Literacy and other curricular areas in games design

1. Literacy and other curricular areas in games design • Matthew Reid • Catriona Smith • Pupils of Garnock Academy

2. Introductions • Garnock Academy, Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire • Matthew Reid – Teacher of English, Lead Teacher of Games Design • Catriona Smith – Teacher of English, Teacher of Games Design • Callum Burns – Head Editor of Islands of Elemental Evil • Andrew Ferguson – Head Script Writer of Islands of Elemental Evil • David MacKnight – Head Mapmaker of Islands of Elemental Evil • John Buckley – Games Designer, Curse of the Hydra

3. Thank you for coming

4. Lesson aims • Enthuse and convince you about the merits of Games Design in promoting literacy (and other curricular areas). • Hopefully, give you some meaningful advice about how to set up and teach the course.

5. Ask questions at any time

6. For ‘The Walkthrough’ A volunteer who thinks they are great at playing computer games 

7. What we don’t represent

8. Good, Honest Story-telling • Non-violent challenge and enjoyment • Characterisation • Setting • Building Blocks of a Quest • Resolving conflict using ‘brains not brawn’.

9. Achievement Comes Through Improving Literacy

10. Literacy is where we started

11. Games design club SLF 2010

12. The Very First N.Com Class 

13. Pupils Teaching Teachers at ‘Games to Learn’ in Dundee

14. Look How It’s Grown! • NCom • NCom 2 • Senior Games • Design

15. How is the course structured?

16. John can explain it better than I can... • Design • Assets • Development

17. RPG MAKER VX http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/downloador just ‘google’: RPGMAKER VX

18. ‘Programming Light’ means ‘Literacy heavy’

19. Curricular areas • Literacy • English • Art • Music • Languages • ICT

20. Literacy and English skills

21. The lengths we go to for literacy

23. Callum and Andrew Improving literacy and problem solving skills.

24. Specific ‘LIT’ and ‘ENG’ areas • Solo talks • Group work • Creative writing • Informative writing • Report writing • Critical essay writing • Vocabulary building • Target setting • Spelling, punctuation and grammar • Reading for pleasure and enjoyment

25. Curriculum for excellence • Hundreds of cross-curricular opportunities. • You can take it as far as your imagination allows you. • Here are some suggestions...

26. ICT TCH 3-09a Using appropriate software, I can work individually or collaboratively to design and implement a game, animation or other application. TCH 4-09a By learning the basic principles of a programming language or control technology, I can design a solution to a scenario, implement it and evaluate its success.

27. MUSIC EXA 3.17a/4.17a/b: ‘I can compose music with music technology’. “At the opening you want the piece to be light, easy listening and short. A short piece repeated draws the player into the game and sets the mood. Starting with a solo piccolo draws in the listener. Building part by part, adding each bar at a time builds in character and makes the player interested to hear. With the same piece repeating it gets them in the mood to play.” “The best way to write a piece is to hear it in your mind and write the melody down first. Build around your melody and involve all the parts. The hardest part is choosing the instruments. Think about the music and where it’s going to be used. For instance, you don’t want to use a flute in a battle scene or crash symbol in a slow dance with the prince.”

28. Musescore Free to download- Google ‘musescore’

29. ART EXA 3.02a: I can use technology to create images EXA 3.06a: I can communicate design solutions in response to a brief.

30. French • MLAN 4.13a: I can write over a range of topics using a variety of structures, tenses and linking words.

31. Any Questions?