I was a bit slow out of the gate getting this post up, but I’ve been thinking all week about how to tackle the final project.  I took a databases class a couple of years ago that focused on web development, so I figured it would be fun to take some concepts I learned in that class and apply them to my blog.  Namely, I want to make a game.  For the final project in my databases class, I worked with a group of three students to create a very questionable browser game.  In many ways it was an extremely basic version of Pokemon, but featured monsters instead of cute animals.  It worked by displaying static images instead of animations.  This made writing the code for it very simple.  What I’ve done so far is upload the files for that project to a new subdomain for my site, pokefun.flickhuck4lyfe.info.  It is pronounced “pokay fun.”  Not to be confused with “poke fun.”  Poking fun may in fact happen, but that is not what the name is getting at.  This is what the uploaded files look like:

It is important to note that I am not simply reusing a project from a previous class.  The game as it currently stands is ridiculously basic.  I can’t stress that enough.  It is essentially unplayable.  I will be working on improving it for the rest of the semester.  I would show some screenshots, but it requires MongoDB, a NoSQL database system.  I don’t have MongoDB on my computer, and I don’t plan on getting it.  It works well, but I don’t know how to use it with my site.  As such, I will be converting the game files so that they use MySQL instead.  This will be very easy to support using the resources listed under cpanel.  Furthermore, this will make it so that I am recycling even less, and creating more from scratch.

The database will be used to store user information, monster information, location data (i.e. game locations), and links to images.  I can store these locally or on a site like Flickr (I hope).  The way the game currently works is as follows:

1) You register/log in

2) You select a location from a list (images are displayed next to names), and are directed to a separate page for that location

3) You encounter random monsters at that location, in a manner that is similar to Pokemon

4) When a monster is encountered, you can choose to fight or flee.  Fight outcomes are based on user stats and an element of randomness.  Critical hits may occur.  You can also die really easily.  If you win, you gain experience.

That’s pretty much it so far.  You just battle monsters in different places.  There is a lot of room for it to grow, to say the least.  Hopefully by next week I’ll have updated the code to use MySQL instead of MongoDB so that people can start playing!