Work: game design, and how long I'll be there

[redbird]

The second first: I'm definitely there through 31 August (barring something very unlikely happening); Catherine thinks she can get the okay to keep me on through 9/9. We still need to figure out who to talk to about possible other positions at the company after 9/9 (that's when all files have to be at the printer for this project).

One of the things I did today was a chunk of proofreading, this time for some "learning through games" pages. The general idea is reasonable: use relatively simple games to teach/reinforce things like spelling, phonics, vocabulary, opposites, and the difference between fact and opinion. And some of the proofreading was of the "italicize this, there's an omitted word here" sort: the typesetters are entirely capable of following the copy out a window, though they generally point out when it doesn't fit on a page.

I also made several comments that were basically about game design: for example, there's one game that's supposed to help teach homonyms by using a variety of "Go Fish". As described in the workbook, the game results are dependent entirely on the random initial deal of the cards; I suggested a way to give the players some influence over the outcome. There's another I couldn't think of a quick fix to, which as written depends only on whether a tossed coin comes up heads or tails. (Depending on which, the players are supposed to state either a fact or an opinion--but their doing so has no effect on the game outcome, which is purely a matter of which player is first to get "heads" three times.) Easier to fix will be the one where the spinner really needs to say "0/1/2" or "1/2/3" as well as "definition, word origin, pronunciation" since the instructions say to spin and then move that number of spaces.

I pointed out, as gently as possible, that while the people who wrote these pages might well be teachers, game design is a somewhat specialized field, and I happen to hang out with several game designers.

Comments

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I've never successfully designed a game for children. One of the reasons is that the one time I tried, the person controlling the project (a quite reasonable person and more experienced in the field) had a vision of a game which was much simpler than anything I was able to find interesting to design. Either he was targeting a younger age than he was telling me, or he was underestimating their ability to learn and follow rules, or I was seriouly overestimating them.

Anyway, enough about me. Good on you for paying attention and actually understanding games!

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

You've exactly hit why I loathe most 'educational games' ... mind-numbingly boring, and transparently 'school work'. Now, if anyone has a list of interesting yet educational games, which can be played in 10 minute chunks...

[dhole.livejournal.com]

As far as the coin flipping/fact or opinion game, it seems like only allowing a player to score if they actually produced a fact or an opinion, as appropriate, on their turn would be a simple solution to increasing the player's influence on the game.

If you wanted more complexity, substituting facts for opinions and vice-versa on anyone's turn could cause the player to lose a point, thus making the part where you state a fact or an opinion regardless of whose turn it was a part of the game you have to pay attention to in order to win.