Day 6 of Globaloria, My Game Idea

WHO are you designing your game for? (Include the player's age, abilities, and prior knowledge of your topic.)
I am designing the game for individuals that are interested in biology, healthcare, and possible medical school prospects.  I think middle school, high school, and college students would be the primary audience, but it may even appeal to some older folks.  They would need a basic education in biology and healthcare or medical terminology.
WHAT will your game teach the player about your topic? (Be specific!)
The game will teach the causes, effects, symptoms, and treatments of several ailments.  It will also teach what parts of the world are being drastically affected by any breakouts.  It will also have tidbits of useful medications, and even some natural treatments.
WHERE does your game happen?  The game will have a different world setting during the mission briefing, and those will be areas of the world that are affected by the prominent sickness in that level.  In the levels the settings will be the interior of the biological human body.    

• Describe the world you will design for your game.  For example pneumonia would be fought inside the lungs and respiratory system, while a stomach flu would be battled in the stomach and digestive system.
• How will this setting add to the learning experience?  This would add to the learning experience, because the ailments would be in their natural environments, and that would create more substance regarding the reality factor.

HOW does your game world teach the player about your topic?  The environment will also have bits of information scattered throughout, and the player will have to utilize information from those tidbits to unlock certain upgrades later in the game.  The mission briefings will also be greatly beneficial to the player, as the briefings will give a descent overview of the topic.   

• What happens in the world that helps the player learn?  Different viruses and bacteria will be introduced and explained throughout each level, and also the medications that are used to treat those illnesses.  The information that will be placed in random spots will also be utilized for game progression.  
• How does the player use what they learned to make something happen in the game?  After each level players will have a choice of upgrades, but they have to match correct treatments with the illnesses.

WHY is a game a better way of understanding your topic than a quiz?  A game is a better way of learning, because it involves the player.  Quizzes also include players, but playing the game gives the player a more in depth experience and it keeps them more interested.  The more interest it draws the longer the person will play it, and in turn the more they learn.  

Day 5 of Globaloria Class

Finished creating my first mini-game today, and it was quite fun even if it was a bit of a headache.  It was fairly hard to create and organize the codes involved with the game.  I would have to say that the organization of the brackets and codes was by far the most frustrating part of this assignment.  However, it was a fun experience, and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to create the game.  The steps were actually quite easy to get a solid grasp on with a bit of practice.  The hardest step was step 8, as the pizza coding was hard to place, but it was basically a copy of the carrot coding with a different object.  I hope everyone in the class enjoyed it, although I know it was more aggravating than fun for some people.

May 18, 2011 Day 3 of Globaloria Class

Today was a great day for the class, as we got to find some inspiration by watching and playing games ourselves.  Delving into our own thoughts, we pondered ideas for our own game production.  The focus I would like to put into my game revolves around the healthcare system and disease prevention.  I am also thinking of implementing a part of the game that would allow for genetic enhancements to create immunities against certain strains of infection.  I don't know how much I will get to into the game, but we are just working on a demo for now.  I imagine the programming will be quite tedious, and graphically the game may be somewhat basic at first.  There will always be time for enhancements later.  Still having lots of fun with the class, but thinking of the possible headaches over the next few weeks. LOL

Globaloria Game Reviews

I played several of the games, but was able to draw interest in only a few of them.  Punctuation Dawn was a fun game, and it did focus on the educational perspectives of gaming.  It was pretty thorough in showing the grammatical correctness of sentences.  It also gave good descriptions of several items associated with the English language.  The player's objective is to correctly identify the parts of each sentence, and label them appropriately.  The correctly identified words will then transform into gun turrets and blast away at the incoming hoard of invaders that resemble punctuation marks.  The graphic details are not quite up to par, but the gameplay is relatively addictive and actually quite fun.  It is difficult, as you cannot let any of the invading entities pass through or it is game over.  All in all I think it is a good game with a lot of potential.  Many English instructors would rejoice about the educational effectiveness of this game.  I only played for a short time, but I think it would help people greatly if they played this game long term just to practice their skills in the English language.  I personally don't think I will be focusing on language as a basis for my game, but it is great all the same.

I am thinking about implementing some science and history into my game, as both subjects have been some of my favorites in the past.  I have also thought of throwing a bit of a journalistic twist into a game idea, as I think it would be fun to play a game in which the characters have to take an objective perspective to complete the game.  I have also brainstormed some genres such as adventure, puzzle, or survival gaming as those are my personal favorites.  No matter what ideas I decide to use, there is much planning to do, and a story line to write.  I am greatly enthusiastic for this opportunity, and I look forward to digitizing some creative inspiration.

May 17, 2011 Day 2 of Globaloria Class

The second day of class revolved around the group adding some personalized touch to wiki profiles and blogs.  Not to much however, as too much personal info can be a bad thing to have posted on your blog.  Privacy can be fairly hard to maintain on an online environment.  It is very important to protect yourself from identity thieves and other individuals that lurk the internet with malicious intent.  Identity theft is a growing scourge across a technology bound globe, and has even hit online consoles such as the Playstation Network.  It would be nice if people had the common courtesy and respect to leave each other alone, but in the larger world it is not always the case as some individuals do take advantage of those that don't take precautions to protect themselves.

Day 1, May 16, 2011

I am highly excited to be part of this class, as the experience is one I have been looking forward to since hearing about the program.  I already have a few game ideas going through my head so this should be extraordinarily fun.  I am a gamer myself, and have always wanted the opportunity to do this.  I expect nothing more than a great opportunity to express my creativity in a digital game format.  OK, I do expect to have a lot of fun with this course.  I am also looking forward to seeing the ideas of my peers and classmates.  I would like to send out a big thanks to everyone that made this possible!!!