Games, Tips, Insights and Music in the Classroom - My top 10 posts from 2013

Crystal Owen and me introducing our math music video project

2014 will mark three years since I started this blog. My early posts focused mostly on some games I created for Promethean boards and response systems.

Three more years of putting the theories of my studies into practice have led to a much wider spectrum of topics. Most recently they highlight the creative work and insights that have made this year the best of my career.

I now can write about better games, tech tips for many applications and deeper insights into what's really going on in school. Most exciting for me personally has been the increase in work with music.

My role in education is like oil in the machine. Most of what I do isn't the main point, but it's vital to keep things running. 

I was happy to find my list of top 10 posts (in terms of views) written this year reveals this. It includes a good mix of all of these topics and many came from the past four months. Here they are in order, starting with the most popular.

6 Ways to Teach Like an Artist - I'm so grateful to find this was my most viewed new post. The thoughts behind this one sum up not just a year, but my career of 20 years in education (and maybe 40 years of going to school). I like this original post, but the ideas that emerged from it have led to a theme and series of posts that reveal my journey. It has been my gift and message this school year.

Coming Soon - The Creativity Game of Movie Trailers - This final creativity game marked a turn in my attention from classroom games. It stems from a dream project, far more significant than just a game, and I'm glad to see it got attention over the months since I created it.

10 Tips for Recording Video in the Classroom - A lifetime of loving video creation came together in this list of practical tips I repeat constantly whenever we do such projects in class.

What's It to Ya? Randomizer for Class Presentation Games - I don't know why it took me so long to think of this, but it's probably the best way to play the game that I have written about the most. This Flash app selects five cards from my game of values and opinions. Free and very accessible, it allows groups or a class to take advantage of all the critical thinking games and activities based on the simple game.

My Attempt to Encourage Creativity - I'm a little hesitant to include this one, but I am glad people found it useful. When a group of students were afraid to make their own music video, I decided I better take the plunge first. I'm not a vocalist and my video is one of the few I made that has a thumbs-down on YouTube, but it made my point and kicked off my favorite project of my career.

Creativity Exercise for Creative Writing - This is the low tech, party game version of the movie trailer game from the number two slot. Cards can be printed and the game played in small groups.

8 Things I Emphasize When Teaching About Game Design - I love making games and I get excited when I can teach about the process. Here's how I address it in class, and most of this has nothing to do with the how-to of making a game.

How to Inspire Creativity and Teach Content - This is a very practical post about a process I use to create music videos in under 3 hours. I have had a lot more practice with it since I wrote this in April, so my regularly updated page about Music Creation in the Classroom is the go-to place for updates.

6 Reasons Your Students Need to See Your Mediocre Art - Back to my artist theme, this one comes from my personal experience of sharing my less than amazing talents. It meant a lot to me that Kevin Honeycutt tweeted about this one. He is directly responsible for the thoughts behind it and his attention to it helped it make this list.

Middle School Music Video Project - At the end of March I finally completed my first music video project with a class. Everything else was in theory, but this first attempt brought it altogether and the results made my year the best yet as a teacher. Two things worth mentioning:  

• I showed this video to Kevin Honeycutt and it led to our grant funded project on my Music Creation page.  
• The story I tell in this post was the bridge from music video projects to the Teaching Like an Artist theme that wrapped up the year.

Free game for holiday fun - The Game of Christmas Cheer

Here's a print and play version of a game I made with my wife and kids a few years ago. It is a very simple "push your luck" family game filled with some of the best and the most stressful moments of the holiday season.

This will be fun for families, but it could also be used in Sunday school classes or in schools. (It has one card about "the true meaning of Christmas" that some won't want to use in a classroom setting. This was important to our family and our original project.)

More than just as a game to play in school, though, it could also be a great exercise for older students design their own cards or possibly add a completely different theme to it.  Rule changes can also be introduced to make a very different game.

To play, you need to print 10 cards, preferably on cardstock, and cut them out. The game also requires a die, a pawn and 10 chips (pennies or other counters will work) per player. If six players are playing you only need 8 chips per player.

8 things I emphasize in game design lessons

I love games, I make games of various types and I work with educational technology in a middle school.  This means I often have very excited students (usually boys) telling me their dreams of making computer games.  

On one hand I love their passion and I try to encourage them.  I have used it at times to motivate some otherwise very unmotivated students.

At the same time, I am wary of presenting a false picture of what it takes to make a successful (or even a good) game.  "Making it" with games (like any creative venture) can be frustrating.  I don't take it lightly when dealing with their hopes and dreams along with the very real possibility of failure.

I don't always have the chance to teach the class or guide all the aspects of the game design lessons when I'm supporting the classroom teacher.  Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm just in the room and working with the students.  From my experience as a game designer and my time with these students, though, here are the top 8 things I always emphasize in game design lessons.

1)  Don't think about money.  Don't even think you could live off any game you make.  Whether a card game, board game or computer game, you'll most likely invest hours of time and make no money at all.  Most people who make games do not make enough to live off them.  That's reality.

I've made a couple party games that have sold all over the world and I made very little money at it.  Most of my friends who have made games, some a lot more successful than mine, still keep their day jobs.  I make it a personal goal to never talk about the money.

2)  Approach it as a hobby and think about the people who will enjoy your game.  If you have fun with it and are grateful when you see others enjoy your work that is a great reward.  Remember that your work can inspire others, make someone smile or bring good friends together.  Those are great things and if you enjoy doing it, keep doing it.

In fact, I'd even go so far as to say if you're good at it, you should do it.  Sometimes when I wanted to give up on a game I'd push through simply because I felt a responsibility to see that idea go as far as it possibly could.

3)  Game design is work.  It seems like you'd get to play all day, but there are plenty of parts to the process that you won't enjoy.  They won't seem fun.

If we're talking computer games, there is a lot of work up front before you'll even be able to play a game of any complexity.  Learning to program is not easy.  Some applications make it easier than it used to be, but if you really want to build a game from the ground up it's going to require hours of learning, programming and testing.

I have programmed for years and just my simple Flash game, Pegged, about made my head explode when I tried to do the scoring piece.  Seriously, I had to get away from all people and noise, staring at my notes until it hurt.  No one gets that until they've seen it, but trust me.  It takes work.

4)  Know the difference between a dream and a wish...and make sure you're following a dream.  This applies to a lot more than game design, but it's good to throw this in.

When we wish for things we think about the end result--maybe we think about it too much--and we would love to somehow get to that without any real work.  We know we really want that end result.  It would be great and we'd be so happy to see it come true.  But it's a wish because it's a fantasy.  The end doesn't happen without the work.

To me, a dream is more realistic and worth working for.  Maybe some would call this a goal or a plan, and those calculated terms can comes into play, but I like to call it a dream.  It still involves the heart.  It's great to dream, but work toward the dream.  

I always say girls wish that One Direction would stop by their house when they're in town.  Boys wish they could make a living making computer games.  Both are about as unlikely.  Dream, but live in the real world!

5)  It is good to play many games, but do it with design in mind.  The fun part of the hobby of game design is that the "research" can be playing games.  I try to play as many as I can.

When you play, though, don't get so caught up in the playing that you forget about why you're taking the time to do it.  Learn what works and what doesn't.  Watch how the game affects others.  Think about what you understand and what you don't.  Make sure you know what makes something fun.  

Along with this, read about as many games as you can too.  Read reviews of good and bad games that you probably won't be able to play.  Read the rules or details of games from genres or styles you don't like.  Even though you don't actually play them, you'll still learn a ton.  Know what people have done and try to find the areas that are yet unexplored.

6)  Read articles and watch videos about game designers and the design process.  Austin Kleon, in his book Steal Like an Artist, says we do this not to get their ideas, but to get the thinking behind their ideas.

Look into the people who make your favorite games and figure out what makes them tick.  Read interviews about people who made successful games you don't really like.  What led to the decisions that resulted in those games?

When you read their stories you should get a better idea of what I meant about all the work that goes into it.  You will almost never hear a designer say that a game just fell in place.

7)  Record all your ideas for games.  You'll never be able to make them all and many of the ones you try to make won't really work.  Still, every idea is worth keeping because:

• In any art you should form the habit of getting and recording as many ideas as possible.
• It very well can be useful in another way at another time.

Watch my video on how to make games if you're interested in hearing more about keeping a game idea notebook.  (There are a few other good tips in that two part series as well!)

8)  Keep producing while the others play.  Never just play.  This might sound a lot like tip #5 above, but it encompasses all your research, play and work on game design.

If you do the things listed above, you'll be working on your craft even when it feels like you're having some fun.  You'll be getting better every day while others are playing and that's a huge edge.  

Links to resources

I usually make board and card games, so I am mostly familiar with those resources.  Here are a few starting points based on the steps above and some are related to computer games as well.

• Designer interviews at Fair Play Games - I interviewed a lot of board game designers several years ago.  Their tips on design can still be useful.
• Tips for Success from Dominic Crapuchettes - Dominic is the most successful game designer that I know personally.  He worked hard to bring his dreams to life and he's enjoying the rewards.  
• Tom Vasel's game designer interviews - Tom interviewed many game designers over the years.  Here they are compiled on the Boardgame Geek website.
• The Boardgame Geek - Speaking of this site, it's a great place to learn about tons of games (good and bad) throughout the ages.  They have subsections of the site devoted to video games and role playing games too.
• Inspiring Creativity - Here's a post I wrote in 2012 about a friend of mine who creates iOS games.  Be sure to read Kory's post about how he made Blockhouse.  It's a great example of the work that goes into even a "simple" game.
• Meeting with experts - Last school year two of my designer friends met with some of my students in a Google Hangout.  I wrote about that experience and some of their tips in this post.
• My posts on game design - This is not the most organized way to find the information, but the link will take you to all the posts tagged "computer game programming" from this blog.  
• Making What's It to Ya? - Here's my fairly detailed account of how one of my most popular games became an idea in my head and went around the world.  Here's the brief story as a video.
• How to Make Games - I linked to this above, but wanted to put it here two.  Part 1 and Part 2 of this presentation can be found on YouTube.  They haven't been very popular, but I gave away some gems in there, in my opinion!

How to Make Games - Part 2 - Playtesting

I have uploaded the second installment in my three-part series on how to make games.  (You can find the first one, about getting and developing ideas, here.)

This one is about playtesting your game.  I love this part of the design process because it is the first glimpse at a fun idea coming into reality. (But sometimes the ideas do flop!)

I share my favorite tips in this video based on things I learned from other designers through interviews and in working with them at the annual Protospiel game designer convention.  Main points include:

• Going from ideas to playable prototypes
• How to prepare your playtesters
• Tips on the playtest process
• Key questions to ask playtesters
• How to know when the game is done

How to Make Games - Part 1 - Getting and Developing Game Ideas

"You might learn if you play a game, but you will certainly learn something if you design a game"

-Dr. Fred Goodman

We hear so much about game based learning, but I always like to think about how we can get students making games.  Don't forget that a board, card or computer game can be a great final product for project based learning.  Design concepts, system thinking and creativity are part of the learning process from start to finish when one makes a game.

If you or students want to learn some tips about game design, here's a new version of a lesson I posted a few months ago about how to make games.  I often get asked about how I get ideas or how to turn an idea into a published game.  I will share some of my best practical advice over the course of three videos in the weeks ahead.

Keep in mind:

• Most of my experience is with designing board and card games.
• My goal is to help anyone to take an idea and turn it into a playable game that people will enjoy.  It is not necessarily to help someone sell a lot of copies!

If you want to see all the things I have posted about creating games over the past year, click here to search for the Game Design label.  There are articles about creating and publishing several types of games.

If you have questions, please send them to me or comment below so I can improve these lessons.

Tips for Success - An interview with Dominic Crapuchettes of North Star Games

Here's a brief interview with game designer Dominic Crapuchettes, founder of North Star Games.  

Dominic created the excellent party games Wits & Wagers and Say Anything.  They're both great fun and (with his kind permission) I turned them into classroom presentation games for ActivInspire.  With two editions based on each game, they have been some of my most downloaded classroom activities.  The games themselves are also a great addition to the classroom.  I have entertained many students with both titles.

I met Dominic in 2002 when we both were part of a newly formed game designer convention.  His talent for games was apparent immediately.  From that time on I watched him devote his life to a dream of having his own game company.  Rather than focusing on the smaller market of "hobby games", he set his sites on the big time--having his games reach the masses through the large chains like Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.

With his talent and hard work he has done just that.  I asked him to share some of his story because I believe it can inspire creative students to follow their dreams.

He also had some unique educational experiences that remind me that to help students be successful I have to do more than just cover the Common Core Standards in my classes.

Mike Petty:  Dominic, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for us!  To start, what can you tell us about the success of North Star Games?

Dominic Crapuchettes:  North Star Games started as a dream in my basement over 10 years ago.  Since then, we have designed 6 games and won over 100 awards.  Wits & Wagers is the most awarded party game in history!  Our games are sold in Target, Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us, and over 25 countries.

MP:  It has been great following your rise to success over the past several years and I have learned a lot from you about what it takes to realize a dream.  When did you know you wanted to create games for a living?

DC:  I knew through most of high school that I wanted to design games for a living, but I didn’t think it was something I would end up doing.  My senior paper was a business plan for a board game company that I wanted to start.

MP:  There is a lot of talk about games in education now, and in some ways gaming seems to be more popular than ever.  But the hype almost always is focused on computer games.  On the other hand, you and I have been creating traditional games for the most part.  What do you think the advantages are of either playing or creating the traditional games?

DC:  Focusing on board games has forced me to be frugal with rules, and strive for elegance and simplicity.  This is because the players have to keep track of everything, as opposed to having a computer do it.  Every creative endeavor benefits from striving for simplicity, including my endeavor to grow our company.  Even Einstein always sought the simplest explanation for the things he saw.

MP:  I know you worked extremely hard to get to where you are now.  There were times I thought I was working hard trying to balance a job and my pursuits as a game designer, then I'd talk to you!  Tell us a little about those early days.

DC:  It is very difficult to start a company.  I found a great partner when I was going through business school.  We worked about 80 hours a week for two years… without any pay!  There were several times when we thought we were going to go bankrupt.  But we stuck with it, and now it is starting to pay off.  We get to do what we love, AND we get paid for it.  Not many people can say that.

MP:  Would you say you’re living your dream? 

DC:  Yes, I would say that I am living my dream, but keep in mind that this is still a job. I have to set my alarm each morning and drive to work each day.  Then I spend most of my day doing things that are not all that fun like answering emails.  But this is mixed with things that I enjoy greatly, like designing and testing games, and then working on the graphics for them.

MP:  I know your talents well enough to say you could have succeeded in a lot of areas.  You chose to follow your creativity.  What are some benefits of exercising creativity in life, including as a hobby or in other ways that might not make money?

DC:  There are ways to be creative in just about any job.  Finding a creative solution to a problem is not only useful to the company you work for, but it is also very satisfying.  Following my heart led me to start a game company and gives me the opportunity to create games, but most of my creativity goes into figuring out how to make our company successful.  The more creative we are with solving problems, the better our company does.

I believe that it is important to balance your passion with meeting the needs of your community.  Your job is NOT about doing what YOU want.  It is about serving your community.  So look for a way to serve your community in a manner that you enjoy.  It’s a life-long process to balance the things you want with the needs of your community.

MP:  That's a great point.  I try to remind my students of the responsibility they have to others.  It's easy for all of us to forget!  

What was your experience like through formal education.  Do any teachers or classes stand out as your favorites?

DC:  I did not enjoy high school.  Memorizing facts for tests was not interesting to me.  So I went to a college where we read philosophical works and discussed their meaning in class.  That’s when I started getting passionate about my education.  I had many favorite teachers.  They were able to inspire me to get excited about the material.

MP:  Are there specific things you do to keep ideas flowing in your business?  

DC:  I look for my inspiration in the other games I play.  I am always considering ways to improve them, or mix elements from one game into another idea that I am working on.  I do the same with my company.  I read about other companies, speak with other business owners and learn as much as I can from their failures and successes.

MP:  I have some common themes that I present to students when I work with classes at many grade levels or in any subject.  I wondered if you have any comments on these, particularly how they might relate to technology and success.

For one, we increase our chances for success by making the most of everyday opportunities.  Forming the habits now of working hard or making good relationships, for example, makes success more likely in our future.

DC:  One of the most important things is life is forming good habits.  Even the smartest person on Earth has a limited amount of brain energy.  Forming good habits allows you to focus on something without having the rest of your life fall apart.  For instance, I set reminders on my computer for everything I need to do.  Then I can focus on the task at hand without worrying that I will forget something else that is important (like picking up my kid from school).

MP:  Right.  Another theme I emphasize is the importance of learning how to learn.  The world is changing fast and students will always need to adapt to unexpected situations.

DC:  My entire college education was a lesson on how to learn.  Instead of memorizing ideas that other people came up with, we read books, discussed them, and came up with our own ideas.  Learning how to listen to others and adopt your ideas and opinions based upon the information you get from them is an important life-lesson that will help you in ANY job you get.

MP:  I agree.  Thanks for putting it in words for us and for providing the example through your own success story.  I wish you and the company the best in the future!

To keep up with information about Dominic's company North Star Games and their great line of party games, please visit:

• Their website at http://www.northstargames.com.
• Or their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/northstargames.

Computer Game Design in the Classroom - Stencyl as a tool for creating Flash games

I've been briefly highlighting some computer game creation tools over the past week.  The first two articles are here:

• Gamestar Mechanic
• App Inventor

For this installment I want to focus on my current resource of choice:

Stencyl

Update 2/2/2014:  I recently posted a review of a book that will be great resource for learning Stencyl:  Learning Stencyl 3.x Game Development. If you are considering using Stencyl in class or if you are just learning the program, I recommend the book.

I wrote recently about Stencyl and I have featured a few games I created.  For now, I'll briefly touch on my experience, the pros and cons and why I like this tool the best.

My Experience
My first attempt to use Stencyl was met with frustration, but I revisited it this summer after I realized they updated to version 2.0.  They also expanded some of the documentation.  Those changes helped me to understand the elements and I was able to create a few games.  Two of them are hosted here on the Stencyl Arcade.

Like many other tools, users arrange code blocks rather than typing all the lines of a program.  That's generally a nice touch, though sometimes blocks are annoying.  I'm used to the old fashioned way!

But even if a user finds the blocks to their liking, it's not exactly easy to make a game.  It is probably easy to modify some existing games that are available, and that's a great place to start, but to create a game from scratch requires a lot of logic and planning.  And that doesn't even involve actually learning the elements of Stencyl itself.

For example, my games were simple in the fact that I did not need to handle collisions or many different "scenes" based on player interaction.  I made some simple card games.  The computer never had to respond with anything that resembled AI.  Animations were very simple.

But the logic behind some scoring elements made my head spin.  Dealing with lists (arrays) can always be an exercise in the abstract, but that along with how they're handled in Stencyl was a challenge for me.  My son, who will be in seventh grade this year, was surprised by the complexity of that part of the code.  He wasn't even interested in learning what it did or how I figured it out.  I know most students around that grade level would feel about the same toward it.

It's a simple fact that creating a decent game can be difficult on many levels.  It will be time consuming and require a lot of thought.  If anyone doubts this, they should read a few posts in the forums at Stencyl.  I can't even understand many of the technical discussions.

But why do I prefer it over other tools?  Because I am able to make games that are easily played online...at least with a computer.  Here are the positives and negatives in brief.

Positives

• Stencyl can make a great variety of games.  Even with the free version, one can make action games, puzzle games, card games, etc.  There are limits, but compared to Gamestar Mechanic this offers a universe of options for students to explore.
• The free version makes Flash games that can be played online.  While Flash isn't good for iPads or other mobile devices, it provides more accessibility for free than the other game creation tools that I explored.  
• There is fairly good documentation to get started.  It's not perfect and I didn't find anything geared specifically for educators yet, but it was helpful.  The forums also provide good support for new game designers.  I didn't use the video tutorials, but they do have some created by users that might be helpful for budding programmers.  

Negatives

• As I mentioned above, a game of any complexity is still going to take some serious work.  Besides just the logic and learning Stencyl itself, gathering or creating graphics and sound effects was a big job even for my simple games.
• It boasts the ability to make iOS games, but that will be costly.  You have to buy the Pro version and you need to pay for Apple's developers program as well.  Realistically for many schools, Flash games are about all you'll get out of this.

So for me the positives clearly outweighed those couple negatives.  I'm thrilled with what I learned and that I now have a few computer games that I can use in the classroom this year.

My biggest lesson so far is that I really can appreciate the work that goes into making a great computer game!  From graphics to sound to the programming itself, it's demanding.  Hopefully more students will see this and their desire to make games will motivate them to that level of effort.

Computer Game Design in the Classroom - Gamestar Mechanic

I have written extensively about Gamestar Mechanic, but I want to address it briefly here as I'm doing a series of tools for using computer game design in the classroom.

This series stems from my desire to motivate students based on their passions.  I am exploring some ways to do that with computer game design.  My first post focused on App Inventor.  Today I'll look at the application I have the most classroom experience with.

Gamestar Mechanic

The developers of Gamestar Mechanic have done the best job that I've seen of making their program accessible for students.  In fact, it is intended to be a tool for learning.  It integrates the process of learning the program and learning game design very well.  This opens the door to integration within several content areas.  While I have not yet been as successful as I'd like with that next step, I see the potential.  Any shortcomings I have experienced in that regard make me wonder if there's any hope for this with more complex options, but that is what I still need to explore.

My Experience with Gamestar Mechanic
As I said, these projects are explained at length in other places on this blog or my other website, so I will just link to them here.

I developed a project in a science class last year that integrated game design, various technology tools and the study of ecosystems.  It's one of the more popular stops for visitors to my blog.  Here's an overview of it.

I also explored the possibility of integrating it with math lessons at the 5th and 6th grade level.  Specifically, I saw an application for reinforcing the concepts of proportions, rates and ratios.  I wrote about that experience here.


Positives

• Gamestar Mechanic is on the low end of the complexity scale for teachers and students.  That makes it great to highlight game design concepts without letting the "how to" questions get in the way.
• It very nicely weaves how to use the system and how to make a good game all in one teaching and playing experience.  Students who pay attention to the learning while they work through the lessons have very few questions.
• I have seen it appeal to boys and girls in grades 5 - 8.  It blends play and creation in a way that almost all students enjoy it.
• Several resources for teachers are available.  As I mentioned, this tool was clearly created with the classroom in mind.

Negatives

• Its simplicity also amounts to a lot of limitations on the type of games students can create.  Some will say they're not actually making games, but just creating levels of an open-ended game by tweaking options for all the characters.
• Games are Flash based only.  Since the whole application is Flash based, it's not a big deal that you are limited to computers.  Everything will be made on a computer, so students won't mind just playing on their computers.  Unlike other options I'll examine, there's no hope of getting the games on iOS devices or as stand alone executable files even through additional paid features.
• Most importantly to note, it takes most students a long time to work through the levels.  Students earn the ability to make games by completing the game challenges.  If they don't get far enough they simply can't use all the tools.  If they aren't playing at home, it takes a lot of class time for some to get to that point.  Most teachers in a content area will not sacrifice class time to allow students to do this.

In conclusion, if a teacher wants to explore game design concepts, there's no better introduction than Gamestar Mechanic.  It opens the door to integration with content area topics, but in that case the teacher will have to give up a few days of class to allow students to work through the levels.

This very concisely brings me to the main question of all of this.  Can computer game design be a useful tool for all teachers and all learners?

For all the excitement I see in the students and for my own interests in game design, I want to believe it has value.  But repeatedly I have seen the fun of the games and the requirements to learn the tools and the game design concepts so easily obstruct the other learning.

My current plan is to find ways to teach the game design concepts and tools in one class, then get content area teachers to integrate those aspects into their lessons.  Until I can arrange that, I can't confidently recommend such an undertaking, even with this simple tool, to a content area teacher.

Computer Game Design in the Classroom - App Inventor

I try to focus a lot on passion in this blog.  On the job I want to motivate students by appealing to their passions.

I find this to be most difficult when working with teen boys.  While there are certainly some tough cases, my difficulty is rarely due to my inability to identify their passions.  It's usually the challenge of bridging the gap between their interests and the required curriculum.

I know many these male students are very passionate about video games.  When I ask them what they want to study in our digital media courses, they often tell me they want to learn to make games.  (It is not limited to just the boys, but it is always the boys more than girls.)

It seems like game design could be an ideal motivator.  On top of that, it's my hobby too.  But somehow I have yet to find a good way to make video game creation accessible to all students in a way that meets all requirements of the courses in which I am working.  I've been exploring the options more this summer and I will post a few brief conclusions I've formed about some tools at our disposal.

Lesson plans and course flow are in the works too, but for now I'll start with the programming tools.

MIT App Inventor
I am starting with this one because it is 100% free.

My Experience
I used App Inventor for my own studies in a graduate course last year.  I have not tried to use it with students yet.

I was able to make a playable game quite easily with this program, but it did not look great.  I made no effort to explore the graphic capabilities.  Also, my game was not an action "video game" in the usual sense.  It was a fairly simple two-player game that involved selecting options.

Here's a video demonstrating the game.  I show it on the Android simulator in the video, but I did play the game on a phone as well.  (I have to love that one comment a user posted for it!  As a former math teacher, I'm used to less than pleasant sentiments expressed by the unimpressed.)

And here's the classroom project that it was derived from.

Positives

• It is quite simple to get started with App Inventor.  I have years of programming experience, so that probably helped.  The list of options are small, intuitive and well documented, though, so I found it to be the easiest application to take the game from concept to playing it on a device.
• Unlike most programs that allow you to create for mobile devices, it's free.  Being able to play their games on their phones should appeal to many students.
• Many resources are available for educators.  I have a lot of exploring to do in that area of their website.

Negatives

• It only works on Android devices.  You can test it on a simulator if you don't have a phone, but there's no option to post playable versions online.
• Testing was a little slow with the Android simulator.  The debugging process could get frustrating with small fixes and significant wait times to see what worked and what didn't.
• Files were quite large.  Even my simple games had relatively large files and when I tested them on my phone last year things were sluggish sometimes. 

For all the good I see in this program, I am not focusing on it as a possibility this year in school, mostly for the reasons listed as negatives above.  If you have more experience with App Inventor I will be glad to hear additional thoughts on this.

For my next installment, I will provide some thoughts on a resource I have more classroom experience with.

Programming with Stencyl - How will it work in the classroom?

Update 2/2/2014:  I recently posted a review of a book that will be great resource for learning Stencyl:  Learning Stencyl 3.x Game Development. If you are considering using Stencyl in class or if you are just learning the program, I recommend the book.

Last year I tried to use Stencyl to program some Flash games for a graduate project.  It promised to be a flexible tool for making many types of games and several examples were offered that proved even teenagers could use it.  Like Scratch, App Inventor and GameMaker, it simplified the task of coding by using blocks that snap in place.

Unfortunately I was so confused by the application that I gave up.  I had some success with App Inventor prior to this, but Stencyl made no sense...until I came back to it this summer.

In version 2.0 they introduced Events as an element of programming.  Previously everything was done as Behaviors and I couldn't make those work.  This summer I gave it another try and the Events made sense to me.  I'm sure I'm programming very inefficiently at times, since I completely ignore Behaviors (which I guess are reusable sets of Events), but I am able to make games.  I'm happy.

I got lost for many enjoyable hours this summer while creating this Flash version of What's It to Ya?.  I felt like a kid exploring my old Commodore VIC20 thirty years ago.

But my own interests aside, the big question I need to answer is whether or not I would use this in the classroom.  I will be working with some digital media courses at the high school and middle school levels this year.  I know many of the students will want to make games.  Is Stencyl going to make that possible?

The short answer for me is not yet.  I simply have not figured out how to introduce students to complex programming tools like this.  In the past, when I taught very simple computer programming, I would provide some projects to get them started.  In this case, though, much of the learning would have to be done on their own.  After a few weeks of exploring they will be beyond my own skill level.  Knowing the students that we generally get in these classes, their desire to make video games will far exceed their logical reasoning and patience for learning about, building and debugging programs.  I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that many will not be disciplined enough to proceed on their own.

(As an example of complexity, the What's It to Ya? game I programmed was very simple in the fact that it had just a few Scenes and movable objects.  I didn't have to concern myself with things colliding or animated characters.  Still, figuring out how to calculate the scores for a round really taxed my brain.  I admit I'm out of practice on programming in general, but even once I figured out how I'd do it with other languages I had a very hard time putting it into Stencyl.  After a few frustrating hours I had to admit that I only know of two or three students I have taught in 18 years who would have worked that hard to learn something new.)

If a few students are capable and moving ahead in the class I would start with Gamestar Mechanic at the middle school level instead of Stencyl.

At the high school level...I'm still undecided.  Scratch seems like a good starting point for actual programming, but most examples I have seen make it look like it's aimed at a younger audience.  I need more experience with GameMaker to be able to help them or to decide if it clearly is easier to learn than Stencyl is.

A quick search for Stencyl in the classroom has turned up a few leads about how other teachers are putting it to use.  I also just came across CodeHS this morning, which calls for all students to learn programming.  Obviously teachers are accomplishing good things with tools like these, so I have some research to do.  I want to offer students the possibility of making games, but at this time I am far from being ready to offer this to all students in my computer classes.

If you have suggestions for where I can find more ideas to get started, I'll be glad to hear them.

Creativity Exercises - Some creative games for the classroom

“Creativity is just connecting things.”  -Steve Jobs

We need to teach creativity in school and this is primarily a post about a creative exercise that can do just that.

(Update:  I posted my presentation about creativity, the exercises and how these games fit into it here.  This post goes into a lot more detail on the options for the games, but be sure to check out that newer post to see how I present it in class.)

Since most people who come here will be interested in the games and exercises I’ll start with them.  At the end I will include some thoughts about about the origin of the creativity game system that it's all based on for those interested in the design process.

First, here's a video that sums up the system and uses rules of one particular game as an example:


In all of these game activities below, some random words are selected and from them the players must come up with creative responses based on those words.  In terms of Steve Jobs’ quote, they will practice creativity by making connections between seemingly unrelated things.  For example, in the game Why Did the Chicken...?, two random nouns are used make a riddle and the players must write funny answers to the riddle.  In the haiku games, random nouns must be used in haikus.

If you are playing the game with a group of friends, one player will judge each round and pick a couple winning submissions.  In the classroom games below, the class can vote using a classroom response system like the ActivExpressions.

Traditional Games

Only one of these games is a product you would have to purchase.  The others can be played with just a pencil and some paper.  For use in class, students could play in groups of four to six.

• Why Did the Chicken...? - This is the boxed version of the game system where players make creative, funny answers to riddles.  I wrote more about the game and have a short video here.
• The Haiku Game - I made this game using letter cards for an old game that is no longer available.  You could play it with Scrabble tiles or any game that has letter cards.
• Cartoon Chicken - This is by far my favorite of the creativity games.  Players make captions for two randomly paired drawings.
• The Chicken Game System - This is Kory Heath’s page for the generic system.  It is a great read for any serious game designer.  From here you can learn to make a playable version of any of the creativity games mentioned here.
• Abe & Einstein - This game doesn’t exist in any published form as of yet, but you can play if you’ve read the rules to the game system above.  For this game, the prompts are two random famous people or characters.  Players write what the two people would say if they just met.  It’s hilarious.
• Get Paul That Promotion - This is my twisted anti-creativity game based on the system.  It is available for free at the link.  You can read about how it was invented with the help of my students here.

Playing in the Classroom

It seems many people are referring to these classroom games as "class presentation games".  If that's what you are looking for, I have several.

I used to make flipcharts that use Promethean software and I'll list those below, but more recently I started these more generic versions as webpages.  All of these games are based on this general system that uses random prompts, creative submissions and a selection of the winner.

• The Classroom Creativity Game - Combines several versions of the creativity system into one webpage.
• Coming Soon - The Creativity Game of Great Movie Trailers - Students compete to come up with the best ideas for a movie.  This can be used to teach the elements of a great story.

And these are the original versions that were designed for ActivInspire and ActivExpressions, but you can adapt them to be used with any computer/projector setup and any classroom response system (including a show of hands).

Note:  Most of my games were taken down from Promethean Planet.  The links below are currently not active.  You can still find Split Decision.  See my Games page for more information.

• The Haiku Game - Students compete to write haikus based on generic nouns.
• The Mythology Haiku Game - The same game, but with words related to Greek myths.
• The Halloween Haiku Game - And the game with words related to Halloween.
• Split Decision - This game is a little different than the others, but players are encouraged to write creative responses based on a randomly chosen topic.  The goal is to present tough decisions to the class.

Of course any of the traditional games mentioned above could be adapted to classroom play.  You can play with a few contestants, like the classroom flipcharts above, or you could have all students write responses.  Determining a winning submission could be handled with a vote or a single judge as appropriate for your class.

The birth of the creativity game system...

I wrote a few weeks back about my friend Kory Heath and how we met up at Protospiel.  That was in 2003 when my passion for game design was probably at its highest point ever.  I was in love with games and in the pursuit of something new in the hobby.  Protospiel was an annual convention, but it was also a growing group of creative friends.  I remember hanging out that summer with Kory, James Droscha, Stephen Glenn and others.  We talked at a deep level about games and and fun in general for hours on end.  I left with my brain buzzing with ideas.

Over the course of those few days Kory and I discovered we had both created games where  the winner of a contest was chosen by a judge rather than some objective rules.  In other words, instead of quantifying everything and determining a winner by points, a player would just pick the winner or a winning entry that he or she liked best.  But having a judge pick a winner was not the focus of the game.  Instead it was the creativity of the players and the “problem” posed to them that they were trying to solve.  In my game the players were writing funny things about each other and in Kory’s they were trying to come up with analogies.

In the weeks after Protospiel, Kory and I continued discussing these ideas and some like them.  We realized (he first, actually) that we really had a generic system for creativity games.  I loved playing those games because I enjoyed the process of making fun responses.  Kory was impressed with the power of how two random items could generate so many creative ideas.

As Steve Jobs stated, creativity comes from making connections.  When playing these games, some people feel they are not creative enough to come up with a response.  It really is an exercise, though, because with repeated practice (and once they realize failure isn’t so bad) they usually improve.  This observation speaks volumes for what the classroom experience should look like.  I hope these games provide teachers with exercises that encourage students to think creatively.  We need more students who are confident in their ability to create and who find enjoyment in the process.

With our respective groups Kory and I worked on many ideas in this system.  He lived on the East Coast and tested his games with established game designers.  I tested mine with students in the high school game club.  There, we had a ton of fun, but his group was better at the work side of things.  They developed a polished system and had a better focus on quality results.

Some examples of my games are the haiku game and the wacky, almost anti-creativity game, called Get Paul That Promotion.  My students and I had a blast exploring this creative model of play.

Kory’s group eventually created a published version called Why Did the Chicken...?.  Playing off that title, they developed what they called Chicken Games and Kory formalized some of the rules at this site.  The most notable feature that emerged from their play is that players can write as many submissions as they want in two minutes.  It was a great insight that contributes immensely to the excitement and creativity of the game.

This game system is amazingly entertaining and to this day I think it would be my preferred game if I had to choose only one for life.  Quite possibly the best thing about it is that it can be played with nothing more than some pencils and paper.

How to Make Games - Part 2

In this part of the presentation I focus on some vital tips that I learned about the playtest process.  This is certainly the most important and possibly the most enjoyable part of making a game.  I playtested most of my best games with students over the years and the fun of those sessions and the lasting friendships that developed outweigh any success I have achieved as a game designer.  That might be the best lesson to share with students if you are creating games for or with your classes.

After years of working with some talented and successful game designers, I have pulled out just a few practical bits of advice that can be very insightful for testing any game.



I love the Educreations app, which was used to record this presentation.  However, I have found it's not ideal when I like 85% of what I said, then I mess up or can't remember a detail!  Consequently, here are some clarifications:

Blind playtesting - I made it sound like the playtesters at this stage have to find the game components!  I was picturing them finding them in the box like one would after purchasing a game, but it could be misleading.  Basically, this is your late stage testing and you want to provide the testers with a close copy of what they will have if they purchased a published version of your game.

That golden question about what keeps players playing comes from work I did with Kes Sampanthar when we edited the Protospiel playtest sheet.  I am in his debt for that insight.

And it slipped my mind at the moment, but it was an interview with Andrew Parks where I pulled out the idea of changing just one thing at a time in later stages of playtesting.  Take that for what it's worth.  I usually can't so limit myself!

And to elaborate on Protospiel:
The Protospiel website is here.  Check out that site, but also do some searches for it to see how the group has grown and how many published games have been created by attendees over the years.  The original idea came from Stephen Glenn and his friend Dominic Crapuchettes organized the first gathering.  It would be a shame to talk about Protospiel without giving them credit for their early efforts.

The old Protospiel site has some useful resources that didn't get moved over to the new one yet.  You might want to browse those here as well.

And last of all, I have to point out that playtesting at school has one important drawback.  Almost any game seems more fun to students when they are at school!  This is especially true if you try a game during class.  I usually did playtesting at lunch or after school, but even then games seem more fun than the usual business of that environment.  Keep that in mind when you think about dropping several thousand dollars on publishing your creation.  Games need to attract attention when in the vast array of competing products, not just when compared to your lecture on supply and demand.

More on that in the third part, if I get to it.

How to Make Games - Part 1

Here's my first attempt at a presentation about making games.  I talk very generally about how I get ideas and how I begin to develop them.  If there is interest in this, I will follow it up with information on playtesting and publishing the games.



This post also serves as an example of the Educreations app for the iPad.  I love the app, but it can be frustrating when you want to start over on the recording.  I am happy to find out that I can embed the lesson here.  Originally I thought they were only accessible by users registered with your school on the Educreations site.

Game Design and Ecosystems - Getting Started

I posted a few days ago about the project I am doing with an all girls science class at the middle school. The teacher named it G.E.M.S., after a similar course she found online. It stands for Girls Engaged in Math and Science. In the project, the girls will use Gamestar Mechanic to create computer games about energy flow in an ecosystem. The fifth grade students in the district will play the games and be assessed to see how well the games teach the concepts.

I have worked with the class for five days now and the project is going very well. Generally I have thought of the game design projects as appealing to the disengaged male students, but the girls have really been enjoying it.

Here is the flow of the project:

1) First the teacher provided a quick review of the concept of energy flow in ecosystems. Students were required to choose an ecosystem and fill out a flow chart that included producers and consumers in that ecosystem.

2) To introduce what Gamestar Mechanic games look like, I had the girls play some sample games from Kevin Hodgson's project. They had to answer a few questions about the games after trying them. The assignment is here: Sample Games Assignment

3) Next, the students had to sign up at Gamestar Mechanic in my classroom and they began the Quest. The site uses the Quest to teach the students the aspects of good game design and also how to use the tools there. I was very curious to see how the girls would take to playing through so many levels. In case they got bored or frustrated with the gaming, I tried to break up the class periods with at least one other assignment so they were not playing continually during any single hour.

It has worked very well so far. No group has completed all the levels yet, but they are not tiring of the process. Many are anxious to get started on their own games, but they need to at least complete the first Quest to be able to publish their games for others to play. (I have a Premium account at Gamestar which provides a second Quest, but most will not need to proceed into that one to get the resources they need.)

4) One assignment that I used during this time is a Game Flow Chart. It expands upon what they did with the ecosystem flow chart, but it also incorporates more facts and the game elements that they discovered in the sample games and in the Quest. That assignment is here: Game Flow Chart Assignment

The plan is to continue some planning and storyboard assignments while they work through the Quest and some necessary Challenges. (The Challenges provide optional levels that allow students to earn additional sprites. Some of those will be necessary for an engaging, educational game.)

One other assignment we used was a journal warm-up assignment. I point this out because it is based on some of James Paul Gee's learning principles from What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. I loved the book and this journal assignment was my first attempt to see if the principles are effective with these girls. I wanted them to consider themselves within the roles of scientist, game designer and teacher.

Journal Assignment 1

Game Publishing for the Classroom

Going with my previous post about traditional games in the classroom, here's a resource that I recommend to teachers. It is a print on demand service that specializes in board and card games. Students could use this to turn a class project into a nice edition. Copies could be ordered for family and friends. With just a little more work, they can be made available through the site to the world at large.

The Game Crafter offers options for different sized cards, game boards and several other tokens that work for most games. I have published two of my own projects with them and I'm very happy with the results. The game pictured here consists of three different decks of cards and the accessories shown. It cost me about $20 to order my own copy. It's a little more than what I'd pay for a mass produced game with the same components, but it sure beats having to pay for a minimum run of 1,000 copies. My family worked on the project together and they loved seeing it finally arrive in print. I plan to offer it for sale, but to make a profit I will have to raise that price of $20.

So this won't likely be a direct path to a lot of financial rewards, but the site does have a Hall of Fame. There, designers who have used The Game Crafter as a bridge from idea to a successful mass production tell their stories. Certainly this print on demand service can get a good game into the hands of people who can take it further.

I can't say I've used this in the classroom yet, but I suggest it to teachers and I'm looking forward to the first time we can try it. The service is quite easy to use. The only hard part will be working with the graphics and most of that has nothing to do with The Game Crafter. It will depend on polished the students want their cards and boards to look.

I had a little trouble getting everything sized correctly for their site and the interface was a little frustrating at first. Familiarity with a program like GIMP or Paint Shop Pro will do the job nicely.

Once it's all created according to their specs (templates are available on the site) it's just a matter of uploading. You can order your own copies right away, but there are some additional requirements to enter if you want to put it for sale at the site.

If done right, a successful game project like this could involve all of these learning experiences:

• Game design, with all of the problem solving, testing and creativity that comes with it
• Graphic design
• Setting a reasonable cost through choices in the game design itself, component creation and selection of existing components from the site
• Writing the rules and informational materials
• Promotion of the final product

If it sounds promising, interested students and teachers should start here.

Making a Game - How far will an idea go?

I will probably have a few posts in the next week or so that relate more to traditional games and game creation. With so much focus on computer games everywhere else, this may feel out of place. I still find a lot of value in traditional games in the classroom and students still love making traditional games. My career in education and experience with game design and publication have been inseparable. I always used games in the classroom and my students always helped with the vital process of playtesting.

This weekend I posted a video that highlights my experience with one game that has gone far. It traces its path from initial idea to a game that has been played around the world. I often use this story as a kick-off to my game design projects in the classroom.

To keep this brief I had to leave a lot out. Nothing is said about how I used the game in the classroom or how my interactive whiteboard activities continue to spread the idea. I trust this serves its purpose, though, as possible encourage for others who have an idea and want to watch it grow.