Introduction

 

Looking back in semester two’s science and technology knowledge strand, I have managed to build up my knowledge around innovative technologies and then applying them into this semester’s projects. There was one particular project that focused on using specifically creating an animation using flash and game applications using game salad. We learnt the basics of animation last semester; I also did a little bit of it in my undergraduates’ course so it was a great opportunity to develop and improve my skills when I was working in the animation team in the Northumbria water project. We also got great insight from an experienced person within the gaming industry. We’ve also learnt rapid prototyping and how important that it is when creating a 3 dimensional visualisation of the product.  

 

Rapid Prototyping

 

Throughout we learnt how important it is rapid prototyping. They are described as techniques used to construct a scale model of a product with the help of Computer Aided Design (CAD). The main purpose of Rapid Prototyping enabling us to see the product visualisation process by the creation a 3-D maps of the product (InventApart, 2014).   Design teams can be able to check the prototype at an early stage and this allows them to make any necessary modifications to the design. They allow low cost and fast manufacturing for a small series of components however a common limitation is that the narrow choice of materials that can be used to create the components (Liao et al, 2014). The technologies that are used for rapid prototyping are Selective Laser Sintering, Laser Engineered Net Shaping, Laminated object manufacturing, Fused deposition modelling, Multi-jet modelling and 3-D Printing (Upcraft and Fletcher, 2003). However the 3-D printing is the most promising disruptive innovations because the materials are highly flexible with the unlimited printing capabilities and that the end-user can easily design their own products. Furthermore the customisation capabilities that it provides are endless for example Nokia allowed their customers to customise the shells with their new phone Lumia. Another advantage is that 3D printing can produce a low number of goods at an inexpensive cost than traditional manufacturing however when it comes to producing larger quantities of products, then traditional manufacturing is better (Liao et al, 2014).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Liao et al, 2014)

 

Animation vs Game Salad

 

In the Northumbrian water project I decided to create my interactive story animation in CS6 Flash using ActionScript. The main the reason that I used ActionScript was because it involved programming and this allowed me to understand the mechanics a lot easier considering that I have a degree in programming. However we were lucky to have an experienced person that is working in the gaming industry, this allowed us to have a better insight of how the industry works. He suggested using GameSalad because this software was a great way to prototype a game app which is very easy and simple to use. For example, unlike Flash ActionScript in doesn’t require you to learn coding because it has the grab and drop feature. This allowed me to create game app much quicker however it wasn’t possible in the highest quicker due to its limited features that it provided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The way I tested it out was by looking at the potential that both of them provided.  As a programmer I felt comfortable using ActionScript however it was still slightly new to me to program in Adobe Flash. The main disadvantage that I had with GameSalad is that you can’t actually design or create images without using other graphic designing software. Unlike GameSalad, Flash had the tools to design the images and then at the same time I was able to implement the code into them. In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages was that Adobe Flash wasn’t able to run on Apple devices.  Even in the past Steve Jobs claimed that it’s true that the Apple devices cannot play Flash games (Shankland, 2010), however this has been later changed. There are now apps in the app store that helps you to run flash games and videos. One app that allows iPad users to view Flash content is Photon Flash player; however it is not free because on the app store it cost £3.99 (Macworld UK, 2014). This meant it limits me to release this on apple devices and this is one of the reasons why GameSalad is better to use because it allowed me to make the game that was able to run on IOS, Android and HTML5 platforms. Another reason why I thought making my interactive animation as a game app on Gamesalad was that from the Ofcom report, they conducted a research on children’s media literacy and claimed that among 5 – 15 year olds the use of tablet computers to play games have increased and they were one of our target audiences.  (Ofcom, 2014, pp. 5-6).

 

I looked at the potential of GameSalad and what it offered for example Roy, Rouuse and DeMeritt claims that novice programming environments (NPE) have successfully lowered the barrier of initial entry to programming and that software’s such as GameSalad holds the potential of attracting students to computing. However another software App Inventor for Android is more attractive as a platform to teach people the elementary computing concepts. It provides the ready-made blocks that allow people to use loops, simple data structures and defining variables without learning complicated syntax. It also allows incorporating its components into Java and Android SDK applications e.g. Eclipse (Roy, Rouuse and DeMeritt, 2012).

 

Summary

 

Overall we were limited of using this knowledge strand due to the less technological projects that we were given this semester. However I was still able to gain an insight of how important rapid prototyping is because it gives us a visualisation of what the concept looks like before its final product. I was also able to learn how to use new softwares such as GameSalad. I was able pick up new skills of creating a game application and interactive animation using ActionScript on Adobe Flash. Also doing further research of looking at how NPEs allows the users to learn the basic concept of programming. It was also great of receiving insights from a person that actually works within the gaming industry. I have now realised the technology is always changing and now becoming so advanced that they require less experience or skill to learn how to use these technologies easily.