MAKING GAMES
GAME AUTHORING SOFTWARE FOR EDUCATIONAL AND CREATIVE USE (RES-328-25-0001)
END OF AWARD REPORT
[Note: numbered references in brackets are to particularly significant published outputs listed in section 5]
1. BACKGROUND
The project was a partnership between the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media at Institute of Education, University of London; and
Immersive Education Ltd. It aimed to develop a pre-competitive prototype software environment for the authoring of computer games by young people, and research its design, uses and benefits. It was part of the PACCIT-Link programme, aiming to bring the design of ICTs closer to the needs of users. Two contexts were important. Firstly, there is increasing recognition of the potential educational value of computer games. This has focused on the use of games to convey curriculum content; on games as exemplars of effective learning; and on games as complements to literacy learning [3, 5]. By contrast, we propose that games can be studied and produced by school students as cultural objects within a media education paradigm, alongside other cultural forms such as film, music video and television drama [1]. The study of these other media in schools now typically includes creative production alongside forms of textual analysis.
Secondly, there is growing interest in the creative use of digital authoring tools by young people: video editing, music composition, web-authoring and
graphic design. The creative production of media texts has been typically seen as a key element of media literacy (for example in the definition adopted by Ofcom, the media regulator). However, while authoring tools for other media are now widely available, there is very little accessible software for the design and production of videogames.
The logical development for this project, then, was to create a game-authoring tool for use in schools and other learning environments. The tool would need to allow some degree of high-level ‘programming’, but not at a difficult or time-consuming technical level; and the ability to produce a satisfying and
complete game relatively easily. Meanwhile, our existing understandings of media literacy would need to be extended and adapted to address the distinctive features of games as texts, an issue we had researched
extensively in a previous project (‘Textuality in Video Games’, AHRC: 2001-2003).
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The project had four main objectives. How they were met is briefly outlined here; each is discussed in more detail in section 4.
2.1 To produce a game-authoring tool within a 3D environment
The partnership has produced a software package called Mission Maker, developed through three iterations, each informed by the research. It allows for the creation of satisfying, complex 3D adventure and puzzle games, without need for prior experience of programming, thus fulfilling the objective of a piece of ‘middleware’ which can be easily learnt, yet still afford detailed control over game design.
2.2 To develop a model of game-literacy
We have identified the competences required for, and developed by, game design. This has been achieved by developing existing models of media literacy which propose three components: cultural, critical and creative. Within these areas, our model further defines conceptual understandings of texts, audiences and institutions. Our model adds specific features related to games, such as the rule systems central to game design.
2.3 To develop a pedagogic model, identifying how such literacies are taught and learned
Our model of game literacy underpins the approaches we have taken to teaching game making in different contexts. For Media/English classrooms, we have produced learning objectives and materials for a 6-week course, developed in collaboration with two teacher-partners in the project. For after-school settings, we have devised approaches for introducing young people to game design, starting with board games and then moving on to computer games.
2.4 To develop a model for industrial design incorporating user input and feedback
Immersive released three successive prototypes of the software, which we tested out in schools and homes. On the basis of feedback and design ideas from teachers and students, subsequent prototypes were developed, thus involving the target end-user groups as co-designers. This model of industrial design was discussed and developed by the project advisory committee, which included several industry representatives from the games and educational software sectors.
3. METHODS
Most of the research was conducted with two user-groups, one in a mixed comprehensive school in Cambridge, one in a girls’ comprehensive school in Lambeth. This provided contrasting social contexts: a largely middle-class, predominantly white school; and a school with a predominantly Black African-Caribbean intake in one of the most economically-deprived areas in the country.
In both schools, we began with a Year 8 group, exploring formal Media teaching in Cambridge with a group of 30 students, and constructing an after-school club for ten volunteers in Lambeth. These groups stayed with the project through its three years, but the Year 8 curriculum project was also repeated each year in the Cambridge school. In this way, we could observe the use of the software with two constant cohorts through the process of its iterative design; but also observe the value of each stage with a fresh group. Thus, we worked with the original cohort of 40 (reduced in successive years because they were re-recruited as volunteers); and an additional 60 students (one class of 30 in each of years 2 and 3 of the project). We also recruited volunteers in the final year to work with the software at home.
We used three main methods: videotaped observation; semi-structured interviews with students; and analysis of the games that were produced. We developed situated social semiotic readings of these data, focusing on how students use their own experience of games, how they learn game design principles, how they acquire abstract understandings of key concepts such as game rules and economies, and how they use game design for creative purposes related to their perceptions of themselves and the world.
The research followed British Educational Research Association guidelines on ethics. All members of the research team were CRB-checked for fieldwork in schools. Written parental consent was obtained for all after-school activities, publication of student's photographs in press coverage, and out-of-school visits to London or to the company offices in Oxford. Pseudonyms have been used in published outputs.
4. RESULTS
The results reported here correspond to the objectives outlined in section 2 above.
4.1 The software
The software, Missionmaker, is an authoring tool for 3-D puzzle and
adventure games. Users can assemble a 3-D world, and navigate that world as if in a game in order to import characters and objects, and construct events for the player to experience. It contains assets such as locations (rooms and corridors), props, characters, pick-ups (objects which the player can pick up and examine), triggers (which trigger an action), and media (sound, still and
moving images). Designing a game within this software means organising relations between assets rather than having to produce the assets themselves. The emphasis is on developing game design competences rather than on the technical skills required to make 3D objects from scratch. Young people can thereby make playable games which can be as complex in terms of narrative or problem-solving challenges as commercial games, and which have a similar level of graphic and audio quality.
The software goes far beyond existing multimedia and game design packages in several ways. The first relates to the system of conditionality, controlled by a feature called the rule editor. This allows game-makers to set the conditions by which assets change their properties in response to player actions: this is what makes the games interactive. Making a game involves setting the rules by which the player can act within the 3D space; for example, a rule would consist of the following statement: ‘if the player picks up the gold bar, the player gets 50 points’. The rule system functions by clicking on visual objects, which facilitates the process of defining the game’s logical conditions. The second notable feature is the dialogue editor, which allows game-makers to write and record dialogues and attach them to in-game characters. This allows for the development of characters and role-play within interactive narratives. A third feature is the ability to import assets produced externally: users can bring in their own drawings, videos, music, voices and writing, allowing for extensive personalisation. The flexibility of the software has surpassed our initial expectations. It is easy enough to use at primary school level, but adaptable and therefore complex enough for use at A-level (the final phase of the project expanded trial use to these levels). In addition, we have had requests for its use on undergraduate game design and multimedia courses; and now regularly use it ourselves within a Master’s module on computer games.
Examples of features of the software which have been directly influenced by the research process are:
x The explicit nature of the rule editor, aiding conceptual understanding of this basic feature of game design
x The generic game-worlds (sci-fi, Egyptian, etc.) to allow development of a wide range of narrative possibilities
x The inclusion of weapons (guns, wands, ammunition) to allow designers and teachers to address debates about games and conflict
x The range of importable media (text, music, sound, speech, video, images)
x The combination system, allowing large and complex games to be created by pairs or small groups making components or levels of a class-devised game.
4.2 The model of game-literacy
Our model was developed from more general conceptions of media literacy which attract considerable consensus among researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. These typically three key dimensions: cultural, critical, and creative. The research has identified how each of these operates in the case of games, and of game-authoring using the software [1, 2, 4, 5].
4.2.1 Cultural
The analysis of this dimension began before the first iteration of the software, when we set out to explore how students’ experiences of commercial games might feed into their designs. Analyses of interviews and visual designs
suggested that these children had very diverse experience of games (not only computer games). It also suggested that, while their interests in games initially appeared to divide neatly along gender lines (girls playing The Sims, boys playing First Person Shooters), they later admitted to more varied and less stereotypical interests. They used public talk about games (in class, in group interviews) as a way of exploring, constructing and performing aspects of gendered identity. This approach has allowed us to help reconfigure the debate about games and gender [12, 14, 15].
Interviews in this phase also showed that many children experienced games as part of cross-media franchises, such as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. This suggested that our model of ‘game-literacy’ needed to take into account experiences and understandings, especially of narratives, which ran across media such as books, films and games [9, 10]. Finally, interviews and low-tech design activities in this phase suggested that, while certain kinds of cultural knowledge and a range of player skills were evident, very few children had a grasp of game design principles. The exception was a small group of boys who had used a design tool – a level editor – within a commercial game, Timesplitters 2. These boys had learnt an idea of ‘game logic’, which
corresponded approximately to the system of conditionality Immersive were building into our software [8].
The students’ cultural experiences of games continued to be in evidence through the three years of their design work. Some were keen to emulate aspects of games they had played, though these elements were always creatively transformed in some way. More interestingly, those with the
greatest experience of playing games in some cases had the best instinctive sense of how to construct satisfying moments of game-play, in which
important events for the player depended on complex combinations of skills [8].
By researching design work in several social settings, including after-school clubs and young people’s homes, we have also explored the relationship between game-making as an academic activity and as a leisure pursuit or hobby. In the after-school club, game-making was not tied into a pre-existing curriculum but undertaken on a voluntary basis with peers. This gave students more time to develop their design ideas, but most importantly, provided a ready audience of potential players. Here game-making became a sociable group activity, with young people making and playing games together, and integrating game design into their developing social relationships. At home, game-making was integrated into family interactions.
By comparing games made in these different settings, we have been able to identify relationships between the structure of students’ games and the audience for which they are intended. This supports arguments regarding
‘situated literacies’ and demonstrates how conceptions of ‘game’ and ‘play’ are rooted in the interactions of different social environments, rather than definable independently of these. In turn, this finding suggests that a pedagogy for ‘game literacy’ should take into account the variety of social purposes which young people have in designing games, whether in class, in a more informal educational setting or in the home.
4.2.2 Critical
Certain kinds of critical understanding were already well-developed within the gaming cultures many of the students had experienced. These included critical judgments of the quality of game-play; an extensive sensitivity to debates about games and gender; and some awareness of regulatory regimes, especially in relation to well-publicised controversies. Other critical understandings were gained from the curriculum we developed in partnership with teachers [6]. This included the following areas:
Texts: Making a game involves communicating with a player using a variety of representational modes, including music, visual imagery, movement, written text, and voice. [13]. The textual understandings learnt by students fell broadly into two dimensions: narratives and games. We found that, by focusing on narrative systems with students in one school, and game systems with students in the other, only partial understandings of game design could be achieved. Nevertheless, the development of systematic ways of teaching both, using diagrammatic representations of game elements (such as rules, challenges, rewards, conflicts and economies) and formulaic approaches to narrative suited to typical game-narratives (such as Propp’s typology of folktale characters) provided an integrated way to teach how both systems worked together. This integrated approach was finalized in the last year of the project, using the third iteration of the authoring tool with a new Year 8 class in the Cambridge school, and workshops for students who volunteered to take the software home [7]. We found that the relatively structured approaches of the formal classroom and the after-school club both produced secure understandings and well-designed games. By contrast, the unstructured context of home use in the last year produced a wide variety of quality, from a long, complex game by a committed gamer steeped in the culture of commercial games, through games clearly made to display to parents and grandparents, to games lacking focus and commitment.
The functions and interface of Missionmaker helped develop students’ understanding of the textual structure of games, through highly explicit procedures exemplifying key design principles. The best examples of these are the rule editor (described above) and the economy system. In conjunction with teaching about the characteristics of rules in games, sport and stories, the rule editor helped develop secure conceptual understandings of the function of rules in game design. Similarly, the nature of economies in games was developed by class discussion, homework exploring the idea of
‘economy’ in various contexts, and the manipulation of quantifiable resources in the game design process: changing the numerical allocation in the software for the health and strength of the player and other characters, the weight or value of objects, the time determined for specific events, and so on.
Audiences: Games target audiences in specific ways. Understanding game design as a technical, artistic and commercial process involves understanding the nature of interactive players, and the social and cultural worlds they inhabit. Students were encouraged to reflect on the needs and activities of audiences, for instance by writing walkthroughs, typical fan-produced guides to playing a game. These understandings were developed particularly effectively by students playing each other’s games and sharing feedback.
Institutions: Game design emerges in a commercial and regulatory context. Organisations have specific roles to fulfil in the design, development, marketing and distribution of games, which affects both how the game is designed and then interpreted. These dimensions were developed through discussion of the students’ games as commercial products, and their relationships to existing games and game genres. The students were also required to simulate the work of game developers and publishers, choosing a name for their company, developing briefs, pitches and plans for their games, designing posters for marketing and writing press releases and previews [6].
4.2.3 Creative
This research provided important contributions to ongoing debates about creativity in education. Our analysis focused, firstly, on how the creative process helped develop other aspects of game literacy, by extending
students’ critical understandings, and allowing for the exploration of cultural meanings and forms of ‘identity work’. However, we have also proposed that creativity can be seen in Vygotskyan terms, as an imaginative process which transforms cultural resources through the use of semiotic tools [11, 16]. One student’s game, for instance, re-created effects and events experienced in commercial horror games, transforming them into newly-imagined narrative sequences using the software’s rule system and graphic resources, alongside other semiotic resources of his own, such as his voice [8].
Furthermore, analysis of students’ games showed that the creative
possibilities – the resources and expressive repertoires on which they were able to draw – were extended by the multimodal nature of game design. A good deal of writing was involved (scripts for recorded voices of game-characters, walkthroughs, press releases and reviews). Speech was used extensively, recorded directly into the software. Graphic images were made and found by students, and imported into their designs. Finally, music was imported by some students: a looping function was included so that music could play for indeterminate periods depending on the actions of the player. Multimodal design is not simply a matter of using different modes: it involves learning and using ‘grammatical’ principles which work across these modes to produce coherent and cohesive designs. We have analysed how such
principles are learnt and used by individual students, and how they combine implicit understandings from their own experience with explicit principles developed in class or workshop settings [8, 11].
4.3 The pedagogic model
In collaboration with teacher partners, we developed a 6-week course, matched against year 8 curricula for English, Media and ICT. This will be available as a teaching pack to accompany the software. We have also developed more generic teaching materials, for adaptation at other levels and in other subject areas.
The research has influenced the final course-design in many ways, including the following:
x the course draws on students’ cultural experience of games, and refers widely to the world of commercial games
x it simulates in various ways the commercial game-design process
x it incorporates well-known formulaic narrative models such as Propp’s folktale typology
x it develops key conceptual understandings of games, such as rule and economy
x it anticipates gendered attitudes to game design, mediating these through whole-class design processes and negotiations
x it adopts a ‘multiliteracy’ approach, encouraging students to design using various modes and media
x it provides differentiated entries into game design, for instance by providing ‘templates’ for students with learning difficulties.
4.4 A model for industrial design
Although we collaborated with over 100 students and a dozen teachers over the course of the project, we worked particularly intensively with two groups of eight students, one in each school, and with two English teachers. They paid regular visits to Immersive’s offices, while designers, programmers and artists visited the schools to talk with the students and teachers, hold question and answer sessions, and even present to a year group assembly on one occasion.
The development of a common language between these participants in the design process proved difficult. There were only partial understandings of each other’s priorities, cultures and judgments. Some 13-year-olds were unable to understand why the software could not provide everything they wanted, and the designers were obliged to listen to extremely harsh judgments of their first iteration. However, some students showed considerable maturity in realising that this product had to reach a compromise between ease of use and range of function.
Over three years, however, the project partners developed an understanding of each other’s perspectives and interests, including a common language by which to describe the software and its desired uses, which enabled cross-disciplinary as well as cross-generational dialogues. This proved crucial in the development of our model of game literacy, and in designing the software’s functionality. Section 4.1 above gives some examples of how the development of the software was influenced by the conversations between educators, designers and students.
This model of industrial design was discussed and developed by the project’s advisory committee. The committee fully endorsed the value of the model, with its
careful attention to feedback which went well beyond conventional models of usability testing into profound and often difficult explorations of design processes.
We also developed strategies for helping students evaluate each other’s games, which was valuable both for the educational aim of developing game-literacy, and also for the developers and the industry representatives more generally involved in the project. This culminated in a competition run at the end of the project, at which the students presented their games to a panel consisting of education policy-makers, industry representatives and games designers.
5. ACTIVITIES
x Presentation, Women in Games conference, University of Plymouth, 2004 x Invited presentation, Education Arcade conference, E3 (Electronic
Entertainment Expo), Los Angeles, May 2004
x Invited presentation, ESRC Digiplay seminar series, DigiPlay 4: Teaching with, Learning from Computer Games, 2005, London Knowledge Lab, January 2005
x Invited presentation, English 21 seminar, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, February 2005
x Paper at CAL 05 conference, University of Bristol, March 2005
x Contribution to Teachers’ TV programme, ‘The Games Children Play’, broadcast 2005
x Keynote address, BECTA seminar on creativity, British Library, October 2005
x Keynote address, ESRC seminar series Engaging Critically with Pupil Voice,RES-451-26-0165 (Manchester Metropolitan University), November 2005
x BETT show, 2005: Immersive stand, followed by seminar led by the research team
x Keynote address, BFI summer conference, National Film Theatre, July 2005
x Invited presentation, ‘From Games to Gaming’ seminar, University of Goteborg, 2005
x Paper at DIGRA (Digital Games Research Association) conference, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver 2005
x Keynote address, BFI summer conference, National Film Theatre, July 2005
x Invited presentation, Apply Serious Games conference, London, May 2006 x Two invited presentations in ESRC seminar series Play, Creativity and
Digital Cultures, London Knowledge Lab, February 2006
x E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), Los Angeles, May 2006: Immersive stand sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills
x National Association for the Teaching of English seminar, Parkside Community College, June 2006
x Keynote address and workshop, CP3 conference, York University, July 2006
x Invited presentation, media literacy seminar, Slovakia, organized by Slovakian EC Mediadesk, September 2006
th
x Address to EC media literacy experts group, Brussels, 8 November 2006 x Keynote address, BECTA Research conference, October 2006
x Keynote address, ITU conference, Oslo, 2006
x Teachers’ TV programme on the use of Missionmaker, in production (Lambent Productions)
6. PUBLISHED OUTPUTS (SELECTION)
3) Buckingham, D., Pelletier, C., Burn, A. (in press) ‘Making Games: game design and media literacy’, English, Drama, Media, 8
4) Buckingham, D. (in press) ‘Defining digital literacy: what do young people need to know about digital media?’, Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 5) Buckingham, D. (in press) ‘Playing to learn: rethinking the educational
potential of computer games’, Chapter 6 of Beyond Technology: Learning in the Age of Digital Culture, Cambridge: Polity
6) Buckingham, D., Burn, A. (forthcoming) ‘Game literacy in theory and practice’,Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia
7) Burn, A., Durran, J (2007) ‘Game-literacy: ludic and narrative design’, Chapter 7 of Media Literacy in Schools, London: Paul Chapman
8) Burn, A. (2007) ‘Teaching media institutions: the case of computer games’, in Burn, A. and Durrant, C. (eds) Media Teaching, AATE/Wakefield
9) Burn, A. (forthcoming) ‘Writing computer games: game-literacy and new-old narratives’, L1 - Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 6(2) 10) Burn, A (in press) ‘The case of Rebellion: researching multimodal texts’, in
C. Lankshear et al. (eds.) Handbook of Research on New Literacies, Erlbaum
11) Burn, A (2006) ‘Multi-text magic: Harry Potter in book, film and videogame’, in Collins, F. and Ridgman, J. (eds.) Turning the Page:Children’s
Literature in Performance and the Media, Bern: Peter Lang
12) Burn, A. (2005) ‘Potter-Literacy – from book to game and back again’, Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 14(2): 5-17
13) Oliver, M. and Pelletier, C. (2006) ‘Activity theory and learning from games: implications for game design’, in D. Buckingham and R. Willett (eds.)Digital Generations. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
14) Pelletier, C. (2005) ‘The uses of literacy in studying computer games’, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 4(1): 40-59
15) Pelletier, C. (2005) ‘Studying Games in School: a Framework for Media Education’,Digra Online Proceedings.
http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.php?id=190 16) Pelletier, C. (in press) ‘Gaming in context: how young people construct
their gendered identities in playing and making games’, in Y. Kafai et al. (eds.)Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Games, Gender and Computing Cambridge MA: MIT press.
17) Pelletier, C. (forthcoming) ‘Producing gender through digital interactions’, in S. Dixon and S. Weber (eds.) Digital Girls: Growing Up Online. London: Palgrave
18) Pelletier, C. and Oliver, M. (forthcoming) ‘Learning to play in digital games’,Learning, Media and Technology
7. IMPACTS 7.1 On research
The project has been extensively disseminated through published outputs, presentations at international and national conferences and seminars. The distinctive argument that games can be designed by students as a creative process and within a model of game literacy has added a new dimension to the general debate about games in education, and has been robustly argued in academic forums and journal articles in the UK, Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand. It has helped develop the profile of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media as an expert centre for research in this field, and a key player in related academic networks in the UK and internationally.
7.2 On educational practice
The project has already made practical impacts on teaching in schools. The software and game literacy model have been demonstrated to teachers of Media, English and ICT at conferences and seminars in the UK and across Europe. The MA module in Games and Education on our MA in Media, Culture and Communication is enabling successive cohorts of teachers to explore the software and the game-literacy model. We are also publishing articles on the research in teachers’ professional journals [1]. The software and the pedagogic framework are currently being used with approximately 1000 ‘early adopters’ (schools and City Learning Centres) in advance of the commercial release. The project also received extensive, and overwhelmingly positive, media coverage, in the popular press as well as on TV and radio. This has enabled us to contribute to broader debates regarding the potential social and educational value of computer games.
Immersive is now working on commercialisation of this project, which it is estimated will take £250,000 for the first phase. This will involve work on the interface, plus the creation of additional assets, a downloadable player, a build tool (so that subject specific content can be created), and additional teaching materials and sample games. Immersive has started talks with the DfES Innovation Unit looking initially at student and teacher collaboration on curriculum design. At this stage, the main market will be secondary schools (in areas such as ICT, CDT and Media/English). At Key Stage 2 it is more likely that the tool will be used to create curriculum-based games that can be adapted by both teachers and pupils to meet individual needs and thus support the personalisation agenda.
7.3 On educational policy
Some of the project dissemination has targeted key players in UK educational policy, and the DfES, QCA and BECTA have been represented on the
at the Los Angeles E3 exhibition. The approach developed by the project plays into more general developments of mandatory curricula for English, Media, the arts and ICT in the UK, and the team have directly addressed these debates, for instance in a presentation to the QCA national
‘conversation’ English 21, and keynote addresses to two BECTA conferences.
7.4 On the games industry
The project has involved several industrial bodies, including ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) which
represents computer game companies globally, and Skillset, the UK national training organisation for broadcast, film, video and multimedia. Skillset’s UK Skills Action Plan for Interactive Media and Computer Games Industries ‘Creating the Future’ specifically refers to this project as one of its principal commitments to developing the skill base of the industry at school level. ELSPA has played a prominent role on the project’s advisory committee and contributed to disseminating findings. It has also facilitated discussions with games companies, including Eidos, the UK’s largest game publisher.
Members of the project team have been invited to present findings at policy-oriented conferences and seminars and industry trade shows (for example E3 in Los Angeles). In July 2006, the project’s ‘games competition’ was
supported by senior members of various organisations, including the DfES, Skillset, QCA, Eidos, ELSPA, and the BFI. The project relates directly to current interest in the media industries in ‘user-generated content’ and more participatory forms of media, and is likely to have significant relevance to future debates in this area.
8. FUTURE RESEARCH PRIORITIES
x The further development of game-literacy and game-based simulation activities in media education, in ‘creative’ subjects, and in other curriculum areas
x The design and exchange of games online, using Missionmaker and an appropriate sharing site
x Game design pedagogy in HE games design courses
x The broader cultural role of game production, in the context of emerging participatory media cultures.
