Monthly Archives: October 2018

Meaningful Play 2018: Day 3

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Saturday was the final day of the best conference on meaningful gameplay.

This shorter day ends the Meaningful Play 2018 conference.  As always, I leave with inspiration and a greater sense of purpose, not to mention hope.

Saturday morning keynote

The day began with a very informative and practical talk, The Promise of Games for Personlized Learning, in which Diana Hughes of Age of Learning discussed and demonstrated practices they used in ABCmouse Mastering Math to teach and assess mathematics skills in children ages 4-8.

One fundamental takeaway from the keynote was the importance of providing proper understanding (mastery) of basic mathematical principles (of which I had not realized there were so many) before attempting to teach a skill that relies on those principles.  The software uses various (positive) “scaffolding” for supporting a learner who does not demonstrate knowledge of a topic, as measured by incorrect answers in a game.

Initial results of scientific testing show great promise, based on significant improvements with just limited classroom time spent using the game, as well as anecdotal evidence from teachers that the software is effective.  I believe that numerical understanding is as important as the ability to read for educational success, so these are hopeful results.

Breakout sessions

There were only two breakout sessions on this final day.  For the first one, I attended Game Post-Mortem Microtalks II.

The first (of 3) games featured was a VR simulation of a Brazilian chicken farm.  Pericles Gomes presented the software running on Google Cardboard, along with some detailed information about the huge quantity of meat produced and exported from Brazil, and more detailed information about the number of chickens produced from the particular farm that was captured with 360 degree cameras to make the simulation.  Even running in just Cardboard, the VR version had proven more effective than the tablet version.

The second postmortem was from Phillip Cameron about the use of games with students learning the German language.  He presented the results of a limited survey of potential students and how likely they would be to continue with advanced German studies, and then again with similar classes using games and software.  The total numbers showed a slight improvement, but upon correlating answers between the two questions, it was shown that some “likely” to continue initially actually became “unlikely” in the class with games, while other moved from “unlikely” or “unsure” to “likely”.

The third and final postmortem was by Mars Ashton, who is very active in the Michigan game development community, on his award-winning game project, Axis Descending.  He discussed the personal origin of the project about a decade ago, its creation in Flash, the marketing and reception (including awards) of the project during development, and the ultimate decision to cancel the project.  Mars was very upfront about how his focus on the game had become “unhealthy” and how that affected him and those around him.

For the second breakout session, I chose to do the Tour of MSU Libraries Rovi Game Collection.  We walked to the MSU Library and, first, visited the Video Game Lab which houses the Rovi Game Collection, a collection of approximately 18,000 PC and console games dating back to the early 1990s (including at least 7 games I worked on 😉 ).

We then walked downstairs to visit the Digital Scholarship Lab, which is an impressive collection of technology available to students, faculty, researchers, and the public at large.  It includes a 360-degree visualization room, with seamless video projected on the walls of the round room, a VR room with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive set up and ready for use, a room with scanners, including a small 3D scanner, and numerous very powerful desktop computers with just about all the creation and development software one could want.

On the way out, we also passed the MakeCentral Makerspace, which has 3D printing, structure scanning, laser cutting, and vinyl cutting available, as well as a technology lending program with a number of digital toys…  I mean, tools.  Very cool.

Saturday afternoon keynote

The closing keynote was Imagineers at Play, by Bei Yang of Walt Disney Imagineering.  He discussed several aspects of “imagineering”, including the many disciplines involved, how they test and revise experiences, and the benefits of using BIM (Building Information Modeling) for design of spaces.  He then showed a number of projects, ranging from experimentation to final implementation, to illustrate the ideas.  This included the revelation that an upcoming Disney experience will allow guests to pilot the Millennium Falcon!

The key takeaways were that the design loop (ideate, prototype, test) is essentially the scientific method (hypothesis, experiment, conclusion) in practice, and the following observations on technology:

  1. Everything is design
  2. Technology is making design loops faster
  3. Technology is changing what we can do in those designs

Coincidentally, I ended up asking the last public question of the conference, which was (from memory): For new experiences, does the storytelling drive the technology, or does the technology drive the storytelling?  The short answer was, “Both.”  The longer answer was that sometimes there is a story to tell and they seek out the best technology to do that, which sometime results in ideas being shelved, and other times advances in technology make it possible to tell a story that had been ruled out in the past.

Conclusion

I leave this awesome conference full of new ideas, as well as with a couple new goals to be completed before Meaningful Play 2020.

 

Meaningful Play 2018: Day 2

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The second (and last) full day of this conference is a go.

This is the last full day of the Meaningful Play 2018 conference on serious games, games with a meaningful purpose.  The conference has been quite inspiring so far.

Friday morning keynote

The day got off to a great start with Six Observations on Failure that May or May Not Relate to Games by John Sharp from the Parsons School of Design at The New School.  In this talk, he discussed the benefits of failure, repeatedly invoking the phrase “fail better”, which is part of a quote he (reportedly) has tattooed on himself, while also acknowledging that not everybody has the ability to fail in all circumstances.

The presentation surveyed a number of different ways to see failure as a springboard for better results in the future, including advice from books going back to the mid-1800s, but noted how current American society (especially sports) paint failure as a bad thing.

The key takeaway was the simple process presented for better failure:

  1. Detect
  2. Acknowledge (the hardest part)
  3. Analyze
  4. Attribute responsibility (n.b., not blame)

He encouraged everybody who is in a position to afford it to fail often and fail better.

My personal observations, complementing not contradicting his, are that failure leads to better retention of correct results (i.e., learning) and that the fear of failure results in not trying things, for one, but also in striving for perfection, which in turn results in analysis paralysis and perfectionism.  A quote from a friend that hangs on my office wall reads, “Done is better than perfect.”  (I write this to remind myself again. 🙂 )

Breakout sessions

Instead of a midday keynote, Friday has three breakout sessions of six options each.  For the first one, I instead attended the Tower Room (or, more accurately, the hallway outside) to work on these blog updates (and also charge the tablet) before lunch.

For the second breakout session, I attended The Original Mobile Games: Recreating Historic Dexterity Puzzle Games for Digital Mobile Platforms, a talk by Stephen Jacobs from The Strong National Museum of Play as well as RIT, both of which organizations collaborated on the development of the digital game at the heart of this presentation.

Although this may just be my particular proclivity, but this talk was the one that I found to be the most exciting of the conference (to this point).  This is probably because of my strong interest in the history of traditional games and the fact that my primary development focus is casual games; I even have a game with related mechanics in the project queue.  The turnout was a little disappointing, but seeing both Noah Falstein and John Sharp (and, of course, Stephen Jacobs) there provides support for my choice. 😉

The discussion was about the history of “dexterity puzzle games” (i.e., the original mobile games) such as Pigs in Clover (as seen in the image), in which the aim is to use physics to maneuver objects, usually balls, into indentations or positions as prescribed by the rules.  These have been popular for 129 years, and the Strong Museum has around one hundred examples of the game type.  This product attempts to replicate the physics behavior of some of these games, as well as preserving the history, appearance, and even sounds of these early amusements, making it all accessible on mobile devices.

I am excited just to see this project, even if I do not end up playing it much.  You can get it now for Android on Google Play or for iOS on the App Store, and you can check The Original Mobile Games website for to check for other platforms in the future.

For the third breakout session, I attended Game Post-Mortem Microtalks I.

The first (of two) games featured was Plunder Panic, a game created by Brian Winn, William Jeffery, and 12 (paid) student developers from MSU.  This is an award-winning game with simultaneous play for up to 12 players, and one of the first university games to seek a retail audience, which provides extra challenges beyond merely development.  The primarily development challenge was productivity from college students during the school year, but the game presses forward, scheduled to be released commercially in 2019.

The second featured game was Thunderbird Strike, a game from Elizabeth LaPensée, who did the design and hand-drawn artwork.  The postmortem did not discuss much about the development, per se, except that the animations had to be reduced because of the time required to do animations by hand, one frame at a time.  The bulk of the discussion was about how this small indie art game, made by indigenous people, for the purpose of reflecting some indigenous culture and values (for a small audience), became the focus of a political firestorm, which thrust the game into the public eye to a much wider audience, but also brought about unfair and inaccurate criticism of the game and personal attacks directed towards its designer, whose life was altered by the controversy.

Friday afternoon keynote

The afternoon keynote was Playful Social Engineering by Katherine Isbister of University of California, Santa Cruz.  The talk began with discussion about the way technology tends to separate us “cyborgs”, such as when people are so engaged in their phones that they eschew normal social interaction.  The presenter then discussed issues of and opportunities for using technology to encourage, rather than interfere with, social interconnection, then showed a couple of case studies with LARPs (Live-Action Role Playing games).  More research and work needs to be done in this area.

Game exhibitions

Thursday night had the Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session, which included (among other things) demonstrations of serious games.  Friday night featured the Pure Michigan Game Exhibition and Celebration, which showcased many games made in Michigan.

[I will discuss these events in a separate post later.]

Meaningful Play 2018: Day 1

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The first full day of the conference is a rollicking start.

Meaningful Play 2018 is properly and officially underway with the opening remarks (following Meaningful Play 2018: Day 0) by conference chair Brian Winn, who has organized the biennial event since the first in 2008.  The theme this year is wizards (after ninjas, monsters, and robots) and the slogan is, “Exploring the Magic of Games.”

The purpose of the conference is to bring together game developers and academics to discuss the research and practice of designing serious games, which are (to give a simpler definition than yesterday) games with meaning.  This thread of exploring not only the magic but the purposeful impact of games runs through the proceedings.

Thursday morning keynote

The morning keynote was Three Miles An Hour: Designing Games for the Speed of Thought, by Tracy Fullerton, game designer and Director of the Games Program at USC.  The “three miles an hour” from the title refers to average walking speed, which has been suggested as a pace at which thinking can occur more readily, and Tracy explores this concept in “walking simulator” games such as her own Walden, a Game.  She discusses the idea that games can (should?) have “reflective play”, where scenes with no urgent interactivity can be used to give the player a chance to reflect on the experience.

One takeaway was the proposed reshaping of Sid Meier‘s definition of a game as “a series of interesting choices” into “a series of meaningful situations“.  It is an interesting reframing, but I feel that the two are fully compatible; what makes a decision interesting is anticipation of a meaningful situation to which it leads.  It is analogous to traditional games: some games play on the points on the board, while others play on the polygons they form.

The important thing here, I think, is the word, “meaningful“.

Morning session

The morning breakout session provided six options for talks, papers, panels, and workshops, but since I can only be in one place at a time, I choice to attend Physics is (still) Your Friend: The World of Goo @ 10 by Drew Davidson.  In this talk, he revisited the talk he gave at Meaningful Play 2008, looking at how The World of Goo stands up after 10 years on the market (answer: quite well) and even revealed a few spoilers for those of us who never got very far in the game.

Key takeaways were that the game was, in a way, a metaphor for the indie game development process (full analysis would be too deep for this post), that early figures showed that 90% of players of the game were pirating it but they were successful despite that by focusing on the game, and that they produced the game for many platforms and continue to upgrade them to remain playable through the years.

Midday keynote

Full disclosure: Living near to the conference venue has a few drawbacks such as, perhaps, getting pulled away from the event for family matters, so I missed the first 15 minutes of this keynote, Games Are Not Good for You, by Eric Zimmerman.  This means that I missed the audience playing “Five Fingers” and, apparently, a swipe at Luminosity.

Nevertheless, even sans introduction (and title slide picture), this talk was enlightening about the practice of informed game design.  The most fascinating part of the talk, to me, was a discussion of his game, Waiting Rooms, which was a building-sized installation wherein players would walk around collecting and paying pennies and tickets according the rules of various rooms.  They set up systems without a defined goal and observed what was essentially (although I did not hear him call it this) emergent behavior, but driven by human desires and values rather than programmed operators.  (Here is the first article about the game that came up from a Google search.)

Afternoon session

For the afternoon sessions, I chose (from six options again) to attend a talk, An Innovative Approach to Collaborative Game Design, given by Carrie Cole and Sarah Buchan of Age of Learning.  This was the most informative session yet, with practical information and clear illustration of how the learning process was advanced and how curriculum and game design are balanced to achieve those goals.  It was very worthwhile.

In a weird twist, I discovered that Carrie, who I met here in East Lansing when she was at MSU, ended up moving out to the Los Angeles area just a few months after I did, and without realizing the connection at the time, I found out about Age of Learning when we interviewed and ultimately hired one of their developers for my team at Daqri.

Afternoon keynote

The afternoon keynote was Moments (formerly, Nuance) in the Woods: Exploring Meaning in Games by Alec Holowka, one of the developers of Night in the Woods.  The game uses the tag line, “At the end of everything, hold on to anything.”  This line hints at the meaning that the game could and, as we heard, does have.

This talk turned out to be (perhaps unexpectedly) the highlight of the conference so far. After some introduction to the game, which appears to be very engaging, including the incorporation of reflective play opportunities, with a character-driven story.  There was also discussion about some of the development process, the successful KickStarter campaign, and various mistakes made along the way.

The presentation was interesting to that point, but then the speaker took a turn into his own personal struggles while creating the product, concluding that portion with a realization that not everybody has the same access to health care and support services, and how their game could been meaningful to people (especially young people) facing similar struggles.  Then, he read some quick highlights of testimonials from affected players and showed lots of fan art demonstrating the degree to which the game made the desired connection with players.  It was moving and enlightening.

One key moment was the showing of this animated tribute video [2:06] created over the course of a year by a 16-year-old girl, Sarah Y., who ends the video with the message “thank you for inspiring me and many others”.  It was amazing.

 

Meaningful Play 2018: Day 0

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This conference on serious games got underway Wednesday.

Meaningful Play 2018 started here in East Lansing, on the campus of Michigan State University, with a special talk given by game design luminary, Noah Falstein.

The Surprising Synergy of Medicine, Games, and VR was actually a crossover talk, serving as the last presentation of the single day AR/VR Symposium at MSU and launching Meaningful Play 2018, a leading conference on serious games, which are games that explicitly provide an additional benefit beyond entertainment, such as education, training, advocacy, or (as in this case) health care.

In this talk, Noah spoke about the potential for VR (virtual reality) to make a strong emotional connection, and the challenges presented using VR for medical games, specifically the issues (good and bad) with advancing technology.  He transitioned to health care by discussing a pain control study where a child was distracted from a painful medical procedure (changing burn dressings) through a VR game, reducing anxiety and the need for sedatives.

His three top arguments for considering games for medical purposes:

  1. Helping people
  2. Challenging, exciting, and diverse development
  3. Big market (especially with FDA clearance)

In support of the latter argument (as the first two are fairly self-explanatory), he mentioned that the pharmaceutical industry, just in the United States, has an annual turnover of 300 to 400 billion dollars.  If therapeutic games could capture just 5% of that market, it would be close to the total value of the (entertainment) video game market.  Food for thought.

Finally, Noah presented some quick case studies of companies/products that were having success in this field, including Akili Interactive, MindMaze/MindMotion, and Muse.  It looks like a very interesting field, with funding available for successful ventures (albeit likely outside the reach of my micro-ISV).

Warm Up

This is my first proper conference in 4 years (since the 2014 edition of this same conference) and it is really convenient that it is held right here in my hometown.  It is quite nice not having to worry about the expense and logistics of lodging.  It has always been good to be able to actually walk to the venue in the past, too, but this time it started raining right as I left home, so I was damp when I arrived for the talk.  Worse, the rain picked up on the way back, so I was totally drenched by the time I got back.

Being that I have been slightly out of the loop for a while, it was really comforting to have the elevator doors open to reveal just two people already in there, the aforementioned  Noah Falstein, who I knew back in the day (but have not seen in person in 15-20 years), and Patrick Shaw of Stardock, who I know better and have seen much more recently.

This was a great way to ease into the conference.