From CS 160 Fall 2008

Contents 1 Minimum Requirements 1.1 Hardware 1.2 Operating System 2 Installation 3 Controls 3.1 Regular Mouse Icon (Arrow) 3.2 Fork/Knife Icon 3.3 Grabby Hand Icon 4 Prototype Tasks 4.1 Easy: Passing Salt & Pepper around the table 4.2 Medium: Successfully complete meal without distractions 4.3 Hard: Successfully complete meal while dealing with environmental challenges 5 Prototype Limitations 5.1 Lack of animations 5.2 Pacing timer 5.3 Tutorial mode 5.4 Scoring system 5.5 Click boundary issues 5.6 Message timing issues 5.7 Forced events 5.8 Slouching input

Minimum Requirements

Hardware

• Personal computer (PC) with a Pentium II-class processor, 450 megahertz (MHz) [According to the Microsoft website]
• Mouse capable of right and left click

Operating System

• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server

Installation

Unzip and double-click the FormalLogic.exe file to run it. It is located in the /FormalLogic-bin/ directory.

Controls

This game's main input control element is the mouse. The mouse controls are context sensitive, and change when the mouse icon changes.

The mouse input controls and the related mouse cursor depictions are as follows:

Regular Mouse Icon (Arrow)

• Left Click: Can click "Pause" button with this. Used to navigate menus.
• Right Click: None.

Fork/Knife Icon

• Left Click: Use utensil in character's left hand.
• Right Click: Use utensil in character's right hand.

Grabby Hand Icon

• Left Click: Use to correct character's posture.
• Right Click: None.

Prototype Tasks

Easy: Passing Salt & Pepper around the table

The player should simply click the salt & pepper arrow icon as it appears within the time limit to pass the salt.

Medium: Successfully complete meal without distractions

The player should use the fork and knife as described in the controls section above. In order to eat properly, the player must use the fork (stab the meat), then the knife (cut off a piece), then the fork (stab the piece), then click the user's mouth to eat it.

Hard: Successfully complete meal while dealing with environmental challenges

The player should successfully balance the above two tasks, and, in addition, be careful not to eat too quickly (in which case the player should simply stop eating for some time) and to fix posture occasionally. Posture warnings will pop up occasionally, and the character's posture will visibly change, at which point the player must fix the posture within the given time limit, by clicking on the character's body.

Prototype Limitations

As this is merely a prototype, there are some limitations. These will be addressed in future iterations as we collect more feedback and move toward the final product.

Lack of animations

Currently, the game lacks any animation. This is a top priority to go into the next version, both for ease of use and providing a more immersive experience to help educate the user.

Pacing timer

The current system for controlling eating pace consists of an overall time limit for eating, and the instructor's feedback on how fast they should be eating. Our eventual implementation will feature a color-coded "food remaining" bar, which will designate the user's current pace, along with minimum and maximum pace limits that the user should remain between.

Tutorial mode

For this prototype we have focused on developing the core functionality of the game. Like with all programs, no matter how simple or complex, the user will need (at least initially) some instruction on how to play the game and use the interface. We will eventually implement a "tutorial" mode, which walks the user through all aspects of the game play at a controlled pace, with instruction dialogs to explain the control scheme and game aspects to the user.

Scoring system

The only "scoring" system currently in place is a timer which times how long the user takes to finish the food, and an overall rating for the user. Our eventual goal is to create a full-fledged scoring system that can track and display all the dining factors, including eating speed, posture, and other table manners, and give a "score" to the user as a means of feedback for dining etiquette that they need to keep in mind while eating.

Click boundary issues

It is often possible to click outside of a particular "image hotspot" to get the effect of that hotspot. For example, if you have to pass something to the left, you can click slightly outside the arrow because the bounding box of the arrow is rectangular and not arrow shaped and it is the bounding box that receives the click-events. This is mostly a limitation of Visual Studio, and if we choose to rewrite the final product in Flash this limitation will disappear.

Message timing issues

Due to the presence of random events in this game, sometimes messages may be inconveniently timed so that one appears right after another. This will be fixed in the final product by deferring events until a sufficient amount of time has elapsed for the player to be able to read the message from the first event.

Forced events

The "you're slouching!" and "you're eating too fast!" events are currently forced because 1) there is no algorithm yet to determine when to fire these events and 2) there are only 4 pieces of meat in this version, so it is hard to space them out randomly and have it still be realistic.

Slouching input

Due to not having any animation, we couldn't stick to our original plan of being able to drag bits of the player's body back into alignment when slouching occurs. Right now slouching is reverted with a single click on the body.