Katie's Weekly Report 2/23/2009

1. What was planned?
-Finish Bunny General prototypes
-Get IRB approval for Creativity and Cognition paper study
-Finish Sandbox papedeadline (yay for submission extensions)
-Get study participants
-First session with Citizen Schools

2. What was done?
-Learned how to use RPG Maker VX for prototypes (a change from XP last week)
-Study has been repitched, but still no participants. Professors have all be re-re-emailed
-First session with Citizen Schools was on Thursday
-Discussed the goals of the Creativity and Cognition paper
-Bunny Generals prototypes are underway, and have begun serving their purpose as I've realized my initial plans were far too big.


3. Problems encountered?
-Still no participants for the study
-Citizen Schools provided us with 2 fewer computers and 3 more students than originally promised.
-Had an issue with RPG Maker XP crashing on my machine, had to switch to VX which has some significant differences
-I don't actually focus my ideas as well as I thought I did: Bunny Generals needs a more focused goal if we're going to actually produce a game (prototyping has taught me much) and the Creativity and Cognition paper needs a more focused hypothesis if I'm going to design an effective study.


4. What did you learn this week? (esp. computer science, or anything surprising or
interesting) Be sure to cite any resources you used (e.g. online tutorials, etc).
-RPG Maker VX (http://www.gameskank.net/board/index.php?showtopic=1306, http://en.wordpress.com/tag/rpg-maker-vx-tutorial/)
-The Bunny General idea was too broad, focus should be changed to just sorting algorithms and their time complexities in order to get a more focused, worthwhile game
-CMU has a really amazing Entertainment Technology program with some equally amazing projects (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/experimentalgameplay/, http://www.etc.cmu.edu/)

5. What's planned for next week?
-Get IRB approval for Creativity and Cognition paper study
-Finish Sandbox paper (yay for submission extensions)
-Get study participants somehow...possibly kidnapping, no...definitely kidnapping
-Second session with Citizen Schools this week, pre-test for CSDTs needed
-Continue research for the Creativity and Cognition paper, look into proper Likert Scale design and game evaluation methods.
-Begin forming a study design for the Creativity and Cognition paper, form a solid hypothesis and determine what data is needed to support this hypothesis.

6. Hours worked.
15