Suffolk eLearning Forum

As well as the talks, there were some student games on show, both complete games from some of the L2 and L3 design and programming students, and paper prototypes of games being developed by the L1 Computer Games Design group. The Curiosity Collective were showing some of their curios (I liked the proverb generator) and Matthew Applegate had an installation running too.

Sum Leaping

The Search for The Bloodstone

Sarah and Michael's Picnic

Captured

Dragon School

Whisper Village

Curiosity Collective

Matthew Applegate (Pixelh8)

Suffolk eLearning Forum

There was a great turnout, interesting speakers and a nice set of prototypes of student games on show at the today's Suffolk eLearning event.

Scott Hewitt of RealProjects kicked off the talks with an overview of the development of elearning, from screen -> screen -> test type-scenarios to current developments that make use of 3D game engines, not to mention a variety of portable devices, including familiar pocket-fillers such as the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and the Apple iPhone, as well as some examples of how Wii-controller technlogy is being harnessed for training and educational use.

Scott Hewitt has posted his presentation on the RealPrtojects website. View it here: Games-Based Learning. Other resources are also available on the RealProjects site: http://www.realprojects.co.uk/gamebasedlearning/

Dan Mayers and Adam Mayes's presentation on Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) was really interesting and thought provoking. I'm not that familiar with the concept of ARG-ing beyond it involving some running around and "doing stuff" IRL, but the presentation suggested how ARG-ing can bring a whole new lease of life to things like field trips and guided walks. There are some great integrational (is that a word?) possibilities, directing users/players to online content--web pages, information, clues, video etc.--using QR codes and mobile phones. Truly fascinating stuff.

Adam wasn't physically present--he was in Denmark, so it was great that he took part via Skype with nary a hitch (I've been to several tech-focussed conferences where the inevitable technical hitch leads to non-ironic whoops from the audience after someone gets on stage and manages to get the speaker's Mac to connect to the internet via wifi. Adam's link-up today was so seamless that no-one noticed or, if they did, they were all too cool to whoop or make a fuss).

There was some concern about Matthew Applegate as his last known contact with the world was a tweet last night to say that he was feeling poorly, but he nonchalantly arrived, bang on time, with a laptop and a carrier bag and talked about the decline of programming in the school curriculum and went on to make some suggestions about some ways people could get coding (eg: scratch, squeak, atmosphir, processing) and he also mentioned some projects that will bring basic--beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code--to some popular consoles.

Free Presentation Software

Another nice free thing (with a couple of paid options) is a presentation application called Prezi. It differs from PowerPoint in that it is like a zoomable poster rather than a series of slides of bullet points. Here's a video clip that provides an overview of the key featues:

There's some discussion of Prezi here: http://www.profhacker.com

Free Brainstorming software

Bubbl.us is free web-based brainstorming application that allows users to:

• Create colorful mind maps online
• Share and work with friends
• Embed your mind map in your blog or website
• Email and print your mind map
• Save your mind map as an image

Looks like it could be useful for collaborative projects. Click on the little image below to open a bigger Flickr pic to get an idea of what it looks like.

(Picked this up via Realprojects' twitter feed)

Blocking Murdoch

Apparently, Rupert Murdoch is planning to block Google from displaying the content of the various domains he controls. The idea is that people will then pay to access News International sites (there at least two flaws there, but let's overlook them for the sake of convenience).

Anyone who doesn't want to wait that long, if they aren't already doing it, can exclude content from Murdoch's domains by adding a simple filter to their search terms in the form of a minus sign, the word "site" and a colon, followed by the domain to be excluded. For example:

• "balanced news" -site:thesun.co.uk


• "celebrity obsession" -site:thetimesonline.co.uk


• "cross-media promotion" -skynews.com

If excluding individual domains on every search seems a bit tedious, Google offers a custom search engine option: http://www.google.com/cse/. After setting up a custom search engine, it's possible to add a list of domains to exclude.

Oh look, this post is also on the letters page of today's Guardian.

JFGI: The Boxed Game is Dead

The mobile gaming market is looking increasingly erm ... mobile. While established mobile platforms from Sony and Nintendo are currently being eclipsed by johnny-come-lately handhelds in the form of the iPod Touch and the iPhone, Google's Android OS may be about to cut a swathe through mobile market and upset the Apple iCart as Android 2 includes free sat nav.

The new Nintendo DSi, which incorporates features commonly found in mobile phones in an attempt to make the platform more appealing and stem the loss of sales, is already redundant as Nintendo prepare to launch the DSi XL in the spring. The XL is a thicker, heavier version of the DSi, with larger screens and bundled apps (see this brief games news piece from yesterday's Games Review in The Guardian's Guide supplement). A visual comparison of the DSi and the DSi XL can been seen in this Wired article. According to this BBC news story, Nintendo DS sales have dipped by 15% over the last year while, in the same period, sales of iPhone and iPod touch have doubled. (That BBC news story, which moots Android 2 as a threat to Nintendo, Sony and Apple, also contains a nice video clip of Android's satnav running on a Motorola Droid but, irritatingly, the video clip isn't embeddable.)

Sony's response to the stiff competition was to restyle the niche PSP as the overpriced PSP Go (at £225, it's almost the same price as a £250 PS3) and introduce "Minis" -- downloadable games at affordable prices. (Click on the image for an insightful review of the PSP Go at ArsTechnica.)

The rise in downloadable content for handhelds may be the beginning of the end of content on a chip in a plastic box, as the overheads and distribution costs are considerably less. This is likely to have a trickle-down effect on the high street for box-based retailers like Game, and also an effect on the second hand market. Just how does one sell-on a download when you've finished with it? What do the people who rent you games games publishers think of the whole second-hand thing anyway? See, for example: Sony's Clampdown on second-hand games; Second-hand games sales are "a huge issue" -- Epic

On a less fraught front, the open source handheld market, specifically the GP2X, is keeping up with developments too, in the form of the GP2X Wiz, available at an affordable £129. There's a five minute video showcasing the Wiz's capabilities below:

Another open source development is the intriguing Pandora. It looks like a great device: a cross between a handheld console and pocket version of the netbook. It looks like a great device for developers and fiddlers, especially as the technical specs refer to an "un-brickable design with integrated boot loader for safe code experimentation". It has a TV-out (composite and S-Video) but not, apparently, a VGA port. The Pandora isn't quite available everywhere yet, but can be had for $330 from limited outlets. Check out the specs on the Pandora website, or see the preview video below.

Games Based Learning

Some of the level three students on the Computer Games Design and Computer Games Programming courses will be showing some of their key Stage 1 games at the forthcoming Games-Based Learning event to be held at the UCS Waterfront building, 2.00-5.00 on 11th November 2009 in collaboration with Real Projects. Student games on show include Bloodstone, Sum Leaping and Music Man. Additional information about the event can be found on the Suffolk eLearning Forum website.

Some of the level one Computer Games Design students are preparing paper prototypes for the event. I've had a sneak preview of some of the artwork and it's incredibly good. The other thing that's stunning is that the level one students have only been on the course for six weeks and they are getting stuck-in to the development of their games for Key Stage 1 (that's for children aged between five and seven for anyone unfamiliar with the terminology of primary education in the UK). When the level one students' games have been finished, they will be exhibited at a different event.

Other exhibitors/speakers include the delightfully madcap mob known as The Curiosity Collective; the prolific chip-tuner Matthew Applegate (aka Pixelh8); our own Dan Mayers, games designer Adam Mayes, and Scott Hewitt from Real Projects.

Here are some sneak preview images from one of the prototypes: