Arcade

Purpose: The purpose of the arcade project is to learn to connect the digital world with the real world through programming and woodworking.

Journal 1

For the last few days I worked on a makecode skill map. I learned to program a game about a monkey. I used title maps to create levels.

Journal 2

Today I helped my team create a cut map for a piece of plywood. We measured all of the middle pieces of the example arcade machine. We then plotted all of the pieces and their sizes on a map to make sure we have enough wood.

Journal 3

We have started to build the arcade machine. Here I am cutting once of the center pieces.

Journal 4

This is my Synthesized App. Synthesize means to combine two things to make a brand new thing.

I combined what I learned in the Chase The Pizza tutorial with the Lemon Leak tutorial. I made a game called DinoDodge. In this game you play a hungry dinosaur that wants to eat meat. You have to avoid the flighting asteroids.

Journal 5

My friend Bob helped me with my DinoDodge game. He played it for a bit and then gave me some feedback which I wrote down on the Quick Feedback Form.

His advice was:

  1. Make the meat smaller

  2. Make the game get harder by slowly adding more asteroids

  3. Add a time limit

I am going to add the first two suggestions but not the third. I think that if the game gets really hard as you play then I won't need a time limit.

Journal 6

Here is my drafting plan for my final game. I am going to make a game where you shoot a cannon at passing ships. The ships that are far away will be harder to hit because they will be smaller. The closer ships will be big but also faster.

You will try to hit as many ships as you can before time runs out.

Journal 7

Here is a link to my game Naval Battle.

It turned out to be really hard. Making the water look good was a challenge. Also, getting the cannonball to flight to the spot was hard. I wanted it to have an arc to the shot, but it was too hard so it flies in a straight line.

Journal 8

Today we finished the arcade machine. It looks really good. I can't wait to play my game on it.

Arcade Project Reflection

Describe the final results:

The arcade project was definitely something new for me. I did not have a lot of woodworking experience before. I wish I got to do more.

I also did really well with the Make Code programming. I have done some Scratch before but this was the first time I made a game.

What do you know now that you didn't know when you started this project?

I know how to make a cut map

I know how to follow Make Code tutorials and then use those skills to make my own game

What advice would you give to future students about this project?

If you get stuck with a tutorial, go back to where you did something right and READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY.

What else would you like to try that you didn't have time for?

I would like to design more decals and wraps for the arcade machine

What proof do you have that shows you learned the project’s purpose?

The game I programmed is on the arcade machine that I helped to build. People can play my game.