2-D Game design (Final update of Semester 1)

So my plan for this game is;
-I'll be using Adobe Animate (formerly known as Flash)
-It'll be a simple text-based game featuring an interaction with a character in first-person
-Player chooses dialogue options to progress and change story

let's do this

I'm using this tutorial as a base. It's pretty helpful so far!

Part 1 (Jan 11, 2018): I'll start by taking notes on paper to develop the idea.
Part 2 (Jan 12, 2018): While my idea isn't fully fleshed out yet, I can't use Animate as easily at home, so I'll be utilizing my time at school with it as much as I can. First, I need to get familiar with the code ActionScript 3.0. There's a few resources on the tutorial page I'll look at.

Update: those tutorials are garbage so I'm using this one now.

(Jan 15, 2018): Still trying to figure out ActionScript. It's stupidly complicated. There's math involved. My math teachers always said that math is in everything. I didn't believe them.

What a fool I was.

So this isn't going as well as I'd hoped. NEW PLAN: refresh my memory in Animate, then make a simple game.

(Jan 17, 2018): trying to figure how to make my drawing tablet's pen pressure work on this computer
(Jan 18, 2018): gave up on the pen pressure thing. who needs it anyway. now trying to make my fancy button trigger an event. no luck so far.
(Jan 19, 2018): all is button. button is eternal. b u t t o n.
(Jan 22, 2018): All I need is for the clicking of the button to change an animation (the girl's expression). Still not much luck.

(Jan 24, 2018-SEMESTER END): I have now become a mindless robot whose only purpose is to type and delete and type and delete and cry. This is my life now.
Been messing around with the coding for past 4 days. Good news is that I'm fixing errors. Bod news is that they're being replaced by other, more confusing errors. So that's fun.
If I continue this, my plan is to finally fix the code, and hopefully find another way to achieve the expression change. Currently, I have the two expressions as separate symbols, and I'm hoping to use only one symbol and make use of the Sprite Sheet option somehow.
I'm dead inside.

Personal Project: 2-D Game Design

For this project, I'm thinking of looking into game design, specifically 2-D style games (indie, role-playing, visual novel,etc.). Because 3-D games seem like a migraine just waiting to happen. I'm thinking of trying out a few programs which make these games simple to make, and the results of these programs are some of my favourite games of all time.

Game design doesn't necessarily mean designing character art, in fact that's usually a completely different job. Game designers instead develop the rules and gameplay mechanics, although recently more specific jobs have been created for more complex games, such as level designers, content designers, and UI (user interface) design. Of course, the goal of mine here is to make a short RPG (role-playing game)-style game, so I'll have to do all of it myself. It's fine. I've wanted to try this for myself for a while.

I'll see if there's any chance of me getting RPG Maker VX Ace. Apparently it's easy to use. Assuming I can get my parents' permission to use it on the family laptop, ANSWER ME BACK, DAD, the actual program is $69.99, so hopefully the 20-30 day free trial is long enough for me to make something decent. 

...I'll see what I can do.

Unfortunately, most of the games that have inspired me are in the horror puzzle genre, so maybe I'll be nice and not go that route. Maybe. Luckily,  I'm not smart enough to learn the program and come up with some quick, effective, and unique horror story in 20-30 days. I'll wait until I'm not doing this for marks.

My dad got back to me. Wait for it...

HEYYY HE ACTUALLY SAID YES. PLOT TWIST.
I asked him just yesterday if I could use his laptop to play games and, justifiably yet to my disappointment, he said no.
So next time I should just tell him I'm playing games for school. I'm kidding. He wouldn't believe me I'd never lie to my parents.

WE ARE IN BUSINESS.

Self-Evaluation

1/2 way check point

• What have you learned? Principles of design, how to use InDesign, a lot of interesting ways to take advantage of the features of programs to achieve a certain effect, the advantages and disadvantages to certain programs
• What have you struggled with? WHERE DO I BEGIN. Thinking and working outside my comfort zone, not wanting to give up on a project because I wasn't happy about it, distractions, POSTING MY FINISHED PROJECTS TO THIS BLOG AND/OR MAKING ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO A PIECE WHICH LEFT ALONE WOULD PREVENT IT FROM BEING UPLOADED TO SAID BLOG (a couple of my pieces are transparent and I can't find the time to fix it aagghhh), BEING MORE POSITIVE (not just this class, so that's good? Or bad. Probably bad.)
• What are you proud of? What are your strengths? ...can I get back to you after term 2? Cause I've got nothing right now. Sorry.
• What goals do you have/ what do you want to learn in Term 2? HTML is really, really fun right now, so I'm highly looking forward to finishing up that unit. Also, just realized that I can use my new HTML skills to compose this very blog post, but I clicked on it and got scared, so maybe another time*. I think I need to just further develop the skills I already have sort of. Maybe designing a poster for something that the student is a fan of? That would be fun. Oooooh. I like that idea. Personal project maybe?
• What mark do you think you deserve? Explain why. This is why I'm bad with these self-evaluation things. I tend to underestimate what my mark should be (see the whole "being more positive" point above), but I completely understand that i really haven't been doing a good job in this class. I'll be the first to admit it. I'm guessing maybe somewhere around the 50-55% mark. 
• How could you improve? Changing my attitude towards my work, growth, and trying new things would be a good place to start. Possibly practicing with very small projects, so it's more manageable. And I would say trying to be more positive, but I've been told that many times before and it's incredibly tough, so I can't make any promises.

*seriously, go edit this post and click on the "HTML" tab up below my blog name. Nightmare fuel.

Logos

Abstract letter

First Post...or, some things about me, I guess

So...I'm not the best at talking about myself. Hopefully I can find some interesting things. Great start, Haleigh, 10/10 not awkward at all.
Um. Okay. Let's see.

Name: Haleigh
Major: Visual art
Grade: 12
Age: 16
Mental Age: either 5, 16, or 65 there is no in between
Experience with digital design: I use a free program called FireAlpaca cause I'm broke for illustrations and paintings. If anyone wants to see those, I guess I could post them...I don't know.
Want to explore: 3D programs (mainly Blender). Thinking of designing an RPG-style video game if I get the programs and...general...talent.This is design-related, right?
Interests: drawing, writing, learning languages (currently learning 4 spoken and 1 sign language-Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Italian,and Contact Signing. I'm bad at all of them), making bad jokes that no one laughs at, listening to music, spacing out, using terrible coping mechanisms, singing kind of (not very good at it-not bad, but not good)
Other: I'm sorry

I don't even know if anyone is going to read this, but if you for some reason want to talk to me, feel free! I'm pretty friendly, and I don't bite! I'm happy to talk to people, I'm just a bit shy and can't start too many conversations on my own (but I'm trying).