Zak Singh

Google 20 Blog

10/2/15: Google 20 is a project we are doing every Friday in order to build skills in subjects we are not covering in the Computer Programming course. Our ultimate goal for the project is to both make a cool game and learn a lot while doing it. We hope to make a gladiator type of game in which 2 players have to fight eachother in an arena, and as you win you gain money which can be used to buy new armor and weapons. If we manage to complete that, we will expand it to building a word around it in which you can perform different scripted tasks like eating, drinking, etc. We chose this project because we both used to play roblox games when we were younger but never actually ventured into making them. I want to learn how to program in lua and even make animations if possible. However, it won't be easy getting to that point. We will need to learn lua as well as understand how to use the Roblox Studio, the development app that allows you both to build a world and program it. We need to learn this so we can use the application more efficiently. It will also allow us to expand into more advanced aspects of our game that we hope to make. We will learn how to do all this via the official wiki, which has in depth guides on lua and also general information on the engine. I think the hardest part will definitely be learning lua as we both have no experience in it. However, there is a wealth of information about it easily available, so we should still be able to manage it. Building the arena will be much easier as the leven building process is very streamlined.

10/9/15: Today we spent half an hour trying to get around the school districts firewall on the site we need to use for our google 20. However, even translating the site into azerbanji failed to let us in. We submitted a request to the district but haven't heard back yet. We instead made plans in a google doc for some of our ideas. This weekend we will work on it at home and next week we will hopefully be able to work on it in class.

10/16/15: The website we will be using is still blocked, but I have started working on it at home. So far I have made some of the colosseum features such as pillars. I am still learning how to use the program but I have gotten much more efficient at it.

10/23/15: This week I started working on some of the lua scripting for the arena, which will send two people, who are randomly selected, into it to fight eachother. Once one of them is defeated, the script will announce the name of the person who won and select another two people to be teleported into the arena.

10/30/15: Today we found out that we can't do our previous project at school, but we will continue to work on it at home. This weekend I am planning to finish the script to teleport the two players into the arena. I started on this last week but it is not yet functional. As of now it can teleport somebody to the correct coordinates but it doesn't give them their weapons. Hopefully I can get this working. My partner will work on building the arena that the two players will fight in.

12/4/15: Today I spent the period learning more about lua via their official website. I learned more about how lists and variables work in the language. I also learned about the 'nil' type, which is a placeholder value but also means false if used in a boolean. The main problem I faced, however, was that the tutorial expected you to have extensive experience in Java, and therefore used vocabulary that I didn't understand. It was a slow process, but very informative. This weekend im going to re write the player selection scripts because of all the new knowledge I have. Overall, it was a very productive day.

12/11/15: Today we first worked on trying to get roblox to run, but sadly we could not figure it out. We then planned out more areas of our game and drew them on a whiteboard for future reference. Over the past week I have worked on creating many of the art assets we need, and I also learned a little bit more about the lua syntax. Overall, today wasn't very productive, but we still got some important planning done.