March 2010
1 post
Numbers
I’ve now come across two little sisters - the girls possessed with Adam. When you come up to one after any threats are neutralized (more on that in a later paragraph), you have the option of saving (taking enough adam to normalize) or harvesting (sucking it all out) her. I know I would get more adam if I harvested the girls, but at this point, I don’t know what I’m missing, how...
February 2010
4 posts
Ambiance
Note: I was asked for images, but I can’t grab screenshots from my PS3 and my room is lit all wrong for pictures. Perhaps I should include interweb-fount images just to show the general look of the game I’m moving through…
In fact, that’s what I’ll do for this post.
First out is the setting: your first-person character is trying to get the heck out of this creepy...
Hacking it up
A post. I’ve had a busy week (believe me or not), so I’ll be getting this done around 9ish.
I finally finished replaying the three Ratchet and Clank PS2 games! I know this sounds like it has nothing to do with anything, but in fact, this means that, A, I can really get into/obsess about BioShock, and, B, that I won’t have to worry about re-adapting to the controls every time I...
Adjusting (under construction)
I’m still having trouble adjusting to BioShock’s first person controls and general feel.
At the beginning of the game, I was asked a few questions that set a few parameters that I don’t think I’m able to change now that my game is in motion. One question asked me what experience I’ve had with shooters, and I answered “some,” because I did not feel that I...
January 2010
3 posts
The Real Beginning
I’ve been at BioShock for about an hour, now. I have noticed plenty of points to write about, so I’m going to go ahead and write out my entry now so that I can go back to bed.
First: BioShock is a serious game. I’m used to playing Mario Bros. And Ratchet and Clank. And Katamari Damacy. Perhaps some tower defense-type games. But BioShock isn’t cartoonish. It’s not...
The Epic Choosing of BioShock
Well, see, BioShock’s stats seemed strong against those of Game Selection Paper, so I pulled out its pokéball and…
No really.
I am going to be playing BioShock all semester and blogging about my progress. It’s an FPS set in an alternate history, where (when?) an underwater utopian society was built somewhere below the ocean. Your character crashes into the sea and finds his way...
April 2009
7 posts
Assignment 7: Analytics.
This assignment was a great idea that seemed to be foisted upon us at a point which was too late and too close to our other projects for us to give it the attention it deserved.
Right off the bat, I can say that analytics require time and planning on the end of the site designers. Since we didn’t have much time, and we sure didn’t have any opportunity to alter Drupal to record custom...
Assignment 6: heuristics.
This evaluation is a good supplement for other testing procedures. We did heuristics evaluations at the same time we were doing usability testing, but I can see it being used with personas or competitive analysis.
This method seems to me to be, essentially, self-administered usability testing. since we had spent so much time on the site already, we knew the various paths a user takes for typical...
Assignment 5: Usability testing.
What a long time we spent on this assignment! Perhaps 20% of that time involved trying to pick meeting times when all four of us could show up, but usability testing does cost plenty of time to design, run, and analyze the observed data. If done right, though, the information gained will be invaluable for finding design problems that might never be encountered by the team working on the project,...
Assignment 4: Personas and scenarios.
Here is an evaluation technique for actors and writers. And myself, who often created characters in grade school, but never managed to write a decent story with them.
The hardest part was figuring out what points to write out for the personas, since we had limited pages. Good personas should be outlined very thoroughly, enough so that they can be placed in situations that have nothing to do with...
Assignment 3: Interviewing.
I don’t think that this assignment drove home how difficult interviewing is. Beyond the difficulty of finding people to wring out for information, figuring out the important questions and the proper ways to ask them can be a daunting task. But because outside input is so valuable for both new and established products, interviews are worth the hassle.
Picking questions that don’t...
Assignment 2: Competitive analysis.
The first part of this assignment required a site map, which was not actually necessary for competitive analysis in particular, but important for familiarizing oneself with how the site is set up and works. I enjoyed creating my map, as odd as it may have been. It was interesting to make, but I wonder how the site map by one of the site’s creators would look.
Because Urbanspoon has been...
Assignment 1: the micro-usability test.
I do realize that no journal entry was required for this assignment. I also realize that all of the following entries will be late as late can be. BUt as far as the final goes, this will be the most studying I have done for any of my classes this semester.
So.
I have been using Twitter since the beginning of the school year, and I know that many people know of it, but they have never tried to...
January 2009
1 post
On microwaves
Specifically, presettings. Personally, I have never used the setting for popcorn, or to reheat pizza, or even to soften cream cheese. I don’t know if anyone else does, either.
As I sat, in my sleep-deprived state, staring at the microwave in the staff area, I wondered why this is so. If the designers added such functions, one would hope the functions had had some thought put into them, some...