Students presenting in SecondLife - one last time!

The students from qualitative research methods during the Spring 2010 semester presented the results of their project during public talks in Second Life on our school island. They talked about art, music, games, dance clubs, tinies, anonymity, relationships, brands, real world architecture, and pregnancy in Second Life.  We have about 12 sessions total with usually two students presenting at a time. So far, we have had nice crowds at the sessions and I didn't have to eject anyone. Thanks to everyone who came out to listen and ask questions.

Here are a few pictures

From the relationship talk, here's what the presenter sees:

From one of the sports presentations, a view of one of the students and the images she used to illustrate her talk. She's wearing clothes she got at a tennis club in SecondLife.

More pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgregson/sets/72157623921898667/

End of the Semester - Post 1

IN the business of gaming class we had a play test session for our final. They had to turn in a short paper, but the focus was on games and donuts. One of the students in class - Mack Cameron - has developed a variety of board games in his spare time. So we play tested the Croquet game - actually based on croquet but with some very fun modifications - like being able to send the ball right at another player.  Lots of good violence and scheming was engaged in by all.

We also had a group playing Halo. We had hoped to play the Halo multiplayer beta but of course our wireless in the classroom wouldn't talk to the wireless receiver in the XBox. As the students said - what else is new.

Here are some pics of us having fun..ending up the semester as a pretty tight group that hopefully will do things together next year to make fun games.

More pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgregson/sets/72157624046039808/

End of the semester reactions to SecondLife

The students int eh Games & Society class had to write a final paper with their reactions to being content creators and consumers in SecondLife, plus anything else they wanted to say about their experiences.

Overall, the reactions were pretty positive. Maybe they were just blowing smoke up my skirt (figuratively since I don't wear skirts in class) to get a better grade. But I'm going to take them on face value.

Here's what theyliked
avatar customization
building tools
socializing with people from around the world
ability to host events
ability to create stuff
people were nice to them
people came to their party
people came to their presntations at the end of the semester
haunted mansions at Halloween


Here's what they didn't like
slow servers and software that just acted up occasionally
building took a lot of time
no goals, not clear what to do
no leveling up
limited game play
no good tutorials at the beginning - bad newbie experiences

Some thought SL should focus on builders and developers. Some thought SL should focus more on gamers. Others realized SL's future for business presentations. But they thought about SL and compared it to other things they know. This is a great improvement over some past classes who couldn't get any handle on what SL was. So I'm happy.

In reality, most won't use it again unless they have another class with me in the spring semester. But a few will. I was excited that they all managed to build things, they all went shopping and spent lindens; and they all talked to other people in the virtual world.And they all have had the expeirence of being content creators in a world that values such creators. That was one of my goals. And I think we accomplished that and much more. I was happy with how the semester turned out in terms of SL use. I'd do it again.

LInk to the games from this weekend's 24 hour game jam

24 Hour Game Jam sponsored by the IC Game Developers Club
The grups had to make a multi-level game using this quote as a constraint - "If you follow all the rules, you miss most the fun". Both groups decided to use GameMaker, software from YoYo Games.

Paradoxical Irony
Team consisted of Ashley Alicea (art), Ryan Giglio (programming), Carson Kjep (programming), and William Sisskind (level design). They all worked on the basic idea and how to implement the constraint
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/102725

Here are a few screen shots. More are available on request.

Jimmy's Crusade - http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/103624

Team consisted of Corey Jeffers, Chris Hendrickson, Jymmy Hayes, Greg Schulz, Jacob Gergh, Megan Crosen

 

They survived - 24 hours of game making is successfully over!

The two groups both finished their games right at 2pm, 24 hours after their start. Each game had levels, theme music, obstacles, a win condition. One group kind of lost their way and need to do some rethinking, but their game was playable. The other group kept their original goal simple and tuck with it - although they did rethink how to program it about 2AM.

Here are a couple of screen shots:

Paradoxical Irony

Jimmy's Crusade




THe students are fixing a couple of last minute bugs they found when they played them. THen they'll put the games up on the YoYoGames website. WHen that happens I will put the links up so you can play them too. They're also supposed to give me some art and screen shots and post mortems. I'll post them too.

Here are some pictures of the students playing each others games. Everybody was offering advice on strategy and cheering as level after level was completed.

 

 

A reporter covered the event so if a story appears I'll link to it.I think everyone had a great time. We're all excited about going to the Global Game Jam in January 2010. THey learned to work together and draw on each other's talents.

A very successful first time event. Here's hoping for many more!

The Game Jam is Still Going

6:30 aM - Sunday morning and the groups are doing good work. They have plans on the chalk boards and tasks are actually crossed out. Whew. One group has a (hand drawn and awesome looking) dinosaur skeleton in their background and it's called Jimmy's Crusade. The other group has a game name now - Pardoxical Irony.

The rooms look lived in - there are pillow and cups and RedBull cans and chip bags laying around. We even have one person asleep! (well - there were 2 but i got up a couple of minutes ago)

And here are people hard at work.

 

Sunday Noon - people are dragging. Turns out overnight both groups scrapped a lot of their code and came at their ideas in different ways. For one group it seems to be working out (Paradoxical Irony). The other group is having some issues. But nobody's throwing chairs or cussing more than normal. Jimmy's Crusade is pretty sure they lost the fun somewhere. We'll see here in 90 minutes. The art guys are cranking out some interesting assets - dinosaur and lunchboxes, water and animated fire. Here are some pictures from noonish.

24 HOUR GAME JAM IS ON!

From 2pm Saturday to 2pm Sunday, people are cranking out videogames at Ithaca College in a 24 Hour Game Jam sponsored by our IC Game Developers Club. 2 groups, 2 games. It's fun in and of itself. But it's also a warm up for the Global Game Jam in January that we hope to send a big group to.

They have to use this quote somehow in the game - If you follow all the rules, you miss the fun. It might be inspiration, might become a line of dialogue...it's up to the students.

Group 1 - Carson Kjep, Ryan Giglio, William Sisskind, Ashley Alicea
Group 2 - Chris  "The Guitar Hero" Hendrickson, Jymmy "Skwee-G" Hayes, Corey "Ronin-Rampant" Jeffers, Jacob "still thinking of a nickname" Gergh, Megan "Red" Crosen

We have the major food groups - salt, sugar, and soda. We'll be adding protein I"m sure (do goldfish crackers count as protein?) And coffee - probably lots of coffee.

I'll add pictures here and updates on their progress. If you're on campus, come check us out in Williams 218 and 219. If you're off campus, leave comments here and give us some encouragement. Saturday's pictures and updates are in this post. Sunday's pics and updates are in the next post - http://profkim.blogspot.com/2009/11/game-jam-is-still-going.html

 

 Supper break about 7 - pizza (the other basic food group). We watched some music videos for a mental break.

10pm - 8 hours in. The teams have levels being planned, characters being sketched and animated, and game mechanics being hashed out. Everybody is looking pretty energetic except our student in Italy who's off fora couple of hours of sleep since it's really really late there already - that's him in the skype box on the computer screen.

MIdnight - well - 1AM - everybody is still pretty much moving and working. We had to take a break for a Bombers party sub from Rogans. They deliver at 12:30. Very weird sammich too - philly cheesesteak and breaded boneless buffalo chicken strips. Now they've opened up the Red Bull. Ewww! That's all I have to say about that.


The art "departments" are cranking out sprites and backgrounds. The level designers are trying to come up with cool levels (these games have to have at least 3 levels). The programmers are trying to make GameMaker do what they want and that involves (as most programming does) a lot of cussing.

 

Students in Critical Analysis of Games Blog About Games

Image via Wikipedia

The students in my Critical Analysis of Games class this semester are blogging (I teach at Ithaca College and we're just starting up a new major in Game Design and Immersive Media). They have to apply the game design topics we're discussing in class to one or two games all semester. The goal is to get a really deep understanding of their game and show that they can apply the concepts in class to real world games.

They got to pick the game they wanted to analyze. Here are some of the games being studied this semester - Portal, Star Oceans 2, Psychonauts, Turok, Okami, Conkers Bad Fur Day, and Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice.

Here's a link to a list of their blogs - http://kimgregson.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=39

A second reason for the blogs is to help them establish a professional presence. I hopt that they will keep blogging as they go through the program. They'd love some comments on their blogs if you have time to take a look.

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• Great News (profkim.blogspot.com)

Great News

Image via Wikipedia

BIG NEWS!
The game design major at Ithaca College was officially approved. It will be a BFA in the Television-Radio department of the Roy H. Park School of Communication. It's multi-discipline and multi-school. Students take classes in screenwriting, programming, art history, as well as game design. They play and make analog games as well as videogames. They study analysis of games, the videogame industry, and legal issues. It will be in the catalog probably in 2010. Unfortunately students didn't know about it when they applied for admittance for the Fall 2009 school year. I need to get to work promoting it for Fall 2010. However, students already admitted can switch to the game major.

We have a website for the major - and a blog - the blog might become the site's homepage, still playing with that.

Homepage (for the moment) - http://parkgameportal.com/
Blog - http://parkgameportal.com/wordpress

On the website, you can play games and other projects made by students in the program, see some photos, read descriptions of the classes.

If you know anyone interested in studying game design, have them drop me an email at kgregson@ithaca.edu or give me a call at 607-274-7348 and I"ll try to answer their questions.

Visit from Firaxis Executive Producer

Image via Wikipedia

Firaxis makes the Sid Meier's Civilization games. Friday February 6, 2009, Barry Caudill and screenwriting alumni Liam ??? visited with students at Ithaca College. They gave some good advice for students interested in working in the videogame industry.

• The big message - it's tough to break into the industry. Don't give up. There are steps you can take to be more attractive to game companies.
  
• Be willing to start small and work up. Be adaptable and versatile.
  
• Communication is key - written, oral, with team members and managers, with publishers and consumers.
  
• Sometimes there are designer/writers, designer/scripter; at Firaxis they have designer/programmers.
  
• If you want to get into the industry as a designer you need some programming so you can create your own prototypes. You're better able to get across your own ideas if you can create your own prototypes.
  
• Quality Assurance is a good starting point especially if you want to move into a position as a producer.
  
  
• Companies are looking for experience which makes it tough for new grads. You can make your own game and take to the interview. It's not enough to have ideas - you have to make stuff. You can make videogames, game mods, even analog games (board/card games). Show you can implement ideas and finish stuff. There are lots of tools to use to make games - XNA Unreal engine, NeverEnding Knights engine, flash... You need to let people play your game and get feedback. So playtest early and often.
  Go to game jams - you work with a team to create a playable game.
  
• The more you know the easier it is to talk to other people on the team. They use a variety of software - Visual Studio, MS Office suite, visualization tools like Visio and PowerPoint, lots of project management tools, graphic tools like Photoshop and 3D StudioMax, Python and other scripting languages, XML for game text, and software for source control.
  
  And - to my students who wonder why I assign strange projects and make them play with boardgames about bean farming and zombie brains - - - see I don't make this stuff up. The pros give the same advice. And they'd both played Bohanza, the bean farming game - ha ha!
  
  Here's alum Liam Collins:
  
  

  
  Here is a photos of Barry Caudill:
  
  
  
  
  

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  • Game On! An Introduction to the Video Game Industry, February 6 (ithaca.edu)

Global Game Jam

Two students from the game design major here at Ithaca College went to SUNY Albany to participate in the Global Game Jam at the beginning of February 2009. They met people interested in making games from other colleges. Sounds like there was a ton of food and enough participants to have 6 groups making games

Here is a link to the game that their group created. They put the game up on YoYo Games since they made their game with Game Maker, software distributed by YoYo. They'd really appreciate any comments and feedback. You can leave it on the YoYo site or here on the blog and I'll make sure the students get the message.

URL: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/69679

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• Fear of Making Games (tinysubversions.blogspot.com)