Finished Board

Here is a picture of my final board layout.

There are now stepping stones with the dice above it, allowing the children to roll the dice at any point in the game and the game continuing. 

The corresponding letters of the alphabet then appear in the gap, with a start and a stop button for the sounds to be heard. 

I have also added in a home button at the top which allows the user to return to the home page at any point within the game. 

Reflection on final project

Overall, I have enjoyed the whole experience of making something I haven't done before.

This was all completely new to me and therefore I had a bit of trouble with the coding however I got there in the end and managed to get everything working. The project isn't up to a standard i'd like it to be however I am pleased with what I have managed to achieve in the time I was given, bearing in mind I also had other assignments which needed to be handed in around the same time.

I would have changed a few things given the chance I could have had more time, however with the time I had I worked hard and produced what I could.

What would I have liked to achieve?

If I had more time on this project and no Easter break I would have liked to have an animation which moves the character from the box they are on to the amount the have rolled on the dice. I feel this would have finished the project off rather than having it just jump from box to box.

Also I would have liked to make it more complex, so I would have stuck to some of the ideas from my original concept and had different subjects for the children to learn, for example had maths and the child would have to work out the correct answer to the sum before they were able to move forward.
I also wanted to have the option for the children to be able to click and drag the correct answers in to the correct places which would have been a little more complex, however due to little time and also I haven't really learnt how to do such complex things I was unable to complete the project to the standard I had originally intended it to be.

This has tested my abilities and taught me a few new things along the way which will help me next year in my final year. I am now able to see what I need to learn and how they can be learnt and use this to my advantage when completing projects in my final year.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the project

Here is a reflection of the strengths and weaknesses of my project:

Strengths:
- I knew exactly what I wanted to do and therefore I had my head focused from the start.
- I was willing to learn new things which helped out as I had to learn new coding and I feel if i wasn't in the right frame of mind in the first place I wouldn't have been able to.
- I made sure if I lost out on any time with the project I would make it up as soon as I could in order to get the project complete on time.



Weaknesses:
- I didn't know how to do some of the code so it through me back until I was able to get the code working properly.
- I changed the layout a few times to make sure it looked appealing to the children.
- It took me a while to figure out how to get the sound working as everything I tried didn't work properly and therefore that set me back a bit.

Inspiration from Charlie and Lola

I have been searching children's programmes and I have had some inspiration from Charlie and Lola.
The way Lauren Child uses fabric and wallpaper to bring life to her characters is very fun and works really well. I also saw that although most of it is all cartoon she also uses real life pictures.

http://www.ultimateeditiondvd.com/product_images/uploaded_images/Charlie-and-Lola-picture1.jpg

http://www.charlieandlola.com/win/assets/graphics/picLolaBounce.gif

I have taken this inspiration and have used this in my game. When the letters of the alphabet come up I have decided to use proper images to represent the words that go with the letters of the alphabet. I feel this brings things to life and children will be able to recognise them when they see them in their everyday lives.

Update

I have decided to change the board again, I felt the path didn't look so much like a path so I decided to change it to look more like stepping stones. I feel this works really well.

I have also changed how the alphabet appears. When the user lands on a letter, it will appear in the corner with the board and dice still visible so that they can continue with the game whenever they want and its simple and easy for the younger children to navigate through.

Work

Again, this is a screenshot of what my contents page looks like.
I really like the colours and I feel the whole colour scheme for the project works really well.