Looking for somebody to complete a game for me + future work

Hi,

I am working on a game for chemistry education - the game involves selecting four of sixteen displayed squares. Each square displays either a:

(i) chemical structure

(ii) chemical formula

(iii) chemical name

(iv) functional group name (e.g. ketone, aldehyde, alcohol, and so on).

For each functional group (alcohol, ether, ketone, aldehyde, etc) the player needs to match the chemical's structure, with the formula, with the name, with the functional group name. You do not need to know any chemistry to help out with this. I have already built the part of the game that requires chemical knowledge.

What I DO need, though, is:

(i) A highscore table that shows the player's current, and past high scores, as well as ALL the other players high scores. (This is intended to be a game that is accessible via the Internet - any site will do, I can host one at any URL if need be and I already have a paid Wordpress account including a Namecheap domain name that I might use to host the game).

This is an educational game, so players will need to enter their University ID after they have played their first game - the idea is, that this would transfer the player's University ID (or whatever name they type in) to a high score, and the high score table would be visible to all players.

I tried to include something like this myself but it just did not work, unfortunately.

On completion of the high score table, with confirmation that it works, I will $25 dollars.

(ii) I also need Google Analytics integration: we intend to use this game for research, especially to collect user data (so we need to know things like: (a) how long players play the game for (b) how long does it take users to complete the game, on average (c) how long does each player spend, on average, on each level (d) are some levels requiring more time than others? (e) do some players abandon the game without finishing it - if so, what proportion ? Stuff like that would be really helpful.

(If you can think of a different way to gather data than Google Analytics/a different analytics tool or some other method please just go with that or let me know and we can talk about it).

Once the Analytics is done I'll pay another $ 25 dollars.

(iii) When the player presses a 'pause' button, they should be able to access a menu, from which they should be able to either 'quit', 'restart', 'go to the high score table'. They should be able to also 'return to the game' which would effectively be the same as 'unpause'.

(iv) A 'how to use'/'help' feature on the start menu, basically a button that players click to take them to a new layout (or that shows a new layer) that describes how the game works.

(v) Very importantly, I need the game to resize properly on the following devices: iPads, iPhones, Android Tablets (e.g. Samsung Galaxy), Android phones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S4) and computers, either desktop or laptop. The game relies on the display of cards/squares, since it is in effect, a 'match game', and so it really needs to resize properly from one screen to the next.

It doesn't have to look perfect on ALL screens but if we can get it to look mostly the same on iPad, iPhones, and laptops, that'd be, I think, enough.

(vi) Finally, I need some overall trimming down/cutting back on my verbose event sheets. I have the tendency to overcomplicate things - right now I probably have too many events for the game to run smoothly. So I just need someone to go through and remove unused global variables, unused instance variables, unused or overly complex code - without damaging the functionality of the game itself.

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For this I am offering $ 80, and I will pay $25 of this on completion of the multiplayer table, and $ 25 dollars on completion of the Google Analytics stuff, and then the remaining $30 dollars for the rest. If you want to do it in a different order that is fine too.

The quicker you can do this, the more I'll pay - if you can get it done inside of 7 days I'll pay $90.

If it is completed by this Friday (Oct 2nd, say, midnight AEST (Sydney time)), and uploaded to a website so I can see how it works (and if you guide me as to how I can upload it to a website on or by Friday) than I'll pay $ 100. I'm flexible on this though, i.e. if you get it done 5 minutes after Friday midnight AEST than I will still pay the $100.

If you think you want to do this, but can't get it done inside of 7 days, please let me know how long it would, realistically, take you, and when you could have this completed by.

Again, you do not need to know any chemistry to use this game or to complete this work, but if you want to talk to me please send me an email at . I will be checking my email routinely over the next 24 hours. I am located in Australia so organising a Skype call may be difficult but I am willing to try or we can communicate via email. You can also post a response here, which I will check routinely over the next 24 hours as well.

Once we've worked out a deal, I'll send you the CAPX that I've been working on, and you'll see what I've got so far.

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I also have a number of future games that I need developed that I would be willing to pay higher prices (between 200 and 250 dollars, potentially). So if you can do a good job on this, I can guarantee you, there will be more work to come, and very soon (within 2 weeks or less).

Warmest regards,

Peter

Hey Peter,

I don't think Google analytics works well (if at all) when you export as a app. (Should work on a website)

University ID, is this just a "Enter your name so everyone knows you won" type of setup? or will it need to confirm that this is their ID?

Last thing... Are you having problems with it resizing weird on those devices?

I would be interested in working with you.

Justin

Hi Justin,

Thanks very much for the rapid reply. Re: Google Analytics - I'm not sure how it works at all. Is there any way, if I have the game accessible on a website, that I'd be able to obtain user data of the type I mentioned in my previous post ? (Like, the average time spent per user, per game, or the total number of users who have accessed the game in a particular period of time, or which levels the users spend most time on, and the other metrics I mentioned in my earlier post).

If we do this without Google Analytics, by some other method, that is fine too. But the basis of this software tool is for a research project: basically, we want to find out how students use the game, what levels are trickier, what levels are easier, are they willing to use such a tool instead of in-textbook problems, etc. Then we'd write a paper based on that.

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With respect to the University ID, yep, it is just a "enter your name so everyone knows you won" type setup. It will not need to confirm that this is their ID - we could just have a message that says "enter your SOLs username [University ID]" and hopefully this will encourage students to enter that, instead of anything else.

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As for resizing: I've actually not had too many problems with resizing on iPads, but I haven't tested it on iPhones. It will probably be too small for iPhones - if we can get it to display on laptop screens and on iPads, that'd be the best thing.

My biggest worry is that when we run the game on a larger screen (say, the computers at my University/desktop computers that students might have at home) the elements/sprites will appear strangely or worse yet, will not appear at all. Or will be bunched up. I have not had this problem so far - except when zooming in/out using Google Chrome. That is when things tend to bunch up - but that makes sense.

Finally, I want to have each layout appear the same size. Right now, the rudimentary high score screen I've got does not appear as the same size as the opening screen.

PS: I should add, I have developed a 'start screen' graphic/background, but if you can include a loading screen with a certain logo on it (I'll send you the logo image, it will be the UOW - University of Wollongong - logo) and if you can include a starting screen with buttons that basically say "Start game" or "quit game" or "view high scores", and if you can add some very simple sounds (i.e. "play a sound when the student gets a match", "play a different sound when the student selects four squares that do not match", "play a sound when the student finishes a level", "play a sound for each button" and "play a sound when the student opens/closes the menu", - including the ability to turn sounds on and off, I'd pay another $25 for that.)

I have already drawn up a sound on/sound off sprite, so the only work there would be getting the sounds themselves.

The thing about this is, I am not a programmer, I'm a researcher, and trying to make these programs is, for me, very strenous. I need to start writing papers for publication, but all my time is going into trying to make the program. It would be really helpful to have someone to finish it off - and in my estimation it is quite close to being finished - while including those features I've mentioned. Particularly the high scores, the data gathering, the menu, and the loading and start screens.

If you are keen to work on this, definitely let me know here on the boards or email me at . I'll send you the CAPX file - just ignore the messy notes (I make lots of notes to myself).

Originally I wanted to have an 'easy' mode and a 'hard' mode - but we can talk about maybe including that at a later time. Right now I just want to be able to distribute it to students, obtain data/high scores, and have it generally polished and presentable. It would be helpful, too, if the code was streamlined or if you could see any variables that needed removing and so on, as I mentioned in the first post, because that way I might be able to modify it myself later on if need be.

Anyway if that sounds fair to you, just email me at (I am a med student at Deakin but a Masters in chemistry at UOW, this is for my Masters in chemistry research). My UOW email is playing up at the moment. I'll email you the CAPX, and then you can let me know how long you think it'll take, all up, and which parts you'd like to work on first, and in what order, etc.

Thanks alot,

Peter

Sent you a email.

Hi Justin, I've sent you an email back. Let me know if you want to go ahead and I'll email the CAPX file through as it is right now.

I've completed, in part, the 'how to play' layer, so don't worry about that (if can just make a button from the in-game menu, and from the main screen/start screen to the 'how to play' layer, that would be great).

As I said in my email, when making the loading screen, starting screen, high scores table and in-game menu, you can either use the details I've given in my email or you can design them in a way that you feel is best.

If you can make the button styles consistent with the buttons I've already built that would be good - or if you want to redraw/remake any existing buttons, that'd be good too. I'm just looking for a consistent visual style, that's all. Having said that, if you'd rather keep some buttons as they are, and make your own buttons in your own style, that is 100 percent fine as well. Whatever approach you wanna take, stylistically and in terms of navigation, is totally fine with me.

I mention the co-authorship stuff in my email: since I'm writing a paper about this, I personally feel that anybody who contributes significantly to a research project or a body of work about which a research paper is written, deserves a co-authorship on a paper. All you have to do is read the paper, which I'll send once it is written, and if you want to make any changes, you can do that too. If you're not interested in having your name on an academic paper or you'd rather not have the paper co-authorship, not a worry in any way either. But I'll talk to you about that later.

After this project is complete, I'll talk to you about the next game I'd like to develop: the next one will be from scratch and a bit different, but obviously I'll pay you more for that. We can talk about that after this project is complete.

Thanks again,

Peter