making games games authoring software for educational and creative use
TRANSCRIPT
Making Gamesgames authoring software for educational and creative use
The problem
Players want to create their own games
Existing tools not suitable for children
Media literacy needs to be extended to games
The software
Building conditionality into a simulation package
Based on object manipulation
Creating rule-based and interactive RPGs and action adventure games
The research
Describing a model of game literacy based on game authoring – will cover production, representation, language and audience
Developing the pedagogies that can promote game literacy
Developing an approach to participatory design with children’s technology
Design partners
11-14 year olds in school, after-school and out of school setting
Girls
Children with print literacy problems
Outcomes
•A game-authoring tool within a 3D environment
•A model of game literacy, developing the recent emphasis on digital and media literacies
•A pedagogic model, identifying how such literacies are taught and learned, formally and informally
•A model of technology design
BUILDING ON PREVIOUS WORK
• Sharing Spaces – all narrative, no game
• Playground – all game, no narrative
• Textuality in Videogames: narrative and game systems in RPGs; dramatic engagement
Progress to date
Six-week course in media studies class
Game analysis – developing a language for describing and interpreting games
Group-based game design using loose template
Issues to be grappled with
How to enable extensive, successive re-drafting? How to play with the software?
At what level of granularity should authoring take place?
How should authoring process be sequenced?