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Anna Ho

What are the most treasured aspects of '90s adventure game design and how might these b... - 1 views

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    I came across this great question posted in Quora. One of the responders, Anne Halsall listed structured narratives, diverse hand- drawn animation, more difficult puzzles (less hints), and a single-player experience as hallmarks of 90s adventures games. The highlights of these adventure games are a stark contrast to the conditions, at least according to Gee, that make video games useful learning tools (e.g.,open-ended, immediate feedback, opportunities for socialization). This lead me to wonder, are the trends in contemporary game design driving engagement theory, or is the research driving game design?
Stephanie Fitzgerald

GAMBIT: Do It Yourself Game Design - 1 views

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    Hear MIT GAMBIT Lab experts talk about engagement in practical terms--and get some hands-on experience designing a board or video game. The three-hour workshops are part of the Cambridge Science Festival; this event takes place on April 28 and requires a $5 preregistration. Though I'm sure EMF will be touched on one way or another in all of the workshops, I thought the Serious Games for Social Change workshop might be of particular interest to you all: "In this workshop, best practice examples of serious games for social change will be played, discussed and analyzed. Furthermore ideas and sketches for proto-types will be developed and ways of realizing them will be discussed! The workshop gives the participants hands-on experiences and insights into the potential and limits of video games designed for social change. No pre-experiences are needed!"
Brandon Pousley

SimCity EDU for the Classroom - 0 views

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    This is a webinar chat that I sat in on today (A few questions I posed are featured in the Q&A at the end.) With the new SimCity release, they have also partnered with a company called GlassLab that has designed a teacher resource hub and also modified game that enables teachers to easily use the game in classrooms. There will be specific inquiry based challenges that allow students to interact in the game environment to investigate community issues (ranging from water shortages, power outages, labor disputes, earthquakes, budget concerns, etc.) and work with citizens and government to solve the issues. There is also an exciting multiplayer format where neighboring cities are controlled by other students and they must work together to solve problems. Glass Lab is partnering with EA Games, Gates Foundation, and ETS to build the teacher hub where educators can design and share best practices, lesson plans, etc. In addition, they will be doing a long term study to measure educational outcomes. It appears as though they are using this game as a pilot opportunity to build the framework for larger commercial game integration into the classroom.
Stephen Bresnick

Storyboard Podcast: The Curse of Cow Clicker | Magazine - 1 views

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    This is a really interesting article about the story of one of the most popular web-based games of last year. The interesting part is that the creator of the game designed it as a joke, trying to poke fun at other wildly popular games like Farmville. He made the game as simple as possible, compelled users to log in regularly to "Click a Cow," and had them earn points when other people clicked their cows. The message was supposed to be, "these types of games are manipulative in their tactics to keep people playing, and they are mindless and painfully stupid." However, his design stumbled on something that people really enjoy, and as a result, people didn't get that the game was meant to be a joke, and it became a huge hit. I think this shows that flow-inducing actitivities, or ones that keep the user engaged and provide quick feedback, are highly desirable for users.
shendanxi

The Multiple Dimensions of Video Game Effects - 0 views

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    The paper suggests a multi-dimensional approach to analysing digital games. The good or bad criticism should be replaced by thinking about the games' effects in terms of (1) the amount of play, (2) the content of play, (3) the game context, (4) the game structure, and (5) the mechanics of game play. Considerations should be put into each of these 5 dimensions when a game is being designed.
Hongge Ren

Seth Priebatsch: The game layer on top of the world - 4 views

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    By now, we're used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web -- building a "social layer" on top of the real world. In his talk, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the "game layer," a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.
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    Thanks for sharing Hongge, I think many aspects of our lives are actually 'gamified'. The key seems to be making it as relevant and 'intrinsically integrated' so that it's seamless. Just a question: why is it 'game layer' over the real world and not 'real world' layer over the game?
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    Yes, indeed. The ideal is to intrinsically integrate. That's a good idea. Why not? In fact, maybe the alternate reality games qualify as "real world" layer over games because in such games, whatever happens in games impact the reality in certain ways. We could also design games to work the other way around, e.g. a diet game, where only when you do exercise in a gym in the real world, can you advance levels in the game.
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    Haha yes!! I recall a rowing machine which actually had a game in front of users so that they could compete with 'other rowers'. It was great and definitely made the workout more fun. I stopped though after a friend slipped his disc on the machine...
Stephanie Fitzgerald

Designing engagement: The secret of Game Dev Story - 0 views

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    Here's another perspective on engagement: how to make games more addictive (or compulsive?) by creating "smarter game loops" with fewer exit points. The example discussed is "Game Dev Story," a management simulation for a game development studio.
Jennifer Jocz

Why Everything Is Becoming a Game - 1 views

  • Over the last year, he started grading two of his classes (both involved with game design) using a system based on “experience points,” or XP, similar to the way gamers in World of Warcraft and other massively multiplayer games award points for various tasks. Students started the year at level one, with zero XP, and then gained points — and higher grades — by completing “quests” and “crafting,” which corresponded to giving presentations and doing exams and quizzes. Students also formed “guilds” similar to the gaming groups that rule WoW and other multiplayer games. Sheldon says that his students seemed far more engaged than they had been before.
  • The bottom line is that good games take advantage of people’s innate desire to compete with each other, but balance that with their need to receive rewards, including the approval of their peers — rewards that in some cases can be used to modify their behavior in certain ways. T
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    Interesting article about how certain features of video games (gaining experience points, forming guilds, etc.) are being incorporated in unexpected ways in our lives.
Jennifer Jocz

GAME THEORY - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice - 0 views

  • "Sports for the Mind" teacher Al Doyle says his class helps students learn "systems thinking," understanding the relationships of parts to wholes.
  • When the students design their own games, they must incorporate the components of a system: goals, rules, and stakes. Eventually, says Doyle, students will learn the more complex aspects of a system, such as choice and balance, and build those into their games
  • The premise of using video games to engage students in advanced thinking is drawing more advocates.
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    One school using video game design to engage students.
Kiran Patwardhan

CU-Boulder nets $1.5 million NSF grant to continue video game design research - 0 views

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    The University of Colorado Boulder exceeded its own researchers' expectations with its iDREAMS Scalable Game Design Summer Institute, and that success has been rewarded with a new $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. CU-Boulder researchers are tracking how video game design engages students in computational thinking and STEM simulation design.
Lauren Farrar

The Most Dangerous Gamer - 1 views

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    Hey Guys, this is an Atlantic article a friend sent me awhile ago and I thought some of you might think it's interesting. It's about Jonathan Blow a video game designer with a unique taste. He's in the process of creating The Witness a game that is more artistic, contemplative, and zen-like than FPS type games. This is a long article and to be honest I didn't read all of it, but if you're interested there's a video half way down that gives you an idea of what The Witness will look like. He says users will really have to observe, pay attention and think in order to play the game. Seems interesting to me!
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    Lauren, this is really an awesome article! Thanks for sharing.
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    Really cool!
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    I agree! It really makes me want to play Braid and keep an eye out for The Witness (which rings a bell--I wonder where else I heard about it...). This article paints a vivid picture of the game designer and the type of art he makes. Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie Fitzgerald

Solve for X: Adrien Treuille on collaborative science - YouTube - 3 views

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    This ten-minute video uses the protein-folding game FoldIt and another crowdsourced science game called EteRNA as examples. Speaker Adrien Treuille (from CMU) talks about rewards in these types of crowdsourcing games starting around 5:50. He envisions scientific discovery, software development, product design, and societal change being "solved" in the future through a platform that allows for finding, engaging, and paying people at a very individual level: "Find Me, Engage Me, Pay Me."
Leslie Lieman

Globaloria - Educational Games Made By Students - 0 views

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    Students learn how to make educational web games. Globaloria is sponsoring some of the events for the Digital Learning Day (posted below) and are "opening their Globaloria game design classes to parents, friends, educators, administrators, policy makers and media. Visitors will get to experience first-hand the innovative, hands-on "game design studio" that these classes engage in daily. They will see students developing original STEM learning games, collaborating with peers and their teacher, using a digital curriculum, and receiving support through an online learning network."
Matthew Ong

How can games contain and convey values? - 0 views

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    Interesting article about games and values. In the middle, the author suggests that for game designers, it is important to get people who aren't like them to play the game. This would make for a more inclusive game.
Lin Pang

Gallery: Game Designers Talk About the Future of Fun | Popular Science - 1 views

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    Some interesting opinions on the future of games from game designers.
Kellie Demmler

Gameration 2: Implementing Games and Simulations within a Generational Context | LEEF Blog - 0 views

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    Interesting blog on Generation x and designing gaming/simulations
Jing Jing Tan

Welcome to Flow in Games - 0 views

  • In order to design a game for broader audiences, the in-game experience can’t be linear and static. Instead, it needs to offer a wide coverage of potential experiences to fit in different players’ Flow Zones
  • To expand a game's Flow Zone coverage, the design needs to offer a wide variety of gameplay experiences. From extremely simple tasks to complex problem solving, different players should always be able to find the right amount of challenges to engage during the Flow experience.
  • Once a network of choices is applied, the Flow experience is very much customizable by the players. If they start feeling bored, they can choose to play harder, vice versa.
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  • Expand your game’s Flow coverage by including a wide spectrum of gameplay with different difficulties and flavors Create an Player-oriented Active DDA system to allow different players to play in their own paces Embed DDA choices into the core gameplay mechanics and let player make their choices through play
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    This article examines how to best create flow experiences in video games. The author argues for 1) including a variety of gameplay activities, 2) allowing players to play at their own paces, and 3) letting players make choices.
Jerusha Saldaña Yanez

What They Play - Kids Influencing Game Development - 0 views

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    Article provides examples on how game developers benefit from interacting with their own children (e.g. able to observe what features excite children that were not anticipated by designers)
Kasthuri Gopalaratnam

Education Week: Digital Gaming in Classrooms Seen Gaining Popularity - 4 views

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    Game on!
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    Definition of "digital games" probably too broad... but three video case studies of teachers using "games" referenced in article worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3C69D48D4FFE87E
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    Agreed about the definition. However, "Almost all the teachers surveyed who said they used games reported that they used ones specifically designed for education, and the games most often corresponded with literacy and reading (50%) and math (35%).", which is encouraging. Kurt Squire is correct in that the data may include a good number of 'trivial games', but that is probably to be expected since the biggest barriers seems to be cost (50% respondents) and technology (46%).
Marcy Murninghan

Moral Kombat - 1 views

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    Moral Kombat takes a look into the controversial subject of violence in video games. Director Spencer Halpin shows the constant conflict between the game creators' first amendment right to make a violent game and the eminent threat that violence poses on the next generation. In addition, the film is full of the latest green screen and high-definition technology that allow watchers to actually envision the world of gaming. Filled with interviews from lead game designers, politicians, parents, and psychologists, this film provides a candid take on the influence games have on youth today.
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