Videogamessessions

For any of you still in the Boston area, this looks like a fun chance to check out the GAMBIT lab and test some games.

The Cambridge Science Festival is coming up. Kick it off with a free visit to the MIT Museum near Central Square on April 20 to play test the MIT GAMBIT Lab's newest games. This should be one fun learning experience.

Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design - no technological expertise is necessary. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality videogames.

This intriguing title game was an intro to halo 2. Take a look at the web site, there's also youtube video you can find

Here's a good tutorial if you're interested in Unity.

This is great, I am going to come back to this site after course work !

This may be of more relevance to me, since I'll be living in France soon, but I thought you all might find this bit about a serious game school interesting.

This should be an interesting online presentation and discussion about how serious games may improve higher education. It's free! May 11, 2012.

Seems exciting ! Never played simcity :( do it as soon as i have time :)

This is an interesting chat transcript from a discussion that touched on violence in games and various benefits of gaming. Some studies were referenced.

A new serious games organization that might be worth checking out.

Some interesting suggestions from a creator of serious games.

An interesting take on how FarmVille became so popular.

I never thought about it that way but it makes a lot of sense !

This article talks about the need for a "language" that signals a plot twist or intended setback in a game versus a failure caused by player inadequacies (the latter loses the player). 

I thought you all might enjoy this in-depth look at a game that didn't live up to expectations.

We should definitely scan this list in one of our sessions!

Yes! I hadn't realized you had joined EdWeb, Pradeep--we should connect on there (if there's a "friend," etc. option). It's such a great resource, and many of their webinars are relevant to our interests. I remember when they suggested putting this list together; I'm so happy it's grown this extensive!

Kasthuri shared this. We should trial it next week.

This is an interesting series of math games that try to teach a spatial approach to math with no equations, symbols, or language (at least at the start). There's an option to try out some of the games on the left. The state of California has been hosting a huge study using ST Math in numerous low-performing K-5 schools, and the preliminary results make it look pretty good. I'd be interested to hear what you think of these games--do they look intrinsically integrated to you? Could you see yourself learning the math concepts from these games--even if this were your first exposure to those concepts?

I like the idea of teaching the underlying concept without using words or symbols. The estimate fractions was pretty intrinsically integrated and I can see myself better understanding halves and three-quarters... a bit like motionmath but ST math has got so many more games !

Another guide for designing educational games with flow.