Steps

Steps

Monday, March 2, 2015

It is time to go live.

Good morning everyone!  I have been busy working on a marketing plan, trying to move ONE SCENE AT A TIME into a card context, looking for for focus groups for LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING and getting ready for Pro Vita at the Berkshire School.  IT IS HERE!

Thank you to the ENTER THE CAVE team (Tim, Steven, Donovan, Tucker, Robert, David, Aether, Adam, Lynne, Jen, and Ken) at the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College for sending me here in such a prepared fashion!  I am getting ready for Day 1 of Pro Vita where we will play LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING and learn a little about game design.

One of my favorite quotes from today's homework "Not only do games let us take risks, but they can make those risks feel real."  (Game Frame, Aaron Dignan, p.45)

If you want to watch the same TED Talk that is homework find Jane McGonigol's 2010 TED talk about game design, and treat yourself!

Time to put on my name tag...more later!

Hello again,  last night I listened to a program that included wonderful Berkshire School a capella groups, and some college groups including CDN.   There are a number of Pro Vita teachers here, including alums.

I have scripted out Days 1, 2, and 3.    Today, I met the seven students who will be having Hard Fun learning about Game Design with me this week.  We played LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING, took a greatly abbreviated look at game design and application and then delved into what these students know about games.  They will follow up by watching Jane McGonigol's TED talk, writing their own backstories and thinking about what skills come from playing games.

Their feedback was invaluable as is my growing sense of confidence.  No one in this group thought playing a game focused on getting ready for a college search was useful.  And, when we began the discussion many didn't think playing sports/fantasy games or fighting/mission games, or even Candy Crush was anything more than amusing and fun.  As we discussed further I could see that playing improves thinking strategically, encourages learning about possibilities and choosing the best.  Playing games sharpens focus.  But, how to make LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING more engaging?

Tomorrow will involve a taste of transforming ideas into "an artificial conflict that results in a quantifiable outcome."  Design means actual people take ideas, sit with them, discuss them, broaden them and then create an actual prototype which is turned into a series of logical steps and art work that leads a player in to the experience of playing the game.

"Not only do games let us take risks, but they can make those risks feel real." (Dignan, p. 45)

It is time to go for a walk, and then to meet more people, listen to Wes Moore.

The team at the EMC has developed an animatic of ENTER THE CAVE, an accompanying presenter's guide and an online survey to help support tomorrow's work.  I am very excited to lay it out and dig in deep.

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