INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO GAME DESIGNCross-Curricular activity

By Carlos Ueno Jacue

School: IES LA VEGA DE SAN JOSÉTeacher(s): Carlos Ueno / Jerónimo / MargaritaForm/N. of students: Up to 12, from different levelsDate: Nov 15th 2013 – March 15th 2013Time available: 4 monthsTopic: Videogame DesignType of lesson: Cross-CurricularNecessity/Argument: Videogames are becoming a new form of art.

Videogames integrate knowledge coming from diverse fields: Technology, Design and Graphic arts, Computer Science, Mathematics. This form of artistic and technical expression is familiar for our students, and can increase their motivation in order to accomplish non-trivial tasks involving various tools and curricular topics.

Even though programming videogames is a complex task, new platforms have appeared in recent times that facilitate the introduction into this exciting field. In particular, the Gamefroot Platform offers one of the easiest ways to introduce students to the world of videogame creation. This tool includes:

Easy introduction to videogame design.Ready made scripts, sprites and backgrounds to start videogame

creation in a fast way.Possibility of incorporating own graphic materials (sprites,

characters, backgrounds).Introduction to programming languages via visual scripts, which

can be applied to objects.Aim: Introduce students to the world of videogames and teach

them how Mathematics, Graphic Design and Technology interact in order to bring life to games.

Objectives:Teach the basics of videogame creationDevelop graphic and artistic skillsIntroduce students to programming languagesShow the interplay between programming, mathematics,

language and logic.Strategy:

Study work: Creation of a simple videogameMethods and procedures: Most of the work will be based on

gamefroot videogame platform. Extra software required is The Gimp.

Teaching activities: Selection of students to participate in the project. Design of the workplan. Feedback and assessment of the creative process. Help to coordinate the members of each team. Test of the of the videogames produced by the student teams.

Learning activities/Steps performed by the students: The students will have to complete the following tasks in order to achieve the goal of this project: Character Design: The main characters of the videogame have to be

designed and described. Level Design: The scene where the action of the videogame is going to take

place have to be meaningful. Own artistic creations will be positively evaluated.

Story: A videogame needs a good story. Where the action will take place? Which is the background story? What is the goal to be achieved?

Playability: A videogame has to be fun to play. Is the game well designed? It is clear what the player has to do? Is the difficulty of the level well adjusted to be feasible and at the same time challenging?

Evaluation: The evaluation will take into account the following aspects:

Engagement in the project Creation of own materials Cooperation with team-mates Tasks performed by the student Quality of the product The teacher will observe directly the involvement and performance of

the students. There will also be a final self-evaluation to improve this curricular activity in future implementations.

Partners: Teachers from the Arts Department, and the Technology Department.

Bibliography: Resources related to the Gamefroot Platformhttp://gamefroot.com/for-teachers/https://gamefroot.zendesk.com/categories/20

052076-knowledgebase Resources on the contribution of videogames

to learninghttp://www.jamespaulgee.com/