“How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days”

Gamasutra - Feature

Not really a technology but I thought a good article on rapid prototyping. Here is the cutout list to give you an idea of what is inside

Handy Cut-Out List!

Setup: Rapid is a State of Mind

• Embrace the Possibility of Failure - it Encourages Creative Risk Taking
• Enforce Short Development Cycles (More Time != More Quality)
• Constrain Creativity to Make You Want it Even More
• Gather a Kickass Team and an Objective Advisor – Mindset is as Important as Talent
• Develop in Parallel for Maximum Splatter

Design: Creativity and the Myth of Brainstorming

• Formal Brainstorming Has a 0% Success Rate
• Gather Concept Art and Music to Create an Emotional Target
• Simulate in Your Head – Pre-Prototype the Prototype

Development: Nobody Knows How You Made it, and Nobody Cares

• Build the Toy First
• If You Can Get Away With it, Fake it
• Cut Your Losses and “Learn When to Shoot Your Baby in the Crib”
• Heavy Theming Will Not Salvage Bad Design (or “You Can’t Polish a Turd”)
• But Overall Aesthetic Matters! Apply a Healthy Spread of Art, Sound, and Music
• Nobody Cares About Your Great Engineering

General Gameplay: Sensual Lessons in Juicy Fun

• Complexity is Not Necessary for Fun
• Create a Sense of Ownership to Keep ‘em Crawling Back for More
• “Experimental” Does Not Mean “Complex”
• Build Toward a Well Defined Goal
• Make it Juicy!

I have been thinking about the alternate realities that people enjoy in WoW and 2nd Life, etc. The hardcore users of which are becoming less fringe. People that I respect: very intelligent, reliable, productive, admirable; are members. They still express a bit of embarrassment talking about their pleasure in these pursuits, but why? It is no stranger than the D & D nerdsessions we had as youths(some of us anyway).

I found this quote of PKDs in an old article. I twittered the name of the article for googling(what crazy words I use these days!)

The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Parmenides taught that the only things that are real are things which never change… and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus taught that everything changes. If you superimpose their two views, you get this result: Nothing is real. There is a fascinating next step to this line of thinking: Parmenides could never have existed because he grew old and died and disappeared, so, according to his own philosophy, he did not exist. And Heraclitus may have been right—let’s not forget that; so if Heraclitus was right, then Parmenides did exist, and therefore, according to Heraclitus’ philosophy, perhaps Parmenides was right, since Parmenides fulfilled the conditions, the criteria, by which Heraclitus judged things real.

Later in the article he discusses the creation of virtual worlds breeding fake fakers. Worth a read.

Mother’s Day 1974

In the pursuit of my path through grad school, I have been given the term Distributed Cognition. Thanks, Pamela.

people think in conjunction and partnership with others and with the help of culturally provided tools and implements(Salomon).

What is it? Proponents argue that cognition is not to be found within the head only; rather cognition is distributed over other people and tools. From everything I have read it does not seem to be defined very well as a theory. Rather, it seems like a broad educa-psycholo-technical framework.

I like the idea that a facet of our thinking is not only within ourselves but embedded within our world, animate and inanimate objects. It has that “Ghost in the machine” vibe.

From a designers POV I hope that this is so, because I am trying to both, get people to think about a particular topic and not think about how I am doing it. Did that make sense?

Found this on BoingBoing! Looks great. They also have a free workshop which is a total soup-to-nuts on game design and deployment.

I have been asked to look into Moodle. According to Moodle, it is:

A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning. A virtual Learning Environment.

It is modular and scalable so that it can be customized for a small school or group to a large university w/ 200,000 students. They have 34 pages of add-ons and plug-ins . These include things like: a multiple choice quiz, forums, discussion lists and…

• Activities
• Resource types
• Question types
• Data field types (for the database activity)
• Graphical themes
• Authentication methods
• Enrollment methods
• Content Filters

There are many people who love it. Here is an article from a school that implements it. The author writes about how successful the implementation has been. Students, parents and teachers all contibute and use the Website that they use Moodle to create.

Sam Dean, in an article at  ostatic.com says:

… many people tied to delivering information and teaching in old formats don’t realize the opportunities they have in using new media to do so. That includes many bloggers, writers and others I know who could reach large audiences via online courses, webcasts, podcasts and more. If that sounds like you, getting to know Moodle could be a good first step for you.

It appears that Moodle can be just about whatever we want. I think it could be a welcome addition to Game Lab activities.

Many people seem to feel like it is a good, open source, free alternative Web CT. Particularly, since Blackboard was swallowed by them. Wikipedia has a good overview and links to resources.

I like the constructivist pedagogical approach. They emphasize collaboration, between students and teachers, in the learning experience. It has the ability to be a formal and structured VLE or a place where a student or teacher can improvise and tinker.

I just signed up for an account. I’ll report back on my progress

Only 2 weeks left in the semester. Now, I really must decide if I am joining the EDLT program. I don’t want to in many ways. It does not really excite me. I am not thrilled by pedagogical theories and obscure learning theorists. I like that the program is about technology but it is hard to commit to something I can’t get a good look at.

I am more interested with psychology & human and computer interactions, alternative input methods, games and game theory. Only problem there is that we don’t really have that here. We have a psychology department but the prerequisites would add a year to a graduate degree.

Several people have said that I should just do the EDLT because it is easy… I can’t do that. It seems too boring. I need to find out how flexible it is. If I can customize what I am doing then, maybe I will do it. Otherwise, I will need to rethink everything again.

We are still going through the old pictures and Deanne pulls out this on with a laugh.

This was taken in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. I spent about a month there just bumming around. Everyone who sees this laughs and says it looks like I am posing in front of MY restaurant.

I ate at the Restaurant Islamic nearly every day. The food was great and cheap. I was told by British ex-pats that it was one of the safest places to eat as well. I did not get sick once. That is amazing for me. If anyone is going to get food poisoning… it is going to be me.

I don’t have many pictures of this wonderful place and the wonderful people who looked after me.

I loved Sarawak and would go back again in a heartbeat. My favorite part of my stay there was my visit to the Mulu caves.

How about this picture of me on Fox Glacier in New Zealand… maybe i’ll blog more about this later. This picture reminds me of how stupid I can be.

My Mrs. was going through old documents and folders and she came across this old photo of when we first met. What a hairy bunch! Oh, the drains that we clogged.

This was a fun Christmas in Scotland in 1995. I don’t remember the dread-locked fella’s name… i think maybe Tony. Everyone else… well, you know who you are. Anyway, I think this was in The Moorings… I recognize some folks in the back but only remember Wee Al, he is drinking the pint behind me.

Way Hey! Lets do some more cleaning and get those old pictures dusted off and digitized.

Yeah, springtime is here. We are glad to be back in Las Cruces. Both of us were talking about how this last trip changed our perspective on this little town and the life we have here. Its warm (OK maybe a little too warm at times - nothing a little refrigerated air can’t fix), and sunny. Life is easygoing and at a different pace. And it is beautiful in it’s own way. Here is a detail of my back patio. The sun don’t half beat the crap out of things.