I play games

This part of the project has been a really hard thing for me. Not because of the content or lack of creativity, but because it goes against my creative process as a whole. I tend to be a sit down and crank out the creative project all at once type of person... this narrative process has been "asking" me to workshop an idea for a length of time, which seems so foreign to me. Making it very hard to focus and work on an idea!! So far, working over time has not worked well for me, I am a visual person by nature so I have done a few little sketches to generate the "look" of the story in my head, but I really need to sit down and write it out.  My concept is a game to teach 4th - 5th graders the basics of computer essentials, specifically the functionality of some of the primary hardware components.  The game will be called "Prof. Ludlow and the personal computer". Learners will enter Prof. Ludlow's lab and help him to successfully build a personal computer....

This past week we have been going through the process of brain storming (Game storming) ideas for a game. This has been a fun creative exercise to think through the process of creating a story that could eventually be turned into a learning game.  For me, the gamification of a learning idea has been tricky, not because I can't think of a story, but more so because in my day to day life I am not "teaching"... so trying to figure out something that I want to teach or have someone learn isn't intuitive to me.  In the end, I am pulling inspiration from my daughter and some of the experience I see her not obtaining in school. Last semester in another one of my classes I built a few projects around the idea that in her school they use technology, but there is no course work teaching the students ABOUT the technology.   With that base idea, I started to work through how I can provide this material in a fun and engaging way. I don't have all the details of the story worke...

  After completing the Quantic Gamer Motivation Survey  I was given the gamer type of "Slayer". In general this profile fits me pretty well, as most of the games I have typically enjoyed have put me in the place as the hero trying to "save the day" and really immersed in the story as a pivotal component. However, this profile is a stark contrast to my mentor game for this course.  My mentor game is Zoombinis, a logical puzzle game that has the player navigating a group of Zoombinis from stage to stage completing random puzzles to get as many of the little creatures to the end.  So far, there appears to be no action... or "main" character that saves the day. Its just me as the "controller" moving these little creatures from point A to point B, which in my opinion, is a big deviation from a "Slayer".  Looking at the game from a motivational standpoint, this game could be considered in line with my profile, in that it is very calm and ind...

Hello!  This is my about me page for my blog associated with my ISTL 7384 Designing Games for Learning, if you have made it this far... you are probably looking for some information "About me", so lets begin I guess.  I have played some form of games most of my life. Starting out with an Atari and moving all the way up to modern consoles with an Xbox One. I have dabbled in computer gaming, but always found more accessibility with console systems, so have always leaned more toward them. However, I have never limited myself to just digital gaming and often find myself at a table enjoying a board game with friends! (If I am speaking my truth, as I have aged, I have found board games to be more enjoyable to video games!!) Over the course of my gaming lifecycle, I have gone through phases of what I like. Starting with side scrolling adventure games, moving to RTS (Real time strategy) games, into FPS (First person shooting), and currently into Rouge like games. I will honestly play...