Grade+11+Escapa+Journal

This is a journal, where I will demonstrate my progress throughout the final summative project. I will keep a running diary of all of the items that I accomplish each day, my challenges and next steps for the following day!!!!!!

Day 1: May 12, 2011


 * Today I learned of the summative's criteria and began to plan my project out.
 * Below, I will explain my plans on how to accomplish each of the goals for the summative project.
 * I will begin by creating the form for the game, by adding walls to the screen.
 * Create an enemy class.
 * Create a character class.
 * Create my timers.
 * I know that the above plans are not ALL of what I have to do, but they are a tremendous start!
 * Tonight, and tomorrow, I will begin to start laying out the screen for my game's level 1.
 * One challenge that I met, was managing to get only 5 picture boxes on the screen, without using a breakpoint!! :-)

Day 2: May 13, 2011
 * Today, I spoke with Mr. Swaine and we collaboratively solved an "interesting" problem. I had an issue where I was attempting to get only 5 picture boxes on the screen. However, it would work with a breakpoint but not while running it without a breakpoint. During this period, I was able to solve this issue.
 * My next step is to attempt to get my character to appear on the screen, I will work on this during the weekend!!!!

Weekend: May 14-15, 2011
 * I had run into some difficulties in trying to get my character to appear on the screen using a character CLASS. However, I was able to apply the skills learned from the maze, by adding 1 picture box onto the form for the character, and then adding each of the enemies onto the screen by creating an enemy class and instantiating each of the objects of that class.
 * I created an enemy class.
 * I created a bullet class.
 * I am now working on trying to discover how to use the calendar features of VB, in order to create my text file.
 * Also, I am looking into how to use timers so that I can determine if the user has been on a particular level for 15/20 seconds. This is interesting, as VB's timers calculate the elapsed time using milliseconds!!
 * I am also trying to determine why my enemies are going off the screen in Level 2, but not in Level 1.
 * Questions/Challenges to solve:
 * The way I have the player on the screen.
 * Why enemies are going off the screen in Level 2.
 * Why bullets are not appearing in Level 2.

Day 3: May 16, 2011
 * I continued working on my maze in class.
 * Today, I tried to solve the problem of preventing the enemies from going through all of my blue labels on my form.
 * I also looked at, and fixed up how to reference a form from a different location, including tasks where the same operation occurs on different forms, and we have to find a way where the game will know which form the user is on, in order to fulfill the required tasks.
 * Challenges today:
 * Why the objects still go off of the forms?
 * Hit by Bullet (Level 2), why does Level 1 not load....why does timer not restart?
 * Overlap of enemy and player????

Day 4: May 17, 2011
 * Continued on maze.
 * Figured out how to prevent the player and enemies from leaving the form.
 * Created a way to allow the player to choose the background colours.
 * Fixed the issues with the player and enemy overlapping.
 * Working on restarting the timers. I will look at this tonight and tomorrow.

Day 5: May 18, 2011
 * Spruced up some of my forms (adding colour and making it more appealing to the eye!!!!)
 * Met with Mr. Swaine to look at some of the challenges deriving from how to transfer from level 2 back to level 1, after level 1 has already been played once. This has been causing several issues with timers and collision recognition.
 * Tonite, I continued to investigate this issue, and do some research!!

Day 6: May 19,2011
 * Learned of the alterations to the assignment.
 * Began working on Question 3!!

Day 7: May 20,2011
 * Today I continued working on Question 3.
 * I have been commenting Mr. Swaine's code, as well as looking for areas that it could be improved on.
 * I am also searching for errors in Mr. Swaine's code to record.

Weekend: May 21, 2011-May 23,2011:
 * Continued working on Question 3 for the Escapa Summative.
 * I continued and finished commenting all of Mr. Swaine's code.
 * I continued to look for potential improvements to Mr. Swaine's code.
 * I continued to look for potential errors in Mr. Swaine's code.
 * I typed up an extra sheet specifying all of the improvements and errors that I found!
 * I emailed Mr. Swaine to get feedback on what I had completed.
 * I FINISHED THE ASSIGNMENT!!!!

Day 8: May 24:
 * Today, I re-read over all of my answers.
 * I checked to make sure that all of my answers were correct.
 * I checked for spelling/grammar errors.
 * I also checked for areas in my comments, where I could expand and provide more detail, or where I could have been more clear in my wording.
 * I also re-read over my list of suggested errors and improvements to ensure that all of the details, spelling, grammar and recommendations were correct and worded clearly.

Day 9: May 25:
 * ABSENT: I AM ON A SCHOOL TO COMMUNITY FIELD TRIP TO SEE THE LION KING IN TORONTO.

Day 10: May 26:
 * I clarified a few questions that I had with Mr. Swaine in class today.
 * I also submitted my assignment to Mr. Swaine.