With the exhibition starting tomorrow I suppose now is as good a time as any to look back on the past year. Alphaland has been a steep learning curve to say the least and although I am happy with what we created I think looking back there are things I would do differently.
For one I would choose a topic I know inside out. Having worked with children as young as three and taught them I was well aware of their abilities and what they could achieve. I was aware that phonics was a subject that children struggled with and having spoke to teachers knew that they seen this as a problem area. However I knew very little about the subject myself and even though we researched it I still feel like I could do more. I had considered in the beginning focusing on dance for children seeing as its what I’v taught since I was 16 but I was unsure of how you could begin to better games such as just dance or even the arcade style dance mat so I stuck with Phonics.
I think at the start we hit the ground running. Everyone was eager to create something unique. We had completed a substantial amount of work for our presentation with the bones of voice recognition in place. This momentum lasted right up until March. At this point we had hoped to start animating but with the design classes only starting and changes being suggested this held us back. Another stumbling block we encountered was with the dialogue with not enough having been written first time round to ensure the smooth running of the game. I think more planning was definitely needed and design classes were needed much earlier on in the year.
Another thing I would do is make the table a lot sooner and carry out more testing with it as it has caused a lot of problems with the code which are generally easily fixed but a bit time consuming coming towards the end.
Programming wise I would definitely do it again. I did doubt my abilities at the start and I do think in ways it could be more efficient but I am proud of what I have done. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and up until the final few weeks due to demands to fix designs and personal issues it had went very smoothly.
Group-wise generally it was OK. Most of us tried to help each other as much we could and sometimes personalities clashed but we got there in the end.
Overall for the most part I enjoyed it. It was a challenge and if I get into 4th year I’m hoping to better it! But for now its just a case of polishing off Alphaland and hoping it all goes well at the exhibition.
Laura Traynor 