     |
 |
 |
 | | | | |
 |
|||
 |
||||||
          |
 |
 |
||||
|
Compulsory Game Children I believe the games industry has a lot to lose from failing to train the game developers of the future. Many of us from the present generation learned our craft from a very early age, on the home computer systems of the 80’s. We were able to do this because these computers came with their own novice programming languages and editable example games to help get us started. Unfortunately this is no longer the case, so future generations of developers are actually in danger of having a worse grounding than our own. Hopefully tools like Game Maker can fill this gap and make sure that there is still a vibrant hobbyist community to nurture young talent. Nonetheless, if we want to harness the best potential talent from future generations, then children need to be given a chance to try game development for themselves in clubs and schools. I’m married to a teacher, so I’m well aware that the last thing they need is another compulsory topic to add to their workload (the games industry may have a reputation for long hours, but I can assure you that many teachers put in just as many!). However, game development is such a multi-disciplinary field that it is can often provide a great way of meeting existing curriculum requirements in a fun and engaging way. For example, here in the UK there is a “Command and Control” ICT curriculum for 7-11 year olds, which is often taught through activities involving computer-controlled traffic lights. My wife has recently developed her own ‘scheme of work’ for teaching the same objectives by making computer games with Stagecast Creator (see the resources page of Gamelearning.net). Other projects are trying to bring game development into the classroom as a way of inspiring storytelling and traditional literacy skills. There are also numerous clubs and holiday camps around the world that are already successfully teaching game development to children outside of the school curriculum.
Consumers Consumers may be the source of our industry’s success, but they are also the source of a decent amount of frustration and bewilderment too. The fact is that consumers are an unpredictable bunch; meaning that good games don’t always make money and bad games can sell by the lorry load. Most children don’t end up working in game development, but they do end up being part of a future generation of game consumers. Giving them a basic understanding of game development would allow them to make more informed choices and ultimately create a more discerning audience. This can only be good for innovation and creativity in the development industry, and may even help publishers by creating a more predictable audience that is seeking a quality gameplay experience. Of course there’s no point trying to change consumers, if the people responsible for commissioning and selling the games can’t respond to the change… Publishers, Marketing Departments and Journalists It may be more controversial, but I think there is also a strong argument for members of the wider games industry being more literate in game development. It’s important to stress that I’m not trying to say that these groups don’t understand games, but just that they could gain a deeper understanding of games from going through the process of making their own. To be fair, many people in these areas already have development experience, but in an ever-expanding industry a marketing executive is as likely to have made their career selling cheese as computer games. If your marketing department don’t understand what gameplay is then how can they be expected to sell it? All these groups deal with games professionally, so surely an understanding of them is as important to their jobs as knowing how to use MS Project, Excel or Word. So why not have your next staff training day on game development? If teenagers can do it then so can you… Women According to the ESA, some 38% of game players are female, but we all know that the proportion of women working in game development is far less than that. In our experience, girls up to about the age of eleven are just as interested in making games as boys, and we get a very even split at the clubs. Unfortunately, by the time they reach their teens the proportion of girls prepared to attend game-making workshops drops off completely. It appears that by this age it is labelled as a boys activity and only the most independently minded girls are willing to go against the flow. Bringing game development into schools would give more girls a chance to try it out, without feeling they were doing something wrong. They would then quickly find that they are just as good as the boys – if not better – because girls usually listen to instructions! In fact, there are already initiatives like CC4G (Computer Clubs for Girls) in the UK that are attempting to introduce game development to girls. Nonetheless its clear that more needs to be done if the games industry wants to make the most of the balance of potential talent that is out there for the future. Society The controversy over violent videogames is likely to remain a thorn in the industry’s side for the foreseeable future, but everyone involved in the argument would benefit from a deeper understanding of games. Parents could certainly have a better understanding and awareness of game ratings, and legislators would benefit from a better understanding of what they are arguing about. Making computer games with your child is a great way to interact with them, and the perfect context to discuss issues such as violence and age ratings in a natural way. Making a game with appropriate content for their classmates makes a good pretext for exploring this issue, and you may both learn something from the experience. PEGI in Europe and the ESRB in the US offer information on game ratings. Producers and Game Designers While there are some producers and designers who began their careers as programmers, many will never actually have made a game by themselves before. Nonetheless their jobs put them at the heart of the synthesis and evaluation feedback loop, so it would be unfair to suggest that they couldn’t gain similar insights as their programming colleagues. However, a good game programmer is constantly tweaking and refining a game and even the most rigorous game design has some gaps that need to be filled. Consequently I believe that many producers and game designers would still benefit from developing a complete mini-game of their own. In particular I believe it would help to reinforce their understanding of the mechanics of creating good gameplay, and maybe even provide a new platform for prototyping their game ideas without having to rely on a programmer. Ultimately this can only be good for game development and could even result in better games. Academics Games have finally become an area of serious academic study, with computer scientists, sociologists, educationalists, and psychologists all getting in on the act. However, there will always be a certain animosity between theorists and practitioners in any field, for obvious reasons. Many academics do create their own games as part of their research, but there are plenty that do not – and getting research students to do it for you doesn’t count! The only way to earn your development wings is to go through the holistic experience of designing and making your own game from scratch. It doesn’t matter if the final product looks like something from the 80’s; if you can make a game that someone else enjoys playing then you’ve made the grade. With tools like Game Maker around there are no excuses for anyone publishing work about computer games not to have been through the experience of designing and making their own game!
Conclusion Games are affecting the lives and livelihoods of more and more people, and they are no longer the preserve of a geeky minority. However, if you want to truly understand the medium then you need to have a go at making one for yourself. It doesn’t require a computer science degree and you won’t have to read a book the size of a telephone directory. So stop what you’re doing, and try making a game for yourself.
References: Bloom, B. (editor). 1956.Taxonomy of educational objectives: Book 1, Cognitive domain. New York: Longman Gagne, R. (1985). The Conditions of Learning (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Habgood, J., Overmars, M (2006). The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners, Berkeley (CA): APress |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features
|
|
|