Acey Boyce March 17

1. What was planned?
Create a second graph that the user can not change and add in counters.

2. What was done?
I was able to create a second graph that the user can not change but shows the coordinates of where the mouse is when they hover over it.
The game now keeps track of how many moves the user does including undo and redo. The user can also reset the counter by starting a new game.
Added a game menu to the original software. This menu is used to log in to the game and change from free play mode to game mode.
Added a game mode with all of unwanted functionality and windows removed. It also changes the layout of the screen for more optimal playing conditions (2 graphs side by side for easy comparison). This mode can be exited to return to the original free play mode.
Added interfaces for all future needed functionality including log in, puzzle selection, and high scores.
Added a few missing code segments to the Output Code window. This needs to be worked on and finalized later on though.

Also during Spring Break me and Katie went to Citizen Schools and did more Bead Loom and Bead Loom Game testing. Even though they have only had a few minutes each week they are already showing big improvements. One student even solved the Example8 using a series of rectangles rather than simple brute force. They also seemed to generally be having a good time playing the game even if it was only a paper/old system prototype. Best of all when I showed them how to reach the solution in only 6 moves they were really amazed. At least half the students then went on ad used that solution to recreate the goal. Each week the puzzles are getting more challenging and I feel by the end they will be really good at these types of puzzles and problem solving. It feels good to know this game should actually show powerful gains AND the kids seem to enjoy it.

3. Problems encountered?
The only real problem was discovering that the very nice idea of an output code window was not fully or even accurately done. I do not feel that the current code output accurately represents what is going on. Once the game is up and running I will need to go back and fix this.

4. What did you learn this week?
I have not worked with the Java GUI components in a long time so it was a good refresher course on doing things like text boxes, drop down menus, and other basic user interface stuff.

5. What's planned for next week?
I need to find a good way to store the puzzles themselves in the game. I feel it should be possible to store them as a set of moves, convert that to the array and use that for testing if their solution is correct. If this can not be done I will have to hard code in the solutions. That is 41 x41 points of data per puzzle (except where null but most puzzles have few empty spots). I REALLY hope it does not come to that but if it does I will seek the help of my fellow GameCATS.

If my theory of move storing works I should have a few puzzles ready along with a selection system. If not I will get the selection system ready and begin the task of code monkeying.

6. Hours worked
19