totsTV games

This time, I want to talk about some of the free games available on totsTV. This is an Immersive Education course (ImmersiveEducation.org). These games can be played for free on totstv.org, which you can directly go in to here


This game is called "Echogenesis." It seems like an interesting game, because there are five environments which you are entered randomly, and in each environment, there are animals and other figures that you can click on. When clicked, a sound is created that affects the music overall. This game is unique in a sense that it gives the user a complete control and freedom, instead of giving multiple tasks.

These are the examples of its different environments.



The second game is called "Bounceicles." Once the game is initiated, a simple screen is seen with multiple blobs sitting calmly on the ground.



However, once they are clicked, they start to bounce. The blobs can even be dragged with a mouse pointer to move them to different places, causing jumps with respect to the angles it touched other blobs or walls. Notice that their facial expressions change whenever something occurs.


The third game does not have a title. Once the game starts, it displays a hamster, who is ready to rescue his friends from falling to the ground.


The main task of the game is to catch its friends by using the pointer, so they could safely land on the bushes located on the bottom right of the screen. Some of them jump with less power, and in such cases, multiple bouncing is required, meaning that they have to be caught at least twice until it can make it to the bushes.


Players are given 3 lives, and each successful rescue counts for additional score. Once the lives run out, the above screen appears, in which you can retry or exit.

This game is called Alfie's northpole adventure. It has a story line, which can be progressed by clicking on the right object. If it asks for a light, then simply search for a light and click on it. The story will move on and turn to the next scene.

The Coloring Book is very self-explanatory. Once the game loads, users can choose between 8 pictures that are not colored. The task is to color them in anyway one wants to!

Google Sketch

Hello! This time, I want to show you guys how Sketch up works step by step. Again, this is an Immersive Education course at Boston College (ImmersiveEducation.org) and the program can be downloaded for free at sketchup.google.com. It truly is an interesting program, and it really makes 3D imaging easy!


By using the Select tool, I can easily select a window that I created using a rectangle button. The procedure of making a 3D box(Building) is illustrated on the Chair Tutorial located on the bottom of this entry.

After selecting a tool, I could easily copy them by using control+c(copy), and control+v (paste).

Once I created a row, I could select all three of them by dragging the select tool more.

Again, by copy and pasting, I could easily make accurate windows across the entire plane.

By the use of push/pull tool, I can drag on object to another. Interestingly, once the two objects were attached, it stayed that way no matter where I tried drag it. I decided to drag a little bit to the right; the building has become wider.

The paint tool allowed me to color the shapes and 3D figures I created. The database included in the software is excellent; I colored my unit with two different types of bricks and colored the windows with two different types of blinds.

The eraser tool did not erase colored patterns. Instead, it erased the lines that are clicked upon. One useful technique with the eraser tool was to hold the mouse button down and touch upon all the objects that I wanted to erase. Doing so allowed me to erase everything that was highlighted with a single click.

With line tool, I could connect multiple lins to form figures.

With a circle tool, I could make a circle of any size. Also, by typing the desired number of sides in #s format (ex: 5 sides = "5s"), I could form pentagons, hexagons, octagons, and many more.

Similarly, the arc tool allowed me to draw an arc that connected the two ends of perpendicular lines, as seen from the screen shot. The fan shape is created by using the line tool to create two lines meeting at one end in 90 degrees, than using the arc tool to connect the other two ends of the lines.

The drawing tool that gives the most freedom is the freehand tool. It allows the user to draw any shape using the mouse.

Not to mention the 3D text tool, which allowed me to type in any letters to form 3D texts. I decided to engrave my name to the building, and it worked without a problem.

Lastly, the section tool allowed me to cut my creation in half. Using this tool reminded me of the old days when girls used to play on a barbie doll houses. Just a random thought.

Now, I want to show you guys a simple procedure of how to make a chair.

It starts like something basic as simple as a box.

Interestingly, you can actually pull up the box and make it into a 3D box with the pulling tool!


Using the rotating tool, you can easily get an easy view to work with the legs, and the same procedure can be taken. I just had to draw the lines on the box, and carve them in using the pulling tool.



Once everything is carved up, there we go! We have a beautiful chair! The key is to line everything up and drawing the right lines to carve in.

Just like other drawing tools, you can color the chair with a variety of selections included in Google Sketch.

Shelter and Mars Rover Finalized...

Unfortunately, the use of Rocket World has come to an end (at least for now). It seems like we are moving towards the program called Google Sketch. However, I would like to post detailed screen shots of what I was able to create during the past two weeks. Also, I want to make sure that this is a part of Immersive Education course at Boston College (http://ImmersiveEducation.org) and that what I created is meant for Rocket World (http://mediagrid.org/news/2009-09_RocketWorld.html)



Here is a general view of my house with a space ship. There has not been a major update on the house itself other than fixing up the wall measurements.



The view seen from the window(upper floor) is beautiful. I built the shelter near the beach, so I think building this shelter into a beach house would be interesting.



This is the first room. It includes the stairs to get to the upper floor and a door leading to another room.



And here it is! This is the master bed room. The key point about this room is the high ceiling, because the second floor only consumes half of the house; the other half of the upper floor is actually included in this master bed room as a high ceiling unit.


Of course, there has been minor fixes on the Mars Rover as well.


As you can see, the wheels have been engraved with orange details.


Not to mention the rockets on the back for extra speed. It would have been better If I used more complex skin on its wings, but I decided finish the project with playing around with the included textures from the Rocket World Library.

So that's it for now folks! Please come visit this blog again for an updated information!

HW #1 Part 2: Mars Rover

Here is another screen shot of my work. This one is actually a Mars Rover, and it still isn't final;

it will look a lot better by next Sunday.

HW #1: Building a shelter

Here is a screen shot of the shelter I built.

It is a two-floor brick building with 1 bedroom and a living room.

The hardest part was putting a window, but I guess it all worked out.