Acey's Weekly Report 2/15 - 2/22

1. What was planned?
Finish the Puzzles.
Look at code.
First tests of puzzles.

2. What was done?
Created the last 4 puzzles.
Rechecked all the puzzles utilizing all the tricks I have learned. I was able to remove steps from over half of the puzzles. I find this very interesting as it strengthens my belief that this game will show strong learning gains especially in the area of optimization and layering.
Saved an image of each of the completed puzzles for use in Outreach.
Downloaded and installed the code base, ran it, and tinkered with it a bit.

3. Problems encountered?
Sadly the planned CSDT part of the outreach had to be pushed back to next week. This was good for the outreach because they took a lot longer to make Catch the Clown than we estimated.

4. What did you learn this week?
As I said earlier I learned that at least I have shown improved skill at solving the puzzles. I was honestly shocked at some of the mistakes I made in early puzzles. The best example of this is making 4 squares mirrored around the x and y axis. This was originally done in 4 steps. The more optimal way to do this is make one large square and divide it into smaller squares using rectangles (3 steps). I have definitely learned the most optimal way of doing something is usually not the easiest or most obvious way. These are lessons that students will definitely be able to transfer over to CSC (I do not know how many algorithms I have seen that are way more complex but perform more optimally).

I also learned that the new improved Bead Loom uses movable and peaceable windows so it should be possible to have 2 windows (one with what the player is doing and one with the goal) open and easily navigatable. In other words it will be able to mimic tabs inside one tab.

5. What's planned for next week?
Prepare a presentation for the Game Lab about my game and showing off the puzzles.

Use the puzzles in outreach with MLK Middle School.

In the code find a way to convert the layer system of the advanced tool into a single 40x40 array representing the current visible beads.
-The layer system in the new bead loom tool is nice but not the design I am working with for the game. Rather than layers of beads it is more challenging and a better representation of basic Computer Science concepts to think of the graph as a 41x41 array. That is when you put a bead on the graph it overwrites the current value in that array slot. The current set up is more of a 3d array with each layer being stacked on top of the 2d array. Therefore I will either need to create a 41 by 41 array that is filled whenever the user takes an action or find a way to convert the current collection of arrays into a single one. This should not be too hard but will take time to track down where everything I need is located within the code.

6. Hours worked.
20