July 19 - July 25
This week, I worked furiously in the lab on my new game. I had come up with several ideas, discussed them with Professor Kelleher, and identified the best one. This summary of the game is pulled from the paper we wrote: "The objective of this game is to clear the garden of weeds while preserving the flowers. There are some flowers in the garden and occasionally weeds appear. The player controls a robot arm with a 2D input with a colored glove, and a reusable dynamite with a beanbag of different color, both being tracked by the webcam. The player grabs the dynamite and drops it on top of a weed. If the dynamite touches a flower, the flower immediately dies. The player pushes a handle to make the dynamite explode. The dynamite decimates the nearest crop. Meanwhile, the plants continue to grow, requiring the player to lift higher when she grabs the dynamite again, in order to avoid making it touch the flowers."
On Tuesday, we went out to a goodbye lunch for me and Adam. It was really nice, and I got a bit sad that I am leaving such a friendly and fun group of people! The day before I left, Professor Kelleher took me to FroYo and we discussed the summer. I told her the aspects of the program that I liked, and my goals. She told me how she got to where she is, and gave me some good pointers.
Though it was really sad to say bye to everyone, I hope that our paper will get accepted so I can see everyone soon!
