I was excited to see yesterday that the Gamestar Mechanic Beta is now open to the public, swiftly signing up and beginning to play through the first season. I first saw the game in Katie Salen’s presentation during the Serious Games Summit last March, and was immediately captivated by its premise and generally top notch production values. I highly recommend giving the game a go, whether you’re interested in games for education or even just for a bit of fun. Yes, you heard that right, this is a new standard for serious / educational / meaningful games in that it is indeed fun in its own right.

Click here to play Gamestar Mechanic

Gamestar Mechanic is a game about making games. In particular it’s designed as an immersive interactive primer in game design, no programming or art skills required. Right away you’re thrown a bunch of simple game challenges to beat, clashing egos with the other players in the arcade, learning the basic controls of the top down or side scrolling interface. It gets really interesting when you stumble upon a malfunctioning game reactor core thats about to go critical. The games are all broken and the facility will blow unless you fix it. And so the centrepeice of the experience comes into play, a big red switch that flicks you between play mode, and EDIT. You’re now able to rearrange all of a levels elements, configure enemy’s AI, set win conditions, etc All of the fundamental building blocks of game design are there, and while a veteran designer might be frustrated by the limitations of the interface, it in insanely easy to pick up and be productive with right off the bat.

An interesting aspect of its implementation is the heavy focus on narrative, something that I’d expect was a hard sell to the funding bodies, but pays off in spades. GameLab have done a terrific job of crafting the world of Factory 7. The depth of their imaginary world is immediately apparent, a completely original canon wrapped in political intrigue and quirky characters, anchored by a classical hero’s journey tale of a young “mechanic” who aspires to be a great game designer. This drives the player through the various play / edit challenges that the game presents, feeding shreds of the story in as you progress through the world’s arcades and collect new items with which to build your own levels. The balance and tuning in the game really is downright professional, and something which I could easily see becoming a hit as a cart for the DS whether people knew it was “educational” or not.

This really is a shining example of where “Serious Games” need to go. A few things that GSM gets right that others in the field should pay special attention to:
– The lessons are interwoven into the gameplay, you really do learn by experiencing the mechanics at play. After editing your first level, it completely changes the way you look at all the play challenges after that. They gently introduce elements into levels like timing, AI pattern recognition, projectiles, gravity, all these building blocks are experienced first hand by the player before they’re then thrown into their toolkit
– Even if you didn’t give two hoots about game design, this would be fun. It stands alone as an intriguing, innovative game that is smart and well balanced. I can probably count on one hand the amount of other games with any inkling of educational content that I could say the same for
– The immersion in this narrative isnt disturbed by any hard link to curriculum. This is SO key. The game makes no mention of learning anywhere, it is not being sold as an “educational” game, which removes so many barriers when it comes to uptake with students
– The aesthetic is magical, leveraging common elements from the very hip eastern / western fusion comic style, but still managing to stay different enough to avoid looking like a copy-cat. The animations, character design, coloring, music, and sound effects work harmoniously to present a world you just want to keep playing in.

I’m going back to finish off season one. Everyone should give this a shot, and send your feedback to the creators, they deserve to have a strong community behind the project to help them refine the final product.

It is my sincere hope that the project continues to get funding and is as successful financially as it is creatively.

I Fell In Love with the Majesty of Colors via Kongregate

Lovely art game that loosely fits into the Perspectives genre of Meaningful Play:

“Last night I dreamed I was an immense beast, floating in darkness. I knew nothing of the surface world until I fell in love with the majesty of colors.

“(I Fell in Love With) The Majesty of Colors” is a pixel-horror game that puts the player behind the tentacles of a titanic, writhing sea creature. It’s a tale of love, loss, and balloons with five different endings. Will you befriend the humans or fight them? The choice is up to you.”

Its quick, tidy, charming, and all kinds of awesome.

Jane had a revelation recently: that the games she develops are “Experience Grenades”

From her blog entry

“Experience grenades: You play them, and that’s like pulling the pin on the grenade. Nothing has to happen right away. Nothing has to change or be solved right away. Then, you wait. It’s later—an hour later, a day later, a week later, a month later… it goes off in your head, like the delayed explosion of a grenade.

You realize: You’ve learned something. Your cognitive patterns are different. Your view of the possibilities in the world around you has changed. Your sense of your own potential is changed. You’re ready for something you didn’t even know was coming. You understand something intuitively that seems alien or confusing to others”

This was particularly interesting for me, as it reinforces the requirement for Meaningful Play experiences to be immediately engaging and fun, because she’s completely right in that a lot of the time you’re not going to see or feel the benefit that the experience is having on you right away.

Lucky for us then that the medium we wield has a tendency to be quite a lot of fun.

Very excited that Jane will be coming to New Zealand for Webstock in February

Straylight will be at the Animfx conference this weekend taking place in the Wellington Convention Centre 14th – 16th of November.

Visit our booth to have a play round with 3 of our games, included a first time look at our brand new title. I cant tell you what it is just yet, but I can say that if you’re into Meaningful Play as a way to spread the word on climate change, then you should definitely go out of our way to pay us a visit.

I’ll be taking part in an online symposium later in the week tackling the challenges that face virtual retail.

October 29-31 2008
An online symposium to discuss future possibilities for retail in Web 3D and Virtual Worlds, and the impacts these may have on our lives.
Free Event.

Having developed a number of online retail solutions we’ve had a real mixed bag of experience ranging from straight-up, flat web retail environments through to highly dynamic spatial navigation structures.

My theme (which wont be a surprise to anyone that reads this blog regularly) is “Where’s the Value”. We have to ask ourselves this question every single day. It can be so easy to get excited by the cool factor of a new technology and be completely distracted from the reality of whether new technology is actually going to enhance the user experience of your target demographic.

For more info checkout the The Future Telco Network

Thanks to John Eyles of Telecom New Zealand for organising this.

Great video, definitely worth a watch, well done to Daniel Floyd for putting it together.

(I know I’m a little bit late of the gate on this one, but better late than never)

• Tangental Learning is great, its a step in the right direction, but I think the video misses the most important point when it comes to games and learning. To ensure effective retention and transference of knowledge you need to actually integrate the knowledge / skill that you’re teaching into the gameplay experience as opposed to simply being a sideline attraction. Thats not to say that it needs to be a “shoved down your throat” as a critical path objective, but you need to reward your player for applying their new found knowledge or skill. That’s what Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning is all about. It’s the actual doing that cements the understanding.
• This type of video format (ZP inspired or not) works a heck of a lot better than a daunting essay
• Entertainment mediums that consume a significant amount of a person’s time have a sort of cultural responsibility to the player. Culture is no longer passed on through bards or round campfires, but through movies, books, and yes even games. We need to think more about the lasting impression that an interactive experience has on someone, and how that helps define us as individuals and a collective culture.

Just had this book and page pointed out to me called Changing the Game by David Edery and Ethan Mollick. After reading through the synopsis I ordered a copy right away,

Changing the Game

From the preface:

“Games can make it fun for employees to learn how to manage a supply chain. Games can encourage customers to voluntarily spend hours learning about the features of a product. Games can encompass massive economies of virtual goods and services that are worth billions of real-world dollars. All of this, and much more, is happening right now at the intersection of business and games, and the forward-thinking companies at that junction have already begun to reap the great rewards of their effort. There are so many ways in which games are transforming the nature of work and play, that whether you work in a business, a governmental organization, or a non-profit, there is almost certainly a way to take advantage of games to better accomplish your goals.

So, are you ready to play?”

They’ve also put together a great page with links to quick fire examples of how game mechanics have been used in various forms to promote, education, and entertain, from the Google Image Labeler through to Americas Army.

Games for Non-Gamers 101

Brian Crecente over at Kotaku took the initiative to hit up the big three console makers as to the future of educational content on their system.

You can see the full interview here

Here’s a distilled version of what they said:

• They’re already doing it, and have had wild success with Brain Age, Wii Fit, etc
• Taking a broader approach to what “educational” means. It doesn’t need to be a curriculum thing, more like personal development / expression (see: Wii Music, My Spanish Coach), and games like Mystery Case Files that require more mental activity and focus, but are still primarily entertainment products
• Nice quote around how games in general can be a positive influence “Games can open up the imagination, just like a good book or movie can”

• Very committed to it as a driver in expanding the mass market relevance of the 360
• Focusing on development tools (XNA) and distribution models (XBLA Community Marketplace) that lower the cost of development for consoles, hence making consoles a more accessible platform for smaller educational projects
• While both Nintendo and Sony pointed to their links with charities as their commitment to social responsibility, it seems Microsoft are the only ones invested to pushing forward the field of developing games which specifically address an educational or social problem

• Agrees consoles are a good platform for delivery of educational content, as the Gen Y demographic are fluent with their interfaces
• Have already had some success with putting the PSP into schools
• Educational games are a “secondary” (maybe tertiary, after casual entertainment?) focus for the console, and as such will become more relevant as the PS3’s 10 year lifecycle plays out
• They see Buzz as having meaningful elements through development of general knowledge
• Sights LittleBigPlanet as “exactly the type of game with the potential to be held up as providing a positive influence”

In short, Nintendo are happy they’re doing their bit, Microsoft are investing in the progression of game design as an educational medium, and Sony seem focused on extending the value proposition of entertainment titles through meaningful content such as user-created content.

In partnership with “Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Parsons, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, and other colleges”, Microsoft are launching a Games for Learning Institute at NYU, specifically focused on creating educational games to teach maths, science, and engineering.

Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said that “The Games for Learning Institute at NYU is a great example of how technology can change how students learn, making it far more natural and intuitive.”

It’s a great time for Meaningful Play. As the financial market continues to crumble along with educational standards, its becoming very clear that a brute force “throw more money at it” approach is not an effective solution for effectively engaging with Gen Y.

We need to be working smarter not harder to revitalize curriculum and teaching tools so they are relevant to todays students. Gen Y’s demand participation, personalization, interactivity, and community. Traditional teaching methods just cant compete with the engagement these kids experience through social networks and gaming. And what’s more, games aren’t just cool, but a superior method for understanding and experimenting with concepts and principles.

There is clearly huge opportunity in games based learning through Meaningful Play.

P.S. Over at Straylight we put up a couple of new pages explaining our approach to the utilization of Meaningful Play, in particular it’s application across the three “genres” we see, one of which is Education. Keen for everyone’s thoughts

So I was playing a game the other day that made me think.

In this case it was Square Enix’s Final Fantasy IV for the DS. Which, incidentally, is a very much better game than it’s predecessor on the same console.

The mechanic in the game that stuck with me is a very simple thing, but nonetheless was a striking contrast to the norm in the majority of games. Role-Playing Games), they’re called. They give you a number of characters that go from absurdly weak at the start of the game, to fantastically world-breakingly strong at the end of the game. It’s the accepted norm that as time passes (in-game) characters get stronger.

Your strength, stamina, vitality, wisdom, charisma etc… all get better.

sub-images may be ©Square Enix, displayed under fair use.

As I was leveling up to defeat the next huge boss under a large waterfall, I noticed that a character in my party, Tellah, was getting weaker. In the gaming sense, Tellah was still gaining from experience, his intellect and spirit were increasing, but his strength, speed and stamina were decreasing.

He is an old character, getting older.

The fact that he wasn’t in quite the same shape as his team members subtly conveys themes of aging not usually seen in video games. Not having yet played the latest in the Metal Gear series), I can’t comment on how it treats aging, and the issues that it brings. But it was great to be confronted with this in the context of play…

It almost was enough to make me not want to level up, to stall the progression of time. It gave me the feeling that time is slipping through your fingers, not wanting to confront the reality that we will all face… eventually.

There are many games (and movies for that matter) that deal with issues of death and loss, but the subtlety in this mechanic made for a particularly poignant moment for me, small and quiet in the context of the bigger story and themes passing by in the rest of the game, but nonetheless there.

The experience of FF-IV is much better off for this.

If I had this when I was a kid, maybe I’d be looking down on the world from atop a plump nest-egg of spare change, living in the Bahamas bankrolling Mojitos on the interest.

Either way, this seems like a great way to inspire kids to feed their piggy banks.

What I’m not completely convinced of are the linkages between the gameplay and the real world message that we should be teaching kids about the power of savings and investment. This seems to sidestep the issue a little by giving them an immediate reward for putting their money away.

The trick will be whether the kids then see the benefit of those savings down the track, and can then substitute in their own motivation to bank money (as opposed to blow it on candy) sighting that long term benefit, as opposed to just putting pennies away for a new suit of virtual armor.

Another thing I found a while ago in a similar vein is Handipoints which rewards kids for completing household chores.

I’ll be speaking here tomorrow at the Leipzig Games Convention as part of the Serious Games Panel. If you’re at the conference then come along, it should be a good session. We’re going to focus on what we actually mean by Serious Games, and a lot of the typical issues with achieving creative and commercial success with the application of games outside of pure entertainment.

Panel: Serious Games

Wednesday, 20.08.2008
11:30 am – 12:20 pm

Conference Floor
Room E
Business

André Peschke
Bob Bates
Joost Schouten
Tim Nixon

I’ve been taking a little time to look around Small Worlds and it’s quite a unique addition to the spectrum of virtual worlds out there.

• It’s Flash, and hence immediately multi-platform
• It understands that 3D is by no means a necessity and for most people is actually an unwelcome complication
• It’s tidy. They obviously have some great communication designers working for them
• It’s a layer over existing applications linking into YouTube, Flickr etc and enhancing an experience that people are already familiar with. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel!
• It works. Nuff said for anyone who’s had the pleasure of attempting navigation of most other virtual worlds
• Their avatar creation system is easy and fun. The right balance between usability and freedom
• The commercialization model isn’t in your face.
• Being able to create avatars for your friends and mail it to them? Brilliant!
• Adorable little pets

• Let people see what it looks like inside right from the front page
• Less text in the tutorial screens, I wanna play not read
• A shade more vertical space to move around would be nice
• Walking around spaces needs a little tweaking
• Trying to click on the close button of a moving dialog box is somewhat tricky

Compared to Google’s recently released Lively, this is slick, fast, and most importantly, functional. I’ve got to say I was terribly unimpressed by Lively, and hope that they’re planning refining it a lot more. My money is on Lively going down a similar route to Google Video, where their top tier entry into the virtual world space comes by way of acquisition as opposed to internal development.

The long term plan for Small Worlds iis to expand the world and empower third parties to add content in a consistent and efficient manner. This could be a great platform for the delivery of Meaningful Play, so we’ll be keeping an extra special eye on it.

Productivity and self-realisation seem to be increasingly important for us all. In fact part of the motivation for us establishing our stance on Meaningful Play was through our observation of increasing self-analysis in mainstream media (reality television) and literature (self-help books). We’re constantly looking for ways to make ourselves better, and its seems more than ever that there simply isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done.

I’m a massive fan of Tina Su’s excellent blog on “creativity, clarity, and happiness”. Through the blog she presents a clear and concise set of tactics for dealing with the issues which shackle us from becoming true masters of our own destiny.

Think Simple Now – Tina Su

Recently I’ve been thinking about how these sorts of lessons might be communicated in game form. While both Wii Fit and Sony’s Eye Toy Kinetic focus on the physical and meditative elements of a harmonious existence, there has yet to be a mainstream success that tackles some of the more psychological elements.

This line of thinking brought me back to the format of the Chinese Proverb. Such neat and tidy little nuggets of insight they are to reflect on. What if we could create actual gameplay metaphors to package insights such as Tina’s into a format as succinct as a proverb? The only missing element would be a system to tie these micro-experiences together, delivering them contextually to the user in response to their current state of mind, and tracking their progression down the path to enlightenment.

An obvious complication would be the sensitivity of the personal information that the user would put into the game (tracking feelings such as happiness, self worth, productiveness, etc), and the reliance on players to be honest with their inputs for the game to meaningfully respond to their state of mind. As such the game would be an incredibly personal experience, providing quite the challenge when it comes to testing. However, I feel that if inputs from the game could be shared anonymously, then there may well be people out there happy to share their stories from the path to self-realisation in a similar way to Tina.

Tales of Tales: Interview with Takayoshi Sato

It’s fantastic to have industry vets like Sato sing the praises of Serious Games / Meaningful Play. A huge issue with this business of making games that matter is convincing good developers that the design challenges present in this sort of work are just as, if not more interesting than those in the core gamer demographic.

While we see a lot of complaints from developers wanting more freedom, more challenges, more ambition in their developments, few have pointed to the creative and economic potential of Meaningful Play as a way for the industry to step forward. So, let’s help Sato out and get the word out there!

Check of the official site of Takayoshi Sato to see his work with Virtual Heroes.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.