Gus Childs

Green Geezer involves a grumpy old man that flies through the air in a hot air balloon and rids the road of pollutant vehicles with a large magnet. As these vehicles are removed, they are replaced by more efficient ones. Once 50 pollutant vehicles are removed, the building of a large windmill is completed which then blows away all of the pollution while the old man dances across the screen. Vehicles that aren't removed, however, fill the sky with pollution and as it increases the world deteriorates.

What did I do?

I was originally going to lead the team rather than touch any code. Our programmer quit, however, so I was left with no choice but to work my way through learning ActionScript 3. I had a little experience with programming and a bit with Flash, but going from cars that drove across the screen to a fully functional game was quite the journey. Being the person that brought the assets to life, I remained the team lead, while my three teammates handled graphics, animation, and sound.

Usability Testing

Another new experience gained from the class was usability testing. We put the game through two rounds of tests during our alpha and beta stages. This allowed us to alter the game according to user expectations before we had gone too far and it was too late. If it weren't for these tests our game could not have reached the level it did.

Scope Creep

A problem throughout the semester was scope creep. We constantly reevaluated what we wanted to do with what was possible and our plan evolved on the fly. We made compromises but kept the most important aspects of our game that we believed would allow it to succeed.