Advisors

In School Mentor - Mrs. Frey

- Language and composition teacher at Edison High school
- She will be helping with the plot and dialogue in the game

Essential Learnings:
- Plot development
- Character development
- Social Interaction

Meetings:

1. 9/25/2018

We went over the readability of the game and summarized the plot. We also went over moral dilemmas a child may face. 

2. 11/16/2018

We discussed reasonable dialogue for kids in my target age range (6-11). She told me that I should familiarize myself with books from that age range offered to bring books since her sons were within my target range.

3. 11/19/2018

Mrs. Frey gave me several books (ex: Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, Runaway Ralph, etc) for me to read and familiarize myself with language for my target range.

4. 12/6/2018

We met briefly in order to discuss progress on the project and future updates.

5. 1/15/2019

I gave the script that I had written out so far to Mrs. Frey to read. She offered several suggestions to increase the difficulty of the language and reminded me to put the script through a readability index. Furthermore, she approved of the dialogue choices I had as well as the shortened stories—they sounded natural in the flow of the story. She offered to lend me an Aesop's Fable book for me to decide my third story.

6. 1/16/2019

I met with Mrs. Frey and she gave me the Aesop's Fable book. She pointed out some of the larger vocabulary words within the book and suggested a story with a moral of "Do not tell others how to act unless you can set a good example." The story is a fitting one, as children enjoy telling other children what they know and seeming "smarter" and "right."

7. 2/16/2019

I asked Mrs. Frey to check over my final script. She made several suggestions to reduce the language and get rid of awkward phrasing. She approved of the stories I chose as well as the options I had; they all properly portrayed the meaning of the moral. 

Out Of School Mentor - Sean R Scott

- Game Producer at Nickelodeon and part-time lecturer at Rutgers
- Graduated from Cornell University
- He will be helping with the game development portion of the project

Essential Learnings:
- Game development (including graphics, sound, coding, etc.)

Meetings:

1. 10/26/2018

We went over general concepts of game development, including graphics, sounds, tutorials, and testing. 

2. 12/13/2018

We considered the use of an automatic save system. Mr. Scott offered to reach out to some artists and game developers who can give me tips on spriting.

3. 1/17/2019

I updated Mr. Scott on my progress with the project and we met so that we could get on a video conference call with a Gamemaker expert. However, due to a miscommunication, we were unable to contact him. So, instead, we went over the shortened presentation I made and talked about networking.

4. 1/31/2019

Mr. Scott and I contacted the Gamemaker expert. He suggested I make a design document for my game. A design document would contain all the aspects of my game, such as theme, assets, monetization, etc. He also suggested RPG maker for spriting purposes.