#ipupdate

THIRD POST : WHAT I AM DOING THIS WEEK

So as you might remember I am in the play testing games right now. I kind of scrapped my first one, so I am trying to come up with some new ideas, that more apprporiately convey my idea and conservationism. But, the more I talk to my teachers, and watch the kids, I think that my board game, needs to be at a larger scale and more interactive. Then, I had to decide, idea-wise, how expansive I want to be? Should it be situational, or something that models the whole idea.

  Here's the plan:

One game I am going to make shows the situation at whole, and is going to be a small board game, and then a larger version of the same game. Let's call this "DA BEARS".

The other game is going to be a completely active running around game (don't know the technical term for this) and it deals with a more "local" issue, bees. Let's call this "HONEY HUNT".

Currently I am still working on making test models for both, but luckily I got 2 days this week to go see the kids. 

  FOR MONDAY

I am going to bring in a video camera, and *hopefully* they will let me video tape. Anyways, I am going to ask them individually some general questions about what games they like plays, about conservationism, and what they think they can do about it.

  FOR THURSDAY

I will have both games to test. I am going to once again, *hopefully* video tape them playing and then ask them some questions afterwards.

Day 58, wow...ok that makes me a little scared. Anyways I have many things to update you on. Many, MANY things. Well I will seperate them out, this first post will be about the things I have learned from my first day playing with the kids. The second will be what I plan to do for Monday and Thursday when I go over to the elementary school. Then the second to last post will be about my talk with Sara, a professor at my school in the Environmentalism and Sustainability college. At last the final post will be my grant proposal that I just finished. Hopefully I make some money off of it.

    FIRST POST: WHAT I LEARNED FROM KIDS

It was great getting to talk to the kids in the class about who I am, and what I do. Of course they were very interested in me because I am a college student, and were astounded by my hours of work. They asked me pretty simple questions about what work I do, why do I want to do this, have I ever made video games, do I want to be a teacher and so on. But the best part was that I got to ask them a bunch of questions about what they know. Astoundingly, they understood what conservationism means, and were able to give me a pretty accurate definistion. That was suprising, but it's worthwile to note that I was doubting them, and 3rd graders are a lot smarter than I give them credit for. Here are the main points that I took notes on while watching them interact with their teacher:

Simon Says

Played in between long periods of sitting, so they focus better and not get so agitated staying still for so long

Active > Less Fidgeting > More Focus

Activity of Creating A Poem About Themselves (with certain syllable count)

using story to get them to think about math

personalize it

uses bigger words then explains them

pictures are fantastic for explaining

"chunking" is a term for the style of teaching large in small amounts

the real trick is keeping their attention

keep their hands busy with sticky tack

small ideas combine to bigger ideas

this is where metaphors really come into play

silly words like "evil" when describing oneself, garners a lot of attention

making metaphors with things that they see often or already know

show examples DON'T TELL 

paint a picture, don't just tell them what to do, make a situation in which they can extrapolate that themselves

Ok so I have been trying and trying to get my own thoughts in order for awhile, because I keep confusing myself. I am trying to find a way to explain what I want to accomplish, and why, but I feel like the way that I am presenting it is just confusing and throws people off. I want to work with children, not because somewhere down the line I want to be a teacher and not because I want to necessarily "educate" them in the stereotypical sense. They are at the age where they have enough empathy to learn conservationism, where as they grow older it would just turn to apathy. They are just starting to explore this world, and are just breaking out of their egocentric ideas, and starting to be inutitative and consider the things in a bigger picture sense. This is where they start to make physical objects into deeper meaning and understand symbolism. I think that "educational games" are missing out on this because they are trying to force feed information, rather than give an impression of their concept and let the child interpret the "rights" and "wrongs" themselves. Jean Piaget said at this age, no one is a better teacher than themselves, for them to take in meaning, they need to be able to interpret it in their own right. Now I feel like my game, and what I want to do is being forced into a "design and fun focused" category or a "educational focused" one. Let me be clear, when I originally said that I wanted to do education, I didn't mean in the way that spouts of information. What I really meant, and I realize this now, is that I want to inform them. It's not about me telling them how many oil spills a year happen and how it effects our ocean. Yes, they will take this info in, but what will they do with it? Nothing. But, if instead I set up a game, to mock the scenarios of the habitat being slowly taken away and animals disappearing, the physical loss of those two things will make a deeper impression. Why? To them it becomes more than the fact that the animals died because their trees were being up rooted, it becomes the symbolized idea "these animals are disappearing and losing their homes". The symbol is always stronger than the laid out idea. The symbol is something that allows them to interpret and deal with the idea in their own way. Inform doesn't equal educate, new information might be the bi-product, but it doesn't mean that I am sitting here telling them what's wrong and how they can fix it. That's exactly why I wanted to do a game in the first place, because it's not me whose saying that, it's something that they glen from the game play. You might think at this age that they can't understand things like symbolism. Yes they can, they just need more simple ones. If a kid takes away it's home and resources, then it falls through a trap door in the game board. They are going to get the idea of cause and effect. They will understand this as a linear idea, then it can be applied to real world situations. I got so worried about my crit that I forgot what I was aiming for. I don't want this to be a large outdoor game. Yes I lose something by not having them connect with nature, but if I have it set up like a large outdoor game, I lose some of the structure that I wanted to put into the game. Their connection with nature is important, but I don't think that it effects the game play as much as less structure would. I know I am being wishy washy, but I have to choose one over the other, and I choose feasibility and structure over environment and the idea of nature deficiency disorder. I think it also just makes me talk about too much, and I stop focusing on the idea that I want my board game to portray. I do agree that I would like to make it bigger though, then feasibly it could also be an outdoor game if they would like, nothing is stopping them, it might even be more appropriate as an outdoor game. There are those bigger checkers games with carpets and the larger connect four game, why? Because the physicality of an object is important. The scale, playing into the physicality, can lend itself to being something a child can connect with more, and place a "role" upon. 

Here is a quote to explain exactly how I feel, it's from that book Gamification by Design:

"...Civilaztion and SimCity have taught millions of people history lessons and the basics of urban planning. These are not pedagogical games. They weren't designed to be educational. But they use history and real city schema as a backdrop to explain ideas; thus, education becomes a byproduct of fun." (4)

I am not making an educational game, not in the sense that I believe everyone assumes that an educational game must be. I am making a game that informs using conservationism and fun, and education is the byproduct.  

So we had in progress, mid-term, 3-on-1 reviews. Long title, but basically we went otu and talked about project on a more personal level. When I went out here are the things that were said to me:

"We feel like you don't really want to do education, you don't need to do education."

This is true. I want to inform, not ditacte informtation. I got carried away with the word "education" and lost sight of what I wanted

"Is this something that is going to help you further down the road, why are you doing work with children?"

This is going to help me to my future through the items it produces, not about the concept. I want to be a graphic designer, not particularly a game designer. If I could pick a company it would likely do some work with children, but I do not want to work with kids because that's what I want my future career to solely focus on. I design for things/people/ideas that I enjoy, and I love working with kids. Simply that, at any level, friend to teacher, I have fun just interacting with them, and seeing their insight on the world that they have just met. I have the opportunity to get them thinking about topics that might affect them further down the road.

"Why is this game inside? If you are talking about how kids are really disconnected from these animals and environments, shouldn't it be outside?

true. yes it should. I admit I was ridiculous in not considering this.

So based on this lovely review, I have stopped thinking of it as a board game. Originally, I hadn't wanted it to be one, but I felt like I needed to move in that direction to get the products (the 3D models) that I wanted in my project. But, I see now that it as a form was hindering me a lot from actually explaining the concept the way I wanted to. 

  Update on Progress:

I have gotten in contact with my friend's mother, the third grade teacher, and I am going over there tomorrow to introduce myself to the kids. Mrs. A seems like she is going to be a very valuable resource because she is really willing to help me. She already has a grad student learning from her, so I think that she is going to be well suited to me being in the classroom. I'm really excited. Apparently they have their own section on conservationism, in which they play this adorable game Oh Deer! (a lot like what I am looking to produce) and go to the zoo that is close by their school. Anyways, it should be a very interesting day, I am going to leave my lovely cubicle for a bunch of kids, I think that is a fantastic trade off. 

  Kenny, the guy from IP a couple years ago that I skyped, is going to get me in contact with the woman that made Flip 2 B Fit. Apparently it's a game that promotes kids getting up and running around. It's won a bunch of awards, and the way that she uses active play to engage them is something that I am definitely looking into. I'll link below.

  Links:

  Oh Deer!

Short Update: 

  Out of the people that I emailed. I have gotten back 2 responses, which I think is fairly decent. The first one being from my high school psychology professor, Bernie, and she said as long as I pick a time we should meet up. BONUS she has a kid in my age range. Her name is Lily and she is adorable. The second is from a college friend's mother. She's a third grade teacher, and she said she would love to have me. 

So we gave presentations to class this week. They are called Pecha Kuchas, they are basically presentations that are structured to have 20 slides, and you have 20 seconds for each. It's supposed to promote people getting to the point in their presentations. (I'll link to the website explaining it below) Anyways, we were giving these presentations, which totally stress me out because I am not the best at public speaking. I have a lot of work to do on presenting, because they either laughed at me or I was too nervous to get my ideas out properly. But, their comments struck a cord with me. I had spent so much time worrying about gathering data that I had:

 Forgotten to talk to teachers

Lost the point of my project, to make them realize the idea of conservationism emotionally, rather than having facts thrown in their face

I am not thinking like a child

So after coming to this realization, I had all the stages of grief. Yes I mourned for my own stupidity. But, you know what got me out of my funk? I finally had a chance to talk to Kenny, a person that used to be in IP with my teacher. For one of his projects he made a modular children's toy, and he's now trying to get it funded. Anyways, I was talking to him, and I discussed the problems that I was having, where I wasn't able to properly address my topics, because I felt there was just so much to cover. That I was confused about the direction that my test game as leading me. It was devoid of actual emotion, and just filled to the brim with facts. He told me that I shouldn't worry, because I was headed in the right direction. Even though I had many mistakes, I had found my problems and I was prepared to address them. He said I am in the right position at this point in my IP, because I am still working out the game mechanics. Which was really worrying me, because I am going to have a lot of things that need to get produced. Anyways, he gave me some advice; get the teachers now, simplify it and then over simplify it, sometimes you just need to make decisions and figure out things in the process. I am now in the process of emailing a bunch of teachers to talk to them. Also, I am working on the best way to get the idea that they will be gone, for that reason, the figures should probably actually disappear from the board. (This was my duh moment). I am going to work on my next test game, talk to some children teachers, and one that specifically deals with environmental children issues. Anyways, it's kind of a back to the drawing board. But, I'm looking at bears. I know that is pretty abstract to say. But, they represent animals well, and children already have exposure to them through "teddy bears" and such. Also many varieties of bears are effected by the different problems caused by conservationism issues. Polar bears, grizzlies, pandas...etc. If I could just get a "sea bear" to be effected by water pollution. Anyways I'm looking into it. Well that's it for now. I'll probably have some more links later!

  Links:

We had our mini-crits last Wednesday. Here is the list of the comments that I got:

Somehow the humans have to be a bit worse off than the animals, because the point you are trying to get across is how it's the humans doing this

Landfills shouldn't be a set number, there should be some game mechanic that allows them to occur whenever

Maybe flipping and placing the piece in the center can lock the tile

Although the humans also struggle from the landfills, is there some way to make it so that the landfills are a problem caused by them

There is no equivalent to some of the tiles between human and animal

Maybe you should think about using more distinct scenarios

Should there be more 3D objects in it? (this was me)

SO BASICALLY back to the drawing board. Overall, they really liked my game, saying that trying to get such a huge concept into a game is very hard. I really need to study more game mechanics. Therefore, my goal for this week is to produce a second test game. This one taking into account all the things stated above. I'm getting a little worried because I feel as though my project won't look as impressive as everyone else's. Yes, I know it's about what you want to do. But, I have never really been in a gallery show, and it's making me nervous that mine isn't going to stand out as much as everyone else's. I've got to find a way to really connect with the audience at the gallery, because it's not the typical place for my project. It reminds me of the chess exhibit that the DIA had a couple of years ago. Looking at the old chess pieces was exciting, but the really fun part was playing the test games with my dad for 2 hours. I really need to use my space to the fullest, and create somewhere where people will come over and play my game.There is something special when you make something that people want to interact with. Especially in a space renown for it's no touching rules.