gamekits: game-making toolkits

ok, so i m looking into wordpress api’s that we could hopefulys take in budypress. So apparently there ’s alot going on & here are my links for the day

1)SHOWACASE

http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API

and http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

2)MASHUP WITH GOOGLE APIS ( GOOGLE CALENDAR, GOOGLE MAPS  )

http://myrv20.com/

the code : http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-geo-mashup/

3)MY PICKS

Community Cloud Plugin
This plugin searches your wordpress database and displays a ‘tag cloud’ of all the people in your community who have contributed to our blog by commenting and rating

…looks like there is a window to develop this into the currency  [ automated from commenting ]

take a poll

you can take a look at this site (scroll down), this could work for awarding badges, or the text adventure

FLEX ( go springraph !! )

here : http://www.unstructure.org/

if this can happen > then the virtual amenoid can happen [through flex!]

4) more web aplications here :  http://www.webappers.com/

5) AND some limited fun with look and feel http://patterntap.com

NO BOBBA
http://www.habbo.com/groups/97348/id
http://www.habbo.com/articles/781-lets-talk-about-bobba
http://www.habbo.com/articles/780-safety-crossword-puzzle

RITUALS in NO bobba
every Friday
on FRIDAY there will be a quiz where you can enter all FOUR Safety Slogans from the week. We will pick 10 correct answers at random and those lucky Habbos will win a Party Furni pack and the Fig Leaf Shield Badge!

FREE vs  PAYING
Ok, so Habbo is expensive. I had to buy 25 coins ( =5$) today in order to make a group and buy furni that i could then trade. I have spend it all without doing anything too amazing.

PRIVACY
You can make rooms :
open
locked ( visitors have to ring a bell)
password protected

You can also make groups private
groups DO NOT CONNECT to ROOMS though.
they connect to discussion forums

HABBO CATALOGUE
This is what you can buy:
FURNI
dinner
mode()
iced(thats pretty big in habbo)
lodge
pura (?)
bathroom
spaces
windows
accessories
rollers
posters and flags
trophies
teleports( useful to make our network)
rugs
plants
collectibles
items cost from 3-6 coins each ( 25 coins= 5 dollars )

PETS
interactive, you have to take care of them
you can only put it down in one of your rooms
there can be three pets in each room
the basket is your pets home, if you pick it up the pet will go back in your hand
every time you visit this page you will go back to a different selection of pets.
your pet will sleep more when it gets old
you cannot trade your pet
expensive, cost 22 coins

TRAX
You can make your own music and export it
Jukebox, is the track player
tunes that are ready made
ambient
dance
rock
sfx
urban
traxmachine: 22coins

CURRENCY
I have talked about this again so i ll keep it short.  You get Coins by purchasing. You get pixels by doing things in the world, such as winning a game, logging in etc. You can use coins to by furni, you can change your habbo coins into tradeable coins. then you are able to use coins in a trade for furni. Pixels you can use for renting stuff and for special effects.

ECOTRON:
Get rid of old furniture,  you must own  a piece of furni 336 hours before they can be recycled.

ROOMS BY MEMBERS vs PUBLIC SPACES
ROOMS=weird weird stuff- random events not so good
met a mum of two-us recruit army guy???-7th grader gamer kid
PUBLIC SPACES= much better, met a no bobba guide too. He made me fill in a crossword :/

HABBOS LIKE

most popular tags for users profile
* bluE* cool* dogs* football* friends* guides* guiding* habbo* habbo guides * happy*  love* music* pink * pizza* rock* sexy* simpsons* summer* twilight

HABBO FAN SITE
http://www.habbolot.net/V7/

RULES
You should not:
* Tell your password to a Habbo, friend, staff member or stranger.
* Tell anyone personal information which could be used to locate you or other people in real life.
* Abuse, harass or bully other Habbos.
* Use hate speech or make rude comments about a Habbo’s race, religion, gender or sexuality.
* Use any programs to hack, script or edit Habbo in any way.
* Own, sell or run replica Habbo Hotels (retros).
* Steal from or trick Habbos into giving you their passwords, Habbo Credits or furniture.
* Discuss or take part in sexual acts with other Habbos.
* Act out or roleplay violent acts, even as a joke.
* Give away, trade or sell your Habbo account.
* Break the law or talk others into breaking the law.

If you see anyone breaking the rules, please Call for Help so that a Moderator can take action.

You should:
* Have fun!
* Hang out with your friends
* Make new friends
* Respect other people’s opinions and beliefs

i discovered buddypress ! which is linked to wordpress!! which is awesome and i will make updates soon.

I will also talk about tumblr…

So, here i am , talking about Buddypress which has me getting excited. Here are some key features

Buddypress

LIST OF FEATURES
Activity : RSS
Profile
Blogs ( Journal – portfolio space )
Wire ( wire posts are within the SSN, sthg like the Wall in FB)
Messages
Friends
Groups
Settings (something that should be taken out)

not yet available at the demo but will be available soon
Status Updates
Albums
Private Messaging
extended profiles

Also from the buzz going on in the forums Buddypress supports
supporting widgets
media Wiki
PHP my Admin

NOTES

Made by Automattic- Mathew Mullneweg, funding of  $29.5 million by Ny times and others

Buddypress is basically a wordpress MU,multi-user version of WordPress, the popular blog/cms tool. The aim of WPMU is to allow for one installation to spawn multiple WordPress blog instances. Basically, you can install WPMU on your server and run as many individual WordPress instances as your box can handle.

It has an excellent plugin API, as well as a whole host of quality pre-built plugins ready to download and activate. Plugins were built and used for private messaging, advanced profile management, online polls, photo management, multi-blog search and user credential management. ( this is not yet available at the demo) As each one is a separate plugin, there is no reason why site admins can’t pick and choose which components they want and don’t want. There is also no reason why additional components couldn’t be written, or other existing WordPress plugins be used alongside

Following our idea of creating a journal for the students, a member home page includes a users own personal profile front and center, their own personal “journal” as a feature of their home page, as well as private messaging functionality. That could be very useful for the mentor as well as hotline api’s in the Wellness Domain.

Moreover, on the visual part of it . ‘The theme has been designed so that colors and the logo can easily be changed. It has also been created to make use of every BuddyPress feature, theme designers can then cut and paste functionality they’d like in their own themes.’

Finally what is great is the limited credentials that allow us PRIVACY and full control : we can limit the administration functionality that a member has on their own blog. This stops them from signing up new users, deleting content they shouldn’t be, or changing the theme of their member page. I created a simple plugin that disabled the menus for these settings in the WordPress admin interface. The pages could only be accessed by site-wide administrators if needed.

HOW IT LOOKS WITH FULL FEATURES : http://apeatling.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/new-buddypress-theme/

check also Andy Peatling’s blog, and the site he has build with buddypress : http://chickspeak.com/mypage

Being Me Key Features

In the paragraphs below, outlines will be provided in relation to the Being Me economy and also for specific components within the system such the being me inventory, the studio and the expertise exchange.

Being Me Currency

The being me currency is called nom [placeholder for better name/ i.e. genius/genie/ ?]. Each student starts with a specific amount of noms in his/her account that he can use to ‘buy’ lab time in the game school, or help from a mentor in the expertise markets. Students can also unlock features in their avatar inventory or studio gallery. Students obtain noms by uploading content in their studio space, by visiting other studios and also by providing with feedback their peers and initiating collaborations in the expertise space. Finally, in-class competitions framed as missions could be run monthly. Those may be rewarded with noms distributed analogously to the students depending on their ranking. For example students in a game design class have build a game in a level editor. After designing their levels, students play them in class and fill in evaluations for their peers. Depending on these evaluations, each student gets an amount of num awarded at the end of the class by the teacher.

Being Me Inventory

In the beginning of the 6th grade, students sign up in Being Me and create an account. They start by customizing their avatar through a selection of features. When students first sign up for an account, they can only select from the apprentice features. These features are also divided in subcategories such as Writer, Scientist, Game Designer, Painter, Athlete but also Researcher, Project Leader ,Presenter. As children progress in the Being Me space they can create many avatars each one representing their learning identity at that point. These avatars are stored in the Being Me Inventory and can be selected to be displayed in the main avatar window depending on what the student is focusing within the curriculum in a given time.

So for example, on a students profile page, his Being me avatar could be Master Mathematician because today he is focusing on fulfilling quests that are related to Maths. Next to his profile picture is a status bar that provides (similar to Twitter or Facebook) the students current status. So for example: master mathematician Nick is: lol. Also the features in the avatar inventory are updated with new objects that could be unlocked with Nom Currency. Finally, teachers can also have a Being Me page.

Studio

The Studio is the Game Schools virtual world space. Here students can create rooms to display and store media and other digital materials developed during assessments within the curriculum. When students first log in their account a set of pre existing rooms can be found. These rooms are empty and represent different courses in the curriculum. So for example there is the Science Lab, were students post their physics or math related work. In addition to the above, students can create their own rooms. They can also modify their rooms by making use of Nom Currency.

The studio rooms can also host visitors. These are other students or teachers that post recommendations or give feedback to the projects that the student is working on. The information collected by the visitor’s input can also be chosen to be displayed publicly or be kept in private between the visitor and the host student.

Expertise exchange garden

In relevance to the above, the expertise exchange space can be thought as a big common area that connects each students in a studio space in order to promote collaboration and cross interaction. The space promotes the power of collaboration as well as the idea that as students possess both expertise and weaknesses. In that realm the following options appear in the exchange garden. Firstly there is a display of your skills as displayed in your Being Me Inventory. So for example those could be Master Mathematician, Master Character Designer, Senior Project Manager and Apprentice Inventor. Next to this option another one is displayed with Weird skills that can be added through text and don’t appear in the Being Me inventory. Those could be: basketball player or cook or book collector. Analogously to the above there is the Who do I need option. There students post what skills they need in their team or for their project. So for example a student could need computer assistance, or a master in game design. Additionally a What do my friends have appears and also groups of experts that a child can address for help. In relevance to the above a current teams space declares the pending and also fulfilled collaborations. Finally there is the buy expertise option were children can use Being Me Currency to get advice on a topic from mentors within the school. All the above options are displayed as trees that grow through collaboration in the expertise exchange garden.