Game Based Learning 10 – Teachmeet

Posted by Brian on April 7, 2010 under games based learning | 2 Comments to Read

On the evening of the first day of Games Based Learning 2010, I attended Teachmeet Game On and spoke a little about using the Lego Wedo Sensors with Scratch in relation to pupils designing and creating purpose built input devices for Scratch games.

However, the nost impressive presentation by far was by 15 yeqr old student @EdithTheGeedith, telling us how most pupils experience games in their learning. Talk about hitting the nail on the head!

Other presentations from the Teachmeet can be viewed here - well worth a look!

Game Based Learning 10 – Game Design

Posted by Brian on April 1, 2010 under games design | 4 Comments to Read

I was lucky enough to attend the Game Based Learning 10 conference at the Brewery in London and was inspired by so many wonderful speakers and met a number of fellow twitterers in real life.  I was down there as part of the Consolarium from Learning and Teaching Scotland, and along with Derek Robertson, Ollie Bray and Brian McLaren.

I gave a short presentation on the work Charlie Love and I are doing in the Consolarium in relation to Scottish education and Games Design.  Here are the slides from that presentation.

Your feedback is appreciated!

Iconic Character Development in Computer Games

Posted by Brian on January 13, 2010 under games design | 2 Comments to Read

To begin with, take a few seconds to look at the silouttes below.

Recognise any of them?  Of course you do – they are the central characters in some very successful computer games.

I spent some time earlier this week with David from Denki, discussing the process of games design and we got onto the topic of characters in computer games.  We talked about how important the lead character in a game is and how it relates to the success of game.

When we think about ‘character’ we often think about the characters personality, characteristics and their personal history/background.  In the context of creating a computer game in school, it seems like the ideal opportunity to investigate character in an English class.  After discussion and writing a charcters background, they should be able to use it to influence how the character should look.  Which brings me on to my main point.

The look of a character should reflect their persona, however, the character itself should be easily idenifyable.  Hence the silouettes at the top of the post.  When creating an easily recognisible character, you are possibly creating a worldwide marketing tool.  How many lunchboxes, wallpapers, mugs, birthday cakes, hats, trainers etc are branded with an iconic computer game character?  There is a great post by Aldric Chan here that discusses the importance of character further.

Just off the top of my head, I see great potential for embedding game design, in particular, character design into the Curriculum for Excellence eg…

• Write characters in English
• Explore their characters further in Drama
• Create distinctive character designs in Art, even model using clay?
• Use tools like Scratch to build thir own games
• Use their characters in other areas of the curriculum eg
  • Create character objects in CDT like keyrings
  • Create caps/tshirt etc  HE
• Advertise and market their games in Business Studies

I am really keen to expore the area of characters in computer games further and will be working on a some resources for this at the Consolarium.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has used this idea in their school or any ideas people have about it.