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 stars.

I’ve created full length lessons out of each of these concepts, and in the coming weeks, I will start to create an online hub to share these lessons and other ideas. If you’re interested, please read more about my big idea here.

And if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know!

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 design of your levels to the difficulty ramp for the entire game. A look across a well fleshed out spreadsheet should give you a good idea of the flow of a level, pace of play, and the spread of challenges and achievements.

With every playtest, take notes on what went right, what seemed too easy/boring, and what seemed too difficult/frustrating. Rinse and repeat. Once you get to a point at which new players can play with a limited amount of boredom and frustration, you’re probably pretty close to a well balanced game.

I didn’t say it would be easy. In fact, it’ll probably be quite annoying and tedious at times. But then again, we didn’t get into game design because we thought it would be a cakewalk, now did we?

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 there!

Good logos communicate layers of meaning, both boldly and subtly. Take a look at these 50 startup logos from 2011.

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 shot.

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 there!

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 2012!

The latest version includes the brand new Versus Mode, in which you can challenge your friends to head-to-head matches of penguin dodgeball. Tap to throw balls at your opponent, jump to dodge their balls. The player with the most hits at the end of 90 seconds wins. Good luck!

So what are you waiting for? Try out MotionMaze Holiday Adventure now!