Games in Education: An Expert's Perspective

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

Women in Film and Video's (DC) Education & Children's Media Roundtable hosted Brian Judy of Red Aphid to explore the topic of games in education. The EdCM is a community of screen producers, educators, writers and others involved in media production. We meet monthly to share information about topics of interest. Games in education is a hot topic and very relevant to our exploration as media creators.

Red Aphid homepage

Brian has been in the industry for many years and his presentation was very informative. Red Aphid has created:

• Art Games: primarily a visual experience
• Issues Games: informative with the objective to inspire conversation about a specific topic
• Entertainment: games for fun
• Health: health providers using games for a medical objective
• Education: games to teach specific skills, topics

What are the tools game designers use in creating a compelling, successful game?

• Narrative: this can be character development, video, all the things we know about story
• Challenges: a big part of how learning works in games. According to game developer, Ralph Koster in his book The Theory of Fun for Game Design, the most fun is learning. When developers can keep this loop going, ie fun/learning/fun, they have a winner on their hands. Here is an excerpt from that book.
• Play: experimentation. This seems obvious, but not all games incorporate this component 

The concept of gamification was introduced at this stage of our conversation. This is the idea of using game development theories in a wide variety of activities to make them more appealing. It has been used successful in a wide range of activities. What Brian calls psychoprogramming relates to the concept of gamification.  This is about motivating the player. Game designers want players to stay engaged with the game as long as possible. That is why educators are drawn to the concept of gamification to keep students engaged with learning.

Keeping players motivated 
What are the techniques game designers use to keep players playing? Here's how they do it.

• Completion: levels, stages anything to benchmark accomplishment or advancement. Can also be collecting objects or coins
• Acquisition: Collecting tools, friends
• Progression: build a character, levels of difficulty
• Social Status: earn coins to purchase specific objects, creative output, 
• Top Player Lists are very popular

Examples of Red Aphid Games

Art Games:
Having set the stage, Brian moved on to talk about specific games he has developed. As a young designer he had the luxury of being able to focus on art games which he exhibited in galleries. These games were about exploring a visual/audio environment. You can find examples of these games on his art site. Explosions that you see screen shots of below is my favorite.

Intro for Explosions

Image from Explosions

Issue Oriented Games
These is a great deal of humor in these, despite some with dark overtones. One project Brian developed in Flash, Bong Hits 4 Jesus, was for the The Students for Sensible Drug Policy after the Supreme Court decision Morse v. Frederick that set new student drug speech precedent. The player has to guess whether such phrases as "Wear hemp athletic supports to school" will result in student suspension. This is a great example of a topical game that got lots of play because they were able to get the game out in 2 or 3 days after the decision.

Speaking of dark overtones, this game is Death Penalty Fun, also available on Brian's art website. It's a word game similar to Wheel of Fortune. Incorrect answers run a jolt of electricity through the prisoner strapped in the death penalty chair. Yikes.

Entertainment Games
Another favorite of mine is Feed the Rocker. Here's the trailer that lays the ground work.

 

A surprise for me is that women represent a large proportion of game players, so some game designers target women. Hidden object adventure games are big with this crowd. It's a puzzle wrapped in a story. Criminal Case on Facebook is a very popular example. Game designers put efforts into this target audience and category of game because they can be lucrative. Red Aphid's iOS/Android release,The House of Usher is a hidden object game. The player advances through the game by solving puzzles.

Health Games
An impressive game Red Aphid developed for the Children's National Medical Center with the Interface Media Group was designed to help kids deal with pain and while providing physical therapy. The idea is to distract with play but encourage a high level of activity. Played on Connect the game can map the players joints. As the player moves around they can react/interact with the game. This story in the Washington Post includes video that with a young patient playing one of the games. The premise is that the patient/player is a space athlete and she needs to hit balls out of the way. Balls will increase in speed and value. Research is showing this helps in pain management.

We saw a protoype of Tube Runner. The player leans left or right to collect rings. This is to get patients to bend as much as possible. There were both short and long term objectives with these games. One is to keep the kids moving, the other is to keep them engaged with the game using the aforementioned techniques of levels, collections, etc.

A prevention health related game was commissioned by The Seed Foundation. This game helps kids play an active role in fighting malaria. You can play it on their website, where it was translated into seven languages.

Role Playing Games
One of the more impressive games, in terms of the data incorporated into the game is the My US Rep: Role Play Congress. Actual Congressional member are listed with their voting records. As with many role playing games, the object is to increase attributes, in this case popularity and cash. Yes, lobbyists are part of the game. Inside the game you can access a bill and see how the congressman voted. Then, the player is asked if they agree with the representative's vote. This adds a whole new level of interactivity to this approach to studying history.

Games for Technology Education

We were introduced to Globaloria. This web based initiative provided directly by school districts brings STEM education to kids who might not get it. Students are involved in a program that has gamified the process of learning how to make games. Red Aphid was involved early in their development providing Flash games and continues as a game developer and consultant.

An online game development platform designed for students that anyone can access is Game Star Mechanic. Brian suggested this is a very accessible approach.

Game Salad
Brian finished up his presentation with a demo of Game Salad.
This is software for game development that provides tutorials and templates. Brian has used with with various groups of students.

Don't forget to check out Red Aphid's latest game release, The House of Usher. 

Google Play   App Store
PC download

Thanks, Brian for a very informative session.

If you are an educator, which games have been useful to your in your teaching? Let us know. If you are a game developer, what can you share with us?