1. In each text box, give certain places a “tag.” For example, in my game I had several different rooms. Each room was tagged with particular name.        
2. When you finish tagging all of your text boxes, create a stylesheet for each tag. 
3. Tag each stylesheet with the same name you placed in the text boxes.
4. Place the HTML code in under the “Body” section in the stylesheet.
5. The HTML will look like this
   • body {
     background-color: blue;
     color: black;
     }
   • For most basic colors, you can just write the name of the color. If you want a specific color you must find the HTML color code, which can be done through a quick google search or through a software like Adobe Photoshop
6. In the end, you should have multiple stylesheets that will automatically link to the tags in your text boxes.                                                   

I would like to expand on my sound project from the audio project, which was a story-based podcast. In this podcast, I told my favorite personal story. For my final project, I hope to have multiple episodes of this. Each episode will be a different person telling their own favorite personal story. I hope to get all different kinds of stories to create a dynamic podcast. The only difference between these episodes, and the one I made for the audio project will be that they won’t be as scripted as my first podcast. I hope to practice a little bit of interview skills and use a conversation to spur details about each person’s favorite story. I will incorporate sound effects to create more tension.

For my final project, I will be incorporating elements from each project we have had thus far. From the video portfolio, I hope to incorporate the remixing of Creative Commons material to create a theme song for the podcast. Most podcasts I listen to have an interesting and catchy theme song and this will be a unifying factor in my podcast episodes. Because this project is an audio project, it will replicate and expand the audio portfolio in many ways. Lastly, I hope to incorporate the story-building aspect of the text portfolio. I hope to use the story arc to build tension and create a compelling final project.

In all, I hope to create 2-3 episodes, depending on the length of the stories and the amount of editing that I put into editing the content. I personally enjoy hear people talking about things that they are passionate about or hearing interesting stories through audio format. I hope to better my audio editing skills with this project as this is something I hope to use in my future career.

My game is entitled SCNT Corporate. As a “choose your own adventure” game, it will have a several alternate paths for the player. In these paths, the player must choose unconsciously whether to be the person who solves the mystery in the office or if they are the one being chased within the story. As an employee of this mysterious corporation, the player begins in the break room of a corporate warehouse and encounters an emergency during the course of her/his day. Setting is the most important aspect of my game. Without being able to actually show the space as in a real video game, the text must move the player through the warehouse. The player moves through several spaces throughout the course of the game and this aspect might end up being a little disorienting for the player. The one design element I would like to incorporate is a changing color background to signify that the player is moving from room to room. For example, the break room will have a background gray color and the inside of the air vent will have a background color of black. In a way, this will incorporate a sense of space and lighting for the player. This element will hopefully convey what kind of danger they are in. For example, the player in the air vent may not be able to see their surroundings/if they are being followed. Most of all, by color coding the rooms, this may be a helpful tool for the player to remember that they have previously been in a room and that they must remember earlier clues they received. While my main focus of this game is the creation of the text of the game, I would still like the game to be more of an experience than just a simple read through story.

With the increased usage of bikes in the city of Pittsburgh comes many advantageous things, including a greener and healthier city of Pittsburgh. However, many have brought up problems that come along with having so many cyclists on the streets. Our group project will focus on bettering the cohabitation of motor vehicles and bicycles on city streets. Looking forward, several issues must be tackled in order to make Pittsburgh a safer and more aware city for cyclists. One of these issues is how to properly inform people of proper bike riding.

While drivers of cars must be aware and responsible for the safety of bike riders, it is also up to bike riders to protect themselves through responsible riding. Through our media platform, we hope to inform bike riders of some helpful guidelines of driving Pittsburgh streets.

Before cyclists hit the rode, they should prepare properly for the ride. While helmets are not legally enforces, they dramatically increase the safety of cyclists. On our media platform, we will convey the statistics of survival rate for cyclists who do wear helmets when they get into accidents. Helmets may seem momentarily inconvenient but are key to safe rides. Bikers should also properly equip their bikes for a safe ride. This includes attaching lights and reflective stickers to bikes for night riding.

Lastly, we will focus on proper road etiquette for cyclists. It is extremely important that cyclists know that they must follow the same street laws as motor vehicles while riding. Cyclists must stick to the streets to keep pedestrians safe and in doing so, should learn how to properly deal with road traffic. Many accidents occur from being unaware of these laws. Hand signaling is one of the ways cyclists should communicate with cars. Stopping at red lights and stop signs are key to proper road etiquette.

The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo surprisingly creeped me out a lot. At first, the game seemed normal and the choices were seemingly inconsequential. However, after playing it through a couple of times, I realized that each choice I made had an effect on how weird things got. The first play through I chose all the wrong things. The more I chose to think about the uncle or question my friend about the storm, the more things got strange. For example, when I visited the bathroom, everything seemed really off to my character. The second time I played, I decided to not think about the uncle or question my friend. This choice made the bathroom seem completely normal.  I also ended up surviving longer in the game (well, just a little bit longer).

The one element that I think was incredibly necessary for the creep factor of the game was the sound. Without the sound, the text really would not have the same effect. The sound was incorporated to add suspense. The game doesn’t provide any of the characters’ voices (except, perhaps the uncle’s satanic voice) or any sound effects that didn’t add suspense. As the text added elements that were key to the game and story’s progression, layers of sound were also added. The one sound that both showed both the story’s progression towards midnight and added to my own mounting anxiety was the sound of the clock. Every time it got closer to midnight, I knew something was terrible was going to happen because of the sound of the clock. During my second play of the game, I ended up making it quicker to midnight just so I didn’t have to hear the stroke of each hour. Other examples of sound throughout the game were the uncle knocking on the door, the storm, and the static confusion of the game’s end.

All in all, I found the game to be both mysterious and fun. I’m interested in how different combinations can end up in winning the game, escaping the doom of the sleepover, or figuring out what the heck is actually going on in my friend’s house.

1. If plugging in microphone, make sure there is proper connection via usb
2. Go to Apple menu and then System Preferences
3. Go to “Sound” selection
4. Make sure both input and output have the proper selected microphone
   • if using an external microphone, this microphone should appear beneath “internal speakers” in output and “internal microphone” in input
   • you can adjust the maximum input and output volumes here
5.  
6. Once microphone is properly selected, open GarageBand and create a New Project
   • select vocal recording
   • If recording in a podcast style, use narration voice to eliminate echo
7. To record, hit the red button on the top lefthand side of the window
   • Voice will record into first track
   • hit the red button to stop and begin recording within the same track
8. Export recording as an mp3 to edit in Audacity or any other audio editing software

The following is the script I use in my podcast for the Audio Portfolio. Throughout I will use “street noises” to convey the place I meet Storm at first. I plan to incorporate a recording of him singing throughout, as it is a very important portion of the story.

“I met Storm on an unusually cold October night three years ago. The wind whipped the hair against my face and I shivered, dancing from foot to foot keep warm, as I waited for my bus. He sat on the sidewalk behind me, underneath a crooked poster of Bob Marley hanging in the convenience store window. The lights from the store buzzed into the silence around us.

“Excuse me, miss? Do you have any spare change?”

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t,” I said barely turning to him. Immediately, I felt a sense of guilt, because I did have spare change in my pocket.

He began to sing into the windy air a song that sounded like a blues or church melody. He belted the song without shame, and as the only person on the street, I knew he sang it for me. His voice was the most painful and yet, the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. It had me crying later on the bus home. Still, I said nothing. The bus pulled up, I got on, and just as doors closed, he stopped singing and called out “Have a good night!”

I couldn’t shake his song from my mind. The next afternoon, I made the split second decision while on a bus to go find him again. The bus pulled up to the same corner and I got off, only to see that the man was not sitting at the same place. I started walking down the street and then running, hoping to spot him in a new location. I took a turn around the block and when I arrived back at my starting point, he was there again. Sitting underneath the same Bob Marley poster, arms resting on his knees. a cigarette between his fingers.

“Here’s ten dollars, you have a very beautiful voice. I’m sorry I had no money last night.” was my way of an introduction. I guess it’s because he’s met such a variety of people that he went with it and introduced himself as Storm. I was cautious with the details I gave about myself, and he was carefree with details about himself. He’d lived in every state and had spent years in Europe playing music. We became fast friends. We talked a lot about right and wrong and his belief that by trying to do the right thing would eventually him to the right place in the end. At his heart, Storm was a musician, but his last guitar stolen was from him in New York City.

The next morning, with the sleep in our eyes and the rising sun backlighting us, we met again at the same street corner. Me, with my guitar in my hand and him, with an excitement to play that I had never seen before.

I stayed with him for an hour and listened in awe. Storm had more talent playing than I could ever wish to have. He caught every passerby’s attention.

One of the scariest moments of my life was watching Storm walk down the street with one of my most prized possessions. I took it in like it was the last time I would ever see my guitar.

But Storm did right by me. A week later, he called me and told me about all the money he had made using my guitar.

“Must be the universe is trying to lead me somewhere. I met you and through you I was able to make a buck.” Storm looked tired as we sat on the couch in my apartment, “Wait, I have something for you.”

Storm pulled out a circular clear box that holds five gemstones. He carefully explained each stone to me, his favorite was the pink tourmaline for creative expression. He thought I might need it more than him.

‘I just wanted to thank you and give you something for what you’ve done for me. Don’t lose them.”

Storm stayed on my couch that night and left the next morning on a bus to New York and although he friended me on facebook, we never spoke again. I still carry around the stones he gave me. I found out a month ago that Storm passed away during his travels at age 31. I cried because all I could remember was the guy with moppy brown hair belting out a song on a sidewalk for me. I hoped in the end that he got to the place the universe wanted him to be.”

The scene begins with the sound of footsteps in snow. Two people are walking through the snow slightly out of sync. Both are heavily breathing from a long day of walking along a highway. They both take long and heavy breaths, and breathe out puffs of steamy air. Neither person speaks to the each other at first and the distant sounds of cars on a highway can be heard in the background.

“I’m calling it a day,” a young woman’s voice pipes up.

A man’s voice grunts in return, as if to say yes.

The man begins to narrate the scene, stating that it is the couple’s 20^th day travelling by foot across the country. They both are travelling musicians who met early in their journey and happen to be headed to the same place: the northern coast of California.

“I’ll start the fire,” the woman says. The footsteps seize and the highway sounds are even more in the distance. The two have arrived in their campsite in the woods. Branches creak under the heavy amount of snow. Wind whistles through the barren branches.

The narration continues. The man says that although they are travelling partners, the two don’t speak very much while they commute from place to another. It is only at night, when they start the fire at the campsite that they finally can converse.

The sound of rocks rubbing together can be heard behind the narration, along with the continued creak of branches. A fire is started and its soft crackle plays sweetly into the night air.

The two begin to talk and laugh. They delve into the histories of their childhood. Eventually, the man pulls out his road guitar and plays the first song he ever wrote, while on the road at age 15. The song becomes the most prominent sound, although the small fire can still be heard in the background. The woman begins to sing the harmony.

Radiolab’s central goal is to rethink the way people receive education. Storytelling and science are fused together in this podcast. The sound design of Radiolab is multilayered and uses these different types of sound to create the most dynamic story possible. The podcast is able to balance the central story, the background facts, and the educational aspect well, while also remaining entertaining. The narrative style of the episode “I Don’t Have to Answer That” is what is most important to the maintenance of this balance. The interviews used to recount Gary Hart’s story are not presented in a traditional back and forth fashion and instead are interwoven together to create a chronological narrative. The hosts provide structure and summary to the narrative. They give the bigger picture story and introduce the journalists who were involved in Hart’s story. The fast edits between the narrating hosts and those being interviewed keep the momentum of the story and provide tension. Music in the background of the narration also assists in changing the pace of the story. A good example of this moment is when the one journalist explains how he cornered Gary Hart. The chase is accompanied by fast paced music, but when he explains actually coming to face to face with the senator, the music stops and a dramatic pause heightens the tension of the moment. This moment is the climax of the story and is a perfect example of using sound editing to change the narrative speed. In this particular moment, the clarity of the storytelling, the music and the absence of sound are combined to put the podcast listener in the story. Overall, moments like this one place the listener closer to the story.