James Battersby

Portfolio Item: Research Based Product Development (MSc Games Software Development)

This is the last module of the course and weighs the most in terms of credit for the entire degree (30 instead of 15) and features the research element required of all Masters degrees. It conveniently follows a module in Research Methods which requires us to provide a literature review and a project proposal of any topic we would like to undertake. My topic of choice concerns Intrinsic Learning in Games.

Background

It has been known for a long time now that children learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process - the trick is to get them motivated to learn in the first place. Various mediums have been tried and computer games are no exception. Unfortunately efforts in integrating education into computer games have taken the worst elements of education and games respectively and have not at all been successful, often resulting in the "chocolate covered broccoli" effect. This has been a mystery as it has been known for some time what was required in order to make this happen but nobody seemed to work out how to put this into practice. My project supervisor, Dr. Jacob Habgood,  (who suggested the project to me) wrote a thesis explaining that while the original ideas were correct they needed further explanation. He proposed that the education aspect of the game needs to be an intrinsic part of the gameplay and not something that is added as additional content.

You can find out more detail by reading my Literature Review.

Project

I wish to prove Dr. Habgoods theory by building an educational game which has education as main part of the gameplay. Rather than designing a game from scratch I intend to convert an educational board game into a computer game. I also intend to prove that the children playing the game do learn from the experience by taking a micro-genetic approach in recording their progress.

You can find out more detail by reading my Project Proposal.

Approach

Using scanned copies of the board game assets I will be building the game using the Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML). Where possible I will stick to the original gameplay and will implement a logging system that records all of the player's interactions with the game. I intend to test the game at an Explore Learning Centre in the near future. I will be presenting my work during the Seminar Programme near the end of September.

Results

The project was a success as there were no development issues encountered, partly thanks to the stability of SFML. Unfortunately I was not able to have the game tested as I was unaware I needed permission from the University Ethics Committee. Fortunately it is not necessary for the course but it would have been nice to receive some feedback from the target audience. When I presented my work it received almost completely positive feedback noting the polished look of the game and praise for having a complete product.

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