First blog post for a while…

I started working in e-learning and games in the 90’s. During this time we have seen some amazing technical advantages and also seen some interesting advances within e-learning. In recent years games based learning or GBL has been a trend subject.

Game Based Learning does not only mean using games and hardware, game theory can be applied to e-learning design and your own resource development. Games are hugely popular across the world, the design of games does involve a development methodology and some of the elements may interest you.

For many people game based learning makes them think about brain train on their Nintendo DSi or something that is not serious. However there is another element of games and games design that is often missed – game theory. Within the development of computer games a whole range of skills are involved from creative writers, graphics designers, script writers, level designers and programmers. Here is a brief look at 4 elements of game theory that I consider when developing an e-learning or game based learning resource.

Reward

Nintendo has been using rewards within its games for several years. It you have played anyone of the super Mario titles you will be familiar with collecting golden coins as you move around the level or game. Even at the most basic skill level you can collate huge numbers of coins and you coins are freely available within the level.
As you collect coins these are converted into points or can be used within the game economy. The use of reward can also encourage the user to explore the level further in the quest for rewards. The placement of the coins can encourage exploration to areas that the user may previously have not thought of. This allows you as a designer to introduce other games elements, skills and content for those who have found them.

Within reward systems and game design Operant Conditioning is widely discussed and its principles influence many designers. This quote from gamedev.net describes it neatly

“Operant conditioning is the psychological principle that states that a person is motivated to do or not do an action based on whether they have been rewarded or punished for that action in the past. Operant conditioning principles also explain how to schedule rewards in order to maximize motivation to perform the action.”

Economy
At an end of a level users are often rewarded with their performance in terms of score. Some games also use the concept of the game economy. This allows users to ‘spend’ the reward points that they have collected. Depending on the game or resources this might be opened other levels, improving character performance or changing their appearance.

The use of an economy connects the user back to their achievements gradually, allowing them to be reward for smaller achievements and being able to receive benefit from them. In a recent e-learning course each time the learner completed the activity within each section they received a credit. Once they had completed the resource if they had the right number of credits we allowed them to play a ‘hidden’ game. This generated a buzz within the learner community who discussed how you accessed the end game. The only way to access the end game was if you had collected all of the credits. Learners were pleased about their reward at the end of the game and it generated a buzz around the learner community who also wanted to play the end game.

Recuperation
In many of the early arcade games you had 3 lives (attempts) to complete the game. For anyone of you who have played games like pitfall, nemisis, pac world or donkey kong you will remember what a challenge it was to move along the levels with only 3 lives! Recent games design has moved on, introducing the concept of health, allowing the user to continue their journey across the level even if they have made a mistake. The use of health does make the experience more realistic, increasing the game experience and encourages gamers to consider their actions in game.

Whilst it is still possible to lose all of your health, you may also have the opportunity to get additional health points back, often by completing a challenge. This allows the user to continue their game experience, stay engaged and learn about how their actions will affect their experience.
The game Gauntlet was one of the first games to use the concept of health to allow games to lose health and remain in game. It also allowed gamers to create health points as they moved through the level. This is a an interesting game to review as it was a game that could be played with up to 4 people sharing skill and health points to complete the level.

Problem Solving
The games industry has created games such as tetris and brain training that have all been involved around problem solving. However problem solving is a key element of all games from sports titles to simulations. The problem solving is gradual to allow the learner to develop their skills and then be presented with larger challenges as the game develops.

From my perspective I have been interested to see how internet based games have brought people together to play online games together and solve problems.  Users will come across a rule or problem which is stopping progress, with other gamers then can create a strategy or discuss tactics. From this then can then develop a solution that allows them to more forward.

I have reviewed and studied many games to see how they have encourage groups of users to come together to solve problems and I’ve used many of these techniques in my own work. One of the early multi-player  arcade game was called Gauntlet and it needed players to work together to reach the end of the stage. The game could be played on your own but it was a much rich and immersive experience when you added other users.

There is so much to game based learning and games design, you might have a different view. For me it involves taking elements of game design, game theory and development to enrich any e-learning resource, not just a ’serious’ game.

It has been a while since the last blog post,  sorry!

Many people will know that we have a set up an innovative project with the computer games art degree at Norwich University College of the Arts. In the current academic year we have decided to build on the success of the first year and run a series of student workshops.

In November we held the first workshop called building a game in a day. We are currently developing a series of lone worker protection courses and decided to use a real-life brief with the students. They had to develop the story, narrative, learning objectives and decide upon the audience for their resource before spending the afternoon building a sample module.

At the end of the day each of the student groups has to present their finished game module and also their documentation. I was hugely impressed with the manner in which the students took to the challenge. Some of the game ideas and concepts that were presented were excellent and could easily be used in a commercial project.

To support the students I enlisted the help of Sam, George and Shaun (last year’s work placement students) who provided expert software and also offered a critical eye. Anthony and I provided commercial and project management advice and an insight into what potential clients might be looking for.

The workshop was a great success with 10 excellent game modules being developed, with one group producing 4 example games. From my perspective it was interesting to see how the games design students pushed the software and also came up with new concepts and ideas that we might not have thought of. We are continuing to use computer games designers on our elearning projects and this workshop only helped to re-inforce my belief that they make an excellent addition to our team.

It was interesting to view the different creative processes that each of the groups had. We provided some rough timings and ideas but it was largely left to the students to organise themselves and their time. It was interesting to see how they all started to sketch out design ideas and process flow maps for how the game might work. It is clear to me that game design and instructional design share many principles and once we had introduced the students to the concept of learning objectives they were able to incorporate them into their design.

In December I was able to share my thoughts on the workshop with members of the Association of Learning Technology and the eLearning network during a webinar on serious games that I was presenting.

For more information on the workshop you can read an article that was featured in the Norwich evening news.

Scott

During Learning Technologies earlier this year I listened to several seminars on the use of virtual worlds and game devices with the work of the Royal Navy and Imperial College London being of particular interest. Imperial College were using Second Life as part of their medical training and the Royal Navy were using the PSP as a delivery mechanism on submarines. During the 90’s I’d worked on a number of educational cd-rom projects many of which used games and games theory but back then it wasn’t titled game based learning and there wasn’t anything as accessible as Second Life. Worlds were painstakingly created by filming actors against blue screens and creating lavish backgrounds to place them against. The results were fantastic and still look good today (even if they are at 480×640!). Even since then I’ve been interested in Game Development and I think it is fantastic that the Royal Navy have taken the PSP as a learning device. In the past 10 years the growth of game development courses has been rapid and they are providing some interesting opportunities for students. This is also combined with the increased access to getting content onto the game devices, its like a return to the days of the spectrum where people were coding games from their bedroom! This led to several people making their fortune and setting up fantastic companies like the Darling brothers who set up Codemasters. Who doesn’t remember Dizzy!

As well as Second Life there are a number of other Virtual World development tools, some of which are suited for e-learning. We’ve been using the Thinking Worlds tool for several months with our own development team and also students from Norwich University College of the Arts. I’m really impressed with the results from a technical, gaming and learning perspective. There are people who will find the development tools have a steep learning curve when compared to the traditional tools that they have used but in the hands of a games designer we’ve been able to rapidly produce things! I say things because I’m not sure what to call them, learning module, game, serious game, simulation, virtual world? Perhaps its all of these things? There have been challenges along the way as we’ve got to grips with using a new tool and understanding how to get the best from it. The reaction from clients has been really interesting, they can’t believe how quickly they can be developed when they see how it works the depth of the resources. Personally I’ve found the best part of the process has been seeing how the games designers are part of our e-learning development team. There have been numerous press releases and statements about how the skills of games designers are far reaching, including a recent one from NESTA and TIGA. In our experience we know that this can work, interactive design, games design, instructional design - maybe its just design? Design for an audience, design with a purpose and design with an outcome in mind? I know that our team are increasing their skills and are great designers and not just graphic/interactive/instructional/games* (*delete as appropriate).

We are finalising the details for the Game Based Learning event. The event will be ticket only as we have had a lot of interest. A number of people have already booked and to register your interest please book by emailing info@realprojects.co.uk or using the contact form http://www.realprojects.co.uk/contact.php

We are expecting that the event will be heavily subscribed so please reserve your place.

The event will be taking place at the Financial Services Academy in Norwich.

We have been looking at the PSP for a few weeks and today we’ve had some success! Sam, Ed and Jonny have managed to get a number of our own games and activities working, albeit with a few tweaks here and there. It was great to see the content and designs working on a new device and our next step is to move some existing content over to the PSP and to see how that looks.

It’s clear that we are going to have to look at how content is developed for the PSP and we’ve already talked about the need for a set of PSP e-learning guidelines. From our research it only supports Flash 6 but that still allows us to do lots of pretty cool stuff.

we’ll keep you updated on how things work out with the PSP.

Norfolk e-learning forum

The next forum event is on the 18th March in Norwich. If you are reading this and want to come along send us an email at info@realprojects.co.uk to book. It is a free event and if you are interested in e-learning and learning technology you are going to meet other like minded people! The event is interactive and you’ll get the chance to interact using the AlphaSmart Neo 2.

If you are still not sure about whether to attend give the office a call on 01603 762772 to find out more.

In the latest Naace newsletter there is an article about Futurelab coordinating a games and learning research project.

“Futurelab has been appointed as the UK National Coordinator for a pan-European study of the use of computer and video games in schools. Our Games and Learning project is a programme of research, events and planned publications intended to stimulate discussion and the development of new intelligence.

The overall aim is to demonstrate what challenges and opportunities have emerged from debates and developments in this field to date, and to identify practical actions and interventions to be taken forwards.”

We’ve been in touch with Futurelab as this is something that Real Projects would like to be involved in. At the moment we don’t have much more information than what we have posted on the blog! We’ll be letting futurelab know about the games degree link up and also our work with games based learning. As we find out more we will let you know.

p.s. I still can’t get twitter to work via my mobile phone…anyone got any ideas?

We have just finalised our link up with the Computer Games Degree at NUCA. We have agreed to take a student from the second year for a semester at a time. Sam is our first lucky student! The aim of the link is to provide the students with an insight into e-learning and learning technology and they help us to develop more games based learning within our own projects.

I’ve been interested in games development for sometime and have posted articles in the blog and visited several courses so its great to get the link up sorted. I view the link as a two-way process as I think there is a great deal that the students can teach us about Games Design.

As e-learning developers we are always looking for ways to improve and use new technology and innovations. This link up should allow us to do this. We’ve been talking to Caspian about using their new development tool and the students were very excited about the possibilities of working with the tool.

…finally….during the interview process we asked the students what their favourite game was and why? I can’t afford to buy all of the games that they mentioned but we are going to look out for monster hunter which is something of a classic in Japan!

At Learning Technologies I managed to catch a seminar about how the Navy has used PSP devices to deliver e-learning courses. Being involved in an e-learning company I’m naturally interested in how these devices are being used.

..so…I’ve bought one, along with some games and videos. I’m sure that there are lots of reviews of the hardware and the many games and gadgets available but here are my first impressions. The device looks quite robust and fits quite well when you are using it. There is a slot for a memory card and also a USB connection, the quality of the video from UMD discs and also the range of file formats that are supported is impressive.

I’ve bought a copy of FIFA 07 to try the gameplay and interface. I’ve only managed to lose each time I’ve played and never looked like scoring a goal but it was very easy to pick up the gameplay. There are a vast number of in game options using the variety of buttons which I’m sure extends the gameplay.

Personally I’m interested to see how we can use the device to deliver learning content. I’ve spoken to one client this morning who was impressed with the cost and possibilities that the device had. He’d looked at iphones but was put off by the cost of ownership. As we develop our relationship with the NUCA games degree I’m going to be interested to see how the students can make use of the PSP to deliver learning objects.

The PSP also has a web browser and we’ll be looking to see what we can deliver via this and the memory card.

I did buy a brain train game and thought I was doing quite well until it told me that I’m 20 years over my brain age! I’ll need to do some practice.

After talking to the team at Norwich University College of the Arts we are close to setting up a link with the Games Degree. I’ve been interested in Games Design and how the skills of games developers might transfer to e-learning for some time. I’ll have more news about what we are planning in the next few weeks but the RP team and NUCA are excited about the link up. Thanks to Rod Green over at NUCA for helping to get everything set up!

More news on this soon….