FLVORMIX

Flvormix will allow people to send their youTube playlists to other people to watch on a customized screen instead of the youTube website.

Homepage:

Here people would either select to share a playlist of their own or to view a gallery of other playlists people have created.

If they choose to make their own list they come to a screen something like this:

They would fill out the info and the next screen they would get to choose what background they would like to house the youtube player in. This would create a unique URL that they could then send to other people.

I would like to have at least 4 different backgrounds done for this course.

The Gallery

I wanted the gallery to be cool so I am going to try out papervision and try to make a simple 3d gallery to show recent mixes that people have shared.

Project Description
A version of the classic game Asteroids where a player controls a space ship and must dodge or destroy incoming objects or else be destroyed by them.

Game Menu Page Interface
The game will be fullscreen flash and will be made to be played online. When the site first loads it will fill the browser window and have five buttons.

The two main buttons:
Instructions – opens a small window explaining the game.
Play – starts the game and switches the screen to fullscreen mode.

And three smaller buttons:
Volume – duh.
About this game – about section and my portfolio link.
Leaderboard – opens the leaderboard window of the top scores.

In-Game Interface
Player Info – shows number of lives and hit points remaining.
Inventory – a line of icons showing the players different guns and special items.
Score – shows both current level and total score.

User Control
The game will be completely mouse controlled. This will allow users to do everything needed in the game while only requiring minimal effort with one hand on their part. When the mouse cursor is within a short range of the ship it will rotate the ship to face the cursor. When the mouse is moved outside of this range the ship will follow the cursor to its new location. To fire the ships gun the player just clicks. The gun can be fired at any time.

Game Progression
The game will have around 10 levels, each with a set number of asteroid objects that will move accross the screen. Players will progress to the next level when all the objects have finished moving and the player is still alive. Each level will have more objects and they will move faster.

Score Calculation
The players total score is calculated by adding points for asteroids destroyed and subtracting points when the player ship is hit by asteroids. There may also be bonus points that can be collected by the player. Shooting accruacy may also be used to calculate bonus points.

Getting Hurt and Loosing
Players will start with three lives and 100 health. Each asteroid object will do a set amount of damage based on its size speed and the current game level. If the ship is hit it will go into an invincibility mode for 1 second. When a player dies a fourth time, they loose the game and are given a prompt to enter their name and score in the leaderboard

Leaderboard
The leaderboard will contain the top 100 scores. It will show the player’s name, their score, and the date they played.

Graphical Style
Asteroid calls for a top down 2D view, and this game will have the same look. The actual elements in the game can go one of two directions.

The first is a completely flat, vector look. This allows for dynamic creation of level background graphics and asteroid objects by choosing layout and color completely through code. All objects would also be animated through code, which is easy to impliment but also very limiting. This method also will keep the file size very very small.

The probem with this style is the graphics may seem bland at times since they are generated and have no texture.

The second style is a completely handmade very textured look. Objects will be modeled and animated in 3D and then rendered out to frames and brought into flash. This approach would mean that every level looks exactly the same every time the game is played. It also means that load times would be pretty long for each level.

Vector Samples:

Raster Samples:

Project Link: http://errolschwartz.com/pain

Stills:

My Amazing Image Uploader

Now the main point of these sites is not to give information. If people really just want information they will go to c-net or places like that. Interactive viral sites should focus completely on peeking interest of users. Many sites try to create too much of a storyline and start off by making users watch an informative video that simply gives an explanation of the site. Unless a visitor is really bored or very patient, they are not going to want to sit through even 15 seconds of scrolling text with a narrating voice. Well done environmental sites can be very valuable for viral marketing if they are good enough to actually have users finish the experience and tell their friends about it.

Many sites now use some kind of host that guides users through various parts of the site. This can be great if done in an amusing way or if it just makes sense with whatever the site is about. Many times the hosts talk for so long that people lose interest. Long videos also mean long load times. So if people are patient enough to actually sit through the 40 second load, they are even more angry when all they get is some lady talking about quitting smoking(www.quitdoingit.com).

Many environmental sites are unimpressive simply because the visuals are bland. It doesn’t matter how in depth a story it has or how great the internal games are if people leave because the first screen they see looks like crap. After looking kind of bland, the next thing that many sites lack is an element of curiosity. If users don’t care what happens when they click a button then something is wrong.

I think that in the future sites will begin to use more and more metaphorical imagery in order to draw users in. The site www.littledeviant.com does this successfully. They created a whole city of sheep people and monsters who kill them in order to advertise Scion. This is a far better solution than showing 3d views and fly-throughs of a car, highlighting all its great features.

You can upload and image and have it crudely displayed, it’s plain amazing.

The final welcome screen:

The final test screen:

Visualization info box:

Visualization line generation:

The test screen:

The visualization:

Detail of sort buttons:

Detail of the info box:

Here is the test users will take:

And here is something like how the data will be shown: