On Games: Learning and Beyond
issue #4 October 2017
Design a Game monthly newsletter
Hi,
here is your (more or less) monthly dose of ideas & projects about applied games, learning and game design research.
In this newsletter I mainly write about applied videogames, but this time I created a board game on the theme of platform coops. I will be presenting a “beta” of the game at the Mozilla Festival in London on October 27-29 – so come play with me if it fits your schedule!
I will present earlier versions of the game at Pisa’s Internet Festival and at Altre Forme Di Vita together with a short talk on designing applied games on social / political themes.
Here I will post a printable version of the game.
Recently I have been doing research on (1) how to make a museum experience enjoyable for kids, and (2) on articulating narrative through chat bots; the projects are draft but I hope to send online links in next newsletter.
Just an analogy I noticed in modelling experiences for museums, that the traps of gamification as decoration are a danger for museums just as they are for educational videogames.
A new source to check is Explorable Explanations, a remarkable set of interactive experiences to explore formal models of complex topics – it is all free and online.
In the contest of limited budget development of applied games, you still will need to model AI behaviour of Non Player Characters (NPCs): this is a particularly clear analysis of the available techniques: How we developed robust AI in DwarfCorp.
In the infinite exploration of games and narrative, this talk on level design, pacing, agency and narrative is quite interesting. To be considered for those in applied games is that branching or generative environments have to deal with the problem of certainty of delivery of you content.
Cool stuff:
1. Why software requirements should be clear and understandable
2. Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories
If you have requests and suggestions just send a tweet to @ppolsinelli. Cheers,
Pietro
ppolsinelli@gmail.com
Hi,
here is your (more or less) monthly dose of ideas & projects about applied games, learning and game design research.
In this newsletter I mainly write about applied videogames, but this time I created a board game on the theme of platform coops. I will be presenting a “beta” of the game at the Mozilla Festival in London on October 27-29 – so come play with me if it fits your schedule!
I will present earlier versions of the game at Pisa’s Internet Festival and at Altre Forme Di Vita together with a short talk on designing applied games on social / political themes.
Here I will post a printable version of the game.
Recently I have been doing research on (1) how to make a museum experience enjoyable for kids, and (2) on articulating narrative through chat bots; the projects are draft but I hope to send online links in next newsletter.
Just an analogy I noticed in modelling experiences for museums, that the traps of gamification as decoration are a danger for museums just as they are for educational videogames.
A new source to check is Explorable Explanations, a remarkable set of interactive experiences to explore formal models of complex topics – it is all free and online.
In the contest of limited budget development of applied games, you still will need to model AI behaviour of Non Player Characters (NPCs): this is a particularly clear analysis of the available techniques: How we developed robust AI in DwarfCorp.
In the infinite exploration of games and narrative, this talk on level design, pacing, agency and narrative is quite interesting. To be considered for those in applied games is that branching or generative environments have to deal with the problem of certainty of delivery of you content.
Cool stuff:
1. Why software requirements should be clear and understandable
2. Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories
If you have requests and suggestions just send a tweet to @ppolsinelli. Cheers,
Pietro
ppolsinelli@gmail.com
