601 Managing the Team and the Process A Different Game Produced by Building Immersive Learning Simulations
Managing the Team and Process... A Different Game John A. Purdy Definitions My meaning for "Immersive Learning" Significant use of multimedia Highly interactive Highly dependent upon learner s decisions Learner is absorbed in the environment The Immersive Learning we'll talk about today Serious Games (Learning Games) Simulations 2 Page 1
Your Background Where are you working? - respond to the poll: 3 Your Background How are you involved with Immersive Learning, Serious Games, or Simulations? - respond to the poll: 4 Page 2
What We'll Cover Differences and similarities: Traditional elearning and Immersive Learning Game vs. Sim Team Members, Roles, and Skills Internal or External Development Collaboration Techniques Hybrid Development Process Tips, Techniques, and Terminology Results We've Seen Resources 5 Similar, but Different There are Similarities... But the Differences can be significant in terms of your team and development process 6 Page 3
Similar, but Different Similarities Who is the audience? What are the learning objectives? Who are the Learning/Instructional Designers? Who are the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)? How much content is there to communicate? Do you need to collect data, track progress? What's your time frame, budget? Other similarities? 7 Similar, but Different Differences (or, now more significant) Is the learning deep, or wide? How long do you want the experience to last? Will repeat use enhance the learning? Is the learning skill-based, conceptual, or a mix? Does the topic lend itself to immersion? Are there technical limitations for distribution? Is single-user or multi-user best? Can you promote it as "fun"? 8 Page 4
Game or Sim? Games Very good for concepts and general skills Very good for multiple outcomes, approaches Can play with the "fun" side Can exercise creative license Exploratory credit: InSite Interactive 9 Game or Sim? Simulations Very good for specific skills and/or steps to learn Very good for "how-to" training Detail and accuracy are mandatory Specific paths More "serious" credit: Red Knight Learning Systems 10 Page 5
Who's on First? 11 Team Members and Roles Project Manager(s) Learning Designer (Instructional Designer) Subject Matter Experts - SME(s) Game or Sim Designer Game or Sim Programmer Visual Designer Sound Designer [Database/Application/LMS Developer] [Game Play Testers] 12 Page 6
Team Members and Skills Project Manager Large projects: Game/Sim experience is recommended Game or Sim Designer Level design, environment design Gameplay, controls, and mechanics Game or Sim Programmer Flash Game or Sim engine (Unity, Metaverse, Torque, Microsoft...) Visual Designer 2D: interface design, creative direction, branding, color palettes 3D: 3D environmental, character, texture, objects, lighting, rendering, low polygon optimization 13 Visual Design 3D: Low polygon optimization: source art: 1.2 million polygons in-game art: several thousand polygons credit: Project Offset 14 Page 7
Visual Design What would work in your organization? - respond to the poll: 2D or 15 Internal or External? Internal Roles corporations may not have: Game/Sim Designer Game/Sim Programmer 3D Visual Designer If you must stay internal, find someone who plays lots of different games/sims to fill your Game/Sim Designer role External Look for: Serious Games developer Learning development company that also does games School with a Game Development program 16 Page 8
Playing Nice Collaboration techniques: Everyone should play some games or sims Play together if considering a multi-player project Check out some Game and Simulation examples: Future-Making Serious Games: blogemdesenvolvimento.blogspot.com Social Impact Games: www.socialimpactgames.com (click on "Index" under "View All Games") Cisco Games: www.medcalf.com/games/cisco_games Let Learning Designers/SME's come up with game ideas; and Game/Sim Designers come up with learning ideas helps them both understand that they are "designers" most LD's and SME's will suggest game concepts helps game/sim designers understand learning design 17 Playing Nice Collaboration techniques: Learn about game genres: action adventure role-playing strategy sports racing sim game (and more...) Wikipedia entry on game genres: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/game_genres 18 Page 9
Hybrid Process 19 Hybrid Process How do you think the design should be split? - respond to the poll: 20 Page 10
Hybrid Process DISCOVERY DESIGN DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY 21 Hybrid Process DISCOVERY --> DESIGN --> DEVELOPMENT --> DELIVERY DISCOVERY requirements, audience, content, goals, limitations, assumptions, project plan DESIGN learning design, game/sim design, visual design, technical design and specifications DEVELOPMENT art production, content manipulation, game/sim programming, application development, game or sim play-testing DELIVERY testing, revisions, Beta version(s), Final version, release candidate(s), launch 22 Page 11
Hybrid Process Learning Design audience assumptions learning objectives desired outcomes Immersive Learning Design Game/Sim Design game/sim concepting level design gameplay design controls and mechanics data collection design 23 Tips, Techniques, and Terminology Tips and Techniques Decide: game, simulation, or sim game? Decide: deep or wide? Make it "easy to learn, hard to master" Strive for "hard fun" Consider including tension, danger time = tension (beat the clock) Post high scores Allow personalization Consider social networking Build in your data collection, tracking, reporting Design a reward system Use suspension of belief for games 24 Page 12
Tips, Techniques, and Terminology Terminology Single-player, Multi-player Gameplay Game/Sim mechanics Levels, level design Game narrative Persistency Avatars First person, third person credit: Red Knight Learning Systems 25 Tips, Techniques, and Terminology Third person: credit: Red Knight Learning Systems 26 Page 13
Tips, Techniques, and Terminology First person: credit: Red Knight Learning Systems 27 Results Repeat use High completion rates Great word-of-mouth "buzz" Viral promotion Learners learn how to "do" Learners feel challenged, but successful Greater chance of "Immersion" and "Flow" Learners feel good... (about your training, company, etc.) If done well, there will be demand for more Learners have fun learning! 28 Page 14
Resources "Hard Fun" 29 Resources Web sites The elearning Guild: www.elearningguild.com Serious Games Credit: www.seriousgamessource.com Serious Games Initiative: www.seriousgames.org Serious Games Canada (Canada): www.seriousgames.ca NASAGA - North American Simulation and Gaming Association: www.nasaga.org Serious Games Institute (UK): www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk SAGSET - The Society for the Advancement of Games and Simulations in Education and Training (UK): www.simulations.co.uk/sagset Others? (type info into Chat window) 30 Page 15
Resources Blogs, Listservs Future-Making Serious Games: blogemdesenvolvimento.blogspot.com Clark Quinn - Learnlets: blog.learnlets.com/wp/index.php Clark Aldrich: clarkaldrich.blogspot.com Business and Games Blog: businessandgames.com/blog Serious Games Social Network: seriousgames.ning.com Serious Games Listserv: www.seriousgames.org/maillist2.html Others? (type info into Chat window) 31 Resources Conferences, Events Serious Games Summit: www.gdconf.com/conference/seriousgamessummit.htm elearning Guild Annual Gathering: www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.834 Apply Serious Games (UK): www.applyseriousgames.com ASTD s TechKnowledge: www.tk08.astd.org SAGSET 2008 (UK) "Teaching and Learning through Gaming and Simulation": www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/game2008 Others? (type info into Chat window) 32 Page 16
Questions? 33 Let s Play Together... John A. Purdy President Red Knight Learning Systems jpurdy@redknightlearning.com 1-972-424-7557, ext. 101 www.redknightlearning.com 34 Page 17
Thanks Thanks for your valuable time and interest Thanks to the good people at 35 Page 18