Gaming is good for you.
Source: Frugal DadFuture Learning
The world is changing before our eyes. And so too should education. It’s good to know there are many great minds working on...Zoopnium on TV
After making it to the top of the charts in the Canadian App Store, Zoopnium has now been featured on Telus TV. Check it out now, and keep collecting...
Zoopnium
Looking for a new fun way to get active? Try out Zoopnium, the latest app from Digido Interactive, now featured in the New & Noteworthy section in the App Store. Just fire up the Zoopnium app, put your device in your pocket, and get moving. Every step you take helps you collect Zoopnium. Collect enough, and you can create your own custom Zoops and even trade them with friends. Try it out now! UPDATE: Zoopnium is now one of the top ten kids’ games in Canada with thousands of downloads and playthroughs. What are you waiting for? Download it, play it, rate...Tuning
When most people think of game design, they think of the big picture. Game designers come up with the overall concept for a game – the characters, storyline, and mechanics. What many fail to realize is that game design is in the details. After the overall concept is nailed down and a prototype has been hammered out, the game designer spends countless hours fine tuning a game, making sure that every action, level, and challenge feels good and increases the amount of fun in the game. When the topic of gameplay tuning comes up, many people say that it comes down to a feeling you get when you play the game. When the feeling is right, the game is well balanced. And I agree, to a certain degree. While a big part of tuning is intangible and abstract, there are definite advantages in tying those abstractions to concrete measures. Here’s how. Set Specific Goals The most important part of tuning is to create a goal. Often, you can change a game so drastically through tuning that it can cater to completely different audiences. Thus, you must first decide on your target market and target experience. Is this a hardcore shooter for 20-year-old guys? A mind-bending puzzle game for tween girls? A social game for middle-aged folks? Setting a specific goal will help guide your tuning. As you tune, put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and see if the game has the targeted effect on you. Should the game put you on the edge of your seat? Allow you to play mindlessly? Continue over multiple days? By...
First Day
Yesterday was my first day as a designer at East Side Games (ESG). After wrapping up our latest product, Digido Interactive decided to put development on an indefinite hiatus. Luckily, I was able to find a spot at ESG. Since September of last year, Digido and ESG have occupied a common office space, so I’ve had plenty of opportunities to eavesdrop on ESG meetings and grab coffees with ESG folks. My desk literally moved about 20 feet over. But even given all that, a first day is still a first day. And all first days are long. I remember my first day of teaching like it was yesterday. I was so busy trying to keep up with 20+ kids and simultaneously trying to teach them a thing or two that I lost over a dozen pens. I would put a pen down, then have no recollection of where it could be. By 10am, my voice was hoarse, my feet were sore, and I was planning a career change. When the end of that first day finally came, I spent the rest of the evening prepping for day two. Talk about a trial by fire. Thankfully, my first day at ESG was much less painful. Right away, I was given responsibility, creative freedom, and support. And now, at the end of my second day, I’m happy to report that this transition has gone quite smoothly so far. And I still have all the pens I started...Building Better Interfaces
When user interfaces are well designed, they fade into the background, a seemingly insignificant part of the overall product design. However, when interfaces are poorly designed, they can build walls that turn users away. Psychology is a major component of building intuitive interfaces. When we interact with a new interface, we bring with us cognitive baggage – all our previous cultural knowledge and expectations about how the interface should work. When we see something that looks like a button, we expect to be able to press it to instigate an action. However, if that image turns out to be unclickable, or if the action that follows is unexpected, we’re taken aback. In game design, this can sometimes be a good thing. After all, in order to create innovative products, you have to change users’ preconceived notions and expectations. However, if the experience is so foreign that it becomes frustrating, this can easily turn a user away. One of the best ways to find the hiccups in your interface design is to watch users try it out. They will naturally bring their cognitive baggage to the product, and if they’re able to use your product without having to focus on the interface, you’re well on your way to a solid design. Interested? Here are a couple of additional resources: The Design of Everyday Things Intuition, Expectations and Culture: Learning from Psychology to Build Better Game...Unity Tutorials
The best way to improve your skills as a game designer is to roll up your sleeves and make a game. Not sure how? Unity is a free game engine that lets you get started quickly and easily in making your own games. If you’re new to Unity, check out these tutorials, created by VFS instructor Bren Lynne. Have...
Kinetic Academy: Beta
Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work creating a new platform to allow parents and kids to track kids’ physical activity. And now, we’re proud to present to you the Kinetic Academy. Every child exercises throughout the day, whether through walking to school, attending soccer practice, or playing with the dog. Until now, all of that activity has been lost in the hustle and bustle of the day. That’s where the Kinetic Academy comes in. Through this system, kids get to unleash their inner superhero, training to increase their superpowers. As kids input their physical activity into the system, they earn points that can be exchanged for rewards. Play soccer for two hours –> 500 points –> stay up 15 minutes past bedtime. Kids get motivation to do and track exercise. Parents get an easy way to help their kids adopt healthy habits. Everyone wins. So why am I telling you about this? I would like you to be involved in the beta-testing of this website. We are in the process of making this website awesome, but now we need your help to make it better. If you’re a parent, please consider participating. Here’s how the Kinetic Academy works: Step 1: Sign up for a parent account and create a separate child account for each of your children Step 2: Add custom rewards that your child can redeem when he/she participates in physical activity (ex: have a sleepover, stay up late, etc.) Step 3: Have your child fill in the activities he/she has completed Step 4: Approve/edit the activities your child has added Step 5: Have your child redeem the points they have earned for specific rewards Try...
Designer Myopia
Have you ever seen a game or website and thought, “Wow, that looks amazing. But what do I do?” Amidst the clutter of text or perhaps the overly minimalistic style, you as the user are at a loss for how to interact with the tool. Design is arguably one of the most interesting and creative industries out there. As a game designer, I get to make things up out of my head and then have other people play through my ideas. The downside of this creative freedom is that it’s easy to get sucked into the depths of designer myopia (i.e., nearsightedness), in which you start designing things for yourself rather than for the end user. It’s quite a common phenomenon, and we’ve all been there. I can’t count the number of times I’ve replaced text instructions with what I thought were much cleaner illustrated instructions or the times I’ve made a puzzle easier or harder to suit my personal play style. Failure to explain what I perceived to be obvious parts of my designs have often resulted in confused or frustrated users. As this Smashing Magazine article writes of web designers, “[designers] see typography and rounded corners where normal people just see websites to get stuff done on.” In other words, there’s a fine line between design and function. When designing, we need to take into account the end user’s experience, rather than focusing purely on our own design wishlists. So what do we do about it? Unfortunately, there’s no quick and easy prescription for design myopia. However, the easiest way to alleviate the issue is to continually...
Angry Birds, Excited Students
As a teacher, I used a lot of games in the classroom. However, it wasn’t until I left the classroom that I realized the untapped potential of existing games in transforming the educational landscape. Most people are starting to come to terms with the effectiveness of games in teaching. However, educators often overlook popular titles in favor of “educational games.” Though these educational games are certainly a step up from textbooks, they often fail to create a truly captivating experience. Thus, the dilemma. Educators know that games can engage students, but even the best educational games out there can’t compare to Angry Birds and Call of Duty. Oh dear, what to do? The answer is closer than you think. In fact, it’s staring you in the face. Instead of trying to create educational games like Angry Birds, why not just use Angry Birds itself? Every game has the potential to be a powerful educational tool. Don’t believe me? Here are some examples: Fruit Ninja: Line Graphs Have students use line graphs to determine the value of different combos in the game. Angry Birds: Perspective Have students think about the conflict between the birds and the pigs from the pigs’ perspective. Paper Toss: Wind Speed Have students analyze the trajectory of the ball and build an apparatus to measure wind speed. Doodle Jump: Ratios and Scale Have students put themselves in the game by measuring jump height and designing a level to scale. Canabalt: Parallax Effect Have students analyze the parallax effect in the background of the game, the principles of which are used by astronomers to measure far away...Balancing Act
Game design is a balancing act. Literally. Not only do you have to balance the various tasks that fall under the umbrella of game design, but, more importantly, you’re responsible for balancing the gameplay experience. At the core of every well designed game is a carefully balanced spreadsheet. Numbers and stats can govern everything from a character’s jump height to the number of resources available. To create an experience that’s both fun and engaging, these numbers need to be tweaked, again and again. One of the things most people fail to realize is just how many tweakable variables there can be within even the simplest gameplay experiences. Creating a spreadsheet is a great exercise for challenging you to think critically about all the different components in your game. Start with the obvious ones, like levels, points, and time. Then, move on to more nitty gritty variables like the number of jumps a character needs to make to get to a certain goal. Think about what you want to teach your player and when to teach different skills. Using this theoretical framework as a guide, plug your best guesses into your spreadsheet, and then start playtesting. If a playable prototype isn’t yet available, conduct theoretical playtests. You’d be surprised how much balancing you can accomplish through imagination alone. (If Einstein could develop the theory of relativity through theoretical physics, you can balance a game through theoretical design.) The resulting numbers are one of the most critical parts of your design and will be invaluable for communicating gameplay elements to other members on your team. They will inform everything from the...
Latest Issue of VFS In Focus Magazine
Check out the latest issue of the VFS In Focus magazine, featuring some insights on the game design industry and the future of games, courtesy of some VFS grads (including yours truly!). The issue also includes stats from the latest games industry/alumni survey, as well as a story about the team behind Forerunner, an iOS game released by recent grads. Also, a heads up for anyone in the Vancouver area who might be interested in the VFS game design program – don’t forget to drop by the Open House this Sunday, 10:30am-5pm. See you...Startup Logos from 2011
I’ve always been entranced by logos. There’s something about the simple complexity of communicating a big message with a small image that’s always fascinated me. Good logos communicate layers of meaning, both boldly and subtly. Take a look at these 50 startup logos from...
Codecademy
Learning to program through books and tutorials is hardly an exciting endeavor. The first few exercises might maintain your interest by capitalizing on your staunch commitment to reach your goal of becoming an avid programmer, but interest often wanes as the exercises become more difficult and seem to drift further from real world applications. Enter Codecademy, an interactive game that teaches programming, right in the comfort of your own browser. Codecademy holds your hand through each step of the programming basics, including declaring your first variable and executing your first function. Explanations are concise and easy to understand, even for the absolute novice. You can follow the exercises at your own pace, and you can even experiment using the scratch pad, an in-browser Javascript editor that lets you play around with what you’ve learned. Best of all, Codecademy is built around basic game mechanics, including missions and achievements. Track and share your progress, and you’ll soon be on your way to programming your own website or game. Right now, Codecademy only offers Javascript courses, but it looks like they’re working hard to add more programming languages as soon as possible. So if you’ve always wanted learn how to code, give Codecademy a...
GD Expo Open House
If you’re at all interested in the VFS Game Design program, come on out for the Game Design Expo Open House on Sunday, January 22nd. You can take sample classes, learn more about the program, and talk to current teachers. I will be giving a short presentation about my experience at VFS, so stop by if you get a chance. Hope to see you...
A look back at 2011
2011 has gone by in a flash. This year, I pushed my art, programming, and game design skills further than ever before, worked with three terrific teams, and contributed to six new games. January Veggiesaurus proves that a vegetarian T-rex makes for an awesome Flash game. February Chip is born. March Production on Blokhead officially begins. April I struggle with learn to program. May Blokhead gets its final touches. June Blokhead is presented to industry professionals, and GD18 graduates. July Hello, I’m Annie Dickerson, lead designer at Digido Interactive. August Blokhead is named a 2011 Unity Award Finalist. September Digido’s first game, MotionMaze, hits the App Store. October MotionMaze Trick or Treat offers players Halloween themed mazes. November Pop & Dodge brings penguin dodgeball to the masses. December MotionMaze Holiday Adventure uses physical activity to spread holiday cheer. To my teammates, teachers, friends, and family, I cannot thank you enough for your support this year and every year. Here’s to even bigger and better things in...