#goodvideogames

Field trips give children a welcome break in routine, they can learn in a more hands-on and interactive manner than they do in school. Students are energized by the excitement and anticipation of leaving the school environment for new and unknown experiences. They can look forward to and prepare for the field trip for several days or weeks. Usually the parents take care of the preparation process of the backpacking but it should be important to do this together. Until one day they will be completely responsible for.

The aim of this game is to amuse them and develop certain skills through the motivational push and enthusiasm of the kids regarding school trips. It’s for kids of Primary school (6-11 years old) and it can be used at home or at school.

The Rules

The single-player after choosing a character (with different skills and weak points) and a room, has to read carefully the school trip description and to find all the items hidden in the room. The school trip change every time, different place or in different conditions. Examples: museum, mountain excursion, zoo, archeologic area, workshop, sports camps, cinema… Later he/she has to decide which tools will be more useful for the school trip, and add these in the backpack. He/She must pay a lot of attention in this phase because the backpack can’t contain all of them. When the backpack is ready the school trip begins, and the player will follow the avatar in a little map and can interact with the game with the tools. There will be ironic feedback about the choices and a final rating of the trips.

Game elements

Mystery: because the player don’t know every details of the school trip and also some random situations may occur.

Challenge: although is not a multiplayer game, the player will be pushed to optimise his strategies in order to obtain a good final score. It will be possible also to play some fixed scenarios and then compare the final score with other players.

Involvement: because the player will be engaged in the matches, following the avatar in all the process: first choosing the setting and the specs of the avatar, then in the preparation phase and finally during the trip. 

Risk: during the packaging phase the player will have to select some items instead of others. Or to chose to travel lighter and so giving up to fill completely the backpack.

Feedback: during the preparation phase it will be possible call a relatives and have a small hint. After during the school trip, there will be lot of feedback related to the situations and used items. Mostly with ironic tone.

Storytelling: the school trip will be present a story, with a starts, some events occur and it will end at school again.

Luck: always in the last part of the match the player will meet some obstacles, situations and advantages that it would be impossible to predict.

Story

The game starts when the avatar is at home and he/she has to prepare the backpack for the day after. When the player is ready, he/she clicks the button “go to sleep” and the PC process the info for a new trip. The school trip begins and it will be possible to follow the avatar during the experience. The player is called to interact sometimes and to face the situations and random events with the right items. It’s essential to offer different stories by variating starting points, quests and challenges in order to give an absorbing experience not at all repetitive.

And here an example of the first phase of the game:

1) Why game producers need to think about their purposes?

Game designers must investigate a lot about the purposes and the tastes of the chosen target, players very often don’t like short and easy games but instead they like to learn something from them. James Paul Gee said “If a game cannot be learned and even mastered at a certain level, it won’t get played by enough people, and the company that makes it will go broke. Good learning in games is a capitalist-driven Darwinian process of selection of the fittest”. So developing a good video game is not just a ethically issue for video games producers but affects also the sales.

2) Digital media are evolving rapidly. How does that affect your target group?

As teacher and person interested about games development I have always been aware of the importance of continuously upgrading my ICT skill, knowledge and new tools. It’s very important analyse critically the change instead of live it passively. So for me the need to constantly be up-to-date in Informatic technologies is very strong and therefore I am always thankful for any opportunity, as conference or workshop dedicated.

3) "Everything must be be educational " - Do you agree or not? Why?

About this challenging question I agree with the thought of Professor Patti M. Valkenburg. Most of the time people that don’t appreciate multimedia products demand them to have an educative value, but they forgot that also fiction books as some cartoon were created mainly with entertainment purposes.

4) What are the main characteristics of good games? Do you agree? Would you add something more?

According to the James Paul Gee into good video games, are incorporated important learning principles: 36. These educational principles were identified through the study of comparative different games and are usually used designing new video games. In some cases these principles anticipate innovations that could enrich the current teaching practices, developing practical and theoretical skills. One of the most important principles is the “critical and active learning principle”;  the learning environment that is created by game designer want to lead players to a critical and active approach, which makes the users active and fully accountable for their gaming choices. The second one basic principle is the “design principle” video games in fact want transmit the taste for aesthetics and composition. Fundamental is the “principle of Semiotics”, learn to decode and to put in relation different symbolic channels as images, words, actions and sounds.

Good video games provide information, but avoid that these are released all together. It is basically a release of information that people require from time to time according to their needs. This is a very useful strategy to help our memory to operate in a functional way.

5) How do serious games engage with pedagogy?

I have a weakness for simulation games; I can spend hours happily designing and arranging things. I also have a thing for RPGs. When you combine the two... I end up in video game heaven. Animal Crossing. Harvest Moon. And now I can add Fantasy Life to that list.

You begin the game by choosing one of twelve “lives” (basically your main occupation in the world), ranging from Paladin to Tailor. You are forced to play through the intro as your chosen Life, but once completed, you may change your life whenever you like, except when you are in the middle of a story quest. I chose Paladin as my first Life, and I’m finding there is a lof of fighting. I am intrigued enough by the Life system that I want to eventually go back and choose something like Tailor as my first life and see how, if at all, it affects the story. If you want to be stingy with your in-game money (as I do), some of the lives, such as Blacksmith and Carpenter, feed off of each other and into other Lives, such as Paladin. I’ve spent a lot of time building up my skills in multiple Lives, so I don’t have to pay for armor and weapons as a Paladin. Then again, I enjoy that sort of stuff.

There’s a lot about this game that reminds me of Animal Crossing. You can buy a home and furnish it with furnishings you by in-game, or can make as a Carpenter. And you can run errands and quests for the citizens of the kingdom. I really wish the game had a collection display mechanic, a la, the museum in Animal Crossing. There are a lot of items in the game and feel lacking a collection mechanic was a missed opportunity.

The storyline is cheesy but doesn’t take itself seriously. Any “mysteries” laid out in the plot, are obvious to the gamer (well, to me, at least); Twenty hours into the game, I have yet to encounter plot developments that surprise me. But given the overall “cutesy” design of the game, I doubt intricate plot structure was one of the goals of the developers. Some gamers may find this to the games detriment. Then again, my guess is that those gamers probably never intend to pick up this game.

I intend to put many more hours into the game; I’m a completionist at heart, so I’ve got lots to do. If you like simulation RPGs, I would definitely recommend picking this up.

Clicky the link for the official Nintendo page: