A Series of Paddles...

Hello. My name is Casey O'Donnell. I'm an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media ("TISM") department. I'm part of MSU's Game Design and Development Specialization. This will be my first Machinis Ludo Game Jam and want to thank Morgan for including me. I was at one time quite active with G3D when Mac people were less common (or when knowledge of PPC assembly was helpful), but I mostly lurk there now. I'm diving in to this MLGJ because I'm interested in codeheart.js. I'm teaching an HTML5/CSS/Javascript class this fall and want to see how it might fit into that.

I'm a big fan of providing my students with the basic skeletons of "clones" that they will recognize as a way to encourage them to delve into the code of others. When they know (or at least recognize) how a game ought to function, they have a leg up in understanding the implementation. It's also a chance to expose undergrads to games they've perhaps heard of but not played.

I'm going to be super boring. My goal is to clone as many Atari-like games as possible, likely starting with a multi-touch based Pong-clone or Breakout-clone. The advantage is that I already have great samples to work from, so that simplifies things. My plan will be to move through as many Atari-like games as I can (Berzerk is high on the list), but once you've got paddles, you can clone a lot quickly. I'm going to combine my efforts and work with Ejecta to see how codeheart.js works in that context.

I'll be on the "professional" track, but seriously doubt that Sunday can be pried from the clutches of my wife and kids. So you'll see me largely Monday through Wednesday. If it's not breaking too many rules, I'll distribute those four hours from Sunday across Monday through Wednesday.

Now I just have to fight the urge to play with codeheart.js right now...