Play&Game

Some of the researchers of the Play&Game research group also teach at the MAD-faculty. Here is a report of what CMD (Computer Media Design) master students created in the module ”Play”, guided by Thomas Laureyssens and Steven Malliet.

The goal of the course was to create play-interfaces suitable for public space that improve communication between the workers of the textile sorting centre TexOkazi in Hasselt, Belgium. The majority of the workers are immigrants who don’t fluently speak Dutch, the common language on the work floor.  These laborers come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and often stick in small group with their kin. Since the recycling centre also serves for social integration, one of the goals is to get the workers ready for the regular labor circuit where good communication skills in Dutch are a necessity.  Thomas Geusens from StreetWize, a training & development organization partnering with MobileSchool, proposed the partnership with TexOkazi to us.

The course lasted 9 full days spread over a duration of 11 weeks in which we let the students experience user-centered design through rapid iterations of prototype building and successive play-testing.
On Week 3 of the course, the students observed the factory floor and had focus-group sessions in which they got feedback on their first ideas.  These sketches had the form of paper prototypes in which the interaction could be simulated.  The students had both feedbacks from groups of 4 workers, as well as feedback from both the staff of TexOkazi, StreetWize and the teachers. On Week 6 the students play-tested their first interactive prototypes, closely followed by more such sessions on Week 8. Final presentations were on Week 11 on the factory floor. The many contact moments proved very efficient as well as motivating for the students, who where highly motivated to create the best prototypes possible for their target-group.

The students were divided in 4 groups, assembled by the teachers based on the skills of the students.  CMD students often have different profiles: there are designers, developers, and some others like to fiddle with custom made electronics using Arduino. The focus was to create interfaces that would be as integrated as possible within the working environment, including objects and actions from the factory floor into the design. Students were free to use any technology they wanted, like RFID, Augmented Reality, Wii Controller and Touch Screens. One group even created a solution using a DSLR camera and an iPad.

FotoKazi

Mathijs Beks, Yolien De Moor, Robin Houdmeyers, Dennis Janssen

The idea of this project was transform the daily actions of the workers (sorting clothes), into a playful action: finding clothes and accessories as a preparation of a weekly dressing party. The students proposed the following scenario: at the start of every week, there would be a cryptic mission description to let the workers look for clothes on a specific theme.  During the user-test, the group used themes like “Winter Fun” and “Beach”. On the day of the dressing party an automated photo boot guided the people though a series of photo games like imitating a picture or fitting the player’s heads into a cut-out photo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VduA0lGoxeI
http://blog.vislab.be/2010/12/play/

JuKazi

Michiel Vanreyten, Evelien Dupont, Nicolas Schepers

This project started from the observation that in the recycling centre there is always a radio playing.  A hybrid between a skee-ball game and a jukebox was invented which enables the factory workers to choose musical genres by playful interaction. Songs can be added to a play list by hitting characters corresponding the musical genres with coins.  The coins can be thrown by aiming a Wii Controller to the screen. The workers can choose between Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, House, Russian and Arabic.

http://vimeo.com/19140178.

Fooz

Ben Mercx, Maarten Princen, Ronald Vandenbosch

Fooz is inspired by the controls of the Foosball game. In this game, two teams of 2 players control little football characters by turning bars, and thus can shoot a ball across the playing field, hopefully towards the right goal.  Anyone who has seen this being played knows it’s a good recipe for fun interaction.

The goal was to start from those physical controls and create a game in which 2 teams of 2 players should communicate and collaborate in order to win the game. The proposed solution is a box with 4 bars with 4 sensors attached. By pulling and pushing the bars the players control 2 types of game elements. Each team has 1 player who controls a pong-style-paddle that bounces back a ball. The other player has to aim the direction the ball is bounced back.

Avatar

Annelies Fleurbaey, Bob Coeradi, Gert Pellens, Johannes Govaerts

The project aims to let the factory workers communicate to each other by exchanging clothes for their personal Avatars.  Every player starts with a random set of clothes, which can be traded with other players to collect matching sets of clothes. The system identifies the players when they bring their RFID batch close to a reader. Several people can be logged in at the same time and drag clothes from one player’s wardrobe to another’s with a touch screen. Additional clothes can be obtained by playing several types of quizzes, which you answer by rotating an object with Augmented Reality tags in front of a camera.

Another GAME JAM in Belgium!
For all of you artists and programmers who missed the Global Game Jam
in Antwerp end of January, we’ve got great news!!

C-MINE the new site in Genk with ambitions to promote the creative
industry is offering their under-construction location in Genk for the
next Belgian Jam!

When? Very soon!

*******6-7-8 th of MAY 2011*******

The Game Jam starts at 17h00 on Friday and end on Sunday at 17h00.
This time we’ve even got some real prizes to win!

Win a UNITY3D iphone or android indy license!
Interested? More info on: http://www.gamejam.be

CALL FOR SPEAKERS
Are you a game industry expert or do you think you have something
interesting to say to the Belgian gaming community?
You might be the person we are looking for to motivate our
participants at the start of the event on friday… contact me:
wim@grin.be

CALL FOR PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS:
The following game development companies support Game Jam Belgium:
- GriN Multimedia
- Sakari Games
If you are not on this list and would like to support the Game Jam
project by promoting our events to your fellow developers, network,
please contact me: wim@grin.be

Last week I attended the AACE Global Time Conference, a three day, online spectacle filled with speakers whom all shared interest in educational technology and media.

One topic which was a focal point throughout many presentations was mobile technology (e.g. Ipad and Smartphones). Judging the sheer number of speakers which submitted a paper connected to mobile teaching, it is clearly a ‘hot’ topic. Of course, this has its reasons. Thomas J. C. Smyth indicated that mobile devices are becoming very popular and widespread among different populations. Alec Couros expanded on this by showing that there will be more mobile devices than there are pc’s by 2012. Cathleen Norris and Eliot Soloway also said that better school results were achieved by students who used mobile learning devices instead of pen and paper. If looked at from the perspective of serious games, it is interesting to image the evolution to mobile serious games.

Keynote speaker Jay Cross suggested a provocative idea about the gap between how education (in this case relating to work, but this can also be applied in general) has always been and how it should be. He emphasized that we need to do things differently, but we don’t know how exactly. Following this train of thought, it reminds me of what Cathleen Norris en Eliot Soloway said in their presentation: “Schools need to create an opportunity of the current crisis. […] We need to change the way we work.” In other words, instead of rebuilding the same educational resources in the very same way, it should be improved upon. In my opinion, this also has some complications for serious games. They should not blandly integrate traditional schooling, but transform it in a meaningful, digital way.

The main trend, of course, was about the shift from traditional schooling to digital education. In an entertaining presentation, Alec Couros, talked about the vast resources that were available online, also known as ‘open education’ (open content, free software, open courses, open teaching, etc.). His take on open education, which is mainly a very social one, is an inspiration to anyone involved in schooling technology. Finally, Gilly Salmon made clear that mistake in e-learning were made in the past. Educators want to be innovating on every front, but should instead focus on core values. Wise advice for the future!

On Wednesday the 23^th of February at 6PM (UTC) I will give a virtual presentation at the AACE Global Time conference. The conference is about innovation in educational technology and media. My presentation will be about my Master thesis (teaching physical actions via a digital media) which will also be a part of my doctoral research.

The conference will run from the 22^th to the 24^th. Registration is still open and can be done at https://www.aace.org/conf/gtime/.

Attached is the CFP for the screenwriting conference to be held in Brussels next year.
During the conference some game related topics will be covered:
o Scriptwriting for interactive narratives (as games);
o Transmedial scriptwriting: coping with medium-specific features;

CFP screenwriting conference, brussels