Brian’s blog

Once again there has been a lack of posting on my part.  I have been running a couple user surveys and have been getting quite strong feedback from those surveyed.  This information will be available on my second minisite (due tomorrow).  This user evaluation led to a few changes which will be also touched upon in my 2nd minisite.

Well sorry I haven’t posted lately.. A lot of things have been going on in my life, my immediate family moved back to the USA permanently which sucks and I broke my elbow skateboarding!  aside from that life is good and im going to the gold coast for mid semester break!  Well on the iPhone front I have been piecing together possible questions for a new questionnaire which I will be passing around to my friends to further user test my product.  Hopefully all is well, I was pretty pleased with my website and hopefully it properly encapsulates what I want to do with my idea..I wish I could do some of that flash I saw on other peoples websites, twas cool.

Adieus

Just on Suna’s comment;

I definately think thats a great idea with the ratings. Especially Allowing users to rate each other based upon their uploads, just like an ebay seller has with their ‘feedback’ system. This would enhance and obviously mediate what is available for download. I think a rewards system would also be good; the more quality beat files you upload, and thus the higher rating you get by your peers, the more credits you receive to download free ‘reward’ songs on itunes.

I was also thinking of assigning each player a rating based on their cumulative scores gained through game play, allowing there to be some sort of ladder system.  Leaders of this ladder would then be awarded different prizes.

so in essence;

• Rating system for user-uploaded content
  • Higher individual users rating; more reward content available
• Ladder rating system relating to a players cumulative score
  • Weekly/Monthly/Yearly prizes for different categories

Well, haven’t posted in ages..not really sure what I should write. The presentation went alright I s’pose. To Kaz’s comment, yeah I had thought of guitar hero..but I figured, if that was such a huge hit on its respective consoles, why wouldnt my program be wildly popular on the iPhone? I think the one thing that will set my program apart from others is the fact you can create your own beat files and share them online. I was thinking though, there has to be some sort of verification process to make sure peolpe don’t spam ridiculously hard beats onto the master ‘download’ server; I think it is necessary to ‘verify’ the beat file created by the user…I think it will be necessary for the creator of the beat file to play back his created beat once again through to verify it is playable.

I have also been toying around with some user interfaces which I am thinking of putting on some cards to emulate the game experience…more to come…after I finish my 3d modelling assignment…anyone else find it riduclously hard to crack maya!?

p.s. add me on Steam if you play CS:S (I play a buttload) my acct is brianpurcell555

I was thinking about my idea today trying to expand on it, or even change it, a couple things came to mind;

1. With my interface I will split the screen in half to separate beats played by each thumb.
2. Default songs (like in DDR) will be added to make it more fun to tap out beats; songs would be played out of earphones.
   1. All songs will have adjustable tempos (slow, normal, fast)
   2. Additional songs with on screen default ‘beat’ accompaniment will be available over iTunes.
   3. Users can upload their own beats to their own music tracks which can be shared over the internet.  (the beat accompanying file not the song!)
   4. To play with a music accompaniment is optional.
      1. A user can still play with or without a metronome, or with the default beats.
3. To enhance the users visual experience, when the touchscreen is touched different effects are produced.
   1. Ripple  effects
   2. Fractal effects
   3. etc..

Anyway, off to do my 10-15 page assignment…

Well, I guess I have had my first idea. Honestly, I do not think it’s that great, but it’s a start. In my opinion, to make a good application I will have to utilise some (obviously preferably all) of the iPhone’s distinct feature(s) notably that of the touchscreen.

My idea was to create a game, similar to DDR (dance dance revolution), that displays beats which are in turn mimicked by the users fingers via the touchscreen - the ‘in time’ correct beats, the higher the score.   In order to increase interactivity, along with the bundled default beats, my application will also have ‘recording’ and ’sharing’ features.  The recording feature would play a customisable metronome which the user taps out his own beats in time to. This recorded sequence is then saved and made available on an internet database for other users to mimic, rate, and have high-scores displayed.

What do you reckon?  It’s very hard to articulate over the net…

 Figuring out how to embed videos and post photos.  Check out it;

Hey yeah I’ve just modified the first post.  Just checking out the posting features.  Yeah, link to me and stuff.

-brian