Games In Education For Linwood

Using Videogames in education

Brent Silby: Game Designer and Programmer; and TeacherUPT (Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti)

[email protected]

1 Background2 Types of games3 Make & Play

In the early 80’s I had a love affair…

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.





My friends from the 1970s and 1980s


are needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a

TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.













I spent as much time as possible in arcades. Was that a problem?

Nah! I turned out fine.

Older generation always used to complain about “young peopleand their games”. Little has changed.

Would people complain about young people developing skill inplaying Chess?

How ‘bout spending lots of free time reading books?

What about spending Saturday’s playing rugby?

Misunderstood game players

Older generation only seems to have a problem with leisureactivities that involve a videoscreen and CPU.

Why?

Perhaps because they perceive games as violent

But then, why are they happy for kids to play rugby. PersonallyI’d rather have kids playing videogames where no-one gets hurtthan teach them how to play a game that involves real violence.


Interesting point: Are games actually violent?

People complain that games involve shooting people. But do theyreally?

Game characters are very flat. They are not real people. Theyare not even simulations of real people.

They are mere target shooting devices.

Game players know this.


There is no difference between shooting at this:


and shooting at this: or this:

or this:


Or even this:

Its all the same thing. These are not people, they are icons thatare used in a gameplay mechanic.

Despite opposition from older generation, I continued my actionresearch into games.

My obsession was not simply about playing the games. I wantedto know how they work.

Could I make one? How?

Computers at School

I got involved in the school “computer club”



In 1983, school had 4 ofthese Apple II computers

We were NOT ALLOWEDto play games!

But, we did anyway.And, I needed to. I neverwould have learned how todesign games if I was not allowed to play other people’s games.

Computers at School

There was no-one at school who could teach me how to designgames, so I had to teach myself.

Parents bought me 2 home computers…

Computers at Home



First was this…a Sinclair ZX81, featuring 16k memory expansion

Computers at Home

Then they got me this: An Acorn Electron with 32k Ram

Computers at Home

It was with these home computers that I taught myself how todesign games and write computer programs

I was not achieving at school, because much of it was notrelevant to me. But it didn’t matter, because the stuff I was workingon was light-years ahead of anything going on at school.

Life Long Skill

I still design games to this day

My games are based on arcade formula and are playable onInternet

My games have been played by several million people now.Check them at www.def-logic.com!

http://www.def-logic.com/

What about kids today?

Not everyone wants to make games, but lots of people want toplay games.

Should we use Educational games?

Be very careful…they are like “chocolate covered broccoli”

My focus is on helping kids learn how to make games

Code to check a type of enemy in a game

Very difficult and time consuming to learn how to write code.

Not everyone wants to be able to write code.

Other ways to create games. In these 2 sessions you’ll learn how to design a game with a html editor, like Dreamweaver.

Making games

Adventure games

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.




Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, created by Ian Livingston andSteve Jackson in the 1980s.

Anyone remember these?

Adventure gamesGenerally written in first person perspective. Player choosesa path through the book to a predetermined ending.

Read through some…

You can play these online too at:www.ffproject.com

Adventure games

The good thing about adventure games is that they can appealto males and females. Girls make games about things they like,and boys make games about the things they like.

I wrote one once…

Map of the original gamebook

Concept planning

You need an idea of what the story is going to be about, forfor example:

Pretty standard type storyline…

You can get your students to develop anything that fits with thecontext of your class.

The land is in darkness! People are being captured to becomeslaves. The only way to restore freedom is to find a magic swordand destroy the evil sorcerer, who lives in the dark palace at the top of Mount Sodor.

Map it out

Draw the map of the adventure, and write descriptions for each“encounter”.

Ensure that you place a number or identifier at the top of eachencounter.

Map it out

[1] You leave your village by the main trail. As the warmth of the village fades into the distance, you start to feel cold.The sun disappears behind a dark cloud. After an hour’s walk, you arrive at a fork in the road. The left branch heads towards a forest.The right branch heads towards the coast. Will you head towards the forest (2) or head towards the coast (3)

[2] As you enter the forest, you realise that all is quiet.There are no birds. You walk further into the forestuntil eventually coming across a clearing. There is astatue in the center of the clearing. Will you examinethe statue (4) or move passed (5)

[4] Eek, it’s a statue ofyou. It has a clue on it

[5] You move passed, and back intothe forest…

[6] Death

[3] Coastal town

For the rest of this session, you have the chance to developa concept and map out a short Adventure Game.

Work in pairs, or groups of 3, or individually…up to you.

Next time, we will turn your planning into a playable game