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I'm just about to start working on the examination project for my teaching degree.
My goal is to investigate the usage of computer games/programs in the English-teaching classroom, and if possible design my own pedagogical game.

I think people have had similar projects before. Any thoughts on this? Are you familiar with any ongoing research when it comes to computer-aided teaching? Do you use any programs/games in school? Do they work well, and if they don't, what improvements would you like to see?
What would the ultimate 'edutainment' software look like?

Thoughts and opinions are appreciated

Demo available here:
http://www.andail.com/capricorn.rar

Was all that a dream or did it really happen?

"Half life 2" - Weird name, popular title.

In a pure name-perspective, I think "half life" is very catchy. It's both a physical term and something that could pass as a description of a shortened lifetime. Or something like that. Not weird compared to many other names, anyway.

Some of my favourite game-titles (nevermind the quality of the games per see):

Loom
Fallout
Silent Hill
The Pandora Directive
Gladius
Phantasmagoria

Some examples of bad titles:

Deus Ex (don't know, just don't like it. The latin sounds pretentious)
Planescape: Torment (the words don't read out well together)
Heroes of might and magic (just dorky)
Final Fantasy (extremely corny title)
The longest journey (try to make it just a bit more bittersweet, can you?)

Good AGS-titles:
The Night of the Hermit
Byzantine
Permanent Daylight (nice flow; the dactyl followed by the trochee)
The Trials of Odysseus Kent
The Book of Spells

And far too many bad AGS-titles...(although not at the same time bad games!)

If it's supposed to be a 'serious' game, avoid overly dramatic and pompous titles like those. "Beyond Humanity" just sounds pretentious, not to mention "Almost Gods". If you are gonna deal with big and serious issues, a down-to-earth title could make a nice contrast. Interestingly, many titles which are typically considered successful in terms of attracting an audience and raise expectations, are difficult to interpret, and may require special insight to understand. Many are enigmatic, or downright nonsensical.
I don't think "Future" is very good, as it's way too generic and doesn't awake any real curiousity. Typically, when a title is based on a common lexical item like that, it's warped or altered a bit, just to make people stop and reflect for a bit. 
Compare:
Metal - Metallica
Anime - Animatrix
Future - Futurama

Including too many 'epic'-sounding words will just make it appear corny, and people will take it for some sort of Manga-episode, like "Fist of the North Star".

All right.
DG, stop being provocative. Even when you intend to joke. 
You have perfectly valid arguments, and there's no need to ruin them by sporadically pissing off people just for kicks.

These parent-child relations are never very realistic anyway. Sean Connery played Indy's father, and he's only some ten years older than Harrison Ford.

Yep. The problem is that perfectionists don't do well in AGS-making. Sometimes you need to be able to produce some dozen backgrounds in a month, and then you must lower the standard a notch or two, or you'll sit there with your one and only super-background.

I know, because I've made hundreds and hundreds of backgrounds, I've created super-detailed 1600x600 backgrounds that've taken me two weeks each of hard work to complete, and back in '01-'02 when I worked on Tulle's World (may it rest in peace) I whipped up around 90 backgrounds in half a year, just to release something, get something with my name on out there.

It's always a balance.
Make a one-room game if you don't have enough patience, they can be pretty and professional and be fun to play as well. Just put some work in it, some idea.

I'll try my best! And I'll try to bring Azadeh too, although we can't say anything yet with 100% certainty.
What about Helm and Goldmund?

I can see some of its appeal, with its minimalistic, cute appearance and slightly desolate, almost melancholic environment. I guess the "puzzles" are pretty smart too.

But all the praise it's got made be expect much much more. I collected 6-7 treasures or something, and most of the gameplay so far was just about running around a huge maze and trying to remember how to move in a strategic manner.
I guess I'm not much into the stylistic flash-like kind of games; I prefer games with lots of dialogue and plot and cumbersome inventories

I demand an "Indy in the 70's" photoshop phriday!

It's a nice and fairly original background. You say "it's empty but it's normal", and I don't know what you mean by it; it is indeed very empty and would look much better furnished.
Also consider painting the ceiling. It looks odd that the ceiling is brighter than the lamps; the lamps illuminating a scene should be the brightest object, and unless the ceiling is directly hit by the light, which in this case it isn't, it should actually be even darker than the floor.

Apart from that, it's a very nice start.

Just sketched a bit to give you some ideas. Couldn't find a good photo reference, so I took your pose and experimented a bit with basic shape-drawing and skin-colouring.
The pose in itself is hard to draw, and it'll take plenty of kro-ki classes before you'll get it fairly ok.



* Skin colour is never just one colour
* A shadow is not just a darker version of a colour

I've always thought it appropriate to manage the realism behind figures and bodies before going "arty". You can always get away by saying that you pursued some sort of expressionism, and that there's no need for you to master real skin-tones or shades etc.

Then again, if you want inspiration to create stylistic, expressionistic figures, check out Schiele:


Regards,
your critter's lunch patron

There is, quite frankly, a lot to be done.
At your stage, I think you'd be much better off actually drawing from references. Your figure lacks any sort of natural colours, shading or even shapes.
Pick a good reference photo, start from scratch, sketch out the basic shapes, overlaping lines and shapes, basic shading etc.

When you have a basic sense of these aspects, come back for advise regarding colours! 

Noxis, I understand from your recent threads that you have made this forum your personal troubleshooter.

There are websites and forums around the Internet that actually deal with your problems, and a little browsing on your part would save a lot of time for the rest of us.

Since Limpingfish has already provided the answers, I'm just gonna point this out for future references....please, just check the sites in questions. I'm sure you can find the specifics somewhere on filefront.com, and if that fails, it would be more appropriate to post your query on the wintermute's forum.

I concur. Steve, that was a masterpiece of storytelling.

i would hate to be a Pakistani cricket player returning home right now.

I would hate to be a Pakistani cricket player

Doctor-schmoctor! What's all this nonsense? There's nothing a doctor can do that gen-gen can't do better!

[Song:]

Many great artists and songs so far. Keep 'em coming!

Song: Thick as a brick, by Jethro Tull. (Excerpt here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toHlMD50eYY, but it's best appreciated in its entirety, with the lyrics in front of you, while you enjoy a glass of wine.)
Comment: Possibly one of the "big" songs in my personal history of music appreciation. It's a 45 minute symphonic/folkmusic masterpiece, with the instrumental prodigy Ian Anderson in his prime. This is a song which needs plenty of time and attention, and a good hi-fi system.
How I discovered it: My father played it when I was young.
Fun fact: The original album case had a newspaper page, telling (among some other articles) the background of the lyrics. It features the winner of a poetry competition, "Little Milton" (and also about his subsequent disqualification), and it is this poem which makes up the lyrics of the song.
Me and my friends were greatly impressed by the advanced lyrics, composed by such a young boy, until we later realised it was only a hoax. Upon closer inspection, you'll find the whole newspaper completely parodical.

So then should I just hate or be openly hostile to people I perceive to be more attractive than me?

But Eric, you man of colossal stature, you wouldn't be very hostile at all then!!