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Adventure Author: Supporting Creative Game Design for Children

Learn about Adventure Author project by Dr. Judy Robertson from Heriot-Watt University, developing software to aid children's game design. Follow the journey, models, and field studies to refine the creative process.

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Adventure Author: Supporting Creative Game Design for Children

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  1. The story of Adventure Author Dr Judy Robertson Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland

  2. Software to support the creative process • The story so far • Our model of the creative process • Building in support for the creative process • Fridge Magnets (try it yourself!) • Evaluation Worksheets • Current field study • Some thoughts on research methods

  3. Adventure Author aims • To develop a theoretical model of the creative process of game design (for children) • To develop software support for stages of the creative process • To refine the model based on log file data gathered from the software support • We are building on top of the commercial Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset

  4. Project Ethos • Work with real learners and teachers but be prepared to innovate • Try to bring research software to real classroom settings • Try to understand how the software fits in with other learning – don’t try to do everything digitally • Talk to lots of educationalists – game making is part of the Curriculum for Excellence (since last week!)

  5. What kind of games?

  6. What have we done so far? • 6 week study in a school with 30 ten year olds – finding out what children find hard with existing software • Two week long intensive summer workshops with teenagers • 6 week learner centred design project with six 12 year olds • 2.5 day teacher training workshop • 1 month intensive school study (21 pupils) to evaluate support for writing conversations • Developed theoretical model • Implemented most creativity support features

  7. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  8. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  9. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  10. Fridge magnets – supporting problem finding

  11. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  12. Example learner’s magnets

  13. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  14. Judy Robertson, 24th April, 2007

  15. Now you try it! • Find a computer, work with a friend • Use the fridge magnets to plan a storyline for a game • Please donate ideas to the “Lucky dip” feature

  16. Support for internal and external validation

  17. Current field research • Currently working with a class of 26 primary 7 pupils (11 -12 year olds) • Project running for about 5 weeks. Curriculum suspended apart from Maths and PE • Data gathering: teacher reflections, games, fridge magnets, evaluation worksheets, log files.

  18. Some thoughts on research methods • Data gathering in the age of the blog: • http://edubuzz.org/blogs/campiep7b/2008/04/17/fridge-magnets/ • http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/adventure_author/2008/04/example-literac.html • Evaluating complex end user software with children is extremely time consuming • Learner centred design for the above is even harder!

  19. Any questions? Thank you! Judy.Robertson@hw.ac.uk http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/adventure_author/ http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/adventure_author/

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