Greetings!<div>I would like to introduce myself to the Tux4Kids community, as part of this year's summer of code application.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm Ivan from the sunny republic of Moldova (although we have romanized names here and I usually go as Ion). I study Computer Science and Electronics at the Technical University of Moldova and am fond of creating small gameplay sketches. On the IRC channel I go as erwinmagritte.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The project I would like to work on during this summer is about bringing more gameplay value to TuxMath. To do this, there have to be added several concepts which, I hope, will contribute to make TuxMath more fun to play. That being said, I am really looking forward to concentrate on the game logic and player-game interaction. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The main project idea is as follows (a copy-paste from the GSoC application which I will send in a couple of hours):</div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br>
</font></div><div><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">The Project itself:</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">--Planets </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">Create a system of planets, which Tux has to protect from falling asteroids. Therefore, the level choosing screen is a solar system map of the planets among which Tux flies in his spaceship. There are planets which have been saved - these are displayed with a small atmosphere (just a halo around the planet) and the grown plants (explained in the seeds/plants section), whereas the ones that haven't been saved yet are in a belt of asteroids. Thus, children have to save planets consecutively to complete solar systems (for instance, in one solar system we deal with addition and on planets we have different levels of complexity.)</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">--Asteroids</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">The main gameplay system mostly remains intact, although some changes should be introduced by the project. There are several types of asteroids, with different sprites, which have very slight variations in speed, size and complexity. However, the idea here is to use color-size encoding: the child has to expect a harder excercise for a bigger and slower asteroid. There are "special" asteroids, too - they give seeds, bonus points and healing points. Such asteroids are mapped to more difficult equations (they are optional), they don't damage the planet (they fly horizontally as opposed to the usual motion) and they are slow.</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">--Atmosphere</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">Another change which is to be made by the project concernes the igloos. The project proposes to introduce an atmosphere to the planet, which can be damaged by the falling asteroids. The atmosphere is a dim halo around the planet which indicates its state - when it is nearly absent, the planet is very damaged, when it is bright - the planet is close to recovery. Thus the goal of the child is to make the planet look brighter. </font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">Another project's goal here is to add objects to the scenery, by making the game a bit more graphical.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">(Side note: Maybe, if there will be time and people, "brighter" will mean "more alive", i.e. different animals moving, skies and wind and so on.)</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">--Seeds/Plants</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">There are special asteroids which leave seeds. After Tux has saved a planet, the child can choose which of the seeds from his bag would he like to plant on this planet (1 to 3 seeds). Now, when he goes back to the main screen, he can see his progress by seeing "his" planets, whose look was determined by his, the child's will. This is a very important feature of feedback - it will make the child feel a reward for his guiding of the Tux.</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">Comment: The trees look like the ones in The Little Prince. Small planets, big plants :)</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">(NB: Now I'm thinking of 3 to 5 knds of plants. Of course, it would be absolutely astonishing if these trees would grow. This is even more important as it will motivate the child to play the game more to see how his tree planted two days ago looks like :) )</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">--User feedback</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">This is the second part of the project and it regards giving the child a bit of feedback on his actions; that is, displaying a graphically pleasant (or even animated!) message whenever the player has:</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"> - shot asteroids (a small message about the points he gained, displayed in the place of the asteroid. The message then fades out.)</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"> - protected the planet (i.e. completed the level. Something like "Thank you, Tux!")</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"> - obtained a seed</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"> - replenished the planet's health</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace">These are the messages I thought of. Although small, my experience in game development tells me that it will be a lot more useful to discuss these matters when their time will come - the community might have a different view on it, the gameplay mechanics might differ along the periods of testing, etc. But the whole idea that the fun of playing is gained also due to the feedback cannot be overemphasized.</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'courier new', monospace"><br></font></div><div><br></div><div>To illustrate the concepts, I have drawn small sketches:</div><div><a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05154.JPG">https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05154.JPG</a></div>
<div><a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05153.JPG">https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05153.JPG</a></div><div>(aaaah, it's been ages since the last time I picked up a colored pencil)</div><div><br></div><div>
<br></div><div><br></div><div>So, that concludes the presentation. For any ideas/comments, reply to this topic or ask on the IRC.</div><div><br></div></div></div>