Status Report #24

     DragCore is approaching completion and Mach-Arena is looking like a real game. I also figured out why comments weren't appearing on the site and made it so posts show up immediately. Check out this week's status report!

Statistics Survey: Are Students Passionate About Their Career Choices?

     For my statistics class I needed to make up a survey to ask a random sample of 100+ students at my college. I decided to survey students on a topic I'm genuinely curious about, I want to know just how many people are looking forward to a bright future. Not just a successful or stable one, but a happy one in terms of a career. I've talked to so very few people who know what they want in life and started chasing their dream.

     From what I've heard from an overwhelming majority, most people don't know what they want to do or who they want to be. Most of my friends just want to find the easiest high paying job possible or just get by doing something loosely related to what they like. People from other majors that I've been grouped with in classes have a general attitude of not knowing what they want or they feel pressure from their parents and society to reach some kind of rank and "be somebody".

     I believe that this problem stems from what kids are told to think while growing up. The whole idea of "You can be anything you when you grow up!" as long as you choose to be a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, fireman, athlete, or the president. But what happens when you fall short of those expectations? Why are people trained in school to become great employees while just barely even considering becoming their own bosses? School takes an entire generation and makes us compete, despite individual strengths and weaknesses up until college where the curriculum is suddenly more individualized. How are the kids supposed to make up their minds so suddenly? Why do parents think that once someone is 18 or 21 they suddenly have their life planned out in detail and have 30 plus years of life experience?

     It's a big mess that I could write a fifteen page paper about but this probably isn't the place for that. I'm going to conduct a survey as my class project and find out what the overall opinion is on feelings toward school and find out how students fell about themselves and their futures. It will give me better understanding of my peers and probably change the way I see them. Below are the things I'm trying to answer for my report.

Research Questions:
1. How passionate are students about their current career choice?
2. Do students believe that a formal education is absolutely necessary for their careers?
3. What is the primary motivation for attending school: talent development, parental guidance, social pressure, or job requirements?
4. What motivates students most about their careers: money, fun, purpose, or social standing?

DragCore Almost Done

    DragCore is ridiculously close to being finished. Literally just two more things to do. I need to fix bugs I'm having with Game Center/Google Play Services and script the sound effects and background music I found. I even have the app stores setup and awaiting the game's final build.

     Today I want to script all the sound effects and music. Once they're in I can tweak them until the game sounds just right. I have all public domain audio including 4 alternating background tracks. Getting audio to work is something I've done before though. Making Game Center features work is new. The game keeps crashing whenever I do anything leaderboard/achievement related so I need to work on that annoyance next. Getting this stuff down with DragCore will make programming it into my future games much easier.

     I keep promising myself I'll be done with this game by Monday at the latest. Then it's just a matter of sending review requests again.

Gushing About: Yoshi's Story

     Yoshi's Story was the first game I've ever played. It was incredible. It made me into who I am today by introducing me to a new form of entertainment. Video games became my favorite thing to do. Video game characters became the ones I cared about most. Drawing pictures of video game characters led to me making comics about them to share with my classmates. That triggered the creative drive fueling my fiery passion that burns today. Today, I'm gushing about the game that started it all. Here is Yoshi's Story.