A TASTE OF A FEW GLOBALORIA EXPERIENCES

Here are a few links to games that you can review. As you will see, these are works in progress. What you need to do, is to imagine the PROCESS of making these games and all the different kinds of learning that are involved.

1. A world-history game called - Zeitgeist

Being produced by “the Five Experimental Ninjas” (the group name of high school students from a Globaloria-WV Program at RTC that meets daily) – this is very creative in terms of art, storyline, and music. It also shows some more advanced flash game coding:

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/mctcwiki/images/4/4c/TheFiveExperimentalNinjasEgypt1.swf



2. The Adventure West Virginia game

Being produced collaboratively by 10 students at MCTC (Marshal Community Technical College) this game is coming also along really well. It’s sort of a tourism game – helping users to learn about West Virginia history, resources and culture. The final game presentation is next week, but this link below shows many skills acquired already -- their game proposal, schedule, paper prototyping video, characters, interface and an initial pass at a snowboarding mini game:

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/mctcwiki/index.php/Adventure_West_Virginia

3. At Man HS, a rural WV school in a very small town, the Globaloria Program is implemented a few times per week as an Afterschool Program with 5 students. Please see (a yet-to-be-named) oral health game, “where you fend off sweets with a toothbrush and toothpaste”:

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/hsta-manwiki/images/7/71/Ggame.swf

Note: Here’s the student idea that inspired this game:

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/hsta-manwiki/index.php/Dream_Game_Idea

4. At Capital HS, in Charleston WV, Globaloria is implemented a few times per week as an Afterschool Program. Please see “Falling Food, a game about healthy eating habits,” that is being developed by 2 ninth-grade girls. See the game description, character work and a very preliminary version of the game here. Click inside the game window at the very bottom of the page and use your arrow keys to move their character “Bob”:

http://www.myglife.org/usa/wv/hsta-capitalwiki/index.php/User:Itsmelexi

Clay High School Interfaces

There is a new group of students this Spring at Clay High School. They have been working through the Globaloria tutorials and have started to post some great work on their wiki.






This is an example of an interface created by one of the students. For those of you who may not be aware, the Play Station Portable (PSP) is a mobile, handheld device that has an awesome screen resolution and internet connectivity. This shows some great talent in recreating the PSP in Flash. Great Job!

RTC Final Game Page

So I am out on the road today, but I wanted to make quick link to the final game page. It is a single page on the RTC wiki that has all of the final games. I was just there with the class and they were still trying to squeeze in the last animations, audios, and graphics.

If you are looking for great game examples, check these out.

A Globaloria First From Man WV

I have to share this, because it is so cool and it happened yesterday and I wanted to blog about it then, and I got so busy today....... anyway... check this out.




Aleigha who is participating in Man WV, loaded a digital image and has started to build a game around this interface. As far as I know, and I would love for someone to point it out if I am wrong, this is our first instance of using existing digital photography for the game interface.

Way to go... I hope that others begin to explore this option for game interfaces as well.

The Line Game: It is so cool!

You have got to try this Flash-based game. Check out the interface and the controls.

Overview of Flash: Technical and Creative Skills

One of the challenges opportunities of the MyGLife project is that everyone involved has to learn to Flash. If you are not familiar, Flash is a software tool that allows people to develop graphics, animations, and complex interactions that can be accessed on the web. The tool itself comes from two historical needs, 1) to add interactive content on the web and 2) to display interactive content in a "light-weight" manner. Light-wight means that you don't have to sit and wait for the content to download over the network. Flash excels at both of these.

To be a flash developer you actually have to wear a few different hats. There is a technical side and a creative side. For our conversation we will talk about the very basics of Flash and how we can start to think about creating a game in Flash.

On the technical side, you have to understand a little about the authoring environment that is the Flash software. It has a few key concepts that are important.

It has a stage. The stage is where all the information will be presented. It is what is viable to the audience or those that will view your finished content.

It has a timeline. This is the timing of the presentation on the stage. The timeline is broken into frames. The frames represent a unit of time that is defined by you. i.e. 24 frames per second.

There are keyframes. Keyframes represent a change that occurs on the stage. If you want something to move or change color or make a sound, you initiate or start that with a keyframe.

There are objects that go on the stage. The objects are the items that are placed on the stage. Flash provides some really cool ways to make objects efficient and it is important that you spend a little time learning about that.

There are buttons. Buttons allow the viewer (user, learner, gamer) to interact with an object on the stage. You can use buttons to create a branch in a story, gain insight from the user, or move throughout the timeline.

Watch this video about creating a button. It is about 9 minutes long and see if you can spot the stage, timeline, objects, and of course the botton (which will be quite easy.)




On the creative side, you have to think about what you want your content, i.e. objects on the stage, to look like, interact with the user, and with each other. You also need to create how the user navigates the game. You are basically the creator of an environment. You manipulate the objects to appear on the stage. We have seen this picture before, but it is a created environment.



Your goal as the developer is to create a game that removes the user from the "stage" and places them inside the environment. But don't worry you don't have to have Hollywood-skills to accomplish this goal. You just have to have a understanding of design.

Check out this really creative environment done in Flash. (Warning: stick people die in video.)

Creating a Narrative Game: More Great Examples

When I was in Huntington last week I had privilege of attending a presentation of one of the MyGLife early games. It was really cool to listen to the thinking that went into the design of the game and the way the game evolved through discussion.

Here is a great screen cap of the game. This shot represents the consequences of a decision that the hero of the game made.



Go check out the entire game and give some feedback.

Games that Make a Difference

Early in the course, our students are asked to brainstorm a game that is positive, educational, and could have some type of social impact on the world. Here is an example of a game that meets all three.




Free Rice is a simple game that allows the players to learn vocabulary and donate rice to this in need. For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. The concept is pretty simple and straight forward and the end result has been quite powerful. Just under 250 million grains of rice have been donated to date.

Can you image a simple game that could tie together the actions of the user and a positive action in society?

To see some of the games our students have proposed, check out the game proposals on the RTC wiki.

How to Trim the Tree: In Flash

So, one of the perks of my new job as the West Virginia Program Manager, is that I get to go around and meet really cool students and their pretty cool teachers. Sorry teachers, the students really are a little cooler. So Friday I drove up to Wheeling and met with some wonderful students from Crittenton. These young lady's are becoming real Flash developers and I have proof. Here are the rocking Christmas trees that they created....







Click the trees to go see how the work in Flash.

How did they do that? You ask... well they combined the drawing tutorial and the space ship tutorial to create a cool new project for the holiday season. Considering that these students are only working two evenings a week on this project. Man, they are doing great!

Great job! I can't wait to see what they are going to come up with next!

I'll also mentioned that one young lady showed me a new Flash game she found on the web, but more about that later.

Flash Examples: The Makings of a Game

The Globaloria project is about acquiring the knowledge and skills to create a game that can make a change. To do this you have to "dig in" and start learning. There is no cramming at the end, you have to start thinking about your project and using the tools that are going to make it happen. For our students, this is about collaborating, brainstorming, working with images and designs, and about learning Flash. I am learning this really quickly as I come up to speed with our students projects. Check out this project by our student at MTC.



If you follow the link by clicking on the house you can check out the animation. There is a lot that goes into the design and animation of a small Flash project like this one. Building these smaller projects give us a basic understanding. Then we start to combine ideas, techniques, and technologies to build a game.

Stay tuned (or connected) we are going to be looking a lot more examples and ideas for all of our students that are participating in Globaloria-WV.