSS, change some initialization variables and add in some buttons to call some class events that he had already instantiated.”
From http://www.yucs.org/~snamd/iphone/
So this person, Noam Davidovics (above) took codes from this tetris. These both are so similar, i think they’re practically the same to the tetris game i found yesterday. If you click the highscore button it says ‘Note: these scores are kept in cookies, they are only visible to your computer, other players that visit this page see their own scores.’ Well that just sucks? How come facebook allows us to see our logged in account, etc? So this is whats happening, for my tetris application I need an online database and connect it to some javascript codings? Is what im saying even right? XD (must ask sister about it later). Sounds hard, I’ve always wanted to make my own online database site where people can have their own accounts, etc..
Moving on, I also found this..
“That’s when I realized that such a thing would not be possible on the iPhone and that just seemed silly. Oh, that’s right somebody just needs to do an AJAXy Tetris web application that doesn’t use Java or Flash… Ok, so somebody has already done that and maybe it will play nice on the iPhone. But you get my point. The limitations of not being able to install software on a device that is supposedly running a full blown operating system (OSX) is just ridiculous.”
From http://fupeg.blogspot.com/2007/06/tetris-and-iphone.html
Someone complaining that the iPhone should allow the user to install software applications. Hmmm im abit confused about the ‘AJAXy Tetris web application that doesn’t use Java or Flash’? That text was a link which led to here (another tetris game). This ones slightly different to the other tetris applications because it actually stores high scores?
Blah!!! I shall view the page source of those sites later and have a look at their java codes . _ .’
EDIT: Okay, my sister, being her usual mean self, wouldn’t really answer my questions ._. but shes telling me its not javascripts but rather java applets? And saying she doesn’t know blahlbah, but im pretty sure she did some java stuff (she’s in last year of software engineering). BLAH T_ T!
Tetris on the iPhone August 11, 2007
“iPhone Tetris
The classic Tetris game, now for your iPhone! From the people who brought you iphonesudoku.com and iphone-solitaire.com!
To Use Click Here: iPhone Tetris”
From http://iphoneapplicationlist.com/2007/08/05/iphone-tetris/
The link leads to http://iphone-tetris.com/. I just tried playing it and went on for quite abit XD. It’s just a simple tetris game i guess, and it can store your highscores in the cookies, but they’re only visible to your own iPhone. I clicked the ‘more games’ option and it leads to a menu of other games such as sudoku and solitare.
I also started exploring that http://iphoneapplicationlist.com site. Wow, they even have a facebook for the iPhone, click here. Interesting how they used tabs? Maybe I could do something like that:
- Game rooms: A tab for the list of rooms for tetris games, from there you choose a room you want to go into and verse other players.
- Inventory: Items for your avatar can be displayed here? You can also edit your avatar here (change items).
- Avatar shop: Items you can buy for your pixel avatar head using fake money earned through the game (will explain below).
- Highscores: The top 50 people for that week can be displayed here (updated every saturday?) Their usernames will become well known? xD And also get rewarded with a limited edition item for their avatar? One that is not available at the avatar shop.
- In progress: How about having profiles like facebook? x__x just simple stuff like your avatar pixel, your highest score so far, name, age and where you live (country wise)?
Instead of tabs going horizontally, i’ll make them go vertically?
Oooh and I haven’t properly explained the fake currency idea. Most online korean games i’ve played have em =] I’ve been thinking, coins can randomly come out during the game (in the middle of a block), and if you clear a row with a coin in it, you keep it? >_> each coin is worth 5 fake money and this fake money can be used to buy items for your avatar.
Hmm I wonder if there is a tetris game like this already =S I sure hope not. I must research.
