Official Session Name: (4pm)
Game mechanics used for learning – Douglas Whatley (CEO Breakaway)
Summary:
Really interesting talk – exploring how “game mechanics” themselves can (and should) affect the player.
Ecampus Takeaway:
This session really nailed the idea that the ever-popular “jeopardy trivia game” is just a damned training exercise. It doesn’t involve true “learning,” and isn’t really a game! (Boom!)
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Official Session Name: (2:30pm)
“How to Create an Effective Sim/Game Strategy”
Summary:
Christopher Hardy, a repected dude from Defense Acquisition University (DAU), talks about what they’ve learned. How they are much like corporate training (for many US Government agencies). Key difference is: Their students HAVE to take and pass their classes. … much more…
Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have a use case. Don’t build a game where all they learn is the game.” (and much more… this talk was gold)
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Official Session Name: (1:30)
B-HIVE: A Human Behavioral Definition Simulation Environment
Summary:
The guy who created DigiPen basically tells his life story (which is damned cool, honestly), rambled slightly about cool work he’s done for various government agencies, then talked about machine learning project he’s pioneered.
Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have the student make the game – that is the way to teach them”
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Official Session Name: (11:30am)
Strategicplay® with LEGO® Serious Play®
Summary / Ecampus Takeaway:
We were given bags of LEGOs, and went through some exercises to show us how using your hands can help anyone with thinking and communication. (mostly bizarrely worthless to me. but led to a good quick chat with a neighbor, who suggested many cool projects/links)
Session was basically being a big advertisement for their wacky consultant service(ugh), but got good leads accidentally from neighbor.
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Official Session Name: (10:30am)
Panel: “From Slate to Chalk to Tablets and Apps”
Summary / Ecampus Takeaway:
The conference really gets started, with some great discussion of the real world state of educational gaming (with some specific examples/links).
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Official Session Name: (9am)
The Serious Games Market : Segment Size (and Where Opportunity Lies)
Summary:
Marketing folks rambled about marketing crap, and I worried I was at the wrong conference (until a following session, where I confirmed I was in the right place).
Ecampus Takeaway:
The interesting thing about this conference was how it threw such a diverse group into the same room (from corporate training tool marketers to educational researchers to military contractors).
Raw Notes: Continue reading
Warning: I’ll be posting all my notes from the excellent 2011 Serious Play Conference (a three day event hosted at DigiPen, which I attended in August).
I’ve tried to do this for several other conferences I’ve attended over the past 2 years, and each time I end up getting distracted before I finish covering the event (usually due formatting photos, or worrying over the text summaries).
So this time, I’m going to… Continue reading
Jeppe Carlson (Playdead): 4:30pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)
puzzle designer discusses his process for designing much-lauded physics puzzles in recent indie game hit, Limbo.
Mostly interesting to hear about the tools they used. One of their programmers created an AI element which automatically playtests the level every time you compile it (run the level, and instantly see what most players would do in it). I think this was a huge insight into why the game turned out so well. Ingenius idea (to simulate the average player). Continue reading
Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.), Kyle Gabler (2D Boy), Matthew Wegner (Flashbang Studios), Kyle Gray (Tomorrow Corporation), George Fan (PopCap Games) and Brad Wardell (Stardock) : 3pm -4pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)
Each speaker described a game they’d made (or prototyped) which they considered a complete failure. They went into detail about why they exactly they thought it failed.
Some very interesting stories about their quick prototypes (much like the exercise I’d quickly whip up for various instructors at OSU’s Ecampus), and a strong theme around “get to prototype asap, and start testing it.” Continue reading
Jason Booth (Harmonix Music Systems) and Sylvain Dubrofsky (Harmonix Music Systems): 1:30am – 2:30am
(official GDC brief)
I went to this because I’m a big Rock Band fan. Was hoping they’d expose their development process, but they didn’t really go into useful detail.
Hard to say really. They have a lot of cooks. They made a lot of prototypes. They didn’t have time for a lot of careful testing. There are lessons to be learned, but this talk wasn’t as directly useful as others.
Continue reading
