Game Design Course

The buttons above will take you into the meat of the course with some exemplars in the two project options – the documentary final project, or the teaser/trailer final project.  What comes below outlines the academic research that went into this course. If you just want the teaching details, the above buttons will cut you right to the chase!

This is a course I taught in my own classroom, and students enjoyed it thoroughly. Many remarked on how enjoyable it was to have a huge project on the go, but to not feel pressured to abandon creativity in the interests of deadlines. This course was a full year, with the students in my classroom for approximately 100 minutes total weekly.

THE PROJECT

Game Design – The gap I wish to address is the lack of critical thinking I feel is inherent in a course that predominately focuses on skills acquisition.

Koster states, “games are now a major cultural force” (Koster, 2014, p.10), and to that end, I am going to leverage the Alberta CTF Curriculum to engage students in the process of designing a game. The game can be envisioned as a digital game, or a board game. Because the CTF curriculum is a fairly open concept, I am choosing game design for two reasons. Firstly because the emerging research shows that the process of designing a game exposes them to problem solving opportunities and critical thinking occasions that other career exposures might not. Secondly, I choose this because surveys of students in my school (generally conducted for yearbook purposes) as to what their dream career would be reveal “game maker” or “game tester” among the most popular answers.

“A review of the Digital Game Based Learning literature shows that, in general, educators have adopted three approaches for integrating games into the learning process: have students build games from scratch; have educators and/or developers build educational games from scratch to teach students; and integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games into the classroom. In the first approach, students take on the role of game designers; in building the game, they learn the content. Traditionally, this has meant that students develop problem-solving skills while they learn programming languages. Professional game development takes one to two years and involves teams of programmers and artists. Even though this student-designed approach to DGBL need not result in commercial- quality games, it is nonetheless a time-intensive process and has traditionally been limited to computer science as a domain. It is certainly possible for modern game design to cross multiple disciplines (art, English, mathematics, psychology), but not all teachers have the skill sets needed for game design, not all teach in areas that allow for good content, not all can devote the time needed to implement this type of DGBL, and many teach within the traditional institutional structure, which does not easily allow for interdisciplinarity. For these reasons, this approach is unlikely to be used widely.” (Van Eck, 2006, p.6)

My constructivist ideal includes the belief that students should have opportunities to learn in a context that mirrors the real world as much as a school environment can recreate this. “The constructivist designer specifies instructional methods and strategies that will assist learners in actively exploring complex topics/environments and that will move them into thinking in a given content area as an expert user of that domain might think” (Ertmer & Newby, 2008 p. 57).

CONSULT CURRICULUM

The courses I teach are in the process of undergoing a curricular redesign by Alberta Education. For the past fifteen years, it has been my task to consult the senior high Career and Technology Studies (CTS) Program of Studies and from it, glean outcomes reasonable for junior high students to accomplish. As of the writing of this document, Alberta Education has published a new and unique curriculum for students in grades five through nine, the Career and Technology Foundations Program of Studies. This project will consult both programs of studies to ensure maximum adherence to the requirements put forth by Alberta Education. Planning will be grounded in a constructivist philosophy, with a progressive lens toward the philosophy of education.

CTF Cluster – Business

CTS Senior High Program of Studies – CTS COM 1105

Students acquire basic production skills, including planning, recording and editing, through the production of simple audio and/or video projects using basic equipment and techniques.

4.3 use introductory production and post-production techniques to complete a project; e.g., camera moves, transitions, audio recording

Game Design

Computing Science

Enterprise & Innovation

Information Processing

Targeted outcomes – Alberta Education CTF Challenge Document:

• Think critically: conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate to construct knowledge
• Know how to learn: to gain knowledge, understanding or skills through experience, study, and interaction with others
• Identify and solve complex problems
• Manage information: access, interpret, evaluate, and use information effectively, efficiently, and ethically
• Innovate: create, generate, and apply new ideas or concepts
• Create opportunities through play, imagination, reflection, negotiation, and competition, with an entrepreneurial spirit
• Demonstrate good communication skills and the ability to work cooperatively with others
• Identify and apply career and life skills through personal growth and well-being

According to the Alberta Program of Studies for Career & Technology Foundations (CTF) “Students engaging in CTF challenges or tasks, alternate between the processes of planning, creating, appraising and communicating in non-linear manner.”  A course designed around students creating a game will fulfill all four aspects that are foundational to this program of studies.

The challenges that are tied to the CTF curriculum are intended to “stimulate a desire for students to investigate the challenge. This is the hook that fosters student engagement. The intent is to create a “need to know” for students that generates curiosity and interest.

KNOW LEARNERS & ENVIRONMENT

Carr-Chellman (2010) and Dick (1996) both stress the importance of knowing who the audience is who will receive the instruction. Dick (1996) states that “the designer must understand clearly who the clients are, involve them in deliberations, and seek to provide them with instruction with which they are totally satisfied” (p.57). To this end, the analysis of the class who will be taking this course is as follows:

· The course is an option class, but may not have been the first choice for all students. As a small rural school, we are limited by space and teaching resources and so some students in option classes may be there somewhat “against their will”.

· The group this lesson is to target is a class of 27 grade 9 students.

· The class is almost completely Caucasian

· Two students from our international program, a female who comes to us from Mexico, and a male from Japan who has joined us late in the school year and speaks no English.

· 16 females

· 12 males

· They are a fairly academically strong class, and are also enrolled in band. While theoretically this should not make any difference, the reality in the classroom shows something different. “Band classes” have a different energy than non-band classes do.

· We have access to a computer lab with 30 brand new multi-media desktop computers.

· Students have access to a rudimentary green screen which is actually a wall in the art room that has been painted with a chroma key green

· Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 is installed on all machines giving students access to high-end software such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Flash, Muse, Illustrator and Animate. Additionally we have installed other software at the request of students including Blender, Voxel Shop and Mixx.

· We have access to DSLR and Bloggie cameras, memory cards and tripods.

· We have two class blocks per week of 40 minutes each block. Occasionally we may have an extra block on a Friday as our Friday schedule is a rotation of the previous four day schedules.

· We use Google Classroom for deployment of assignments and submission of completed work

· We use Google Plus for conversations related to the topic

ACTIVITIES (LEARNING TASKS)

• Have students start thinking about games. Ask students on Google Plus “First question: What is the best video game you have ever played (it can be on any game system), and why did you like it so much? (You must give at least three reasons why you like it).
• Begin the process of designing a new game. Video game design starts with an idea, often a modification on an existing concept. The game idea may fall within one or several genres. Designers often experiment with mixing genres. The game designer usually produces an initial game proposal document containing:

the concept

gameplay

feature list

setting and story

target audience

For the first class, students join together with 1 or 2 or 3 other people (no more than 4 people per group) and start to hammer out some ideas – mostly for the concept for a video game. But, if ideas emerge for the other categories, studets are asked to record those as well.
Only ONE person in the group needs to record. Recording may be done on paper, or on a google doc, but ideas will be eventually turned in on a Google Doc.

The group students are with on the first day will not necessarily be the group they remain with. There will be an opportunity down the road for switching to another group, should someone come up with an idea that a student finds genuinely appealing.

• In class, students will play some popular online games and discuss (verbally in class sometimes, online in Google plus other times) why they are popular. What is appealing about them. (Angry Birds, Agar.io, Paxon)
• Students will write the backstory (narrative) for their game – Tell the story of what is happening, and tell the stories of the characters. This will be an ongoing assignment, it is not meant to be finished in one class block, but added to and embellished as the game moves out of its infancy.
• Presentation of the basic game premise – students prepare a slide presentation (Teacher provide the framework for the presentation) outlining the basic idea of the game, the characters in the game, the basic victory state and the basic loss state
• Cover design – students use Photoshop to design a cover image for their game. What would people see in an app store or in Best Buy if they were looking for a new game to play.
• Creating a playable prototype – students must, in some fashion make their game playable for the other students in the class. It need not be a digital version. It may be a card game (example discussed was Pokemon, a very advanced card game), a board game or some other means of play.
• Midpoint check in with students to receive critical feedback on the project. Questions to be done individually, not within eye-shot of other group members. Questions students need to respond to are:

1. What are you enjoying about this project? List as many things as you can.
2. What challenges are you facing with this project? Again, please list as many as you can.
3. In what ways do you feel your experience playing games impacts your decisions as a game designer? Please give examples.
4. Are you finding the process of designing a game to be easier or more difficult than you might have expected?  Please explain.
5. What aspects of your game do you feel we need to devote more class time to?
6. How do you envision your prototype looking? (This is the playable version of your game).

• Students need to do a strengths assessment to diversify who is working on which aspects of the game. The scope of the project is enormous, and so groups need to consciously work to incorporate the skills that individuals bring to their groupings.
• Students will create either a teaser/trailer for their game or a documentary about the making of their game. They will have a range of choice of software in which to create this. Cameras and memory cards will be provided if they are choosing to film a documentary.

Implementation Plan:

For the purposes of EDER-679.30 I am focusing on the learning task that will have students choose between the creation of a teaser or trailer to advertise their game, or the creation of a documentary that outlines the process of creating their game. Students will create one video, but will have their choice as to which project is a better fit for their group, taking into consideration the skills that each group member possesses, as well as the common history they now have working as a group.

The iterative process begins again with the conceptualization of the specific learning tasks. The six stages of planning are slightly adjusted to account for the fact that the curriculum has already been consulted, but must be revisited at this stage to ensure that outcomes are covered thoroughly and in a targeted manner.  The class composition and the needs of the learners needs to be revisited as well, including an analysis of the groups. The overall project factors in the learners as individuals, but these learning tasks need to also include the dynamics of the groups that have formed as the larger project has unfolded.

References:

Alberta Assessment Consortium. (2009). Building better rubrics. Edmonton, Canada: Alberta Assessment Consortium.

Alberta Education. (2016). Career and Technology Foundations (Program of Studies). Edmonton, Canada: Alberta Education. Retrieved April 2, 2016 from: https://education.alberta.ca/media/3114906/ctf-program-of-studies-2016-mar-9-final.pdf

Alberta Education. (2010). Career and Technology Studies CTS, MDC (Program of Studies). Edmonton, Canada: Alberta Education. Retrieved April 2, 2016 from: https://education.alberta.ca/media/160266/com_pos.pdf

aximon00000000000001. (2012, November 20). ‪Making of UT3 – Documentary – Epic Games – Behind the Scenes of Unreal Tournament 3. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_TU6nHzHDM

Carr-Chellman, A. (2010). Instructional design for teachers : Improving classroom practice. Florence, KY: Routledge. eISBN: 9780203847275

Dick, W. (1996). The Dick and Carey model: Will it survive the decade? Educationa Technology Research and Development, 44 (3), 55-63. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30221035

Ertmer, P.A., & Newby, T.J. (2008). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50-72.

Koster, R. (2014). A theory of fun for game design. USA: O’Reilly.

Gamasutra: Nemanja Bondzulic’s Blog – 3 tips on making video game teaser. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 14, 2016, from http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NemanjaBondzulic/20140303/212151/3_tips_on_making_video_game_teaser.php

Gamerspawn. (2010, January 9). Halo 2 theatrical trailer.  [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz6FNKawJBc

Lego. (2015, February 4). LEGO jurassic world teaser trailer. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O33lGswb-Y

Making Entertaining and Engaging Video Game Trailers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2016, from http://www.kertgartner.com/making-entertaining-and-engaging-video-game-trailers/ s

Mitchell, B. L. (2012). Game Design Essentials. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Sybex. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Playstation. (2015, June 15). TRANSFORMERS: Devastation – video game teaser trailer |
PS4, PS3 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ09Vuj4cSo

Spider394. (2007, November 2). The I love bees phenomenon. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNhurUnOWKQ

Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital Game-Based Learning: It’s Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless…. EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2).