r3dux.org

I’m writing a version of Pong, and then I’m going to get my Cert III students create their own version – and I’ve had an idea…

If I create it, and save it incrementally as new features are added, and assuming I teach them how to implement every element of everything seen, I can give them a .SWF (no source-code) version of the game with minimal functionality, and say “Here. Create this.” – Then, I can add a feature, like a score, show it to them working infront of their very eyes, and again say “Create this.”

My thinking being: They know the fundamentals, but they don’t have practice putting things together as a “big picture” – if I provide the big picture, they can deconstruct it to the techniques that they WILL know (there’s no way I’ll ask them to do anything I haven’t taught) – and at that point they already have a hands-on version, so they just need to recreate it using known techniques…

So, anyway, I was writing this Pong thing (Fong == Flash Pong)… I’ve currently got it set up so that the left bat is controlled via vertical mouse movement and the right bat is controlled by the mouse-wheel – it’s pretty corky

At the moment the scanlines are just a pre-scanlined image stuck on a canvas at 50% opacity below the bats & balls. And all the collision-detection is done through my CollisionDetection class, so I can have as many bats and balls as I want, and it took a whole five minutes to integrate. Yay! Maybe I’m getting the hang of this programming lark, too…