So how has it gone? Well, I've been frustrated with the problems due to the setup of our network and more frustrated with the random glitches that pop up from time to time.
After the success of SC's post-it solution to fridge magnets, I used that with my class to varying degrees of success. Their work on the computers has been very good with some exceptional worlds being built however I feel that due to time constraints and technical difficulties that the pupils have been more focussed on the technical side of their worlds rather than crafting a gaming experience through plot and story-telling.
This is something I feel the English department would really be able to improve upon and there has already been discussion between staff regarding this.
We have looked at conversations the past couple of weeks with the first lesson an introduction. All pupils seemed to find using the editor quite straightforward after a demonstration and a couple of reminders about adding speakers. However it did prompt a number of the boys to ask
"Can I have it so that after talking to my creature that it can follow me?"The following week we decided to go into this kind of depth and I was wary of how well the pupils would grasp the idea of programming creatures based on conditions. The demo went really well as I showed them how simple it actually was as long as they remembered to initially set hostile creatures to "commoner". Most found the right-click menu system quite easily to work with. What let the lesson down was that for every pupil, clicking on the conversation editor brought up the window but didn't display the content - a graphics glitch perhaps?
"Is it possible to make the all the other creatures attack me after talking to this creature?"
My on-the-spot solution (and I feel I deserved a macaroon bar for this one) was to have them shake the cursor across the window as if painting it. This had the effect of causing the interactive elements of the window to appear such as the drop-down box, checkbox and OK/CANCEL buttons to display. I had to speak them through this once and after that, they simply repeated.
I would have liked to have worked more on testing so that they could take more time to decide the placement and types of creatures used as many of them were either making it ridiculously easy or incredibly hard, but time is against me and I have to take them back onto the PC Passport course that we had initally started.
I'll finish with my Adventure Author mantra, something I keep saying in the class...
Save it, Bake it, Play it
