First Aid? Second or Third Aid will do.

Syd and I finished (mostly) the skeleton of the app we would create, and will soon be porting it from a basic list in Pencil Code, to an actual button and pictures thing in MIT App Inventor. While there is still a long way to go, this is an important milestone in our app, and it is instrumental for our progress to continue.

Currently, Syd is working on finishing up the app's skeleton, adding last minute injuries, while I am working on transferring what does currently exist into some form of physical app. Hopefully, this can be done without too much trouble, as MIT has a short learning curve, and a few minutes with the program brings about a large amount of learning.

The future should bring actual deployment of the app, on the Android platform. I am very excited to be doing so, and cannot wait to bring it to the public as soon as possible.

More and more and more.

This week has provided a solid learning experience for me to learn Java. I’ve made more progress where I can in Codecademy, and am enjoying myself immensely. I’ve learned the syntax pretty well, and am looking forward to learning more. The course has provided me with a useful form of learning.

Looking to what has been accomplished this week, a lot of Android learning has also taken place, such as how certain commands operate on the Android platform. Android is a great platform to develop for, and I am enjoying it a lot. Along with this experience, I am still learning how everything interacts with each other.

For the future, I am working on getting to the point where I can view a simple list on my device, so that I can then make it interactive. I hope to accomplish this sooner rather than later, but as of now, anything is possible.

Breakout.EDU

Going into the video chat, I had several questions pertaining to how Breakout EDU began and ran. Despite having run through it multiple times, and EDU being in the title, I was unaware of Breakout’s true purpose, which was to educate. It seemed to be purely game based, rather than actually for teaching us something.

            Once I started to listen to James talk about Breakout, however, I soon realized how well designed it was. I had learned without feeling like I had, which is one of the best ways to actually make a child learn. James emphasized the point of how he started with something he wanted the participants to learn, and moved on from there to create puzzles incorporating these ideas.

            Coming away from this talk showed how exactly students in the future need to learn, by having fun. As of right now, very few educational games are any good. Either they fail to teach, or they fail to be fun. Consequently, this talk has inspired me to want to work to make games that are fun to play, and teach you something worthwhile.

Onward!

Once again, Syd and I have been working on learning Java in order to begin coding our app. In addition to this, I have finished a possible design plan to design to, to better facilitate future goals. I have also begun to become more and more sufficient with HTML, meaning very basic web design is also a viability.

                Currently, my main goal is to work on Java lessons, as not knowing how to code for Android would be our main obstacle. In addition, I am also working on getting a working database for all the multiplayer enabled games on the Steam platform.

                For the future, more Java learning is always a huge goal. Along with that is becoming more familiar with the Android platform. My smartphone is an Android device, and so I can mess around and learn more about the OS and its capabilities. Even further ahead are the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network databases, as those also are huge gaming platforms.

Another Day

Over this week, Syd and I have begun to work on Java, as well as downloaded and messed around with Android Studio. I have started to look into how to import a database from another program, such as the Steam Library, so that we can legally use it in our app.

Currently, I am gearing up for the Google trip and more Java lessons, as well as working on HTML and CSS lessons. Along with all of this, I am still attempting to have this database accessible, and transferable, in order to facilitate a proper function in our app’s UI.

For the future, a completion of Java knowledge is the ultimate goal, but as that takes years, our current future is looking at ways to import other code to Java, and utilizing it. 

Keeping up with deadlines proposed and overcoming obstacles is the main focus, as the limited amount of time and beginner level Java knowledge hinder us.

Proposal

GameConnect; for those of us who need a gaming buddy at a moment's notice.
GameConnect will be an app that both Syd and I will be developing for our 20% project. It would be an app similar to Tinder, but rather than for dating, it would be for finding an online gaming buddy. One could search up a game, see who else is willing to play that game, see what times they are available to play said game, and even leave reviews about that person!