[game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

[Ian Schreiber]

Has anyone tried a peer-to-peer approach on this? Meaning, one of the graded 
assignments would be to download and evaluate an authoring tool (UDK, GameMaker, 
Alice, Scratch, Kodu, Unity, etc. - there are so many these days), go through 
its tutorials/documentation, and present its strengths and weaknesses, that sort 
of thing? Then instead of us mandating a tool, the students choose...




________________________________
From: Adam Parker <aparker at qantmcollege.edu.au>
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Cc: Mike Reddy <Mike.Reddy at newport.ac.uk>
Sent: Wed, March 9, 2011 6:49:04 PM
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

Hi,

We've also had success with designers working in UDK without programmer support. 
This was not by choice for them btw, but was a necessity arising out of limited 
programmer numbers in their cohort.

Our students built a sidescrolling puzzle/platformer with a vibrant secondary 
world - a Psychonauts feel, according to several users during playtesting - by 
using Kismet and a little Unrealscript hacking. Some of what they wanted, such 
as variable gravity or transformable origami characters with variable powers, 
could not be achieved due to limits on their understanding of code. (On the 
other hand, we got a good lesson in positive scope reduction to polish core 
experience, so a win nonetheless.)


On the language point, you might be also interested to know that our design 
students are getting into C# through Unity. We now have two groups of twenty 
(from a cohort of around 95) who are building their abilities through 
student-initiated and facilitated tutorials. I was surprised, but pleasantly, 
when they organised and ran these weekly sessions independent of our curriculum.

As we were bringing Unity into the curriculum this year, my initial suspicion 
had been that it might have been a little too intense a language for first 
years, and so was planning to run with Javascript instead when we hit it in our 
prototyping courses later this year.

Happily, this doesn't seem the case. They're all helping each other pop out top 
down shooters and collaborating around C# code as much as mechanics. I'd now 
recommend looking at C# if the mix is right for your designers.

This outcome also helps the self-directed learning and student culture building 
agendas that I have, and in future might allow academic staff to focus instead 
on developing deeper practice awareness and theoretical integration, so FTW all 
round... :)

There's obviously a boundary on how far the tools support designerly activity at 
present, but we seem to be moving towards a Photoshop for games. At least, 
students are looking for it.

~Adam

(PS: I would happily wander over to Python, given the context...Also, the point 
about Unrealscript as crufty is valid. Though a good handle on its vagaries will 
allow for quality work to appear, of course.)





On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 8:10 AM, Mike Reddy <Mike.Reddy at newport.ac.uk> wrote:

Just today, as it happens, three former students from the Arts side (i.e. Not 
programmers) showed off their IGF recognised Indiecade prize winning game, 
Q.U.B.E. (www.qubegame.co.uk). They had used UDK and scripting. If you look at 
this, I'm actually envious that such a cool creation could have NO programmers 
involved. As with everything, tools develop to "outneed" their creators. But 
again, this reinforces Brenda's point.

>

>Mike

>P.S. Anyone need a washed out programmer?

>

>_______________________________________________

>game_edu mailing list

>game_edu at igda.org

>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

>



-- 
Adam Parker
Senior Lecturer, Games Design
Qantm College 
Qantm College Melbourne Campus
235 Normanby Rd
South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia
+61 (0) 3 8632 3400   | Phone
+61 (0) 3 8632 3401   | Fax
www.sae.edu | Web
www.qantm.com.au | Web
www.saeshortcourses.com | Web 
SAE National Provider Code: 0273. SAE CRICOS Provider Codes: NSW 00312F. SAE 
Institute Pty Ltd, ABN: 21 093 057 973
This email (including all attachments) is confidential and may be subject to 
legal privilege and/or copyright. The information contained within this email 
(including all attachments) should only be viewed if you are the intended 
recipient. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender 
immediately and delete this email from your system along with any copies that 
have been made. Any unauthorised use, which includes saving, printing, copying, 
disseminating or forwarding is prohibited and may result in breach of 
confidentiality, privilege or copyright. If you wish to unsubscribe or choose 
not to receive further commercial electronic messages from SAE Institute or any 
grouped/associated entities please send an email this address with the word 
UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20110309/e1dfbc1f/attachment.htm>